Onward and Upward

SO... guess where we are now?? Yes, LONDON!!! Before I tell you more I just want to post a couple more picture from the Queen Mary, since internet isn't costing us a fortune anymore!

I thought you might be interested in what our stateroom looked like...

It's smaller in real life. Or at least it felt that way. We had to keep moving the latter around... it kept getting in the way! And I lost track of how many times I hit my head.

This is the hall on our floor...

It took Madeline and I three minutes to walk down it. We weren't going very slow, either! If you don't think that's long, time yourself and walk in a straight line for three minutes. It's pretty much the length of the ship!

On Saturday we did a tour of the galleys. Man, that was COOL! There were multiple hallways as long as this one... it was SOOOO big!!!

It was really neat to see behind the scenes of what was going on at dinner!

We're sure going to miss this ship... we're already lamenting it! We had such a nice table... we became really close with the other two couples who ate with us. And we met such nice people... and man, I'll miss our waiters! They're so much fun, as they get to know you more they joke around with you and stuff. I'm so sad to leave the QM2, but onward we go!

So we got of the ship at about 9:00 this morning and took a taxi to the Southampton train station and then took a train to the London Waterloo Station. We took another taxi to the youth hostel that we're staying at, then we went outside and walked around. We are in England!!

This is Fortnum and Mason, the Queen's official department store!! It was really cool inside, and really expensive!

Here we are at Trafalgar Square!!! There are a lot more tourists than I thought there would be... but you can still here a lot of British accents, which is what I'm here for!

And this is the National Gallery (taken from the monument we're sitting on). That was SO COOL!!!! We saw paintings by Titian, Michelangelo, and da Vinci!!!!

And here I am standing in front of the London Eye and Big Ben. What a thought.

It still kinda feels like a dream, especially since we've been on the water for the past week. We had supper at a pub (my dad got two beers) and now we're back at the hostel. Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Tuesday-Friday

 Alrighty lots to write about. I'll start with Tuesday.

Tuesday- The first picture is of The Royal Court Theatre where all the featured entertainment happens each night.  This night our featured entertainment was Singer in Concert, a group of four amazing singers singing songs from many different decades complete with dancing and of course the Queen's Room band.  It was fabulous! Next picture is Sarah, my dad and I standing on 80 miles away from where the RMS Titanic lies!

 Wednesday- What a miserable day. It rained in the morning and was foggy for the rest of the day with lots and lots of wind. Though it was great for me since I never get to see that much fog or feel so much wind. When you went outside you could taste the salt in the air and your hair would be soaked in a minute. So since it was so windy the upper decks were closed.

 Thursday- Today was a very exciting day! We were able to meet up with this lady from Quebec who is going across the Atlantic in a row boat all by herself! Some of her equipment was ruined so our Captain steered the boat towards her and we threw the supplies in the water in water tight containers with a floatation device. We asked crewmen if this has happened before and they said the last time this happened was in 2010! So we are pretty lucky. Maybe some of you saw our ship on the news. The next picture is Sarah and my mom learning line dancing! This was there third class and I'm very impressed as to what they can do.

Friday- Today is another Wednesday. The weather is miserable and we are rocking a bit more.

Here are some photos from Monday night of The Black and White Ball. We weren't able to put them up on Monday so here they are now!

Well that is it for now hope all is well back home.

-Madeline

Hey everybody! Sorry it's been so long since you have heard anything but it has been quite busy. Since it is already 11:30 here I will do a longer post tomorrow with lots of pictures! See you then!

-Madeline (I can't seem to get my e-mail to work so if you were wondering why it says Sarah was the author of this post and my other one that's why)

Out in the Ocean

Day two on the Queen Mary! It was kinda weird sleeping last night- we have no windows in our room so when the ship rocks back and forth it feels really odd, but I think we all slept pretty well. We forgot to set our clocks ahead two hours from when we flew to New York so we all slept in and had breakfast at about 10:00. There are three classes on board (Queens Grill, Princess Grill, and Brittania). Each class has their own dining area. We of course are in Brittania but it is still SO nice! And if you don't want to eat in your dining area there is a buffet which is open almost 24/7 which still has SUCH nice food. After breakfast we all separated and wandered around (I spent most of the time trying to figure out how to get to the bookstore) and then met up at 12:00 for lunch. Actually, there is no such thing as 12 noon. Because we are traveling West to East we have to set our clocks ahead one hour pretty much every day, so it goes from 11:59-1:00. Here's a picture of our dining area!

