Jackie's Blog

 The Queen Mary 2 was moored just a short distance from our hotel but still too far to carry our enormous amounts of luggage. A quick Uber trip followed and our luggage was being whisked away from us while we started the embarkation process. We also had two pieces of hand luggage each- both containing things we could not afford to lose or break- including Dottie's ashes. We were very impressed by the speed at which they checked us through passport control and customs, and issued us with our new cruise cards. Before we knew it, we were being greeted by the crew and on our way to our cabin. The cabin had a small protected balcony but was plenty of room for us and our luggage, which most impressively arrived not long after us. We unpacked the majority of our clothes etc and found that there was more than enough closet and drawer space, as well as a huge space under the bed to store our actual roll on bags. We were very glad we had packed soft bags as they took up very little room....

 On Tuesday May 21st, we picked up our enormous rental car in Lynn, MA (which we needed because of all the luggage). Another good thing about travelling by ship is that there are no luggage restrictions, you just have to be able to fit it all in your cabin! We drove to Hartford, Connecticut and stayed overnight there to break up the journey to New York after Dick had already worked most of the day. Old and new- just like Boston Rewarding ourselves with local beer. The next day we followed the Hudson river into New York and booked into our hotel in Brooklyn. We returned the rental car, and then went exploring... A very hot day but a local pub (the Strong Rope Brewing company) with views to the Statue of Liberty solved the problem. It felt like we were going on holiday. We were not due to board the ship until the following afternoon, therefore the next morning we went for a walk along the waterfront in Brooklyn and spotted... The Queen Mary 2- our home for the next week. She is the l...

 I promised myself I would try to keep notes about our 'Big Move' to remind me what we achieved over these months. I did. I carried on using Trello as an online monthly project manager but I also found that I had to use a paper planner because it was the only way I could keep everything straight on a daily basis. Looking back on it now there was an awful lot. I am writing this in July and so much has happened since but I will try to summarize it as much as possible. Let's start right at the beginning of 2024. A quiet Christmas at home with some decorations up-  I sold the pre-lit Christmas tree right after. This was the beginning of the big clear out of electrical items that would not work in the UK due to the 120v US v 240v UK power difference. Dick fractured a bone in his ankle on January 16th whilst walking to the train station after slipping on ice hidden under freshly fallen snow. At this point I was very glad I no longer had a job as all the dog walking, among many ot...