Day 8: Queen Mary 2 (7/19/2010)

Today we got up early (for us anyway) at 9am! We didn’t get enough sleep but thought we should get an early start for our cruise ship should anything go wrong on the way. Nothing did though. We had written down directions to the cruise ship from our hotel, from the cruise ship to the rental car return, and from the rental car return back to the cruise ship via public transportation, all the night before. With these written instructions in hand, we set out.

Davin drove while I navigated and we made it to the cruise terminal around 11am. On the way we passed through Holland Tunnel where we paid an $8 toll. We are also pretty sure that the Holland Tunnel is one of the tunnels represented in GTA4, and I think it’s where there is a mission to break a guy out of a prison convoy, only to subsequently murder the poor guy for the person your working for. I felt pretty bad about doing him in. Anyway, we made it through the tunnel, through Manhatten, and over the Manhatten bridge to the cruise terminal with no problems. We were also able to see the Brooklyn bridge from the Manhatten bridge, and that bridge also figures prominently in GTA4. But I digress yet again.

Once we made it to the cruise ship terminal, we were able to leave all our luggage to be checked. They even very kindly kept my laptop briefcase behind the welcome desk so that I could get it on my return and not have to risk it through checking. So with only my backpack containing all our important documents, Davin and I set off again this time to return our rental car. The closest rental car return I found online was in Manhatten, apparently there used to be a Brooklyn branch, but it must have been closed at some point. So we headed back into the city. Again we made our way to the rental car place with no problems. We arrived an hour early, dropping the car off at noon instead of 1pm.

Next we had to return to the ship on foot. We headed south on 1st Ave til we found the L subway station. We bought some lunch across the street from there as well. I got a chicken sandwich, Davin bought a hamburger, drink, and fries. We just took the food to-go, and went to the subway. We took the L train to 8th Ave, where we then switched to the C train headed to Brooklyn. Once we made it to Brooklyn we got off the subway and tried to find Bus 61 which would take us to the cruise terminal. This was the only point at which we had any trouble. My written directions weren’t helpful in telling us which of 4 directions to walk. It said west, but with the sun at its peak, and no ocean water to be seen, we had no idea which way was west. But after asking the bus drivers of different numbered buses we were able to find our way to a B61 stop. In fact, we found it just as the bus arrived. It was at this point we discovered that this particular bus only took coins, so we had to trade our dollar bills with other passengers to get exactly what we needed. Then it was only a short 15 minute ride to our bus stop. From there it was about a 10 minute walk and we were back at the cruise terminal around 2pm. My brother and I joked about how we were probably the only passengers aboard the Queen Mary 2 cruise that WALKED to the ship from the BUS! Lol.

Checking in was simple enough. I got my laptop back beforehand of course, and tipped the man who helped me stow it behind the counter. We were actually pretty surprised at how nice all the security people were. Totally unlike airport security. They even let us bring our purchased food and drink into the terminal with us, though we told them we would happily eat it outside first if it was a problem.

After we made it through security, I went to the restroom. There I overheard a couple workers saying that ONLY 2,000 passengers were booked on this cruise. They seemed very surprised at the small number when it concerned the QM2. I think it’s kind of nice to be on what is considered an under-booked cruise.

At check-in we received our personalized key cards/on-board credit cards. Then we made our way on board to our room. All our bags had arrived except my sleeping bag, but it showed up eventually. We found out that WiFi internet on the ship is ridiculously expensive, $48 for 2 hours!!, so we decided to go to the top of the ship to find cell service so we could call our mom to let her know we would be out of touch for a week. I called Scott and let him know too. After that, we set about exploring the ship. We had to figure out where we would eat dinner. This cruise is specifically designed for snobby rich people, and their mimickers, to be able to pretend to be royalty. Therefore, every night the main dining area has mandatory dress codes requiring, jackets, ties or dresses etc. I don’t like dressing up just to eat, and hate rich people in general, and Davin didn’t bring a jacket at all, so we didn’t even have the option of dining in the regular restaurant. But we found a place for us unrefined folk to fit in at the 24 hour informal buffet. The buffet is in the King’s Court restaurant which at night becomes 3 different themed eating areas, and 1 buffet. The restaurants require a reservation, while the buffet does not. I called and asked if the themed restaurants require a jacket and the woman laughed and assured me that that was not necessary. So I reserved our dinner at the Lotus Asian food restaurant.

We then relaxed in our room until dinner. At 8pm we headed over to the Lotus, and were met by a dour looking young woman who proceeded to chastise us for not wearing long sleeves/a jacket but then graciously allowed us to still eat our dinner there though she took great pains to hide us from the view of her measly 4 other guests. Clearly I had received bad information, but I didn’t bother to tell her about it since that might get someone else into trouble. So we were served like royalty. The woman placed a napkin on my lap for me. Cause I couldn’t be bothered to do it myself, of course. And then our two little waiter servants came and introduced themselves. The sole purpose of one of them was to continuously fill our itsy bitsy 2 swallow sized tea cups with green tea. The other served our food and explained to us EXACTLY what it was. We were having a tasting menu, so there was very little of very many things. It was a 5 course meal. First we had one piece of Maki sushi, 2 grilled tuna slices, a scallop with fish eggs, a piece of seaweed and a semi-sour cucumber slice. It was all artistically arranged. I hate artistic looking food. It almost always tastes terrible. The Maki was the only good thing on the plate. The scallop almost made me throw up, but I swallowed it whole with water just in time. I almost always throw up when I try to eat something at a fancy restaurant. This is the fourth time where I almost threw up that I can remember. Davin impressively cleared his entire plate, and didn’t think it was as unpalatable as I did.

The second course was a crab soup. That was actually pretty decent, but I don’t like crab that much. So I had about 1/3 of mine, and Davin finished his off completely. The third course was the ‘warm appetizer’ which consisted of two different kinds of spring rolls. Not impressive, but edible when dipped in something with flavor. At this point, poor Davin had to have his silver wear replaced by our servant because they had been used prematurely. Apparently even if you use your silver wear improperly by choice, you can’t continue to use them with the proper dish, but must have a clean set with which to begin again. But with a brand new set of silver wear delivered unto him, we were finally ready to begin our fourth course: the main entree. This consisted of samples of four dishes. The duck spring roll was not that great, the shrimp on noodles was bland, the teriyaki chicken and bell peppers was good, and the baby back ribs were, well, baby back ribs. Last came dessert. Finally we got to something delicious, coconut ice cream on mangos. The ice cream was awesome, it even had some whole strings of coconut in it. Yum, yum, yum. There was also a sweet rice thing, which wasn’t that great, and wasabi creme brule which was actually pretty tasty. So, all-in-all, dinner was completely unimpressive but the ice cream was absolutely delicious.

My brother and I headed back to our room agreeing that if this were the last fine dining experience we ever had we would be happy. We find the whole routine of excessive deference to the guests to be awkward and ridiculous. In addition, almost everything we were served this evening we have had before but it was better and cheaper from one of our favorite Asian restaurants back home. I was just pleased that at least this time I didn’t fling a piece of orange duck across the dinner table while trying to get the fat off of it, like at that one French restaurant in Mexico, where I also almost threw up after my Dad coerced me into eating a hard boiled dove egg, which I told him was a really bad idea in the first place. Ah well.

Later we went to the buffet to get more food, which we actually thought was better than our fancy dinner. We stayed up late watching movies, and relaxing in our room.