Monday May 6, 2024 – La Coruña to Lisbon
A relatively quiet day at sea today. We were up early as Anne wanted to go to the Zumba Gold (for seniors) class. I watched as she really got into the rhythm of things with Neil the entertainment director leading the class. She was brilliant and put the rest to shame. From there to the Maritime Historian Chris Frame, who spoke of the history of the various competing liners crossing the Atlantic and the effect of the World Wars, depression etc had on the industry as a whole. After the French government helped finance the Normandie, which was the supreme transatlantic vessel, the two UK companies, bitter rivals, Cunard and White Star, asked for help from the British Government. They agreed as long as the two merged into one company: The Cunard White Star Company. As Cunard was stronger financially and owned 60% of the new company, that name prevailed. Cunard had asked for help funding two ships so one could leave NY and the other the UK at the same time and cross in mid Atlantic, so every 7 days there was a sailing from each side of the Atlantic. Thus the construction of the Queen Mary (which was to be called the Queen Victoria, but when the CEO of Cunard went to see the monarch asking permission to name the ship after the greatest Queen, he agreed that it should be named after his wife) and the Queen Elizabeth. The jet age where in 7 hours you could cross the Atlantic as opposed to 7 days, basically killed the transatlantic shipping buisness. The Queen Mary was sold and is still in California, as a hotel although it has had its ups and downs. The Queen Elizabeth, on which I crossed the Atlantic with my parents in 1959, was to be a luxury hotel in Hong Kong, but just as it was about to open, a major fire destroyed it and it went into oblivion. It was replaced by the Queen Elizabeth 2 – QE2, which had a long cruising career and is now a hotel in Dubai. The Queen Mary 2 is still doing transatlantic crossings and is the only Ocean Liner still in service. Today, including this, Queen Anne and its two other sister ships – Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, are built as cruise ships, having the ability to carry more passengers in less space.
Next was Neil, doing his usual excellent job of interviewing the amusing and brilliant sports caster – Claire Balding. She spoke of her joy in covering the 2012 Olympics in London and particularly the Para-Olympics in London.
The Captain’s noon watch comments indicated that we had travelled some 204 nautical miles from La Coruña and had 185 nautical miles to go to Lisbon at an average speed of 10.7 nautical miles/hour.
In the afternoon we both had zoom meetings – the internet is outstanding in the cabin and throughout the ship, allowing for zoom calls and other communication with no issues at all. A very big improvement. Also, instead of counting the minutes to log on and off as each minute was charged, internet is on all the time and for a reasonable cost, you can have unlimited use.
At 5:15 the Captain and crew invited us to a cocktail party around the pool area that has a retractable roof. As was usual, the guests with the most number of days on a Cunard Ship were honored. The winner was a lady who had a total of 1800+ days or about 5 years on Cunard ships! We have a long way to go to get to those levels!!
At dinner we were treated by a new waiter so we asked what had happened to the original lady from South Africa. We were told she was moved to an easier area as she nearly had a breakdown after the first night. We wandered over to see her afterwards, gave her a hug and told her she was terrific, which brought a big smile.
The evening entertainment was either Mike Doyle, the comedian, in the Queen’s Room or the Tenor, Russell Watson, in the Theatre, so we went to the Theatre. However as there was another Captain’s cocktail party going on, with Champagne, there were at most 100 people in the audience. However, he gave a great performance. Tomorrow we arrive in Lisbon, a really charming city, which we both greatly enjoy.
Roger & Anne Travels 