We need help!! We're out of control.

Just recently, we received an email from a Travel Agent - basically saying that our cruise had been booked and please pay the deposit by a certain date. "What's this then??? We've already paid for our cruise to the UK (and return) in full!!"  Well, yes - we had. But Barry had forgotten that about 15 months ago, we had put our names down on a list with the said Travel Agent - because there was talk of the possibility of Cunard opening up a short 6 night sector between Sydney and Auckland, NZ as part of her 2011 World Cruise. At the time it was really only a remote possibility, it wasn't shown in the Cunard glossy brochure, probably would only happen if they found that some cabins were empty during the cruise  - and as internet based conversation regarding it had cooled to the point of almost nothingness, we had thought that the idea had died. "Probably just as well .... There is every chance that when we finish the homeward bound cruise from UK on P&O's Arcadia, after a total of 12 weeks at sea over the preceding nearly 4 months, we may feel that we never want to see another cruise ship again."

BUT - after the email arrived, how could we refuse this opportunity???? We have heard all about Queen Mary 2 - it is considered by some cruisers to be the Mt Everest of cruising, the Mona Lisa of cruising, the Eifel Tower of cruising - and it rarely comes to Aussie waters. We just couldn't let it pass by. SO - less than a week after we arrive back home in Brisbane, we will fly down to Sydney and join her. It will be mid-week - but she will be in Sydney Harbour overnight, together with the new Cunard Queen Elizabeth on her maiden World Voyage. The way that Sydneysiders turn out for these special events on their Harbour - it should be a spectacle even before we set sail.

Here is a photo of Queen Mary 2 - taken by us on a special visit we made to Southampton in 2008, just to see her alongside. We had never seen her before and, when we did, we never dared to dream that we would ever sail on her. The photo was taken from the Hythe to Southampton passenger ferry