After the crossing

Hi all! Sorry I have been out of touch. It was difficult to get on line on board so here is a blog I wrote the day I departed the ship. My next trip is to the Mediterranean on Oct 14 so stay tuned!

Well it is Thurs Sept 11 and I am sitting in an unusually sunny and warm London. To be more exact, I am sitting about 30 minutes outside London in the home of my cousin Jim, his wife Mary and their 2 children, Kieran and Sophie. They are 7 and 2 respectively and I have never met either of them so I am anxiously waiting for them to return home from school. It is interesting now that my cousins are having children because my family is so large and just keeps growing!

I departed from the Queen Mary 2 yesterday in Southampton England. What an amazing week it was. The ship is simply unbelievable, so gorgeous and so elegant. It is a gigantic ship, so much so that it would take 30 minutes to walk to your room if you were on the opposite side of the ship! It is tastefully decorated with a bright and cheerful champagne bar, and authentic English Pub with fantastic fish and chips, the largest ballroom at sea and certainly the largest and liveliest nightclub I have seen yet on these trips. There is a very masculine cigar bar, a few piano and jazz bars, a great casino, the 2 story main dining room and an incredible restaurant, Todd English. For recreation, there is a Canyon Ranch fitness center and spa, a golf simulator, basketball, table tennis, acting lessons, dance lessons, pretty much you name it you can do it on board! I was worried about not having enough to shoot, but it was quite the opposite.

The passengers are certainly a bit older, but they are a lively group. Everyone was friendly for the most part, except fort the woman that kicked our camera (on purpose) on our first day! There were a lot of Europeans and we met some great folks.

We worked long hard days, walking untold miles each day around the ship. But we managed to have fun at night after wrapping. One night we hit the nightclub, G32, the name signifying the dock at which the ship was built. We danced until 4:30am! I haven’t danced that much in quite a while and it was sooo much fun. I laughed all night as we made complete fools of ourselves.

The difficult thing about this crossing that I was unaware of is this: each night you turn your clock ahead one hour. This makes perfect sense so that you don’t arrive in England and suddenly lose 5 hours. But it really takes it’s toll on you after a while. Every night we would wrap and think, oh it is only 1, I can get some sleep. Then you would return to your room to find a note reminding you to turn you clock ahead and you would think, damn! It is 2!

We had the opportunity to see the top of the line suites on the ship for shooting purposes. They are amazing. I thing they may be larger in sq footage then the home I own in South Philly! They are 2 story penthouses, complete with a kitchen, treadmill, huge private balcony, a personal butler, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries and I am sure many things we didn’t even hear about. If you can afford it, you should book on for the transatlantic crossing. They are only $35000 for the week!!!!

I like to learn something new on all my trips and this time, it was a very important lesson……I learned how to play craps! After all my visits to Vegas and AC I have always wanted to learn, but both of those places were a bit intimidating to me. But on board we met a lovely fellow named Ivan and he taught us how to play. We were betting only 5 dollars at a time but you would have thought we were winning millions the way we would yell and scream with each win. Now I can’t wait for my next AC night!

I was concerned with the idea of being at sea for 6 days but it really was an amazing trip. I would definitely do it again!

Well that’s all, Jim and Sophie just came home, so I must go chat! Hope you are all well.