WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT QUEEN MARY 2 AND QUEEN ANNE?

You think the current Royal Family has problems?  Well, British history shows a lot worse.  

Let me start with three King Charles.

• 

  Charles I was born in 1600 and king from 1625 to 1649...when he was executed.  The monarchy was also abolished.
• His son Charles II was born in 1630, became king of Scotland in 1649, then when the monarchy was restored, became king of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1660.  Reigned until 1685.
• Of course Charles III is now the King,

I now jump to Queen Mary II, because the ship I'm on is named after her.

• Was born in 1662 as the niece of King Charles II.
• The eldest daughter, a younger sister Anne, was born in 1665.  Both became queens.
• Mary 2 at the age of 15 married her cousin William of Orange in 1677.
• They jointly became King and Queen of Great Britain in 1689.
• Mary 2 endowed the formation of William and Mary College in Virginia.
• But she died of smallpox at the age of 32, and William III ruled until 1702.

Next Anne.

• She married Prince George of Denmark, her second cousin, in 1683.
• When William III passed away, she became Queen of Great Britain in 1702, then when kingdoms merged, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1707.
• Although she was always in poor health, she had 17 pregnancies, but all her children died relatively young.

• 
  The movie The Favourite, is about Anne's life, starring Olivia Colman, who won an Oscar for Best Actress.  Rotten Tomatoes gave it 93/70 ratings.
• Anne passed away at the age of 49 in 1714.  
• The successor George I was not her husband George.

The line of Georges is fascinating.

• George I was born in 1660 and ruled from 1714 to 1727.
• He married his cousin Sophia Dorothea in 1682, and they had two children, although they later divorced.  

• 
  Son George II went on to replace his father, and ruled from 1727 to 1760, a period of 33 years.
• George III was born in 1738 when his paternal grandfather, King George II ruled.
• He spoke English as his first language, unlike George I and II.

• 
  Married Princess Charlotte and had 15 children.
• When George II died, III became king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820, a period of 60 years.
• While he lost the American colonies, he did defeat Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.
• In 1807  banned slavery in the British Empire.
• Suffered from bipolar disorder from around 1810.
• 
  There is a film, The Madness of King George, about him, played by Nigel Hawthorne, with Helen Mirren as Queen Charlotte.
• Died in 1820 at the age of 81 and was replaced by his son, George IV.
• George IV ruled for a decade to 1830, but his regime was tarnished by scandal and financial extravagance.  Passed away in 1830, and was replaced his brother, William IV.

As confusing as all the above might be, it is interesting that the newest Cunard ship, the MS Queen Anne, is named after this queen.

The MS Queen Anne:

• Maiden voyage departs Southampton on 3May2024, or, in a couple of days.
• This ship will make a world voyage from Hamburg, Germany on 7January2025.
• We will be in this area after our Christmas cruise, so we looked into the possibility of catching it and dropping off in Honolulu.
• However, you can only book segments, so we would need to disembark in San Francisco.

We are on the RMS Queen Mary II.  

• Why RMS?  Stands for Royal Motor Ship because it will remain as the flagship of the Cunard liners.
• Want to see the RMS Queen Mary 2 in a film?  Watch Let Them All Talk, with Meryl Streep, Candice Bergen and Diane Wiest.  Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it 87%, but audiences only 49%.

One final ship, the MS Queen Mary:

• Sailed from 1936 to 1967, although was a troopshipduring World War II, and on one voyage, carried 16,600 troops, still the record for most people on a vessel.
• Was bought by the city of Long Beach to serve as a tourist extraction.
• Colorful history there, for there were various failures involving linkage with Disney, the Spruce Goose and other ventures.
• Disney spent a lot, but eventually first opened DisneySea Tokyo in 2001,
• The Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose is now in Oregon,
• Looks like this venture has turned a corner, and the Queen Mary is slowly becoming a successful hotel, restaurant and entertainment site.

Walked 2022 steps, because it takes so long to get from one point to another.  Tomorrow, more on what is happening on the RMS Queen Mary 2.

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WE ARE ON THE QUEEN MARY 2 CRUISING TO NEW YORK CITY

 The view from our Moxy Hotel room towards the port.  But that does not look like the Queen Mary 2.

Taxi to the Queen Mary 2.

