Land Sick

After nine days (eight nights) onboard the Queen Mary 2, I expected some adjustment would need to be made when we were back on land. I remember feeling that the world was still moving at various times during our Alaskan cruise, when we got off for shore excursions and at the end of our cruise. But after a transatlantic crossing, the experience has been a bit more intense.

We got to Southampton early yesterday morning. We got off the ship, collected our bags, and made our way to London before noon. Any time we were still - waiting in the queue to get our tickets for the train, waiting on the platform for the train, sitting down to lunch at YO! Sushi, or standing around waiting to ship our third bag home (another story entirely) - it felt as though we were standing on a motion base with movement completely out of sync with the world view around us. Even when we were walking, we found that we lurched from side to side and unexpectedly crashed into non-moving objects.

I have trouble with motion that I cannot see - caused by things like riding in the backseat of a car, trying to read in the car, particularly strong turbulence on an airplane, riding on a bus (especially a tour bus), or riding in anything facing backwards. So I found this continuing sensation of movement more than a bit unsettling. On the train to London, I started to get a slight headache, which is the start of my motion sickness.

But soon, we were off the train and lurching about the train station. As long as we were moving, things seemed tolerable. Stopping for lunch made me feel ill again. When we were waiting in lines, I started to intentionally move around, to keep from feeling sick.

After walking about six miles in London, we stopped for tea. Again, sitting down made me feel ill. It was with some relief that we started moving again. But when it was time for dinner, I was perhaps so tired that I didn't notice the movement.

We spent the night on the Caledonian Sleeper, an overnight train from London to Inverness. Craig had read that movement, such as riding in a car or train, could help ease the adjustment from sea to land. On the train this morning, we felt great. The train was moving, of course, but the motion we felt seemed to match. As we discussed this phenomenon, we decided we had successfully attained our land-legs.

Then we got off the train. Either the platform had a hidden motion base -or- we were not as recovered as we had hoped. We spent the morning walking around Inverness. (We walked over seven miles today. Though I'm not entirely sure how it was spread out through the day, I do think the majority was in the morning.) I felt fine while we were walking, but again, each time we stopped I felt the world moving out of sync.

This afternoon, we took a bus and a boat - crossing Loch Ness and visiting Urquhart Castle. We sat at the front of the tour bus and the ride was short, so I did alright with that. The boat ride was great, with big windows and open decks, so I didn't have any trouble with the motion. As we walked around the castle ruins, I wasn't expecting any problems.

Then we walked up a stone, spiral staircase so narrow that it was impossible to pass another person. About three flights up, we escaped the staircase for a room open to the air above and all around. All at once, the castle was both spinning and rocking beneath my feet, even as I stood perfectly still.

Imagine, if you can, you've spun around in a circle until you fell flat on the ground, like a child. Now, imagine that you've landed on the Star Wars ride - but your eyes are closed and the sound isn't playing, so you've only got motion without context; you can't anticipate which direction you might lurch in next. Finally, while all of this is happening in your head, you are, in fact, standing in the ruins of a castle, at the highest remaining point, with nothing but a few half walls and the occasional addition of a metal bar to keep you from falling into Loch Ness.

When Craig asked if I was alright, I naturally answered, "Quite comfortable. I'm quite comfortable here." We then took several minutes to enjoy the view so I could recover enough to attempt the stairs going back down. It was a fantastic view and a really unique castle to explore.

My apple watch says I walked over seven miles and took thirty flights of stairs today. I still feel like things are moving a bit when I sit still, but that may just be because we really haven't stopped. Of course, that's unlikely to change any time soon.

Quite Comfortable

I'm leaving most of the crossing on the Queen Mary 2 for Craig to post about. I loved every minute of the voyage and I didn't want that part of our adventure to end. It was so relaxing and wonderful. I was sad to leave the ship, even with such an amazing trip ahead.

But there is one phase from the ship that has a permanent place in my heart - "quite comfortable."

The first few days of our voyage were incredibly smooth. We met several people on board who had taken this trip before and all of them remarked on how calm the waters had been. I heard several people refer to the sea as a being "as still as a mill pond." While I can't make much of a comparison, having only been on one cruise in my life, it was lovely the first couple days.

In the middle of the night, the seas got much more...interesting. We woke up to find that nearly all the outside decks had been closed due to high winds. And the movement of the ship was beginning to make walking about, even inside our cabin, a bit challenging.

