Cunard sails and stumbles

The great liner Queen Mary 2 has just been, according to Cunard, “remastered.” She was in dry dock in Germany for three weeks for an upgrade to many of her systems and appointments.

Alas, she sailed form Hamburg before the job was completed. I write this in a stiflingly hot show room – the planetarium actually -- waiting for a talk on the great Atlantic liners. To get here I took a chance on the elevators; at least half of them announce their arrival with a bell but the up and down arrows remain dark -- you take your chance on which direction it might go. The first night we went to sleep without benefit of the daily program for the next day. On fully functioning ships it is delivered to your cabin whilst you are at dinner. Not on QM2, not on day one anyway.

Worst of all though was the over two-hour wait to board the ship. Officials would only say there was a problem -- ya think? -- but not confess what it was. Then, an hour into our wait they announced there was a new problem: the computers had crashed.

Unacceptable.

Especially unacceptable because this is NOT the first time I’ve had exactly this problem with Cunard. An embarkation in New York was stalled by down computers. Is it too much to ask that Cunard, the most famous line in the world, hire some crack technology people?

On the plus side, the liner talk just concluded was excellent. Bill Morris, known as Mr. Ocean Liner, delivered a rapid tour through the history of these marvelous ships, accompanied by dozens of evocative photos. A delightful 50 minutes. Right after was a real learning experience, a lecture on flight by Chief Engineer Ian Smith of the supersonic Concorde.

Dinner the first night was good and our table mates were perfectly acceptable. So the voyage gets mixed reviews at this point, but I am optimistic – yes, me, optimistic – that it will only get better.

Addendum: I haven’t managed to get online yet, so a few more notes a day later; our dinner companions are better than acceptable; we had lots of fun with Collin and Dina last night. The elevators continue to misfire but the light that was dark in our cabin for two days was finally fixed. Perhaps most odd, bathrobes were delivered to us last night. When there were none as we sailed I assumed it was a Cunard cutback. But then, at the end of the second day, they appeared.

An oversight? A broken laundry? Who knows. Cunard keeps its own counsel.

What I remember as the best thing about the ship is still the best thing about the ship: she’s sleek and dignified and crosses the ocean with style. Never gaudy, never boisterous. A civilized  way to get from the UK to the US. And a real bonus: live classical music. Just heard Sam Piha give a lovely classical guitar concert. Yay.