 It's as wide as the ship (about 130 feet) and it's TWO floors. You might be able to see the windows on the far side in the picture, and the stairs leading to the second floor. We have a specific table for dinner (we sit with two other couples) but for breakfast and lunch we can sit wherever we like.

After lunch we went to a planetarium show which they hold in the movie theater. That was pretty neat! We then went out onto one of the many decks and read, did crosswords, and wrote postcards.

 The Atlantic ocean, baby!

 At 3:30 we went for afternoon tea in the Queens Room.

 This is the same room where they have all the balls and dances (there's a nice dance floor in the centre). We had tea, sandwiches, desserts, and scones. I think the best part of this cruise is that all the food is free!!

 The Black&White ball was so glam! Everybody was dressed up very nicely and after dinner there was a dance in the Queens Room. It was beautiful! (I wanted to upload pictures of our dresses but it wasn't working... I'll try again another time!

That's what we did today. There's still so much to explore, it's crazy! Maybe tomorrow we'll post a picture of our daily program that shows all the things we can do on board... you can't even do it all! But seriously, they treat everyone like royalty here. If there's someone cleaning or fixing something and you walk by they stop what they're doing and say good day madam, or whenever you make eye contact with them they smile and say good day. It's great! Well, that's all for now. Another day tomorrow!

QM II

So today we got ready to board the Queen Mary 2! We left our hotel and met some very nice police officers and got to take a picture with them outside the police car! They also had great New York accents. 

We entered into the Grand Lobby where we were greeted by an amazing pianist, who was amazing to listen to.

After a buffet lunch we looked around the huge, 14 deck ship and saw some beautiful sights of New York and New Jersey. We then had a safety drill complete with life jackets.  We left the port at 5:00 and got to see The Statue of Liberty a bit closer.

We then went for supper in the Brittania Dining Room for a great four course meal and went from room to room listening to the many different bands and saw some quite excellent dancing in The Queen's Room. There is so much to do here it's uncanny; there are movies, tours, board games, knitting, swimming, shows and so much more! Plus tomorrow night is The Black and White Ball wich is one of the three formal nights aboard the night. The dress code for formal nights is dinner jacket, tuxedo or dark suit with tie for gentlemen and evening or cocktail dress for ladies. On the informal nights the dress code is jacket and optional tie for gentlemen and cocktail dress,stylish seperates or equivalent for ladies. All the crew is very nice and they all call you madam or sir! There is so much to do no one could ever feel bored, just really tired, as all of us are, also the sea sickness doesn't help. Hopefully the water will be calmer tomorrow. I'm so glad we are on this boat for a week, maybe that will give me enough time to find my way around this great ship.

 -Madeline

WE MADE IT!!

Well, we are in New York! We got here about 1:30 (11:30 MST) in Newark, New Jersey and took a taxi to our hotel in Brooklyn near the cruise terminal. It's sooo cool here. SO many high-rise buildings, and the driving here is actually pretty crazy! It's just so crazy to think that we're actually in NEW YORK!!

So, after we got settled in our hotel, we took a taxi back to New Jersey. Hoboken, specifically, to see the one and only Carlo's Bake Shop from the show Cake Boss!!

We had to stand in line for about an hour to get some desserts, but while we were waiting Madeline from the show (Buddy's sister) came out and gave out free cannolis! And later on her Husband Mauro came. So cool to see some people from the show!!

We had supper at a hamburger place down the street and took a taxi back to the hotel. That's about all we did today. Sorry if this post is kinda short, I'm a little tired from only having 3 1/2 hours of sleep last night! Tomorrow we board the cruise ship... on our way to Europe!!

Up, Up and Away

So apparently my family and I are going on a plane tomorrow to New York?  I don't believe it. It's 21 hours until lift off so today will be our major packing day. We were able to do a "shop 'till you drop" day yesterday so we're hoping we have remembered everything(?). But the more important time to remember things is when we pack (eek). As some of you might know we are only taking along one carry-on suitcase per person, so stuff that bag! But since we are going onto the Queen Mary 2 for one week and there is a dress code, we will be taking two extra suitcases along for dresses, suits and shoes. When we do get to Southampton we will send the two cases back. Also a really exciting thing is us three girls have found our dresses for the black and white ball! That is a big weight off my mind. Now this might not sound all that interesting but do not worry...once we have arrived in New York and traveled on we will have much more thrilling posts (I hope) and lots of pictures. As my sister, Sarah, has said we will try and post something once a day, switching between her and I, but we cannot promise anything for lack of internet usage. So without further ado, let the packing day begin!