May 2, At Sea

Saturday, May 2 - Day 88 - At Sea

Well it is our last day aboard the Queen Mary. Dick wakes to a messy. foggy, rainy morning. Sun rise was at 6:10,but no one saw it due to the rain and fog. He goes for his coffee and comes back to the room about 8:30 to be sure Carolyn is moving.

During the day we head toward the English Channel in a prominently eastward direction. In the early hours of tomorrow Queen Mary will make her approach toward the pilot boarding grounds by the Nab Tower and embark the pilot at 2:55 for the last 27 mile transit of the Solvent and Southampton waters to her berth at the terminal. The Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Victoria will be following the same path and board their pilots at 2:45 and 3:05 respectively.

We are very late for breakfast. Back at the room Carolyn had hoped to get packing started, but our steward is running really late and we also had turned the door tag the wrong way so that delayed things.

Carolyn spends the morning and early afternoon packing the rest of our stuff and thinks she will be able to get everything in the four original bags plus the camera and computer bags. She can’t close anything for good until after dinner because Dick still needs his suit coat. This is the problem with the dress code.

Dick just stays out of the way doing his own thing. After lunch Carolyn calls an end to packing. She has a book from the library to finish and return and a nap to take.

We go to dinner early and have asked for a special fettuccini Alfredo. To our surprise it is prepared table side and is delicious!! We have really enjoyed the Queens Grill. The food is the best we have had on a cruise in a long time. The staff’s efforts on the special requests have make it a very pleasant dinning experience! We only had one bomb and that happened tonight and is kind of funny. We both order the spring rolls. They come and we literally can’t cut them. No big deal, we just wait for the waiter to pick the plates up and tell him the wrapper is so stiff we can’t cut it. Of course, he wants to get us something else, but we say no, just continue with the meal service. A minute of two later the table behind us calls the waiter over and tells him to take the plate away...it is like the spring roll is wrapped in a "stainless steel" wrapper and is inedible! The man says it loud enough for everyone to hear. There are several giggles around the room and the spring rolls disappear! Some poor chef will hear about that bomb we are sure!

Back in the room, the suit coat proves to be one piece too much, so out comes the blue duffle and we wind up with that as an extra piece to carry with us through England. But now the packing is much easier and we soon have the duffle and the two pieces for storage outside the door for pick up and the rest is closed and ready to carry off in the morning. We are tired and ade soon asleep with the fog horn moaning away.

Tomorrow begins our road trip through England, Scotland and Wales. We are looking forward to this time.