fire boat and down town New York

That evening we went to the Britannia restaurant to have dinner and met our waiter for the six days on the ship, Basil. The next day me and my cousins went up on deck and tried playing shuffleboard, at first weren’t that good but by the end of the trip we had gotten much better. Also the that evening we went to the first of three performances by John Cleese who was on of the main people on Monty Python and usually would talk about his experiences and show us some of his work in the royal court theater on board. That night at dinner was one of the tree formal nights at dinner and also during dinner I tried frog legs for the first time as an appetizer. On the Qm2 they have so many places to eat, the Britannia restaurant and the kings court (the 24 hour buffet) are both free and you can eat there as much as you want. Along with those are the Queens grill, the princess grill, the Todd English, the G32 night club, and the commodore club.

Britannia restaurant

On the third day of our Trans-Atlantic crossing we went to the first of our two planetarium shows in illuminations which is the only planetarium at sea. Along with shows it also transforms into a movie theater. Besides the theaters, the restaurants, and the entertainment, my favorite thing to do was go out on deck where you could enjoy the sea air and breeze. Also on deck you could play sports like shuffle board, basketball, paddle tennis and a driving range. Along with sports to play you could also swim in one of the four pools around the ship, or soak in one of the hot tubs that surrounds the pools (or if you are over 18 you can go to the 5th pool in the spa).

Aft decks of the ship.

My final part of the voyage I will discuss is the ship it’s self. The Queen Mary 2 along with the other ships built by Cunard (for more information go to www.cunard.com) in the past is an ocean liner, which I learned is different from a cruise ship because it is literally built to cross rough ocean waters without rocking. along with being extremely stable the ship has a much thicker hull than most cruise ships. As you know by now the Queen Mary 2 is a very large ship and is now the 6th largest passenger vessel in the world, when it was built in 2004 it was still the largest.

View from forward to aft.

Six days after our departure from New York we finally arrived in England.

Ever been on a cruise?  They’re so much fun…swimming on deck, all the great food available all the time, all while traveling to an exciting destination. Norwegian Cruise Line is about to debut its Norwegian Epic, which has a water park with the only tube slide and largest bowl slide at sea – The Epic Plunge.  It has a whopping 14 restaurants to choose from – the most on any cruise ship.  It also has a 33-foot high, 64-foot wide extreme rock climbing wall and the first ever rappelling wall at sea (that means you get to jump off of it!). Also, there are three separate teen areas, two bowling alleys and a sports deck that allows for eight different athletic activities.

This summer, Norwegian Cruise Line is offering a special deal for families. All kids and teens 17 years old and younger can cruise for only $99 on select 2010 trips for new reservations made now through May 31, 2010. Kids/teens must sail in a stateroom as third through eighth guests. Kids 2-17 years old will receive a complimentary soda package, which includes unlimited sodas throughout the trip!  Good luck to your parents. For more information on Norwegian, visit www.ncl.com. Happy sailing!