Planes, Trains, Cities, Ships!!!: Notes On The Mary

All is calm today on the North Atlantic. A different story yesterday, by the afternoon the winds had grown to 45 knots from the west, with 25 foot swells The ship slowed to 15 knots, today we are doing 22 knots to get us into New York on time at 6:30 on Sunday morning, now just two days and 900 miles away. Life has been good on the ship. During the last four stormy days I've spent a fair bit of time in the library, which is forward on deck eight and is a beautiful wood paneled room with glass fronted shelves holding 9000 books. It overlooks the bow, it's been great fun sitting there, watching the ship climb the swells and then slam into the troughs, with a great shudder, sea spray flying. Last night I got hooked up with some Irish guys, we closed the disco, then ended up in my cabin to drink the free bottle of bubbly that every guest gets on boarding. Got to bed at 4:30 and slept till noon, living the life of Riley! Today they have finally opened the outdoor promenade deck that goes all the way around deck 7, three times around equals a mile. It's cold, windy, but sunny and lots of people are out getting fresh air, taking a stroll. I think cabin fever had just about set in. I love that the deck is real teak wood. as are all the outdoor decks on the Mary. In fact I love just about everything about this ship. She's a real classic transatlantic liner, built for the 21st century, just now entering her 10th year, with a projected service life of 40 to 50 years, I guess that about makes her a young adult in ship years. It really is some kind of miracle that she exists at all, no one ever thought that a successor to the QE2 would have been built, and it would not have happened had Carnival not purchased Cunard Line in the 90's. It's CEO, Micky Arrison, had the drive, the vision, the money, and the right naval architect, Steven Payne, to get the job done, and they did it right. It's so cool that there is still scheduled transatlantic service, which Cunard started in 1840 and has been doing continually since, interrupted only by WW2 when it's great liners, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were made troop ships, ferrying US soldiers, 16,000 per trip, to Great Britain, including my dad, Morris, over on Mary and back at the end of the war on Elizabeth. When he was 93, in 2007, we went on QE2 from Southampton to Alexandria, Egypt. He was fond of telling people this was his third queen, in fact Cunard gave us a past passenger discount due to his wartime travel on the Queens.

There's a great diversity of passenger on board. The ship is doing 12 nights in the Caribbean after leaving NYC Sunday evening, then returning to Southampton, so there are quite a few Brits doing that. There are also quite a few who are coming over to spend Christmas in the States with family, then returning home on the Mary's January 3 eastbound. There is also quite a few who are spending one night in New York, then boarding the Norwegian Gem for a seven night cruise to the Caribbean, then two nights in NYC and returning on the Mary. There are Americans on board who have been staying with family in Britain. As usual there are folks on board who simply refuse to fly. There is a man from Transylvania going to spend Christmas in Toronto, an Irish family going to spend Christmas in Kentucky, and an Irish musician who is, with his wife and baby daughter, emigrating to America. No steerage aboard this vessel, but it's the traditional way for the Irish to reach the States. It makes for interesting conversation. Really there's never a dull moment, if you are outgoing and friendly, which most people are.