Blog/Diary Events 15 to 26 Jan 06 - New York to Rio de Janeiro

Latest Updates - Rio to Valparaiso

I've decided to make another home page for the Rio to Valparaiso leg of the cruise. The blog/diary pages recording the "Shenanigans" of the last 14 days can be found here.

This Blog/Diary is laid out in chronological order (1st to last). Some of the day's events are left on the home page, while others have separate pages. If you get lost while browsing the site, just click anywhere inside the top banner image and you'll be returned to the home page.

27 Jan - Our Day in Rio, Met Carol Marlow (MD Cunard) and had the BEST EVER fish & chips!

Email Received from BBC "Watchdog"

Hi Jack,

I'm writing from the BBC Watchdog programme.  We're intending to run a short report on next week's Watchdog show about the problems on the Queen Mary II.  In particular we will be looking at how the passengers onboard empowered themselves through the media. 

Our editor is looking to possibly include shots of the blog sites relating to the cruise and I would like ask how you would feel about us possibly including some shots of your site in our film?  I'd be grateful if you could le me know if you'd be happy with this possibility.

Kind regards

Debbie.

<My answer>

Debbie

No problem, just don't mention the hilarious typos and poor grammar LOL.

I tried to be fair and accurate any errors or omissions are unintended and purely down to haste.

I met Carol Marlow today and it was interesting to find out that she knew all about www.jackatsea.com and commented "so you're the one the press has been calling", so it seems the top brass at Cunard must have been following each update.

The blog was only ever intended for friends and family, but things got out-of-hand.

Just updated the site with today's adventures in Rio, but no controversy, so I guess you'll not be all that interested in my ramblings now (grin)

Right now I'm slurping the cocktail of the day...

Cheers

Jack

28 Jan Summary - Back at sea, met up with Linda & Cathy and WON the 10:15 trivia! Big trouble at Launderette deck 6...

Discontent Continues - Some Passengers Are Still NOT Satisfied.
The compensation dispute rumbles on. I had a very heated discussion with a Yorkshire man regarding the rights and wrongs of withholding the daily gratuity payments and taking further legal action. He's not spoke to me since and seems to regard me as a turncoat! Fact is, I just want to get on with things and not become bogged down in recriminations. As a couple, me and Ann should get around $1,500 compensation sometime in the future. This seems to be quite generous and completely acceptable to me for the lose of three port visits.

Email from my son David

Many people from around the world have been kind enough to send emails complimenting me on this blog. It's just impossible to publish them all. However, this is the one I'm most chuffed to have received...

Hi Mum & Dad,

WOW!!!!!!!! this is definitely turning out to be a "trip of a lifetime". Everyone at home is really excited and avidly check jackatsea for any "celebrity updates" on a daily basis. Who knows pop, you could be invited on to next years celebrity big brother LOL (Chantel won if mum wants to know). Joking a side, we all think you have handled the "Farcical" with Cunard exceptionally well. There was definite potential to "screw Cunard big time" but you gave a fair representation of both parties and dulled down the media hype. Well done sir !!

Hope you are both well and still enjoying yourselves. You guys should be cruising the Atlantic ocean, on your way to Montevideo, Uruguay. I hope all the media attention has blown over and the ships morale becoming more stabilised. I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures and panoramas.

Speak Soon

Love David

P.S thanks for the T-Shirt Dad, nice one!

29 Jan - Our Day in Montevideo - Art & Architecture Tour, followed by beer and a nap!

30 Jan - Back at sea, Back in the Routine and some pictures of the ship's public areas...

31 Jan - High seas, getting very much colder and 80 mph winds on open decks. Spent most of the day in bed, as we were both very tired, although we did win the pub trivia for the second time.

1 Feb - 'round the Horn, Changeable Weather (loads of pictures).

2 Feb - Ushuaia, Argentina best port-of-call so far. Train ride and some superb pictures of the shore line, a church and a bit of artistic graffiti.

3 Feb - Punta Arenas and a day out visiting a ranch... it WAS interesting, ate far to much barbecued sheep and drank far to much Pisco Sour!

4 Feb - Cruising the Chilean Fjords, got some great pictures and Ann's adventures in the Golden Lion (she enters a Mr & Mrs competition with Frank, the 91 year old American)... funniest thing I've ever seen! 

