We are back on the Queen Mary 2, sailing our way back across the North Atlantic. We are currently crossing the Grand Banks and only about 100 miles from where RMS Titanic rests – we are actually north of them, but no iceberg sightings yet. Several of the staff members remembered us from our trip over – mainly from the tea place and champagne bar – which tells you our most frequent haunts!

This voyage has been a little rougher, mainly because we are heading into the wind. They even had to close some decks and postpone the Broadway-style show. Some of our fellow passengers are not so happy. But we are good sailors and have all experienced far worse and doing fine. The only real hardship we’ve had is that we sometimes have some extra side-shuffles on the ballroom dance floor if the ship tilts too far one way – but then it will shift back the other, so the whole floor just side-shuffles back.

Another difference on this voyage is that we GAIN an hour each day – we lost an hour each day on the way over. Overnight, the clocks change so it is like losing Daylight Savings and “falling back” an hour every day. [At the moment, to be honest, I actually have no idea if it is 10:30 am or 11:30 am. But I don’t have anything to do until a Captain’s Reception at 7:45 tonight, so I assume I’ll figure it out by then.]

The ship is fully decorated for Christmas and beautiful. I’ve attached some pictures.  There is a giant Gingerbread Village, all made of gingerbread or candy – 176 pounds of gingerbread!  They are having a Christmas Market tomorrow in the Grand Lobby. We’re not sure what this is, but Mom and I are ready!

So we are having a very relaxing trip and looking forward to getting home and celebrating Christmas with the Volpe, Tinnes & Purvis Families. Cheers!