Smithy's Cruise Blog

Tuesday 28 July and we arrived in Belfast Docks on time at 6.00am. Kim was at the door at 7.30 am as arranged and we were soon off the breakfast .

We tend to use the Artisan eatery on Deck 9. There is a massive choice of food. I get plenty of fruit and wonderful omelettes made as you watch. We prefer breakfast that way rather than in the more formal dining rooms where we have lunch and dinner.

To get us into Belfast I had booked Sean on line., He had a large adapted vehicle with a ramp and was waiting for us when we left the ship at 10.00.am.

The plan was that he would take us to the Titanic Museum and exhibition and then collect us from there to return us to the ship later.

The Titanic Museum was vast and there were literally thousands of visitors. I am not sure if I enjoyed the experience. The early part of the tour round the exhibition was devoted to the construction of Titanic. As she was built in Belfast I can understand that that was important but it did seem to take up a large part of the tour.

In the main, the walk around the various floors of the exhibition, was in the dark so the photography was not brilliant.

I have struggled to put this together and have not yet mastered the art, in this new format, of getting the photos onto the blog but I will do.

A bit of excitement. Suddenly about 30 minutes ago there was an announcement throughout the ship directing the Rapid ? Team to go urgently to a section at the stern of the ship. I got the impression that something bad was happening – a husband /wife fight perhaps?! The Captain later announced that an individual had managed to get aboard the ship, had been apprehended and handed over to the local police. Not that exciting!

It reminds me of something similar in Southampton nearly 60 years ago. The QE2 was setting off on her Maiden voyage. I was amongst the thousands shouting and waving from the dockside. My father Captain George E Smith was on the bridge and somewhere down in the crew  quarters there were four stowaways.

At the time I was in the middle of a solicitors training contract with a Southampton law firm Bell Pope and Bridgwater. One of their Partners, Tom Evans, carried out prosecutions for the Docks Authority and was instructed to prosecute the four stowaways. I had told him about the massive excitement and noise at the time of QE2’s departure and when he heard that the stowaways were pleading not guilty on the basis that they were sleeping on board at the time of departure, Tom decided to call me as a witness. I told the magistrates about the noise and excitement and the men were duly convicted.
That was  the only time that I appeared as a witness, but in my early years as a solicitor I spent nearly every morning in the Magistrate’s Courts in Southampton or Romsey or Eastleigh representing individuals  charged with a wide variety offences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we are up and running. Sam has found me an alternative way of making the blog work. It seemed to me that this cruise would be packed with scenic views and that it was vital that photos could be downloaded.

We left home yesterday, Sunday 26 July at 11.30am and were on the ship, Queen Anne by 1.20pm. That must be a record for us. The team was the usual one led by Kim Jones. Kim has calculated that she has come with us, to look after Jane, on 22 cruises. She is a star. We could not cruise without her.

My sister Liz Cracknell was due to join us on Sunday. Her husband Tim, sadly died in November, and about 6 weeks ago Liz asked if she could join us, if she could find a suitable cabin. Of course we loved the idea. She found a cabin near to ours and booked it.

About 3 weeks ago Liz rang me to say that she had been to see a cardiologist and that he wanted to monitor her heart. Wow that was a shock. If the results were not good she would have a pacemaker fitted and would not be able to join us. In the middle of last week he said she did need a pacemaker and could not put off its fitting until after the cruise. It had to be done straight away. It is being fitted tomorrow when we will be in Belfast. Good luck Liz. We will be thinking of you as we explore the Titanic Museum and Exhibition..

 

It’s not easy being an old blogger. Before we set off on Sunday I decided to write a short piece exhibiting a wonderful Portrait  that Christine  Jackson had painted of me. I wrote the piece but couldn’t download the portrait.

Sam, who set up the blog for me, has been trying to get it resolved. This is the latest experiment

no this is not the picture but it sees to be working. Now to download it.

 

 

 

We are sailing on Queen Anne on Sunday 26 July 2026 to Iceland, so I need to get some practice in writing the blog. It’s 6 months since we were last at sea and it’s been a busy time.

Briefly on the health front I’m pleased to say that the haematology, urology, cardiology and oncology departments at Southampton General Hospital have been doing a fantastic job and I feel very well. The consultants and all the staff are excellent and caring.

Whenever I am in groups of friends meeting for lunch or coffee, I try to enforce a 10 minute rule. Total time allowed for the whole group to talk about health. It usually works.

