First Cunard gig – QM2 to New York!
I’ve been trying to get a booking on Cunard for nearly ten years without success, which is a bit odd as Cunard and P&O Ents share the same office, and I do about 4 per year on P&O. Anyway back in January, I emailed the P&O booking manager and asked her to pass my details on to her counterpart at Cunard. The next day I get an email from the QM2 booker giving me a choice of half a dozen transatlantic crossings! Within two days, it’s all sorted out and I’m off on June 23. We got married in NYC but haven’t been back since 2012, so Gail’s coming too.
In the interim I did a Caribbean and a Northern Lights trip, both on Aurora, which is my favourite P&O ship. I also got a booking for a Celebrity cruise – Miami to New York – three flights to get there but at least I start at my local airport. On the way there, I got an email telling me they’d fly me back to Paris, 4 hours away from home, arriving at dawn. So I decided I wasn’t going to do it for the sake of a seven night cruise. I guess my Celebrity career is over…
So, I carefully check the four or five presentations for Cunard, because I guess this is, in essence, an audition. And guess what, one of the speakers in the MacBook blows. No problem – see if there’s a YouTube video on how to replace it. Yes, there is, and it looks very simple, so I send off for a repair kit and it arrives next day. Two of the back screws come out easily enough but the screwdriver strips the heads off the next two. And I can’t get the first two back in again. Oh dear. And I don’t want to buy a new one in France because the keyboard’s different. A week to go…
Gail’s very good at this sort of thing – she finds the best price in the UK and we order one to be delivered to Paul Stickler in Romsey (He’s the ex-CID chief with whom I work on about half the cruises). This will work because he’s putting us up for the night before we board as well as organising somewhere to park the car.
We have a new house-sitter this time, so she takes over as we get the afternoon ferry to Portsmouth and get to Paul’s about 10.30 p.m. We set up the new machine and it works, thank heavens.
Next day there are huge queues to board Queen Mary 2, but we are told to use priority boarding, even though we have no idea which is our cabin, sorry, stateroom. Efficient lady tells us it’s number 32 (eh?), we go back out to label the bags, and we get on pretty quickly. But nobody seems to know where cabin, sorry, stateroom, 32 is. After about half an hour we find it, Deck 5, pointy end, behind a door marked ‘Private’. And it won’t open. My reaction attracts the attention of the occupants of the next stateroom, and Micky Zany introduces himself as the comedian. I’d never have guessed. Down to Reception where a young man puts the card keys through a machine and confirms all is now well. It isn’t. The door still won’t open. Back to Reception and a lengthening queue. Eventually another young man takes the cards from me, and takes me to a seat, advising me he’ll sort it out. Took him another half hour, but he did, and he’s let ‘the wife in’. At last.
Two letters waiting for me in the cab…stateroom, so that’s good, must be the right place. One wants me to go to the theatre to check the kit at 1700 hrs, and the other to go to a studio to be interviewed for the daily TV programme. At 1700 hrs. Oh well, we got it all done in the end, and the interview was quite sensible. I’m on at 1100 on the first day, straight after a talk entitled ‘My Fascination with Gemstones’. Different crowd maybe? Anyway by now Gail’s unpacked and the cabin’s not bad: it has a porthole – normally we get an inside. Check through first talk, and then it’s time for a tincture. Long day.
First talk is There’s more to seeing than meets the eye. Little bit of neuroanatomy at the start but mainly engaging a first-time audience. Probably the best introduction I’ve ever had from the Deputy Entertainment Director who is quite taken by my having done a bit of stand-up. Illuminations theatre holds 493 and there are more people standing at the back than there are empty seats, so here goes…
Went quite well I think, in spite of a small screen over to the right with me in the middle of the stage. Technician’s very good, and he likes my hair.
And the other three went well too – the second was at 1215 and the young entertainment host who introduced me said she’d never seen a full house at that time. Same for number three, and the place was packed for the last talk. Only downside was a somewhat monotone introduction from the male entertainment host who clearly thought he had better things to do. It’s a powerful finish to the eye witness talk and quite a few people were in tears at the end. Overall, I think I did OK – lots of people thanking me all over the ship, mainly Americans, which surprises me.
First sea day was also G’s birthday so we went to the Steakhouse at the Verandah for dinner – probably the best quality food I’ve had on ship since we were on QM2 years ago. We didn’t dine in the Britannia at all, the buffet was fine, though I did use the Britannia for breakfast while Gail was yogaing (sic).
Two medevacs – one almost as we left Southampton, and one for a crew member necessitating a diversion to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We were thus very late into New York – parked at 1500 hrs. Two nights in a hotel in Tribeca – NYC is soo expensive now, and then overnight to Heathrow, where Paul is waiting, bless him. Rumour is, the crew member is OK.
Back home to France, and I’m surprised to get an email from the office – first working day after the crossing. Apparently I got a very favourable report from the on-board team, lots went to the talks and said they enjoyed them. So I’ve been invited to join the 2024 programme – I’ve to go through all the cruises/crossings and tell them which ones I’d like to do. Must have passed the audition then. Result.
thehairypsychologist 