But at noon, when the captain made his daily announcement, he said something that struck Craig and I as hilariously funny. After telling us that the decks were closed because of "gale force 9 winds" and that we were experiencing "significant swell," he told us that the ship was traveling "quite comfortably" through the weather. He repeated the phrase "quite comfortable" several different times, in several different contexts. As if by saying it over and over, he might convince us of his truth. The ship was traveling "quite comfortably" and we were all "quite comfortable" and so on.

Indeed, we have been "quite comfortable" for every minute of our honeymoon adventure so far.

Caledonian Sleeper

Our first night off the Queen Mary 2, we took the Caledonian Sleeper overnight from London Euston to Inverness. Over tea earlier that afternoon, we had looked at remedies for making the transition from sea to land. One suggestion was that you keep moving, such as taking a car ride. We hoped that the train ride would do the same thing.

We started our trip in the dining car, which felt a bit undersized for the number of people on the train. We were lucky to get there early and grab seats, which we kept until we went to our beds. In addition to the food and drink available for purchase, a scotch company was offering a free tasting of four different single-malt scotches.

The train left fairly late, so we soon made our way to our adjoining rooms. In the video above, you can see both rooms (and Craig, making faces at me). I was standing in the door between the rooms. This is a first class room. Well, two first class rooms, actually. The upper bunk isn't used in first class. If we'd had a normal room, there wouldn't have been enough space for both of us to stand because our bags would have taken all the floorspace.

I slept about as well as you might expect. The motion of the train was different from the ship, somehow unpredictable in a different way. But it did seem to help the "landsickness," at least while we were on the train. In the morning, we were served breakfast. And I made use of the sink in the room to clean up before we got off in Inverness.

Craig's Travel Journal Day 4: Wednesday, May 18

Wednesday, May 18

I awoke before 7 am to the slight oscillation of the ship’s engines, getting up to sneak a peek through the darkened curtains to see…what did I expect? It’s an Atlantic crossing. I’m going to see ocean. Period. I was not surprised. The ocean was still and flat and the ocean liner (not a “cruise ship”! don’t make that mistake and call it that) cut a smooth ride through the sea.

Before long, Laura was awakened by my movement and the two of us set about to getting ready for breakfast and reviewing the program of events outlined for the day—everything from watercolor painting classes to lectures to dance lessons. We made our way to the Princess Grill Dining Room and had breakfast at our table of six, alone. The morning staff was different than at lunch and dinner, so Laura was worried about the lovely pastries that came our way. We asked the morning Head Waiter about the allergies and he pleasantly (and with a great spring in his step) set off to find the answer to our high fructose corn syrup conundrum. He came back with a grin on his face and said, “Do you want the short answer or the long answer, because I have good news!” We asked for the long, which included him calling the kitchen and speaking to four different people before being put on with the Executive Chef who happened to be in the kitchen at the time. The chef informed the Head Waiter that they didn’t use HFCS at all in the kitchen, let alone in the pastries. Laura chose a Danish with peaches in the middle.

Later, as we were finishing breakfast, the Head Waiter came back and told us that he had seen the pastry Laura had selected and chose to call down to the kitchen again to confirm the ingredients in the canned peaches they used in the Danish. He was pleased to report there was no HFCS in the canned peaches, either. We were both impressed.

We went back to our room for a bit and, looking at at sea, saw some dark shapes and motion on the sea. Soon we could tell there were pods of dolphins, porpoises, and whales! The sea felt overpopulated with the creatures. Groupings of porpoises, dozens of them, jumping or chasing the ocean liner, were all along side. We could see multiple waterspouts from whales and see the dark crests of their backs. We saw an occasional jumping dolphin or porpoise. I think I saw an orca. It was astounding to see so much life in the sea all at once. There must have been hundreds of them over the course of a few miles as we watched.

We wandered the ship some more after that, going for a walk on the “track” on Deck 7 filled with walkers and joggers. It takes 3.1 laps around the track to make one mile. In the wind it was cold, even with our jackets on, though if you were out of the wind and in the sun it was quite pleasant. In the one spot on deck that featured such a condition there were people huddled on deck chairs. Pretty much the rest of the chairs were empty.

We went and looked at the pools on the back of the ship which stair step from deck to deck down, a total of three separate pools and on the upper most deck a Jacuzzi. We 

walked the farthest point at the front of the ship, discovering in a horseshoe hallway near the bow a small QM2/Cunard “museum” of sorts, loaded with informational panels, awards, and even an interactive touchscreen kiosk. We found the “planetarium”—really another theater with a dome screen in the ceiling.

We ended up back in the dining room for lunch. At exactly noon the ship’s whistles blew and the Captain came on to tell us we had crossed into another time zone and we had to set our clocks ahead one hour, making it 1 pm. Having a 2:30 pm appointment for a couples massage in the Canyon Ranch Spa, we had lunch so we could get on our way to the massages.