Checking into any cruise ship is a slow and sometimes painful experience.  This one was no different.  We had been traveling for nearly 6 weeks, so we missed getting an important document that others had.  Took us a bit longer, then, to get through the system, only to find another line.  We were sent to an area with six elevators, but 5 were being used to bring luggage to the rooms.  Waited and waited and finally got to our floor.  However, my suitcase was not there.  This same thing happened on our Tauck Tulip cruise.  My baggage went to another room, and I did not get it until 8PM after I had given up hope.  Some canapés provided by Costco (we worked through them to get this cruise paid) and champagne, provided by the ship.

Not much of a view from our veranda.

Still no suitcase, so went to dinner.

Cocktails befor dinner.  

Then the ship departed.  Last view of land for a week.

We have assigned seats in the Britannia Restaurant.

Wine list.

Had the Cunard white and red.  Salad and asparagus soup.  Then Steak Diane with truffles risotto.

Skipped dessert, but had some Petit Fours.

Went back to our room and at 8PM I finally saw my suitcase at the door.  What a relief.  Walked 5727 steps.

This was a mentally stressful day.  Tomorrow?  Return for details.

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WE BOARD THE QUEEN MARY II TODAY

We spent some time at the Westquay Shopping Centre located across the street, and had lunner at, again, Wagamama.  We ate at one of these restaurants when we were in Copenhagen after visiting Tivoli Gardens.  Had an excellent pork ramen there with beer.

What we experienced at Westquay was amazing.  We thought Southampton was just a dull port town with maybe a stoplight.  Not so.

• Has a population of more than a quarter million, and is famous more than anything else as the departure point for several fatal ships.

• 
  In 1620 the Mayflower carried 120, Pilgrims to America, making anchor near Cape Cord, Massachusetts.  Many died on the way, and only 50 survived the first winter.

• 
  Of course, the other that left here was the RMS Titanic in 1912 on a maiden voyage to New York, something we also will do soon, but hope to succeed.  That's an actual photo of the ship leaving Southampton.  Around 550 of the 2224 passengers and crew died, the deadliest sinking of any ship in history.  500 on board were from Southampton.

• 
  This was a major embarkation point for D-Day in 1944.  While the casualties are a mere guess, more than 4400 Allied forces passed away.
• Became a spa town in 1740.  Not much of beaches, but geothermal fluids were found.  There is today a geothermal electricity production of 2 MW  plus heat, the only geo-energy produced in the UK.

So back to our walk, I've never seen a shopping center with so many people eating at the same time.  A few photos.

We saw way up at the top a Wagamama.

So we went up and had to stand in line.  Huge restaurant going all the way to the back.  Took a photo from where I was standing in line.

Pork Belly Ramen.

We board the Queen Mary II in an hour.

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WE ARE AT SOUTHAMPTON, UK

Yesterday was probably my most difficult day on this trip.  Nothing went truly wrong, but very few things went well.  A stressful and physically trying series of experiences, from Piraeus, Greece to Heathrow Airport in England, then a bus ride to Southampton, ending with a long, wet, bumpy, dangerous walk to our hotel, the Moxy.

So to begin, goodbye Regent Seven Seas Voyager in Piraeus.

My Blue-bar pigeon said have nice flight.

Nice buildings along the way.  But traffic was slow, very much so.

A street scene.

It was an excruciatingly long ride.  We were supposed to leave the ship at 8:35AM, but delays made this departure time closer to 10AM.  We did not get to the airport until after 11:30, and by the time got to the Aegean Air lounge, it was only half an hour to boarding.  That's why my posting was so late yesterday.  There was no time to get connected.  We had almost nothing in the lounge.

Our Aegean Air plane.

Salad, etc., with John Walker.

Added Ouzo with the chicken.

Then the big decision.  How to get from Heathrow to Southampton, a distance of 62 miles.  If you decided to spend a night or two in London first, you need to get there, which is 16 miles away.  Then to catch the Queen Mary II, you would need to travel 80 miles to Southampton.

So we decided to go directly to Southampton.  Big dilemma.  Cost and difficulty.

• A taxi can cost $180, but only if booked ahead of time.  Catching a cab from the airport could exceed $200.
• A train is out of the question because of baggage.
• So it seemed obvious to take the bus, for this would only cost $25/person.  That is my seat to the left.  I had an exciting view of the ride.  Note the TV screen, which showed passengers.

