Words of a Tour Manager on the Queen Mary 2 – #3
Two days ago we were in Cherbourg, France. Unfortunately, I did not get farther than 100 metres away from the ship, with work keeping me busy during this hectic day. We had 500 guests disembark the ship, 600 guests embark the ship and 2000 in the midst of a 2 day voyage from Southampton back to Southampton.
We also had a British Coast Guard boat drill for the crew in which I had to participate. A mock fire, along with massive mock casualities and several decks worth of mock damage made for a long morning. It was quite a drill, with new fires and new explosions and new injuries being fabricated every few minutes. Even the mayor of Cherbourg had to stand waiting on the pierside for almost two hours, unable to board the ship in the midst of our drill and therefore unable to conduct the special “Welcome Ceremony” he had planned for the past several months. But come on, hey Mr. Mayor, we have a drill to do.
And then only one hour after the boat drill finally concluded, there was a bomb threat in the terminal building on the pier as there was a suspicious package behind some desks. I was in the terminal building at the time and suddenly the French authorities were jumping over tables, grabbing arms and yelling out in French. Nobody moved until our French speaking receptionist translated the message to the crowd. We were rushed us out of the building and into the parking lot, where about 100 guests and crew remained standing for about an hour.
But it turned out, as many things do, to be a piece of luggage from Mr. Smithson in cabin #4093. Silly him, he simply forgot to take it onboard after checking in for his cruise. But even sillier him, because when he was escorted outside to claim this bright red piece of luggage, he had neglected to bring the key to open it up so that the authorities could properly examine it.
As a result, Mr. Smithson had to go all the way across the shiny lobby of the terminal building, up two flights of wooden stairs, through the security screening, have his passport stamped at the immigration desk, proceed down the long hall of the upper floor of the terminal building, then along the gangway that led to Deck 2, up the elevator to Deck 4 (apparently he was too lazy for the stairs), down the starboard side corridor and finally to his cabin to retrieve the key. And then he had to follow the exact same route in reverse, as we 100 people remained standing outside, until he eventually unlocked his bright red piece of luggage and showed everyone his underwear and wife’s collection of nightgowns.
Mr. Smithson walked away amused and we re-entered the terminal building.
There are 7 dogs and 4 long-haired domestic cats on board this week.
Yesterday we were in Southampton again. As we had 2000 guests to disembark and since I am responsible for disembarking them in an orderly and timely fashion, I was most pleasantly surprised when, at 9:00am, we made the final call for guests to disembark. Once all the guests have been called off the ship to collect their luggage, we are free and can return to the ship. My staff then usually goes into town to shop for a few hours and I usually do some work and take a nap. But since we finished so early yesterday (normally we do not make a final call until 10:30am), I went into the centre of Southampton as well, taking the crew shuttle that runs back and forth from the pier into town every 30 minutes.
I walked around aimlessly for about an hour, then bought some blueberries, had a much needed meal of Indian food at Namaste Kerala and then walked back to the ship. I was away from the ship for about 3.5 hours, quite possibly a record length of time. I even brought some take away Indian food back to the ship for dinner, much preferring the Paneer Makhani curry of Namaste Kerala to the offerings on the menu in the officer’s mess.
Time to continue working…we are on our way back to New York, arriving on the 22nd. It’s foggy outside today.
Tags: Return to Ship Life
dbaron
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