Lying side by side face down on massage tables, the lights dim and classical music playing, an Eastern European woman pumped warm oil on my skin while a South African woman did the same for Laura. Evidently at one point I snored. The massages were delightful and we went back to our locker rooms to shower and change.

Laura took a nap back in our cabin suite while I hunted down the tuxedo jacket and slacks I’d rented aboard ship. (Why pack one when you can hire?) The slacks were way too long, so I found a sewing kit in the sundries shop and came back to the room. 

Laura hemmed my pants and we proceeded to get ready for the first formal night aboard ship, with a black and white theme. She wore a beautiful floor-length black formal dress and heels, forcing me to maintain a good posture.

Dressed to the nines (what does that even mean?) we headed to a private cocktail party reserved for Queens Grill and Princess Grill passengers with the Captain in the ballroom. We met a few lovely couples, sitting down and chatting with two lawyers (he and she both public defenders but she moving to divorce law when they had kids) who lived in Seattle.

The Captain’s speeches over, we went to the dining room to have dinner at a full table. The meal was excellent. We enjoy the couple from Newport Beach.

Dinner: 

My Steak Diane (right) with black pudding. 

Laura’s entree (left) and desserts. 

Laura’s crepes suzette. 

After dinner we found that they were taking portraits of couples in their formal wear and we grabbed a few photos together. We ended up in the pub and, believe it or not, both ended up on stage singing karaoke to the crowded bar. Our first selection was the “his and hers” retro hit “Don’t You Want Me Baby” by the Human League. We followed that up with a duet of “The River” by Garth Brooks. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I was proud of Laura for getting up on stage and belting those songs out. Definitely out of her comfort zone, but later she told me she knew I wanted her to do it, so she did. I knew she had fun, so that’s all that mattered. We shut the pub down, heading back to our cabin around 11:30 and crashing.

Craig's Travel Journal Day 3: Tuesday, May 17

Tuesday, May 17

I’m awakened at 6:30 by the sounds of construction about a dozen feet from our bedroom. A new high-rise apartment is underway adjacent to the NYLO. We get up; have breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant (it’s mediocre) and head out to go to The Metropolitan Museum of Art across Central Park from where we’re staying. There we wait in a long line to get inside as the museum has just opened and quickly head to a fashion exhibit I wanted Laura to see, Manus X Machina.

The exhibit is extraordinary. The entire exhibition is a juxtaposition of vintage couture from the houses of Chanel, Valentino, and others with more contemporary displays from Alexander McQueen and showing various techniques from draping to pleating to 3D printing. Laura enjoys it thoroughly, recognizing certain pieces from her textbooks.

We finish the exhibit in time to cab it back to the hotel, pack up the few things we had taken out of our bags and head off to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. As we head off the island of Manhattan and get closer to the terminal in Brooklyn traffic locks up on the two-lane road leading to Pier 12. People are getting off the Queen Mary 2 looking for taxis and car services. Taxis and Ubers loaded up with passengers about to board are streaming in at the same time. It’s a slow slog to the terminal.

Once there, we go through security and take care of getting our shipboard IDs fairly

quickly and then are boarded onto the very beautiful Queen Mary 2. We find our stateroom suite, pleased to discover it’s a generous size with an actual walk-in closet. The ship goes to Southampton on this journey and into dry dock for a month of renovations, so I was worried our stateroom would be worn and threadbare, like a hotel room in need of rejuvenation at the end of its cycle. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Our room was in great shape. We went out to the balcony and could see the Statue of Liberty. It was fantastic.

We walked around the ship and attempted to orient ourselves to what was fore and what was aft, what was high and what was low, utterly turning ourselves around and backwards in no time. Our suite entitles us to a private dining room for us and other guests in our class and we go find a late lunch in the Princess Grill Dining Room, meeting another couple at our six top table who live in Newport Beach, CA. He is English and she is American and they are off for five months of travel in Europe once we land in England. They have their dog on board. With a kennel capacity of 12, they booked their dog a year ago and were on a waiting list for a time. Crazy. This is why we don’t have pets. They are very accommodating of Laura’s allergies, providing her with a menu to pre-order her dinner so they will have everything prepared just for her. Lunch was a bit meh.

We discover the pub and order some drinks. After our mandatory safety muster, we head

back to our room, get cleaned up because there’s a dress code after 5 pm where women have to be in dresses or “smart pant suits” and men in jackets. We head out to explore the ship a bit more then go back to the Princess Grill Dining Room for dinner. Dinner was better.