• Turns out that we probably paid more like $35/person because of the extra baggages, plus a handling fee because we did not buy the tickets at the bus station.
• My advice, if you decide to try the bus, do not buy your ticket after you just leave the baggage area.  Find your way to the bus station and get the ticket there.   A small bit of a pain, for you need to catch a couple of elevators.  Also, if you do not land in terminals 2 or 3, you need to first catch a free train, with all your baggage, to terminal 2.
• Finally, the bus to Southampton has funny hours.  We landed at 3:30PM, and the next bus was at 5:50PM.  If we had missed that, it would have been at 8:30PM.  They say the bus ride can be more than two hour long, but with no stops, it should be closer to an hour because Southampton is only 62 miles away, and the highway system is excellent.
• Our ride was not so simple, for our bus was half an hour late, and the number we had, 203, was for Southampton, but the bus said 203 Portsmouth.  Luckily we asked around and were told, forget the name on your ticket.  The number is more important.  So this bus first had to stop by terminals 4, then terminal 5, to take on other passengers.  That alone took almost half an hour because the road was clogged.  Then on the way south, first stopped twice before getting to Southampton, each taking more time.
• All in all, it wasn't bad, but we got to our destination at 8:30PM so.
• 
  But that is where all got worse.
• We asked how do we catch a cab to the Moxy.  The general advice was taxis are hard to get, but luckily, your hotel is only a few minutes walk down that street.
• It was dark, cold and starting to rain.  We had no choice, so off we went rolling our heavy suitcases sort of uphill.  
• The roads are all curvy and you can't see cars speeding toward you, and they drive on the wrong side of the road here.
• Worse, there was no smooth walkway.  They were all cobblestone
• We also had no idea where our hotel really was.
• After around a quarter mile or so we finally asked a family if they happen to know where the Moxy hotel was.  They lived here, but the parents had no idea.  Thankfully, their 12-year old son said it is up that road toward the green light, which was several hundred yards further uphill.  Then they looked at their phone and pinpointed the spot.  Still a little worrisome, for the Moxy opened five years ago, and why did the elders not know.
• Off we rolled, with difficulty.  I'm not physically fit to be doing this.  We saw no taxi through the entire ordeal.
• 
  After we passed the green light, we looked around, and could not see anything that looked like the Moxy.  But we had no other choice and walked further, until we magically saw this pink sign, which looked more like it was for a restaurant.
• I would say we had walked half a mile in the drizzle, freezing.

• 
  My biggest lesson learned, although I had earlier come this conclusion anyway, was that ALWAYS take the expensive option of the cruise line picking you up at the airport, take you to their designated hotel, and the next day to the ship.  This doubles the cost, but it's all worth it.
• 
  The Moxy is a story in itself. 
• There is no staff to help you with luggage.
• You check in at the bar cashier.
• The large bar did also serve food, so we came down for dinner at 9:30PM, as the food part closed at 10PM.
• There must have been 20 people eating and drinking.
• Strange service.  They do not serve you.  You go the bar and order food and drinks, then pick them up there yourself to take to your table.  The staff there does nothing to help you, although they are cordial and helpful.
• We had whiskey, beer, Shanghai Noodles and pizza.  Drinks were not expensive at all, plus ours were free, and we have two more tomorrow night.
• At the end, you don't have to, but seem obligated to carry your tray back to a receptacle.
• We also will have a free breakfast, but only because when we checked in we played a game to spin a wheel, and got breakfast, for two mornings.
• The Moxy is a Marriott, but minimal.  
• Certainly no executive club.
• Sort of like the Fairfield we stayed at in Sapporo last year.
• The lobby is a bar.
• The rooms are small.
• There is no clothes closet.  The one in the Regent Voyager was half the size of our Moxy room. 
• The bed is a double.  All the beds we've had so far on this trip had king size beds.
• The Moxy allows pets.  In fact their ads suggest they sleep in your bed.
• When we checked ours, I saw cookie crumbs, so clearly, the sheets had not be changed from the previous guest, and who knows how many times.
• This will be our final Moxy, ever.
• However, I need to insist you click on this video for another point of view.  This shows almost exactly our room from another couple.  They loved their stay here.  And they are right.  The price to stay here is attractive.

Walked 8078 steps today, at least half from the bus station to our hotel.

The following morning I took this photo to show how close we are to the cruise port.

Breakfast was okay, about the same as all European hotels.  At least it was free.

Well, we have nothing to do today and will walk around our hotel.  Tomorrow we board the Queen Mary II to New York.

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