The passengers on the Queen Mary 2 are mostly Australians with around 200 Americans, lots of Brits, a few New Zealanders, and a few other nationalities. The announcements, including the daily noon navigational report, are given first in English by the captain or the officer on duty, then translated into German, French, Spanish, and Japanese. There are very few children on the trip and not too many adults who look to be younger than 50. As we cruise westward on ...

The fourth full day on the ship was scheduled as a cruise-by of Easter Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We expected to be there from about 4 – 6 p.m. As it turned out, we arrived by 2:30 and went straight to the main village of Hanga Roa on the west coast to disembark a "seriously unwell" passenger. The captain announced fairly early in the morning that this passenger needed medical attention, and he picked up speed to over 28 knots to get to Easter Is...

The trip started with three days at sea. We spent our time going to lectures, port talks, and shows, exploring the ship, trying all the variety of dining venues, and getting in lots of walking and reading. My goal is walking 10,000 steps every day. Philip's goal must be to read every book he has loaded on his iPad. There will be eight formal nights on this cruise. The other nights are called "informal" and the dress code for them requires a jacket for men, but ...

Paula Kay booked a transfer from the hotel to the cruise ship terminal for us before we left home. It is about 120 kilometers from Santiago to Valparaiso on the coast. The driver was scheduled to start picking up passengers at 11:00 then drive to the port arriving within three hours. On the evening before we were to go, we received a note from Grayline, the tour company we used for all three trips in Santiago, that we would be picked up at 10:30. We were checked ...

Paula Kay arranged for us to have a driver pick us up for the transfer to the hotel. We found him quickly right where they said he would be. He spoke English, but didn't talk much on the ride to the hotel. The traffic was heavy but kept moving, and we got to the Grand Hyatt (also recommended by Paula Kay) in about 45 minutes. We were able to check in right away although it was only 11:00 in the morning. The food on the plane wasn’t the worst, but it was onl...