Over 13 years of Expats helping Expats SUMMARY OF MAY 4, 2014 MEETING A group of PCEC members took us on a cruise on Cunard s Queen Elizabeth, their newest luxury liner, through photos and memories. The Queen Elizabeth Roger Fox, Richard Smith, Roy Albiston, Richard Silverberg, Anne Smith, and Gary Hacker were the presenters. They were among a group of nine PCEC members who took a seven-day cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore via Viet Nam. This was actually just one leg of a much larger 122-day cruise. The Queen Elizabeth, the Cunard Line s newest luxury liner, came into service in 2010. The ship weighs 92,000 tonnes and is capable of carrying 2,092 passengers. The price of the seven-day cruise was less than $1,000 per person (based on double occupancy) for an outside cabin with a balcony. (Usual prices are two or three times as much.) Roger Fox is well known for looking for and finding good cruises at bargain prices. He periodically sends out information on these bargains by email; a number of PCEC members are on his mailing list. Roger explained that the Queen Elizabeth was built in Italy and assembled piece by piece, similar to Lego building blocks. It took eight months to build and six months to fit.
Roger said that everything on the ship was very traditional, from afternoon tea through to the Captain s crisp British accent. Other words that Roger used to describe the Queen Elizabeth was regal, proper, elegant and classical. The grand staircase and an example of the art on the Queen Elizabeth Roger said that he was not all that impressed by the way the Queen Elizabeth looked from the outside, but that when he went aboard and encountered a quartet playing Mozart, and then found champagne waiting in his lovely cabin well, by then he was enthralled. One of the outside cabins aboard the Queen Elizabeth
All of the presenters said they enjoyed the live music aboard the ship, which ranged from chamber music to jazz to rock and roll. Gary Hacker said that he was particularly taken by an octet a group of eight musicians from the ship s bands that joined together at the last minute to do two evenings of impromptu Dixieland music in the Commodore Club located on Deck 10 with a panoramic view looking forward. Roger added that the Commodore Club was usually a quiet place to sit, read, enjoy the view; but it seems the musicians from two of the bands decided to get together there to jam with a little Dixieland like Gary, he said he was also taken with this unexpected delight. The string quartet on the Queen Elizabeth There was plenty of art on the ship, all of it commissioned especially for the Queen Elisabeth. Roger added that there was great entertainment every night in the theatre.
The theatre on the Queen Elizabeth Roger said that the food, being British, was good but not great. Not all the presenters agreed;. Anne Smith thought it was just fine. Afternoon tea was a three-course affair, with sandwiches, cakes and scones. Passengers got their own jam jar, which Roger thought was a nice touch. Afternoon tea Roy Albiston mentioned that there was 24-hour room service, and that all the food was included in the price of the ticket. Richard Smith narrated some photos from the two stops the cruise made in Vietnam.
Halong Bay in Viet Nam Some of the presenters arrived early in Hong Kong so they could visit the city before boarding the cruise. Roy and Richard Silverberg presented some photos of Hong Kong along with narration. Presenter Gary Hacker at the Peak in Hong Kong Roy also showed some photos from Singapore where they got off the ship. Richard Silverberg mentioned that he and some of the others also availed themselves of the opportunity to visit a medical clinic to obtain the vaccine for shingles which he said he had not been able to get in Pattaya.
The Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore During the Question &Answer period, Roger answered about how to keep from gaining weight was that the method he uses is to take the stairs instead of the elevator, even if that means walking up seven flights. In response to availability of Wi-Fi Internet service, Roger said that it was available but costly at 70 cents US per minute and slower speed because it was via satellite connection. For more information on the Queen Elizabeth, visit http://www.cunard.com/cruise-ships/queenelizabeth/.