Honeymoon on QE2 in 2002

[Peter Mugridge]

Many of you will already know from previous postings of mine that I spent six nights on board QE2 as part of my honeymoon in 2002.

Recently I have been scanning my honeymoon albums; I have considered posting the scans here, but I have an important question to ask first:

Should I post only the pages directly relating to QE2, or should I post the full set of pages given that the honeymoon was centered around the voyage and everything else arranged around that?

These scans, I should make clear, aren't just photographs; they include all the tickets, receipts, luggage tags, daily newsletters... everything - except, unfortunately, I never thought to keep the QE2 menus...!!  They're not professional quality scans; they're just to create a basic copy really and some of them show a bit of glare from the scanner light reflecting on the protective film in the albums, but not too badly.  All the important details are clearly visible.

Anyway, it will take me a few days to finish getting all the scans ready but in the meantime your thoughts would be welcome as to whether I post just the QE2 pages or the whole lot...

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

What an exciting prospect! Very much looking forward to following your honeymoon voyage.

I shall be happy to read your story and see your scans, so do go ahead. I suggest though that you take it slowly, and if your records go day by day, then you could perhaps also post them in the same way, day by day, or even hour by hour, keeping us interested for 6 days or a lot longer.

Enjoy the memories .

[June Ingram]

Also very much looking forward to seeing your memories in entirety !   

[Thomas Hypher]

Looking forward to seeing your memories and photos in full too!

[cunardqueen]

Please post the full set of pages so we can read all about it. Look forward to it
 

[Peter Mugridge]

That seems to be a landslide vote in favour of the full set...

I will try to make a start this weekend; I have processed about 65% of the images - but in chronological order, so I have enough done to get started.

[Lynda Bradford]

That seems to be a landslide vote in favour of the full set...

I will try to make a start this weekend; I have processed about 65% of the images - but in chronological order, so I have enough done to get started.

I am looking forward to seeing all the images of the cruise in 2002.

I seemed to remember that we thought were on the same cruise as you in 2002 but your cruise was a 6 night cruise and I have noted a 12 night cruise 1 September to 13 September - Mediterranean Memories 7225.  It will be interesting to see if it was the same cruise calling at  Lisbon, Barcelona, Ajaccio, Civitavecchia, Livorna, Cannes (cancelled).

[Twynkle]

That seems to be a landslide vote in favour of the full set...

I will try to make a start this weekend; I have processed about 65% of the images - but in chronological order, so I have enough done to get started.

Yes Please and Thank You, Peter
Looking forward to it - and the Mach2 experience as well!

[Peter Mugridge]

I am looking forward to seeing all the images of the cruise in 2002.

I seemed to remember that we thought were on the same cruise as you in 2002 but your cruise was a 6 night cruise and I have noted a 12 night cruise 1 September to 13 September - Mediterranean Memories 7225.  It will be interesting to see if it was the same cruise calling at  Lisbon, Barcelona, Ajaccio, Civitavecchia, Livorna, Cannes (cancelled).

That's correct, it was the same one* - Cunard let us off half way and only charged us pro-rata because when we originally booked that sailing, it was a westrbound Trans-Atlantic and I had arranged everything else around it before Cunard changed it to a round the Med cruise.  By flying from Rome to New York, we ended up arriving in New York just a few hours later than we would have done had Cunard not changed the voyage plan.

The reason for the change was it was leading up to the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and bookings for both the westbound and eastbound from Americans were virtually non-existent.  That's also the reason for the unusual 12 night duration of the Med cruise; it was so that QE2 would be back in Southampton as originally planned, meaning no other voyages would be messed around as a result.


*I wonder if you're in the background of any of our pictures... ( we certainly got Su Pollard of Hi-de-Hi in the foreground of one quite by accident because Yola can't hold a camera straight... )

[Peter Mugridge]

To get us started with, since we are beginning at the beginning and not just at the point of embarkation, these initial pages show the itinerary for the whole honeymoon; this will allow the rest of the pages over the next few weeks to be seen in their full context - for the moment, however, this general outline of the 17 days will do as a starting point for the images that will follow.

I have already mentioned the amendment to the plans as a result of the Cunard schedules changing after I booked everything - see if you can deduce from the itinerary the more minor late adjustment that had to be made...

[Andy Holloway]

Just checked my Discharge Book and i joined QE2 in NY the day you got married and signed off 24th October in S'ton, so was Ch Sec Off for your voyage - got any cake left?

[Lynda Bradford]

Luxury Honeymoon itinerary Peter  - five star!

[June Ingram]

Awesome ! 

[Peter Mugridge]

Just checked my Discharge Book and i joined QE2 in NY the day you got married and signed off 24th October in S'ton, so was Ch Sec Off for your voyage - got any cake left?

No to the cake - sorry! 

But goodness, what a small world it is... you must have at least walked past us on board a few times...  I guess your busiest time on our voyage would have been watching out the starboard side when we entered the Med...?

[Lynda Bradford]

No to the cake - sorry! 

But goodness, what a small world it is... you must have at least walked past us on board a few times...  I guess your busiest time on our voyage would have been watching out the starboard side when we entered the Med...?

It really is a small World that three of us were on the same cruise. I remember that passengers were a bit on edge because we would be on the ship at the time of the first anniversary of 9/11.  There were many rumours, including a submarine that just happened to surface every so often, was accompanying the ship, to special security being onboard - that would be Andy.  The rumours got so extreme that the captain made an announcement to the effect that there was contingency plans in place and no need to worry.  Hard to believe that next year will be twenty years.