Atlantic Crossing in November

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To cross the Atlantic we had to first get back to NYC, Brooklyn Borough, where we would board the Queen Mary 2. With the van safely at Roger’s brother’s we decided to take the train back to NYC. We knew that it was scheduled to take about 12 hours, a bit surprising, since it had taken les than 8 hours to drive from NYC to St. Catharines, Ontario. Roger should have remembered that there was a railway near his home town – the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo – the TH&B – aptly and lovingly nicknamed the “To Hell & Back”. That was our Amtrak experience.

We had been informed when booking and paying for our tickets that we would pick them up on the train from the conductor. Luckily, Roger’s sister-in-law, was working that day so she drove us to the St. Catharines train station about 45 minutes prior to the departure time. After about 15 minutes Roger thought, “why don’t I just check on these tickets at the wicket?” The agent phoned the train conductor – “no I don’t have any prepaid tickets on board”. The agent called Amtrak ticketing and they checked in the computer that we had indeed booked 1st class tickets to NYC Penn Station. But they also said that although they had our credit card on file they had not processed the payment and therefore the tickets could not be issued. The S. Catharines agent sold us two 2nd class tickets to Niagara Falls NY where we would be stopping for 1½ hours so that US border agents and customs could process the train. So that explained 1½ hours of time that would be lost by taking the train.

Once customs had cleared the train, apparently after many cups of coffee since the train was only about 1/3rd full I finally found the conductor to be allowed off the train and escorted to the ticket office with minutes before the train is due to leave. “Oh no,” says the agent “we don’t have any 1st class reservation for you and you can’t have one because it is fully booked, but you owe me $210 US for two 2nd class tickets.” Following a lot of forceful discussion Roger convinced the agent that the price was unreasonable given that we had already had to pay for part of the trip in St. Catharines and that they had messed up our reservations. $140 US was the eventual price, and jogging back to the train Roger re-boarded just in time. The rest of the trip was “fun” – tracks that need regrinding and new roadbeds resulting in a lot of swaying and bumping; filthy toilets and staff that was unprepared to clean them; terrible but expensive food and drinks. At Albany, the capital of NY state we were told there was a ½ hour break to change crews. After 29½ minutes someone decided that they would change the engine so that produced a further delay.

Eventually we arrived at Penn Station almost 1 hour late and found our way on the subway back to Robert’s loft over Galapagos.

Saturday we relaxed and did our final packing, walked around Bedford Avenue and spent time in Jayla.

Knowing that the New York Marathon would totally close Bedford Avenue for 3 hours on either side of the time we were supposed to board the QM2 on Sunday 5 Nov., we had called a local limo service on the preceding Tuesday to confirm that they would be able to pick us up and get us to the docks on time. Even after reminding the limo service that there was a marathon that would close Bedford Ave. they assured us there would be no problem. Ever-cautious Roger called them again on Saturday night to confirm all this and to book a limo for 1130. “No problem mistah, we know all about the marathon.”

Next morning at 1150, having waited in vain on the sidewalk with our large collection of luggage, we waited on hold on their phone for another 20 minutes to have them tell us that couldn’t get across Bedford Ave. “Duh!!!! WE told you that on two separate occasions.” Call another limo service used frequently by Galapagos. “No problem, we’ll be there in 5 minutes.” TWENTY MINUTES LATER, we call again. “Well we can’t get across Bedford.” “Duh!!! We just told you about the marathon when we called.” Last option we get ourselves and our 7 bags 2 blocks up to Bedford, 1 block to another limo service and 2 blocks beyond Bedford to where the limos are parked in the street because of the Marathon. “Ah, at last we can relax.” Not quite – the driver doesn’t know where the QM 2 docks, or where Pier 12, Brooklyn is. Enough of this comedy!!! The morale of the story – avoid marathons and don’t believe limo dispatchers.

We do eventually arrive at Pier 12, which is actually a large and modern facility, and are quickly and graciously processed through boarding and find our cabin. It is not huge, but with a king-size bed, large shower and washroom, a decent-sized covered balcony, TV, stereo and lots of storage we know that we are going to be comfortable.













At sunset the QM 2 slips and proceeds past the Statue of Liberty, although at one point it looks like another passenger is stealing it to return it to France. Wouldn’t that be “un scandal” for George Bush?















Following a delicious supper and a great sleep we explore the ship. She is HUGE! And we will be discovering new things every day of the crossing.


Anyone for swimming on the North Atlantic in November?
Here are two pools and 4 hot tubs to choose from.

But it doesn’t look Marie-Claire will be getting in her bathing suit in the next few days.






Nor will any of these passengers even though we are in brilliant sunshine. In the end we only saw two passengers in the water - and they were in a hot tub.









