Back to Queen Mary 2.
A huge crowd of us boarded for tours about 10 yesterday (Wednesday) morning. Many of us were journalists – the rest, lottery-drawn invited guests, past Cunard passengers, lots and lots of them delightful, older Brits.
We were ushered into the Grand Lobby, which covers two decks and is topped by an atrium which extends through six decks. There are 12 interior cabins, way way up there that have views to the atrium. I thought “how cool!” Later I ventured into one of them. I thought “no way!” Unfortunately, not only do you look down but also directly into the cabins of those across the atrium from you – who also have gigantic windows.
On boarding, we were handed a 24-page, self-guided tour book. And I, not one to read directions on anything, lit out on my own, wandering through the entire expanse of Deck 3 which houses much of the Queen’s common spaces before opening said book.
Oops. We had been instructed to save this deck for last, starting instead on 12. Way way way up there.
So, I mingled with the staff and spent an hour on my own. I wish I could describe this vessel. I don't even know what to call it, it's so big. Everything, like the ship, is enormous. Enormous lobby (with sculpted relief of the Queen Mary 2 itself, swathed in changing lights; bars this way and that, offering bevies of cocktails, etc.; fetching faux orange trees to greet you along one side – I could see the glue sticking branch to trunk, so there); huge hallways decked with sculpted murals; the main food emporium called Britannia Restaurant, sprawling from side to side and up several layers; beyond that the Queen’s Room, a ballroom with a dance floor dubbed the biggest at sea; and beyond that G32, a two-story spot for nightlife. Hey, and that was just toward the stern. Up front I wandered down more hallways, past shops and elevators and into the Royal Court Theatre. And then I had to sit down. I’d been at it an hour.
That’s when one of the million-or-so-it-seemed, well-stationed guides gently told me I was off in the wrong direction. So I grabbed an elevator and headed skyward.
And I began the dash downward from there – from the sports deck, to the big suites, to the HUGE apartments at the stern, to the smaller suites to the smaller cabins to the interior cabins (which, frankly, are quite cozy) to more common rooms than I can count, the spa, the library, the bookstore, the lecture rooms to be populated by an Oxford University-planned lecture series on each cruise, the planetarium at sea called Illuminations, again dubbed one of a kind.
Then lunch in the Britannia dining room.
Exhausting tour. I’ve never seen a thing like this ship. She’s sleek, has the classic black-grey hull of ocean-going liners, the white upper decks. She appears sharp and enormous, which she is.
And she is definitely the pride of those who watched her from conception to birth.
And, frankly, I keep thinking of ghosts.
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