I promised you a trip report on my recent short voyage on the Queen Mary 2 (QM2 for the sake of convenience), and with a champagne bottle cracked over the side of my laptop, I'm ready to launch....
What a magnificent lady, this sea-faring QM2! I drove to a cruise terminal in Brooklyn early on a Thursday morning and saw this gorgeous creature lingering in the harbor.... Out past her bow and a confluence of ropes holding her to shore, was the Statue of Liberty, appearing to wave her torch as a welcome to this wandering soul.
I have never been on such a ship before.... In my explorations I discovered her library that rivalled my own Lower Providence Library; a theater with a stage that elevated, turned, and allowed for pyrotechnic and laser effects during nightly shows; a complete planetarium; a mini shopping mall; a pampering spa; pools indoors, outdoors, on top and down below; basketball court; golf simulator; kennels; hot tubs; 10 restaurants ; jazz clubs, pubs, discos and everything in between.
And F-O-O-D.
Good lord, there was enough food on that vessel to feed a small nation. Deck 7 was a perpetual buffet: Asian, Italian, British and American stations offered all manner of fare from morning until... well, I'm not really sure when. But I can tell you I was there having a little repast one morning at 3 a.m.
I have only brushed the surface of amenities on board. I am saving the best for last... In runner-up position: The Queen's Room. It is a veritable ballroom with what is touted to be the largest dance floor afloat on the seven seas. This is where unaccompanied women (such as I was) were entreated to dance by a cadre of willing, fleet-footed "gentleman dance hosts." Now that's just wrong in my book!! Oh, I suppose that some women were happy to feel an arm slip around their waists as a temperamental tango began.... But somehow I think the whole point of dancing is to make a human connection through rhythm and feelings and intensity of the moment. The dance hosts weren't quite my idea of "Love Boat" material....
The real enchantment in the Queen's Room came in late afternoon when her tables were layered with fresh white linens, and an army 0f waiters in trim white cutaways ceremoniously "waltzed" about the room with porcelain pots full of delicious English tea. Then came the dainty sandwiches (ah yes, cucumber of course... among others..), then scones with clotted cream and lemon curd, and a multiplicity of pastries. All of this was choreographed to the music of a live string quartet. The best of civilization in the light of day!
And in the final spot reserved for the Queen's crown: Wooden decks lined with wooden deck chairs, all equipped with tartan plaid woolen blankets. Just the place to get cozy against the wind, to cast your eyes to the unpolluted skies and to count the gazillions of stars to make wishes upon... to contemplate the vastness of the sea and the shorelines it caresses. And just the place to realize that dreams, however unreasonable or unlikely they may seem, really can come true....
Oh, yes, there were stops along the way. Halifax -- charming, Boston --- fascinating. But in the end, the most memorable moment was found in simply meeting The Queen. I bow before her utter majesty....

Time to share!

I'm going on a wonderful adventure in a matter of a few days...
I saw a posting on a last-minute travel website that was enticing, to say the least.

I love last-minute travel: it's spontaneous, reflective of the mood of the moment, and just as thrilling as a late breaking wave over your head on a body-surf ride into shore....

So.... here's the deal: I saw an ad for a cruise from New York -- one of the best ports in all of the world to sail from.. nothing quite like Lady Liberty at sunset --- to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Boston, Mass. It was for a quick 6-day roundtrip float up and back...

But the real thrill of the deal was the fact that the ship is the Queen Mary 2 (QM2 to her friends...) only the largest ship in the world, replete with the largest dance floor on the seven seas, which, in turn, is stocked with "gentlemen guests hosts" so that women, such as myself, traveling unescorted will have a partner for every rhythm. (Seems almost barbaric!)

And becasue it would be a last-minute booking the price was slashed 65 percent.... down to $768. Keep in mind that includes meals, royal formal galas, entertainment, transportation and dance hosts! (ha ha ha....)

I called and was told yes, I could book passage in the morning.... I was thrilled and mentally packing ball gowns and bathing suits (indoor spa pool!), and whatever it might take to fill-to-bulging the requisite 10 pink suitcases.....

But when morning came, the unthinkable happened.......

I was told that somehow, over night, the seven hundred-and-change fare had sold out and oh, by the way, the next available category would cost (are you ready?) $12,000 dollars!!!!!!!!!

After I came to, I got downright angry and dashed a letter off to Cunard Lines (of which the Queen Mary 2 is a proud vessel). How could this be? This takes bait-and-switch to new heights!

Withing an hour or two, my phone jangled. A REAL person, Sharleen Gordon, called from Cunard's California office. Like some benevolent tooth fairy she sprinkled fairy dust all over my disappointment. She said I would move onto the top of a priority list... that the first cancellation would come to me, and that the $700+ fare would indeed be observed.

And with a wave of her imagined wand, someone did cancel that night... and now my bags are all but packed..... I'm sailing this week, and will have my dancing shoes on, for sure.

I really want to salute Sharleen and the folks at Cunard for what I consider the best and most efficient customer service I have ever received in my years of traveling. This will be my first experience traveling Cunard and QM2, but given the royal pre-trip consideration I'm already shouting, "Long live the Queen!"

Next time: A trip report!

Forgive my prolonged absence!
Life gets in the way of the best intentions, but now I have a little item to share with those faithful readers who return to this would-be traveler's niche.
Early April found me flying -- in a little prop plane -- from Philadelphia into New York's Albany airport which served as gateway to a weekend in the nearby Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.
The occasion was the first-ever Dulye Leadership Experience (DLE), a weekend retreat wherein selected Syracuse University students and DLE faculty (comprised of individuals from a diverse cross-section of arts and sciences disciplines ---myself included in the latter arts division) converged to share ideas on intellectual and professional growth, leadership, life lessons, the two-way dynamic of mentoring, and ultimately the value of expanding one's circle of friends to include old (well, a little older, anyway!) and young.
DLE was the lifelong dream of Linda Dulye, a proud Syracuse alum, and the human electrical bolt who funded then charged the weekend with excitement, fun, laughter, some growing pains, and ---by Sunday afternoon, pure exultation.
So.... one of the light moments came when Linda, her mother Ann, myself and another faculty member, Sue (whose last name I withhold "to protect the innocent") found ourselves with a dilemma. There were four grown women and only three available beds.
"You can share my bed," said Ann, innocent as dew on a rose petal.
Linda, Sue and I all shot glances at each other... Share a bed!!!!!?????....
None of us minded sharing a room, or sharing a meal or sharing an embarrassing, self-effacing story from the past! But SHARE A BED???
Visions of colliding cold, clammy feet, and snoring nostrils, and just that too-close-for-comfort body heat had all three of us running for the couch. Well, in the end it was Sue who ended up on a couch... a couch that dipped in the midsection and gave her premature osteoporosis and allowed possibly a single hour of sleep... if she was lucky.
Ah, dear Ann, we dearly love you.... but love has its limits!
In that giddy way that happens when there has been too little sleep and a dire situation has been relegated to the night before, Linda, Sue-the-Bed-Martyr and I found hilarity in the recent memory and shared a great big giggle as reward for that momentary fright (still laughing...............!!!!!).
So this traveler's advice: Never underestimate the great appeal of a sleeping bag, or better, an Aerobed! And at very least, be sure to pack a protective pair of warm socks.....