Hi everyone! Welcome to our 95 day voyage on the Queen Victoria. Thank you for joining us. We left Ft. Lauderdale at 10 PM on January 16th and will return on April 21st. It was an uplifting send off by the locals who live in the high rises lining our route to the sea. Hundreds of people “blinked” their porch lights in salute to The Queen. A few voyeurs scanned the decks with high powered beacons. What were they searching for? Lascivious behavior in the staterooms? Certainly not! This is a British ship! Proper! Civilized! Cultured! Think Titanic before her most unfortunate collision with that ill-mannered iceberg…..
The Queen Victoria is one of three ships in the Cunard line. She is 964 feet long and carries 2057 passengers and 981 crew members when full. She is an Ocean Liner (not a cruise ship), built to handle the roughest seas with ease. We’ll see about that. But, just in case, I cleared the shelves in CVS of all the Dramamine and Bonine they had in stock.
We will be “at sea” for 67 days and “in port” for 28 days. The voyage is broken up into several segments, and only 342 passengers are on board for the full world voyage, like us. The Brits have the largest representation at 155. Followed by 96 Americans, 17 Germans, 13 Canadians, 11 French, 9 Dutch, 4 Japanese, 4 Swedes, and a smattering of folks from 23 other countries. The average age is OLD. Did you know that sending your elderly loved ones “around the world” on the Queen Victoria can be cheaper then an Assisted Living Facility for the same amount of time? There is a doctor on board, wheelchair access everywhere, lots of activities, great entertainment, and awesome food. And, of course, daily Bingo. It’s a win win. In 2010, on the Queen Mary 2, we were by far the youngest passengers. Seven years later, even with abundant gray hair (Steve, not me), and wrinkles (me, not Steve), we still are.
Our greatest hope is that we can still fit into our clothes when we disembark in 95 days. We strategically skipped packing stretchy pants where a burgeoning waistline can easily be ignored. We had Lobster Thermador for dinner last night, and Chateaubriand tonight. Wish us luck, we’ll need it.
We have sailed over 1,200 miles since our departure on Monday; passing by The Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico. We arrive in our first port, Barbados, the centuries old home of Mount Gay Rum, on the 20th. Yo Mon.