TRANS-ATLANTIC CROSSING  - DAY ONE - THREE

Blogs: Day 1-3 Queen Mary 2 | Day 4-7 Queen Mary 2 |  Day 8-9 To Belgium | Day 10 Brussels | Day 11-12 Gent |  Day 13-14 Amsterdam | Day 15 Amsterdam

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We departed bright and early (5am or an Wendy refers to it: "The a$$crack of dawn") for Tampa airport to fly to JFK. The Delta 717 was jam packed but it was a quick flight. Once at JFK we Uber'd to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, giving the driver a very decent tip for stopping at a liquor store along the way! Finally we arrived at the Queen Mary II for our Trans-Atlantic crossing.

The wonderful thing about British Cruise Lines, they treat passengers like adults and not like college spring breakers - there is no restriction on bringing any amount of your own alcohol on board.  You must drink it in the privacy of your stateroom. So there was no need for "smuggle mugs", "shambooze", "BARnoculars" or any type of adult beverage smuggling apparatus! We put the bottle of whiskey, rum and a box of wine in our carryon and NO questions were asked when x-rayed by security.

Statue of Liberty in the background from the ship.

On the ship with Manhattan in the background.

This is not your average cruise ship. If you've been on a Carnival or Royal Caribbean cruise this is NOTHING like it.  It is not a 24/7 party. There are not families with screaming kids (Ok - only one family but they have been banished to their stateroom). There is no hyper-caffeine infused Cruise Director hosting hairy chest contests and limbo dancing competitions. There are no pretty young millennials power drinking and puking over the side rail.

This is a refined, classy experience where everyone looks "smart".  Tank tops and torn jeans are reserved for the homeless on land. Conversations are in hushed tones so as not to disturb others.  Lunch time buffet, instead of being a sensory overload cacophonic discord of people yelling on top of their voice, is is a quiet reserved meal where you can have a civilized conversation with your partner. NO ONE speaks loud enough for their words to be heard even by the next table over!

The cabins are spacious with decent size flat screen, couch and desk. Twin beds convert to King size.

The balcony is designed for COLD weather being partially enclosed to protect from the elements.

The ship is very festive with literally hundreds of Christmas Trees and decorations all over. We went to the bridge viewing gallery (Yes, you can do that on this ship) and they even had a Christmas tree on the captain's bridge!

As far as entertainment is concerned, yes there are the usual big shows in the evening and lots of bands playing, disco dancing etc.

However as there is no sun tanning on the deck this time of year, they instead have several series of presentations by famous people speaking on a vast variety of subjects including astronomy, politics, ocean animals, explorers and even race car drivers. We have really enjoyed several of the presentations already.

The ship has a huge library, what you see above is only one 10th of it. They go out of the way to provide indoor entertainment as it is 39F out there!

Guests are extremely friendly and will just strike up a conversation with you. There are many lounges on the ship for hanging out and chit chatting.

As far as the guests are concerned 65% are British, 30% American and 5% other. 90% of guests are over 50.  The ship is built for cold weather:

The swimming pool is indoor and heated.

There are hot tubs outside and if you look close enough you will see someone is in it. Brrrrrrrrr!

There is a scenic elevator with great outside view - thankfully it is heated!

Current conditions are 25mph winds with 15 foot seas and both air and water temps at 39F.

They are expecting winds to increase to 45 mph and seas to 30-40 feet - we are told by the captain this is normal for this time of the year. The ship is built for it.

And finally...