Tea Time

Scale Model of the QM2

We enjoyed a very leisurely morning with breakfast in our room. Part of the morning was spent with me playing hairdresser for Mom and the other waiting for skies to clear. We had intended on going to the “Interdenominational Church Service” this morning, but as many of you can guess, it didn’t quite happen. The winds have gone from about 30 knots yesterday to 19 today. Sunrise has been coming later and later, tomorrow it will not come up until 8:45 am and will set at 4:28 pm. The temperature has also cooled down to about 42 degrees as we approach Southampton. At noon we were 197 nautical miles from port and have slowed down. We have to take on a pilot at some point this evening and was start docking around 5:00 am. Much of the procedures today had to do with the mass of people disembarking tomorrow. We are very excited to not be a part of that crowd. We found ourselves spending much of our day with our new friends as most of them will be leaving tomorrow. Lunch was a two hour affair, followed by tea, another two hour affair and then dinner tonight was three hours. We did go this afternoon and get a couple of pictures from the onboard photographer, one of which has to be seen to be appreciated. We also walked around the many shops and observed people getting their last minute souvenirs. We spent tea time with Johnny and Danny who dine a few tables away. It was great to sit and get to chat with them on a more personal level. They are from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and this is their fifth Transatlantic crossing in the past year. It continues to amaze us at how many people travel on the QM2 with great frequency. We went back to our suite for “Cocktails & Crossword” a new tradition we have started on this trip. Each day they have a new crossword in the library, so I go down about 5 pm and we come back and work on it while we have a cocktail. I guess its pretty self explanatory! Since most have to be packed up this evening with suitcases out, it was elegant attire. We’ve noticed that the menu became quite British today in the items that were being offered. We had pre-ordered the sushi again as our starter as I am sure we will do many more times before this trip is over. We also really enjoy the wide variety of soups that are offered, we haven’t had a bad one yet. They also have a “sugar free” dessert at every meal so we feel better about eating dessert twice a day every day! They have the usual music options in the various lounges tonight, but we have opted to come back and got to bed at a more reasonable hour.

Barbara and Jane our lovely tablemates!

Mom and I are very sad to see Jane and Barbara leave, we couldn’t have asked for better tablemates. Thankfully Barbara was out of the infirmary and doing better today. Tomorrow is a big day for us – breakfast in the dining room! The downside is that it is only offered from 6:30-8:00 am due to the disembarkation however we do want to see everyone one more time before they leave. Goodnight everyone!