5 Feb - Hangover from hell - Getting loud at the Super Bowl party (more later)

6 Feb - Puerto Montt, more spectacular landscapes, great food and copious amounts of Pisco Sour!

7 Feb - Farwell to our friends. Valparaiso tomorrow, final leg of our 'round the Horn adventure, new itinerary, new dinner partners, no cabin upgrade.

More later...

This diary will be updated regularly (15th Jan to 22nd Feb 2006) and primarily it is intended to keep our family and friends informed about our progress during the voyage. Hopefully, we'll be able to publish some memorable pictures and descriptions from each port of call.

Other Internet users are welcome to read the pages and download pictures for their personal use. I would also encourage visitors to send recommendations of places to visit or tour companies to use at the various ports of call, based on their own experience or research.

Pre-voyage Research - Seeing What WE Want at the RIGHT Price!
Earlier this year we both enjoyed a ten day cruise around the Caribbean on board the Queen Mary 2 calling in at three Islands; St. Maarten, St. Thomas and St. Kitts. The ship offered organised excursions for each island and in the main, we were quite happy with our choices. However, the total cost of these excursions was just over $1,200. We both felt that with better research prior to the cruise, we would have selected different excursions or even arranged for a local guide/tour from the Internet and obtained better value for money.

The Queen Mary 2 is scheduled to call in at SIXTEEN ports during the New York to Los Angeles 2006 voyage. Follow the links in the "Voyage Calendar" to view my latest research for each port-of-call. During the voyage each of the port links will be updated with new information, pictures and descriptions of our onshore excursions.

Daily Cruise Diary of Onboard Events and Experiences
The QM2 has become famous for providing a varied onboard daily itinerary combining the very best in lectures, leisure and cuisine... and we intend to experience EVERYTHING! (smile).

Due to business commitments I will have to login to the Internet for around one hour each day. While online I plan to update these pages, probably not daily, but at least every other day. 

About Cunard and Queen Mary 2
There's absolutely no point in duplicating the information on Cunard's UK web site. Follow the link below for full ship details.

Queen Mary Home Page

Top Tip - don't miss this section of their web site.

Virtual Tours of the QM2
You'll need to have QuickTime installed or be prepared to download a 20mb program. In my opinion it's well worth the effort. All of the main areas of the ship are covered with high quality 360º panoramic viewpoints:

About Us
I'm fifty and Ann is "forty something", we've been married twenty six years and have four children. We live in Kings Clipstone, which is about five miles north of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. I'm chairman and technical director of the family company and Ann is a school teacher. We both regard the forthcoming cruise as "timeout" from our normal lives and intend to make the very best of our time onboard the ship and at every port-of-call.

Contact Us
Fellow passengers or people with recommendations for port-of-call tours please use jackatsea@askjack.co.uk to send information. People with Skype enabled are more than welcome to call me username: "jackatsea".

Business Contact Details for My Current Client List
32 CORNERS Ltd
Sterling eConsultancy is a Division of 32 Corners Ltd
Mansfield Business Centre UK
Email: info@32corners.co.uk
SKYPEin No: 0044 121 288 1037 
(Calls are charged at normal UK landline rates, answer phone service)
SKYPE Username: "jackatsea" 
(Skype to Skype calls using the Internet are FREE from anywhere to anywhere in the world)
www.skype.com 

1st & 2nd Legs of Our Voyage/Adventure 'round the Horn

Blog/Diary Events 15 to 26 Jan 06 - New York to Rio de Janeiro
The pages recording the "Shenanigans" and controversy of the first leg of our voyage.

Blog/Diary Events 27 Jan to 7 Feb - Rio to Valparaiso
Happier times, great pictures, finally 'round the Horn, some funny stories along the way.

Blog/Diary Events 8 to 22 Feb - Valparaiso to Los Angeles
A sad tale of sickness and quarantine with some memorable tours and a "cunning plan"...

32 Corners Info Finance & Business: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8   9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14   Try Vicky's Articles: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 eCons Info Database: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 Food: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Pets: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Internet: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Politics: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Parents: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Sport: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

Disclaimer
Jack at Sea is a personal diary/blog and has absolutely NO business affiliation or official connection with Cunard other than being written by a passenger booked on the QM2 Around Americas Cruise 2006. All information is presented as-is with no warranties or guarantees of accuracy from links to other web sites.