Before dinner, whilst we were still enjoying a champagne toast as we set sail from Brooklyn and heading out to sea the Captain came on the ship intercom to inform us that there’s a medical emergency onboard. Later, we notice the ship is doing a 180-degree turn, affording us a lovely view of the Manhattan skyline in silhouette

against the western setting sun. We learn the ship is heading back to harbor waters where a medical vessel will pick up the passenger. All through dinner the ship sat still, likely awaiting the medical water taxi. We met the third couple at our table (the whole open seating thing doesn’t work when you’re at a table of more than two—you can find yourself eating alone or eating at a full table, which we find strange). They live less than two miles from us in Pasadena near the Arroyo. He’s a retired doctor/engineer, she a snooty housewife. The two annoy us. In the first five minutes of talking to them he informed us how he’d set up a college trust for his grandchildren of $300,000 each. Laura found it vulgar and I just found it crass.

First dinner in the Princess Grill:

Craig had a chicken and duck liver terrine.  

Laura had beef consommé. 

Laura had scallops for her main and Craig had fish. 

  











Craig had a selection of cheese for dessert and Laura had the treacle tart. 

Returning to the pub, we sit with another couple from outside Toronto on their fourth crossing on the QM2. Against our better judgment we play a pub-wide trivia game, then head off to bed. The ship, finally underway again, is very stable. Laura notes from the bed a harmonic vibration thrum, but I don’t even feel it. The ship doesn’t rock at all. We sleep soundly.

Craig's Travel Journal Day 2: Monday May 16

Monday, May 16 2016

4:45 am wake-up. So much for a delightful honeymoon! Car picks us up at 5:45 and we are off to LAX. We make it to the airport in no time, but once we get off the freeway at LAX traffic is a standstill. Monday morning business commuters are clogging departures. We arrive at Delta 46 minutes before our flight and go to the skycap. He informs us checked baggage closes 45 minutes before the flight. I look at my watch: it’s 44 minutes to go. He rushes inside with our IDs and comes back smiling with luggage tags. They’ll take the bags. But will they get on our flight? we wonder.

We rush to security. Fortunately we have Precheck, so we zip up to TSA security check, make it through in no time and power walk to our gate. The plane is boarded. No one is there, but it’s 21 minutes before flight, which means there is a minute left before the gate is closed. We board, find our seats in Economy Comfort, and settle in, hoping our bags make it.

Off the plane in JFK, we head to baggage claim (easily a mile walk from our gate) and Laura sees my distinctive grey and orange bag instantly. We pull it from the carousel, quickly grabbing our other two bags. Soon we are Ubering (now a verb) to Manhattan. As we are driving, I get a call. It’s Delta Baggage Handling. Evidently we grabbed someone else’s grey and orange bag and the woman is waiting for her bag, which we have in the car with us. The Uber driver turns around and we head back to JFK.  I run into baggage claim with the grey and orange carryon in tow. Bags exchanged at the Delta Baggage Handling desk, I ask where the woman is who is waiting for her bag. I’m shown who the person is and I apologize profusely. She admits she’s never seen another of her distinctive grey and orange bags and she took mine off the carousel before discovering she had the wrong bag. We exchange apologies and I’m back to the car.

After checking into our hipster hotel on the Upper West Side near Central Park, we quickly assess we are starved. It’s not quite 6 pm EDT but Laura hasn’t eaten since she made bacon and egg cups at home at 5:30 am PDT and I hadn’t eaten since I had dissected my cold, sad breakfast wrap after reaching altitude. We walked around the corner from the hotel to a restaurant I’d been to before, a fantastic Asian-inspired place called Redfarm. We had crispy skin chicken, lobster with chopped pork, and some amazing cocktails made even more amazing because they had simple syrup. We’ve been on a low-carb diet for six weeks and have had virtually no sugar. The sweet taste of the cocktails makes us giddier than the gin and tequila in our drinks.

After, we take a walk down Broadway. The night is cool but pleasant and after walking a dozen blocks or so we hail an Uber and drive to the Lower East Side to make a pilgrimage to Dead Rabbit, awarded Best Bar in the World every year since it opened five or six years

ago. We have cocktails in the downstairs Irish pub before we learn via text from friends Peter and Shanna that the place to be is upstairs where the drinks menu is extensive. 30 minutes or so later we are upstairs, eating lobster-devilled eggs and drinking new and complex libations.

Laura begins to fade fast, so we cab it back to our hotel and crash, even though it was only 8:15 pm in Los Angeles.