At Sea Queen Mary 2 Westbound - April 30 - May 2, 2012

The Atlantic Ocean continues to be kind to the ship with calm seas and fairly clear weather.  Sea Temp is 54.7 and the air temp is 59, reasonably consistently since we left.  Lynn caught the “ship’s cold” so no gym: it would be extremely annoying to everyone else if Lynn was coughing all over the equipment. Walking the deck is the alternative and fairly easy when the seas are calm.  The seas picked up on May 1 and there were squalls.  Today all is calm again.  This ship really can sail the seas!  We looked up the dates on our last cruise across in 2007 to confirm that this trip is taking one day longer.  Not sure why - maybe they are allowing for seasonal weather conditions that would delay the ship’s arrival.   

We celebrated our 24^th wedding anniversary April 30^th in the dining room, then again at the onboard Todd English restaurant on May 1, with cruise buddies John & Eve.  Former President Bush and Barbara came in together while we were eating to enjoy their dinner as well.  Thank goodness no one went paparazzi on them and they were able to enjoy and intimate meal in the Todd English restaurant (yes, the Secret Service was sitting nearby).

There are many different ages of passengers on the QM2.  There was another wedding and we also see many young people working on their computers around the ship.  This morning, we see a man walking around in his NYC trench coat like he is going to work?  We were told that there are 1,000 USA, 800 British and 200 Canadians onboard, with the rest a mix of other, mostly European, nationalities.

Tonight is our last formal night.  We have done everyone – no wimping out.  We now frequently see some of our fellow world cruisers walking towards the buffet in casual clothes – they gave up!  This is also the night that the head chef and his galley staff march through the dining room for their recognition.  Who is going to cook for us at home?  Let alone there is no grocery store open on Longboat Key while they rebuild!

Two more days until we are home; this part of our cruise is getting us ready for that reality.  A good example is filling out our custom declaration form for our arrival.  Now that’s reality!