Coincidences. I’ve talked about them in the past. They seem to crop up in my life frequently. Two today.

Jane and I were talking this morning about Stewart Wilson and the fact that we hadn’t spoken to him for some time. Stewart was head of the Banchory Acadomy and he still live in Banchory, Scotland. We met Stewart and his late wife Elizabeth on the maiden voyage of Queen Elizabeth when we were all invited one evening to sit at Captain Paul Wrights table for dinner.

We have sailed with the Wilsons many, many times and have always enjoyed their company. If you search Stewart Wilson on the blog you will learn much more about the Wilsons and stamp collections.

This afternoon I was watering the garden. Jane’s carer said someone had rung on the landline and left a message. Yes, it was Stewart. I rang him back. It was great to talk to him. He had had an accident recently which sounded awful but he was now back at home after spells in hospital and a care home.

Yesterday I went round to one the residential properties owned by our children but managed by me. The tenant wanted to talk to me about fitting air conditioning. She said her boyfriend Sam was an a/c engineer and it could be fitted at no cost to us. During the conversation Sam mentioned that he had a brother who was a teacher in Dubai. I told him that our son Mike lives and works there. I said that if his brother was interested in football and the Saints he ought to make contact with the Dubai Saints. Sam immediately pulled up the Dubai Saints website on his phone and there was a picture of a large group of Saints supporters with Mike in the middle.

Tonight Mike emailed me. Sam and Mike had made contact. Sam was Sam Carter and they realised that when they were 10 or 11 they had played football in the same Sunday teams for 2 or 3 years – North Baddesley FC and AFC Solent.

Sam was the star striker and my recollection is that he was later on the books of a professional club. Mike thinks it may have been Chelsea. Jane thinks it was Southampton. No doubt I will find out more in due course, but it is yet another of those coincidences!

What don’t I like about her?

I’m not sure that I should be critical. As soon as we returned home Cunard sent us a record of our voyages on their ships starting with my first voyage on 1 June 1965 – a transatlantic on the original Queen Mary (still in Long Beach, California as a floating hotel). A total of 39 Cunard voyages making up 728 nights at sea.

I understand why Cunard felt that they needed to cater for a younger clientele but when I discussed some issues with the Pursers department I was told that the average age of the passengers on that voyage was 72.

What upset me and many others was that in Tenerife and in Gran Canaria there was no shuttle service for the able or disabled. It was said to be a short walk into town which it was not. These ports have invested millions building new terminals. That means that the ships are further away from the areas that passengers want to visit.

There is a long walk through the terminals and then a long walk to the shops and cafes. So people gave up. They couldn’t walk that far. When I raised the issue with the Pursers department they told me there was nowhere for shuttles to drop off and pick up passengers. There have been suitable places for the last 20 years so why have they disappeared. I was told that the local authorities wouldn’t provide such places. Why would they spend millions on massive new terminals and then make it difficult for passengers to get into town to spend their Euros?

It seems to me to be a cost saving exercise which seriously affects passengers who want to go ashore without going on an expensive tour organised by the ship.

The layout of the ship is poor in many areas. The promenade deck has lifeboats which block your view of the ocean. Presumably that was to enable more cabins to be incorporated with unobstructed views.

The Queens Room is disappointing. It’s a major feature on Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth and QM2. Sadly on QA it feels as if it’s a passageway.

The design is poor because if you are seated watching and listening to a band playing on stage you can’t see the band if people are dancing on the dance floor. If you sit on the floor above watching the band below you there are no waiters nor a bar.

We liked the Artisans buffet on deck 9 for breakfast. Omelettes cooked to order as you watched were magnificent but what annoyed me was that if you wanted a croissant with marmalade you had to queue up at one counter to be given the croissant and then go to another counter and queue up for a dollop of marmalade. Every day I would ask the Senior man in charge if he could also place one of his big jars of marmalade on the croissant counter. No I can’t he said over and over. Someone has devised a plan and we have to stick to it! Gone are the days when those little jars of marmalade were plentiful!

During a day at sea we like to have a sudoku competition. Me against Jane and Kim. The ship issues a different sudoku every day. On the other ships they can be collected from the library, which is midship, each morning. On QA the library is not midship but is way up forward on deck 12. A long walk. Ok it’s good exercise for an old chap like me but it seems such a waste of time. When I asked the librarian why they couldn’t be made available in other more convenient areas of the ship, she said that was the rule and nothing could be done about it.