The interior is understated luxury, very tastefully decorated, extremely clean and no signs of the tackiness that a lot of cruise ships display in their outfitting.

















Marie-Claire's favourite was the Champagne Bar - an entire bar devoted to the elixir of life.






There are a thousand and one different activities that occupy one’s time – you can spend every day in the well-stocked library reading beside a starboard window or if you are early enough looking out forward facing windows about 70 feet aft (back) of the bow (the front of the ship).

Eventually we settle into a rhythm of a workout in the gym or a 1 mile walk (3 times around the upper deck); 3 meals a day; 2-3 hours of reading; a film in the cinema (that also converts into a planetarium each day for astronomical shows related to the Atlantic), attending the Oxford University lecture series on the Atlantic World (historian and Oxford Professor Emeritus Jeremy Black); The Battle of Britain (Joshua Levine – Imperial War Museum); and the Oceans; the Last Frontier (Professor Simms from Woods Hole Ocean Institute); the large theatre live show each evening featuring Broadway stars and European performers – in all the ship has at least 45 musicians (instrumentalists) engaged in live performances day and evening in various locations. There is also an Oxford lecture series on Faustus in literature which was apparently highly entertaining. But our days and evenings were already fully. By the end of each evening, having set our clocks ahead one hour to account for the 5 time zones we cross, we are happy to be lulled to sleep.

As we said the QM 2 is huge, and with her 3 stabilizers per side and her incredible length and waterline there is only about a 24 hour period of a strong gale with winds to 55 knots that we have any sense, when inside, of being on a ship. She is so stable that the number of people appearing for meals never seems to vary (unlike Roger’s 1957 two-way crossing of the Atlantic in Canadian Pacific steamships when he was frequently joined by as few 20 other passengers in the 2nd class dining-room), and Marie-Claire has no need of the motion sickness tablets she had purchased as a precaution.

All too soon it is the last evening and we will arrive in a very tight berth without the help of tugs at 0800 on Saturday 11 Nov. Why and how does such a huge ship do this? There is a tremendous ongoing savings in the cost of tugs and greater flexibility of ports is achieved. It is accomplished by having 3 bow thrusters generating total of 15,000 horsepower to push the bow to either port or starboard. That looks after the bow. The ship is diesel electric which means that its diesel engines generate electricity that in turn drives electric motors. This means there is no need for a long shaft running from an engine to a fixed propeller. Instead the QM 2 has 4 pods suspended under the hull, each with its own extremely powerful electric motor. Two are a bit forward and toward the sides of the hull. These two are fixed and can move the ship ahead or astern. The other two can be turned 90 degrees to either side so they can act as stern thrusters pushing the stern to either side. In addition she has a Dynamic Positioning System (DPS) that allows the Master to move the ship in one meter increments in any direction by instructing the computer to move her to a specific latitude and longitude, assisted by the ship’s Global Positioning System (GPS). OK, we know that all sound a little technical, but at least everyone has heard of GPS – and if it is not in your car, or your pocket it will be in a few years. Having two pods that can change direction allows the ship’s autopilot to steer her without any rudders. So she is rudderless, something unheard of not too many years ago.

Having already been cleared through UK customs during the crossings the disembarkation is a simple matter of waiting until your colour and number are called and boarding the appropriate bus, limo, or bicycle … in our case a comfortable motor coach that takes us to London’s Waterloo Station to board the Eurostar train for Brussels. Amtrak is to Eurostar as night is to day; as a winter blizzard is to a warm tropical island with balmy breezes; as washing and hanging clothes by hand in the middle of winter is to … but you get the picture. Included in our ticket price we have champagne, wine, hard liquor if we choose, an excellent supper and speeds of 150 km in the 20 minutes ride in the Chunnel under the English Channel and 250-300 km for the rest of the 2 hour and 22 minute trip that arrives on time and covers more or less the same distance as our 12 hour trip on Amtrak’s “To Hell and Back”. We booked our tickets on-line from the middle of the Atlantic, picked them up by inserting in a ticket dispenser the credit card we used to book them, and proceeded to the platform with our huge pile of luggage in a hand cart.

It was wonderful and the attendants were so gracious and helpful that one of them even carried one of our bags when we couldn’t find a cart in Brussels. Marie-Claire’s elder sister, Christiane, met us at the Brussels Midi station, with tickets already in hand for our short trip to Waterloo – the real one where Napoleon met his Waterloo. We will be staying in and around Waterloo and with Marie-Claire’s younger sister Jeannine and her husband Edouard in nearby Lasne. Every day when we go to Waterloo we pass the various battlefields so we will be exposed to a lot of world-level history as we search for our next moving home.