(honeymoon story continued…)
Had it really only been 12 hours earlier that we boarded the ship? It seemed like time was going so slowly yet fast too. After an uneventful evening, we woke rested and ready for our first official day on the Queen Mary II. The day before had been such a whirlwind of taking in the sights and getting settled in that it all seemed like a blur. So today, we were going to start relaxing. But first… we had to learn how to Cha-Cha.
The cruise was great at offering various activities and classes and such. For example, every day at noon they offered a different dance class held in the Queen’s Room
The classes were taught by this amazing married couple (who just happened to be international ballroom dancers) named Petre and Roxana.
The CPA is admittedly not much of a dancer (he admitted it, not me) and I hung up my dancing shoes long ago. So getting into the swing of things (ha) took some work.
But you know what, it was fun, if not slightly embarrassing. Since we weren’t the only ones making fools of ourselves, we decided to just go for it and we cha-cha’d our little hearts out. In fact, we went ahead and signed up for the daily dance class and before the week was through, we had learned how to waltz, jive, and rumba. (Of course a year and a half later I couldn’t tell you the first thing about any of those dance steps, but that didn’t matter at the time.)
Lunch on the ship was usually spent at La Prazza, a buffet style eatery. They offered risotta and pasta and pizza and basically a little bit of everything. The interesting thing was that I didn’t eat as much as I thought I was going to simply because the food was so different. Because the Queen Mary is more of a European cruise (part of the Cunard Line), the food is typically European and English. Which means it didn’t taste the same as American food. This was good because I ended up not eating as much.
They did, however, have cheesecake. I mean how do you say no to cheesecake? Seriously.
Sometimes we ate our dessert out on the deck. Is it just me or is it a little bit freaky looking out and seeing nothing but water? Yeah, it was. Those were lifeboats suspended over the chairs. They did little to assuage my concern.
Other times, we ventured away from the buffet and enjoyed a traditional meal of fish and chips down at the pub.
While pub food isn’t typically my thing, it was paid for and I didn’t have to cook it, so it was fine with me.
And sometimes, when we were feeling particularly adventurous, we’d dine outside on the top deck.
Our afternoons were spent spent playing Scrabble and trying to prove who had the better vocabulary. Considering that I can’t spell to save my life, the CPA won without even trying. Plus he’s just smart like that.
Other afternoons we just sat around reading.
In fact, I had saved the latest Harry Potter book just for the honeymoon and I read the entire thing on the ship! Forget traveling on a world-class cruise, being able to read a book uninterrupted is a luxury by itself!
Lest you think we were completely lazy, I will tell you that we did attend various lectures and events. We even went to a planetarium that was located in the large theater – it was pretty cool, actually. And we enjoyed long walks around the ship and many hours taking afternoon naps. It was pure heaven.
During the evenings, we got dressed up in our finest duds and went to our table at the Britannia where we enjoyed truly fine dining.
During our last meal on the ship, we were able to see who cooked these fine meals as the chefs came out of the kitchen and took a walk through the dining room, to much applause and accolades.
Dinners on the ship were often followed by various events such as vaudeville entertainment shows, movies in the theater, or dancing in the ballroom. We had three separate balls during our stay, the Black and White Ball was the first.
I got dressed up in my formal gown and the CPA put on his tux.
We had a lovely dinner at the Brittania before heading to the gala. It was held in the Queen’s Room where the lights were dimmed and a live band was playing. We danced a couple of songs before realizing we were woefully out of our league. Couples young and old were whirling around to the music and we were just getting in the way so we gracefully bowed out. That’s okay though, we were content to watch from the sidelines and just enjoy the evening.
A few nights later, we got dressed up again and made our way to the ballroom. I think those daily dance lessons may have boosted our confidence a little because this time we even danced! The CPA looked dashing in his tux with the gray tie.
And I loved my sparkly dress that I bought on Ebay a few months before. (I believe my love of Ebay has been previously documented. And you scoffed!)
Our late nights were often followed by mornings of sleeping in and then we got up to do it all over again. It was in one word: amazing. If you’ve got to go across the ocean and have a few extra days (and of course have the funds saved up), then I highly recommend you make the journey by ship. It is an experience you won’t soon forget!
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