We made it to the terminal shortly after noon, having walked the few blocks from the bus stop to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. The QM2 dominated the sky and dwarfed the terminal. We actually walked to the terminal entry more quickly than the long line of cars that were backed up almost to the entrance gate.
QM2 at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
Brooklyn Tourism
Immediately as we entered the terminal, we noticed an information desk for Brooklyn Tourism. We stopped there and collected a few brochures and maps for future reference and chatted with the extremely helpful tourism rep manning the desk.
Brooklyn Tourism at the Terminal
Our bus driver had told us that we should just stay in Brooklyn instead of boarding the ship, so we figured that there must be something more to Brooklyn than just the cruise terminal. For anybody disembarking at Brooklyn, it would be a good idea to head back to the terminal entry to get some helpful advice and maps from this information center.
Boarding the QM2
Although there was a long enough line to get through security and to the registration station, we found the process very efficient. We didn’t spend too much time in line as there are plenty of registration stations.
QM2 Registration
We had booked a guarantee cabin and still held out slim hope that perhaps we would get an upgrade at registration, but that didn’t happen. Booking a guarantee cabin adds to the excitement of the entire process and even though we didn’t get an upgrade, we were quite pleased with our accommodation.
We remember when NCL greeted every passenger with a glass of champagne. We remember when we were escorted to our cabin by the awaiting staff. We thought that considering this is Cunard, that those little touches might be part of the Cunard experience; but, we also remember the economy and cutbacks that the cruise lines have instituted.
Elevators/Lifts on QM2
Waiting for the elevator to take us to our upper level deck became entertaining. Each elevator stopped at our floor, but the sardines inside couldn’t fit another passenger. When we finally got a nearly empty elevator going down, we hopped in with several other passengers figuring that this was a good strategy for getting on an elevator. Taking a ride down a few floors wouldn’t be so bad. We punched the buttons for our upper level floors and headed down. We added some more passengers who punched the higher buttons and we were finally on our way upward. The first group got out and much to our dismay, the elevator headed back down. Without us noticing it, all of the buttons that we had pushed for the upper decks reset when we hit the lower deck and we were back on our way downward. On the way back up, we checked the buttons at every stop to be sure that they were still lit and finally we reached Deck 12, our home for the next 5 days.
Sail Away
