Year: 2013

Auckland, New Zealand

LA was pretty awful. We booked an expensive Hospitality Room at the Crown Plaza at LAX, that turned pout to be a very drab, run-down place with no service, no comfort – just a trial to endure for a day really. We then took a shuttle for our Air NZ flight home at 10.15pm. Crossing the dateline we lost our ‘extra’ day and arrived back to a bright, sunny Auckland morning. We landed at 6.45am and got easily through customs etc so were on the road heading home on quiet roads, arriving back for morning teatime. 🙂

It was a great experience, we revelled in all of it. We probably won’t do another one (‘Been there, done that) but will always remember our Voyage on Queen Elizabeth.

Kahului, Hawaii

At the next port we get off to head home. We are really loving this holiday, but at the same time we are looking forward to coming home; in fact we are talking about home more and more. I’m wondering how many peaches are littering our lawn and will we get to eat any. We are also looking forward to Todd coming home 5 days after we get back. We are feeling guilty about our imprisoned cats – they will let us know about it!

Today we went to the Albek Duo’s last concert. We have enjoyed their music. Being twins they seem to be so in synch with each other.

Tonights show was Stuart Gillies, a Scots singer who had a repertoire of old show songs and ballads. The audience loved him.

Saturday 9th March Ready for Home?

Over the next few days we are putting our clocks forward one hour each day. It is putting us into going home mode.
The daily activities programmes are slowing down which further enhances this feeling.
Once again it is too windy to go outside on to the decks.

Tonight we were entertained by a Welsh guy, Mike Doyle who is a comedian and singer. He was really rather good.

Sunday 10th March
This will be our last blog whilst we are on board. We arrive in Los Angeles early Tuesday morning, having all our luggage packed and taken away the night before.

When we are home we’ll add more photos and the last 2 days. Using the internet has been quite a mission and extremely expensive.
Tonight’s show was A Night at the Palladium with the singers and dancers.It was another really good show.
It was also our last formal night, so we took photos of us in our finery. Dressing up has been fun, but we’ll enjoy eating dinner at home wearing jeans!

Kahului, Hawaii

We were up in time to watch the ship dock at Kahalui. It still amazes us how this huge ship can twist and turn in such a tight space. Apparently it is something to do with anthropods?
Seeing bright sun and blue skies was quite a welcome relief from the dark overcast skies of the past week or so. This is our last port stop before we leave the ship in Los Angeles in 5 days time.
We headed off into town after coffee this morning. The queues for the shopping shuttle buses were ridiculously long so we headed into the Maui Mall on foot enjoying the warmth and sunshine. Shopping was fun.
We had lunch back on board – a bit wary eating at some local food outlets. Still have vivid memories of food poisoning on Moorea all those years ago. After lunch we tried to find a place where we could photograph the ship from the front, but we were not allowed – port security.
Did the ironing. Tomorrow is a formal night so our little laundry will be chaos all day tomorrow.
Afternoon tea in the Queen’s room – their scones are pretty good! The Eos Quartet were playing as usual. As I’ve said before, very 1950s.
The show tonight was a magician, but we gave him a miss and went up onto deck 9 to another jazz concert, then down to deck 3 to listen to the harpist. The clocks go forward an hour tonight.

Hilo, Hawaii

Saturday 2nd March On the Way to Hilo

It is hard to remember what day it is! Is that the sign of a really relaxing holiday?
Today was much like any other, though it was too windy to spend much time out on Deck 3. I had my first coffee since before Tahiti, this morning, so I must be feeling better.

Tonight’s show was La Danza with the resident dancers. It was extremely good. Of course we were envious of their youth, energy and fitness. Most of the passengers are neither youthful nor energetic.
Some say that the average age of the passengers is 70, but my guess is that is quite a bit older. There are more than just a few wheelchairs!
It was a formal night so everyone was dressed up. Those who chose not to, had dinner at the Lido buffet.
We have been thinking just how much Dori (Gray’s Mum) would have enjoyed this voyage with all the dressing up, the concerts and shows and dancing at the balls. She would have reveled in all of it.

