The QM2 is truly spectacular, and takes a couple of days to know your way around. There is the Queens Room for afternoon tea and ballroom dancing at night, the Royal Theater for Broadway type shows, a planetarium, a huge library, multiple dining rooms, pools and spas. Three of the evenings on this crossing were gala evenings, tuxedos for men and gowns for women. One of the gala evenings was a Roaring 20’s theme, and David came in third (one place out of a bottle of champagne) in the Roaring 20’s attire contest.

The weather for our trip was pretty calm for the North Atlantic. You can feel the ship sway a little, but nobody seemed to get seasick. The mornings were usually working out in the gym or walking the deck (one lap around the ship is 1/3 of a mile), and breakfast of course. There a plenty of events throughout the day; learning to play bridge, ballroom dancing classes, theater shows, trivia, art talks, and featured speakers. There’s also plenty of relaxing on the deck, reading, swimming, or playing shuffleboard. The 3 couples would meet up for afternoon tea in the Queens Room and then play cards until it was time to get dressed up for dinner.

We disembarked to stormy weather in Southampton and walked around the old city in the rain and wind. There are pockets of original stone walls remaining and dating back to 1175. The soccer game we attended became historic for all the wrong reasons. We sat in the front row, right behind the goal, in the pouring rain to witness the largest margin of defeat by a home team in the EPL. Southampton lost to Leicester City 9-0, a seriously bad game, but historic.

We then spent a few days in London walking many miles and visiting a few museums. London is a maze of small streets and fun to get lost in. Some highlights include the Victorian and Albert Museum, Tate Modern, and the British Museum. We also attended a hilarious show called Noises Off before heading home.