Access to the internet is enormously expensive. I think I paid $280 for access for 2 weeks. If only 1000 of the 3000 passengers paid for the internet that’s $280,000. Someone will no doubt tell me how much it would cost Cunard’s to bring it to the ship.

Yes I’m an old moaner but I am not happy about the way in which standards have deteriorated.

As Diamond passengers (many voyages sailed) we are entitled to a complementary meal in one of the speciality restaurants. We chose the Sir Samuel’s – a steakhouse at the stern of the ship. The menu looked fabulous but when we read it more closely we found that only one of the many steaks on the menu was available to us. It turned out to be a tough fatty piece of meat which was difficult to eat. What a terrible way to treat your long standing customers.

We do have one more Queen Anne voyage booked but after that it will be back to our favourite Cunarder – the Queen Victoria.

Sorry – we’ve been having such a busy time eating and drinking and walking and talking that I have neglected the blog. The ports came in quick succession. After Funchal it was Tenerife, then Gran Canaria and then Lanzarote. Then a day at sea and then the final port La Coruna on mainland Spain

As we have been to these ports many times before we tend to have a leisurely breakfast and then go down the gangway, find a shuttle bus to take us in to town, find a decent place for a coffee and than plan our walk round the town.

I find that I wrote this some time ago, but failed to publish it. One of my avid readers thought that the loss of news on the blog meant that I must have suffered the same sort of health issue that struck me back in May 2024. It was not the case. I will publish this and in a day or two give my overview of Queen Anne.

After a relaxed day at sea, we arrived this morning in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. When we awoke Queen Anne was already alongside her berth and these two vessels were docked nearby. There is a prize for the first reader to identify both of the vessels correctly..

I have not been as diligent as I should have been in writing my blog over the last 18 months. Blood tests and transfusions were not very exciting news.

But when I did start up again I made a mistake – a slip of the pen really – so the 2nd competition relates to an error that was pointed out to me by Stewart Wilson. He is not allowed to compete. We met Stewart and his late Wife Elizabeth many years ago, sitting at the Captains table on the Maiden voyage of Queen Elizabeth. By the way in the competition spelling mistakes and poor grammar do not count. It is a factual error you are trying to find!

That meeting is set out in the blog in November 2016 if you scroll back. But the mistake – the slip of the pen – was in the last 18 months . Answers and any other reactions, not on a postcard please, but in Comments.

But back to Santa Cruz. The sun shone and after a visit to the buffet for breakfast (everything you can imagine to eat, all freshly cooked in front of you – but noisy because it’s packed with passengers who have failed to get up early enough for a civilised breakfast in the restaurant and are rushing to feed themselves before they set off on their tour!).

We always have breakfast there because it’s impossible to get Jane up and showered and dressed before the restaurants close for breakfast. We use our restaurant for lunch if we are on the ship and always for dinner. The food is wonderful and the staff are very caring. Many of them remember us from as far back as the World Voyage on Queen Victoria in 2014. We bumped into Albert today in the street in Santa Cruz – 12 years since he was our waiter on QV!

Although we have been to Tenerife numerous times on holidays and to play golf over the years, we have always been in the south where the beaches and golf courses are to be found. So the city is mostly a walking tour and as it is on the side of a hill it is tiring. But we survived.

Tonight we set sail at 11.00pm for the short voyage to Gran Canaria where Jane and I spent our honeymoon in 1973.

After 3 days at sea we arrived in our first port – Funchal in Madeira. Day one was slightly drizzly in the afternoon, but we ventured off in a shuttle organised by the ship. No delay and a swift journey along the front. We then walked into town with Jane in the push wheelchair.

It’s a pretty town and we enjoyed the buzz of the place. Plenty of tourists but crowds of locals as well.

We had the usual coffee and then wandered back to the ship. We were overnight in Madeira and next day explored the ship. I had not seen much of it last year! Some of the layout has been criticised in social media and I can understand some of the moans. It is different and many of us don’t like change!

At about 3.00pm the Captain broadcast to passengers and crew to announce that a member of the crew was not well and needed to be airlifted by helicopter and taken ashore.

He told us to clear the decks and remain inside. He said that the helicopter would be arriving in about 15 minutes time. There was clearly a well prepared plan in place to deal with such incidents.

Shortly afterwards the helicopter could be seen and the operation was carried remarkably swiftly.

We were in our cabin at the time and no doubt we will hear from fellow passengers who were closer to the action.