Sunday 3rd March Two Days from Hilo

This morning we braved the presentation about our next destination, Hilo. Gavin, the tour manager has a most unfortunate way of speaking English despite the fact he comes from England. Never the less we did glean the information we needed.
Six more cases have been reported, so now everywhere we go, we have to sanitise our hands. Until now the units were only at the entrances of restaurants, cafes and bars.

The afternoon concert with the Albek twins was very good.

Tonight’ show was a US singer, Valerie Perri who as OK.

Seas are becoming quite rough and once again the stabilisers are out.

Monday 4th March More Sick People
Today the captain announced that officials from the US Health Department are coming on board when we arrive in Hilo before anyone is allowed off the ship. As you can imagine the rumour machine is working well. Some say we will not be allowed off the ship until we leave USA! So we may be flying back from Southampton in a few weeks time???

The Albek Duo concert was very interesting today. They introduced us to composers we’ve not heard of; in particular a Czech. composer whose music was pure emotion (despair – his reaction to the beginning of WW1) The music was raw!
We went down to the Queen’s Room for afternoon tea – very 1950s with dainty sandwiches and cakes.

We’ve booked our shuttle and dayroom for LAX to come home, in anticipation that we will leave the ship.
Tonight’s show was a flautist, Suzanne Godfrey who was very talented, playing many Mancini pieces then moving onto more complex music that we’d heard James Galway play many years ago in London. It was a great concert.

Tuesday 5th March Deck 3 Still Closed
We are getting a little tired of the windy, cloudy weather. Not being able to go for our deck walk every morning is quite frustrating. We did, however, manage to grab a chair each on the upper deck this morning, so at least we got some fresh air.

There have been no more cases of sick people which is great. It is interesting that it is no longer referred to as norovirus, but gastro-intestinal upset. Maybe it’s to be in line with the Queen!

Tonight the variety show was quite good.
Is tomorrow Census Day? We won’t be in the count!

Wednesday 6th March Hilo

This morning we woke early as we had to be ‘processed’ by US immigration before we went into Hilo (the tsunami centre of the world).
We did manage to get out onto deck 3 before breakfast only to see a coffin being unloaded! Not a great start to the day! Rumour has it, that there were 10 empty coffins on board at Southampton and now there are 8!
Immigration was very straight forward even though many passengers tried to jump the queues. I won’t mention their nationality!
We went on a tour called Waves and Waterfalls. We actually enjoyed going through the countryside and heading into the hills. It was also good to take photos.

It poured with rain as we left the ship but the sun came out for us when we were at the waterfall – so lush colours and sunshine were quite stunning. We enjoyed a really interesting presentation at the Tsunami Museum.
We watched the sail away then off to dinner.
Tonight there is no show so we think we’ll go to the movies. Tomorrow is Kahalui where we hope to shop.

Bora Bora, French Polynesia

It’s good to be back in the land of the living! We woke this morning, anchored in the bay off the port of BoraBora.

Unfortunately it has been overcast with rain showers throughout the whole day. Nevertheless we headed ashore mid morning, mooched about a bit, bought some fruit and drinks to bring aboard and headed back to the ship. Gray lugged his heavy camera bag with him, but the light was really poor, so he didn’t take any photos. I snapped a few just to prove we were here.

We finished lunch at 2pm, headed to the library to change books, then into the cafe for hot chocolates. The day to day stress is killing us!
The cases of norovirus are still increasing, so as you can imagine it is quite a concern. A lot of the dining room staff are now ill, so those still on deck are working 14 hour shifts!

Dinner tonight was very yummy – duck liver parfait followed by duck breast in a tamarind sauce. Gray, of course, then had a sticky rich dessert.

We have just returned from a great jazz concert under the stars in the Garden Lounge up on Deck 9. We were saying how much we are enjoying live music. The musicians are all very good!

