Tuesday was the roughest day on the water that we've had and the first time for me to take some Dramamine. It wasn’t terrible, but enough to notice, for certain. The ship pitched and rolled for most of the morning and the captain slowed down from an average of 21 knots to about 17 knots. We had rough sea and near gale force winds. I did much of my walking in the suite yesterday. It was too windy outside to be pleasant, and the forward decks were closed for ...

We lose March 2nd by crossing the international dateline at 4:02 p.m. on March 1st. The captain announced the upcoming time during his daily announcement, but there was no fanfare at the time we crossed. We did find a certificate to commemorate the crossing in the suite after the evening turndown service. During the noon navigational report today, the captain said we have 10,094 meters under the keel. That is the deepest water we have been through. During the d...

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 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 ...