European Summer

We are half-way through our voyage and we are enjoying the overall experience on the ship. There are a lot of activities throughout the day - lectures, performances, art classes, and many special interest groups (eg bridge, table tennis). We’ve enjoyed two of the lecturers and have attended several of their sessions. We’ve also enjoyed a few performances - Irish folk group, royal Shakespeare play, and last night a comedian. If you are not up for any activities there are lots of little nooks and crannies on the ship where you can sit in a comfy chair and read, or watch people or the ocean.
They have a great hydrotherapy center on the ship which we are enjoying a little each day - hot pools, saunas, steam rooms.
We’ve explored the various dining options and have found the food to be good, but not great (with the exception of the steakhouse which was very good). Lots of options in styles/types of food and dining experiences, which are nice.
We’ve had nice conversations with several different couples. Fun to hear about their Queen Mary and other travel experiences, for example some we’ve met are taking the ship to Hamburg and turning around and going back to NY a day later - we’ve met a mixture of Brits, Americans, Germans and spattering of other nationalities. Everyone we’ve met is friendly and interesting in some way (last night we met a couple traveling with their dog to Jersey UK for the summer - Queen Mary has a small number of special kennels).
The only downside to our trip has been the weather. We’ve had cold/grey and sometimes wet weather, with only glimpses of blue skies. Yesterday the seas were rough and you could really feel it on the ship (but luckily no issues with seasickness). We’ve still tried to get out for a walk on the deck at least once a day, even if we are all bundled up in our layers. The captain’s announcement today included a forecast for warmer temps as we get closer to South Hampton (a stop before we head to Hamburg). So hopefully we will be able to be outside a bit more starting tomorrow.
Below are a few observations if you want to read a bit more :-)
Hope you are enjoying this travel journal format.

Some observations-
*You do feel the movement of the ship as you walk around..I sometimes feel drunk as I’m not able to walk a straight line. :-)
*The ship creaks and cracks and that initially unnerved me but now I’m used to it.
*The ship has a good amount of staff, most friendly and helpful, some a bit reserved and even at times annoyed when asked for something. While there are a lot of them they still seem short staffed.
*The staff are aggressive in pushing you to use hand sanitizer and in the buffet style restaurant you don’t get to serve yourself but have to point to what you want and staff puts it on your plate. This is great for slowing spread of germs but also means a demand on staff during peak meal times.
*Clocks have changed an hour ahead almost every day at noon so the time change for us is very gradual…hopefully reducing or eliminating any jet lag.Read more

We decided to get off the ship in Southampton for a few hours. We checked out a historic Tudor home/museum/garden, walked thru the old village a bit, popped into a bookstore (because we can’t resist one) and we had a great fish and chip lunch. And we got in a nice walk on a very beautiful day.Read more