We love to cruise, and we've gotten my parents into it too, but one cruise that they had done and we had not was a Transatlantic one. We thought that would be a great way to get back to the U.S., and we would get to enjoy their company on the cruise, so after meeting up in London, we went down to Southhampton, boarded the Queen Mary 2, and sailed all the way to New York City.
It was still pretty warm when we got aboard the ship in Southhampton, so Elena hopped into her bathing suit and made good use of the ship's pool.
I'm glad that she did, because the pool wasn't open for most of the trip.
We weren't sure how a Transatlantic cruise would be, but we quickly found our preferred activities. They did have a kids club, and Elena tried it a couple times, but she decided she preferred to hang out with us, and so we settled into a routine. We started with family breakfast at an ocean view table.
Then the four of us went to a beginner's bridge lesson. It worked out well, because we made up our own table, and the lessons came with pre-sorted decks, so we could try out different configurations with support.
Right after bridge was progressive trivia. My parents would save us a seat in the lounge, so we would meet them and do our best to get the questions right. We usually did a pretty good job, but there were some real ringers in the audience, and the best we ever came in was second. We have decided this simply means that we have to sail again.
After trivia, we grabbed buffet lunch and sat at our favorite table between the two different buffet options.
Then, Jeff and the girls would go to water painting class. Vivian didn't stick with it through the whole cruise, but Jeff and Elena really enjoyed it.
The painting spot was right next to afternoon tea with live music, so, of course, that seemed like a natural next step.
We tried a couple of the lectures the first day and were not impressed. It was a bit disappointing, but we found plenty of other things to fill our time, and Jeff and I had a lovely wine and food pairing lunch one day.
We also spent plenty of time walking the decks and finding cozy places to read our books. Vivian especially liked the library, but I don't think we got a picture of it.
We finished the day with family dinner in the big dining room. We especially enjoyed the masquerade dress up night.
Pretty much each day at sea, the time changed by an hour, so it was a very civilized way to traverse time zones and return to the U.S. without jet lag. We would definitely do it again.
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