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Queen Mary 2 |
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| January 6th, 2007, found my mother Carolyn, my sister Karla, my husband Jason and I in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for the beginning of our cruise on Queen Mary 2. A Caribbean round trip from Ft. Lauderdale to St. Thomas and back. It was the first time my mom was to sail aboard a Cunard Queen and she was very excited. On our flight early in the morning the day before I snapped the following photo as we flew high over Long Beach. |
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Carnival's Paradise in the port of Long Beach with Her Ladyship Queen Mary (1) |
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The trip started out a little hard in that we had an early morning flight and then ended up waiting two hours for our luggage at the Hollywood/Ft.Lauderdale Airport. Thankfully we were spending the night at a hotel nearby and had some time to recover before boarding the ship. The part of Ft. Lauderdale that we stayed in wasn't unsafe but it was a little grungy. It was five miles from both the airport and the port, which was why I chose it, but next time I think I would choose one of the beach front hotels.
The ship parade that followed our bumpy bus ride from the hotel and the extra long two hour wait in the terminal was well worth it however. Regal Empress, Zuiderdam, Sea Princess (II), Island Adventure, Enchantment of the Seas, Star Princess (II), Carnival Liberty, Seabourn Pride & Radiance of the Seas were all in port that day as well as our Queen. |
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HAL's Zuiderdam at Ft. Lauderdale with typically Floridian palm trees as set decoration |
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We arrived and found our staterooms. We had two Deck 6 hull hole balconies side by side almost all the way aft. There were three things which proved negative about this placement. The walk to any stairway/elevators was very long. The wind sometimes blew smoke from the stack perilously close to our balconies. Also vibration of the ships motors (which had not been apparent on my more midships room the last time I was aboard) was a little distracting to sleep through.
The next order of business once we had located our little homes, was to take a walk around the outside of the ship. |
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Page 2 |
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(C) Copyright Amy Blume 6th-10th January & 28th May 2007
Not to be reproduced without permission |
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