I’ve recently been on a transatlantic voyage from Southampton to New York on the world’s most beautiful ocean liner, the Queen Mary 2.

A Trip of a Lifetime

We left Southampton dock at around 5pm on 8th August in beautiful sunshine and headed down-river. That’s when the party started! The Captain announced a Champagne and cocktail ‘sailaway’ party on one of the stern decks, the best place to see the views as we moved slowly down Southampton Water towards the Isle of Wight.

What to Wear?

That’s a big question when you’re about to spend 7 days in luxury surroundings, being waited on hand and foot.

The baggage allowance on a ship is massively different from that for airline travel, so if you’re staying on the ship you can take as many changes of outfit as you like. Unfortunately, with a plane trip home from New York, my luggage was restricted to one (very full) suitcase and hand luggage.

The Queen Mary 2 has a strict dress code which is enforced after 6pm and there are ‘formal’ nights as well as ‘informal’ ones. So, if you don’t like putting on a posh frock, this isn’t the trip for you!

During the day, casual dress and poolside wear is fine. This was about the most casual outfit I took with me and of course I had a handbag for every outfit. This is the mini across body shoulder bag that I have in many colours!

Where In The World Am I?

Everyday at noon, the Captain sounds the ship’s whistle and makes an announcement about the weather and sea conditions as well as explaining which path we are on, how far we have travelled and the GPS co-ordinates of the ship at noon.

He explained on the first day, that we would be sailing past the last outcrop of the British Isles very early on day two and just as the sun was rising we woke to find that we could just about see the lighthouse at Bishop Rock, part of the Scilly Isles.

This picture was taken from our balcony with a zoom lens and fingers crossed!

Getting Away From it All

My favourite of the Captain’s announcements came on day 4 when he commenced his noon announcement with:

‘Ladies and Gentlemen, if you ever thought you’d like to get away from it all, I am happy to announce that you just did’.

He then went to to explain that we were over a thousand miles from the tip of Greenland, over a thousand miles from the Azores and over a thousand miles from St Johns on the coast of Newfoundland.

The middle of nowhere at sunset.

Thanks for reading 🙂

PS: How do you get away from it all?