Voyage - Day 3 – Wednesday 9 July – A chance to have our say

At breakfast there's a British couple who've lived in Bermuda for over 20 years – he works for Coca Cola. However, many years ago the man used to be an engineer on Cunard ships. He tells us of an occasion when, because of the port they were in, it was necessary for the passengers of the cruise ship to be ferried ashore in smaller boats. He suddenly noticed that one of the boats, full of passengers, was rather deep in the water – and realised it was slowly sinking! He quickly lifted a hatch to discover that someone had forgotten to put the drain plugs in the boat.

“What did you do?” I ask.

“I calmly whispered to the officer in charge that he needed to ask the passengers to get out of the boat. He asked me why, and I told him. The officer then simply told the passengers that there was a difficulty with this particular boat and that they would need to transfer to another one. Luckily they all got out before they realised it was sinking. Then we had a heck-of-a-job to lynch the boat out of the water and drain the water out, because it was so heavy.”

“What a good job you were there,” I comment.

Reg is talking to a man called Martin who has his own market research company and who is carrying out independent market research for Cunard. He asks if he can interview us later today, as he's interested in what we think about the Queen Mary, especially as we're “first-timers”. There's a bottle of champagne in it for us. We agree to meet Martin at 12,00 noon in the Winter Garden Bar, although actually it will be 1.00 pm as the clocks go forward an hour at noon.

Reg goes to a lecture at 11.00 am on the Bermuda Triangle, while I stay in the cabin, balcony door open to the sea, and write some of yesterday's blog. Then we meet up with Martin.

Martin tells us that the Queen Mary will be going into dry dock next year for refurbishment. He wants to know in particular what our first impressions of the Queen Mary were, what we think about our cabin, and what we think about Kings Court, the hot and cold food buffet area.

We share that we honestly felt out of our comfort zone when we first came on board, but now we're enjoying ourselves. We tell Martin that because men had to wear a jacket to dinner on the first night, we felt that excluded us from having a restaurant meal, as our clothes weren't pressed. We explain that the Kings Court buffet area is a bit confusing as it's in two separate parts.

We tell Martin that we actually really like our cabin (sorry, stateroom) as it is – except that more electric points would be useful. We also mention that free wifi would be brilliant! If hostels can do it – why can't they?

Martin has recorded our interview; he thanks us and we go our separate ways.

At 3.30 pm, we decide we must go at least once for afternoon tea, which takes place in the Queen's Room, with a harpist playing in the background. There are white jacketed waiters and waitresses serving tea from silver teapots, and holding silver plates decorated with tiny sandwiches, warm scones with jam and whipped cream, and bite-sized cakes of several varieties. Lovely! We chat to a young waitress from Lvov in the Ukraine, and tell her we were in her home town 2 years ago. She is on her 4^th yearly contract with the Queen Mary – working 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 9 months of the year. Her South African husband works on the ship too! At least they get to see each other.

Can we manage 6.00 pm dinner sitting on top of that delicious afternoon tea? Luckily the emphasis at dinner is on quality rather than quantity – so we can. However, I did mention to Martin the market researcher that the after dinner coffee could be hotter. Even though I ask for extra-hot coffee, it still comes lukewarm. Dinner itself is really good, interlaced with enjoyable table conversation. We are lucky to be sharing our table with Marilyn, Ian, Sarah and Alan - people we can relate to, who are warm and funny and sincere, and who are willing not only to tell their story, but to listen to a little of ours as well.