Readers will recall from Part 1 that, for my retirement trip, I had decided to sail across to the eastern seaboard of the US and then travel across to the other side of the continent, but the timing, details and logistics were still to be worked out.
So, first things first. When would be the best time to go? Very hot weather is not something that has ever appealed to me, so mid-summer was out and many attractions in that part of the world start to close from mid-October as winter approaches. Based on my previous travels to the region, September was the optimal time – still plenty of daylight hours, pleasant temperatures and kids mostly gone back to school, so National Parks and other tourist destinations are much less busy. Later in the month you also start to get attractive “fall” colours on the trees.
Now we get to which one-way cruise would take me from the UK to the eastern US. The interwebz listed a few cruises travelling in vaguely the right direction, but I couldn’t resist the famous Cunard flagship Queen Mary 2. Launched in 2003, she is the world’s only active true ocean liner, purpose-built for fast, luxurious transatlantic crossings in good weather or rough seas (spoiler alert!), taking over the route from the QE2 which was retired in 2008.
Image by Hans Toom from Pixabay
Next thing to figure out was how best to go about booking it? As a first-time cruiser I had no idea, so asked a few people who were more au fait with the subject. Apparently, the price doesn’t vary much regardless of how one buys the ticket, but booking via a reputable travel agent can get you a few perks such as additional on-board credit (to cover things like alcoholic beverages) and a named person to speak with in the event of problems, rather than a call-centre.
Transatlantic sailings, although frequent, aren’t regular daily or weekly services like scheduled flights, so the timing of the holiday was going to be dictated by Cunard’s schedule. They seem to run one or two in each direction per month, mostly directly between Southampton & New York but with occasional extended forays around the Atlantic Provinces, Scandinavia or Western Europe. The one that best matched my preferred timeframe was scheduled to leave Southampton on 27th August on a direct seven-night voyage to New York, arriving on 3rd September.
Having settled upon the voyage, the agent’s website provided me with a bewildering choice of cabins – inside (no window), Atrium View (inside but with a window overlooking the shopping/lobby area), Seaview with a non-opening window, Sheltered Balcony, Obstructed Balcony, Standard Balcony and a number of suite options suited to those who needed multiple bedrooms and a personal butler. For a week-long journey with no stops, I definitely wanted some natural light and preferably somewhere with a bit of fresh air. Additionally, I had been advised that being fairly low in the ship and towards the middle provided the smoothest passage with less risk of feeling seasick in rough weather, so a room with a Sheltered Balcony – having a big glass door and fairly large outside space, enclosed on all sides but with an opening cut into the hull on one of the lower decks – seemed like the thing for me. After entering all that into the website it whirred away and gave me a list of available cabins meeting those criteria shown on a deck plan, so I picked one near the middle and waited for it to generate a price.
After a few seconds, up it popped. My initial reaction of “How [Bleep]-ing much?” subsided once I’d thought about it for a while and remembered that, unlike a flight, it wasn’t just a way of getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible in a tin can, it would be a rewarding week-long experience that would also provide comfortable transportation across the “pond”. Mentally pricing-up a one-way flight from Heathrow to New York in the nice end of the plane, seven nights’ accommodation in a good hotel, top notch food and entertainment day & night for the duration of the voyage (most of which was included in the price) the figure actually wasn’t that unreasonable.
“Buy now” button duly clicked, there was no going back, no excuse for further prevarication and the rest of the trip could be booked. Rather than spoiling the surprise too much at this point, I’ll document the remainder of the destinations in future episodes.
Fast forward a few months to August, the UK’s spring and summer having passed, it was time to decide what to pack and how to get to Southampton. While cruise lines allow you to bring as much luggage as you wish, the airline on the return flight has a limit of two small cases or one large one and I’d struggle to carry those anyway, so one big case and my trusty camera/gadget backpack would have to suffice.
As I was planning the journey down to Southampton, one small fly-in-the-ointment appeared courtesy of GP’s own feline reporter, Larry. He mentioned in one of his weekly news reports that Barnes Railway Bridge was undergoing repairs and would be closed to trains for a few days, including the day I was intending to travel over it towards Clapham Junction. Manhandling a 70lb suitcase onto either the dreaded Rail Replacement Bus Service or the more circuitous rail route to Clapham via Richmond seemed like a pain-in-the-whatsit but then I remembered the Luggage Forwarding service that was offered, but ignored, when I booked the cruise. Perfect! Man with a van turns up at the front door a few days before departure and collects the suitcase, which magically appears in my cabin shortly before boarding without me having to do anything. Only the backpack for me to carry.
© Snotsicle 2025
Just one final task. As I was going to be at the mercy of South West Trains (or Great British Railways as it now seems to be called) for my journey, and not entirely convinced about their reliability or punctuality, I decided it would be wise to travel down the day before and stay the night in Southampton. Hotel booked!
In the next episode I’ll jump to the first exciting leg of the journey, the trip to Southampton, boarding & the crossing to the US of A.
© Snotsicle 2025
