Saturday, 4 May 2024

Last Day on QM2

Since I spent most of the previous blog talking about the negatives of sailing on QM2, I will turn to more positive aspects of the activities and venues on board. There are three daily lecturers who cover topics on immigration, science, and the excesses of contemporary journalism ("What really happened to Princess Diana?"). None of these were particularly appealing to us, but many passengers attend the lectures in the Art-Deco inspired "Illuminations" Auditorium. "Illuminations" is also the venue for planetarium shows, two of which I attended on my previous crossing. This week, no surprise, the planetarium equipment is out of order.

Part of Planetarium Projection System

"The Royal Court Theatre" is the setting for most evening entertainment. During the day it is home to five young members of the Royal National Shakespeare Company from Stratford-upon-Avon. They appear daily in several different programs: an exercise of how actors train their bodies to reflect feelings (with audience members participating); a mash-up performance of lines from several Shakespeare plays to tell a story of romance on an ocean liner; an original musical play about the life of Joan Littlewood, one of the most important and unsung creators of the revolution in British theatre in the 1950's and 60's. Her theatre company at Stratford East (a borough of Greater London) introduced important works, including Shelagh Delaney's kitchen-sink drama, A Taste of Honey; Lionel Bart's pre-Oliver! musical, Fings Ain't What They Used t' Be; and the pastiche vaudeville, Oh! What a Lovely War. 

We do enjoy a couple of good-looking desserts--

--even if we can't taste exactly what they are.  And we visit the champagne bar on two occasions, even though we are charged exorbitant prices for very small quantities. 

I leave you with this final photo from QM2:  a selfie with King George V, who looks just as unhappy with the food as I do.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we begin our three-day interlude in New York City and then we fly home to Tucson on Wednesday. I am sure LFLat Sea will return while we are in New York.