Papeete, French Polynesia

(By Gray) Of all the bad luck. Having survived the rough weather when heaps of people got seasick, Rae succumbed last night – in weather that was abating and seas that were a fraction of what we’ve had previously. No violent being sick, but that ‘I want to go to bed and shut down for a bit’ feeling. We had the doc check her out – he confirmed seasickness and prescribed light fluids and rest. So no dinner last night. This morning she was definitely on the mend, but not yet in any state to go exploring tropical towns by foot. So she’s stayed on the bed all day. Very sensible – but also very disappointing for her as Papeete is a favourite place of ours. Since she wanted drinks and cottons that we haven’t found on board, I dashed out to try to get them. We had planned to try Skyping from here – the ship’s satellite connection won’t cope apparently. However getting a connection proved a bit of a problem so I dashed back. Looks like we’re stuck with ship’s internet to the end. So, we won’t put up many pictures now. We’re taking them and will add them when we get home.
Papeete doesn’t seem to have changed much since we were here 5 years ago. Not as much development as had previously been the case – maybe feeling France’s economic problems? It’s definitely nice and warm. The boat is kept well air conditioned – (thoroughly refrigerated) so stepping outside was a bit of a shock. Something you can quickly get used to however.
Since we are taking on fuel through a 6 inch pipe, we’re not leaving until 10 o’clock tonight. We’ll probably have dinner on board and then go to ‘Music Under The Stars’ on the Lido deck aft.
Tomorrow is Bora Bora. Rae is already lots better so we’re hoping to get ashore tomorrow. Just real bad luck that of all the days to spend feeling crook, this was the one. C’est la vie – just a pain when La Vie does it to you!!
So, nice giving you an update – tomorrow it should be Official Scribe Rae again. :))

Somewhere, Cook Islands

It was great to wake up to calm seas and bright light. After breakfast we were able to get out onto Deck 3 to stride out our 1 mile walk. Yesterday this deck was closed.
Today we managed to get our planned exercise – three times around Deck 3 is almost a mile and we figure that if we really stride it out it must do us some good. We’ve been to look at the gym but it is far too scary!!

Vanity Fair was on in the theatre and it was a very good show.

Somewhere in, International

Today is the first 26th February for us. Tomorrow will also be 26th February.

The seas became quite rough through the night and we were grateful that our room is midships.
There were fewer people at breakfast and even fewer again at lunch. We were still managing to lurch down the corridors, but were looking forward to calmer weather later in the day.

This morning’s lecture was about the French influence in the South Pacific – it was OK.
Tonight was our second formal night but many people chose to eat at the Lido where you don’t have to dress up. The song and dance show Vanity Fair was postponed until tomorrow night when calmer seas are expected.

We went up to Deck 9 and listened to the resident harpist who also answered questions in between playing. She is very good. Around the ship during the day and in the evenings you come across musicians playing which adds to the ambience beautifully. These musicians are all quite young, enjoying their music and enjoying traveling.

International Date Line, InternationalThe seas are a little rougher now, so going down to the restaurant tonight in heels was quite a challenge.
We are now into our own routine of ship’s life. We enjoy breakfast meeting new people, having coffee in the cafe, finding lectures or activities that interest us each morning.

After lunch I try to get some writing done. I’m turning the account of going to live in the country that I wrote a few years ago (as a record for the family) into a novel! (Who am I kidding?) It’s fun, anyway!

International Date Line, International

Today we feel that we are on holiday now that we have left New Zealand.

The laundrette for our deck is across the hall from our room and this morning it was the busiest part of our deck as everyone washed and ironed. At one stage when I popped in to collect my things out of a drier, there was another passenger carefully folding my clothes!

After our morning coffee we went to a talk on Impressionist painters. It was actually a sales pitch from the gallery people but nevertheless it was quite interesting. The artist they were promoting was Sheree Valentine Daines. Her paintings are being sold for a mere $30,000.

Lunch was a bit ho-hum, so we assumed that the chef was on a break.
However, the dining room was abuzz during dinner – everyone in formal dress. My dinner was wonderful. I chose the chef’s selection.
We rushed from dinner to the Captain’s cocktail party and enjoyed the free bubbles – not much is free here!
We called into the Cunard Ball for a short time before crawling off to bed.

Tahiti is now 4 days away!