Setting sail for England

We boarded the Queen Mary 2 at the Port of New York, which is actually in
Brooklyn. Our cab driver delivered us to the port and check in went
quickly, we were impressed!

The day was very foggy and visibility poor. We could see "The Lady", The
Statue of Liberty, she was shrouded in the mist and beautiful.

The Queen Mary 2 is a transatlantic ocean liner. She was the first major
ocean liner built since the Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1969. She is now the
flagship of the Cunard Line. The Cunard Line is now owned by Princess and
we found a disappointing similarity between dining options on both lines.
Meals on all the lines are becoming more standardized and interchangeable.

The Queen Mary 2 was named and christened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.
With the retirement of the Queen Elizabeth 2 from active duty in 2008, the
Queen Mary 2 is currently the only transatlantic ocean liner in operation as
a liner, although the ship is often used for cruising, including an annual
world cruise. There is a definite distinction between an ocean liner and a
cruise ship. At the time of her construction in 2003, the Queen Mary 2 was
the longest, widest and tallest passenger ship. She no longer holds this
distinction following the construction of the Royal Carribean Freedom of the
Seas in April 2006. However, the Queen Mary 2 remains the largest ocean
liner ever built.

The Queen Mary 2 was intended primarily to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and was
therefore designed differently from many other passenger ships. She has a
maximum speed of 29.62 knots or 34.09 mph. The ship has fifteen restaurants
and bars, five swimming pools, a casino, a ballroom, a theatre, and the
first planetarium at sea.

An interesting fact about an ocean liner regards their height. As with
cruise ships built to transit the Panama Canal being built with the size of
the locks in mind, an ocean liner can not be built higher than the Verrazano
Narrows bridge in New York. The Queen Mary 2 was designed with a flatter
funnel to pass under the bridge, and has 13 feet of clearance under the
bridge during high tide. So, after successfully making it under the bridge
and popping our first bottle of Champaign, our trip across the North
Atlantic to England has begun.