Cunard Cruise Overview!!

Hello!!!

It has been several weeks and I have been a little lacking with my updates. so for all 4 of you that read these, my apologies <3

We are now officially 2 weeks into our second leg of this trip; the USA/Canada bit. Having been to several different countries in Europe during our first 12 weeks, we took a transatlantic, dog friendly cruise from Southampton to New York in order to begin this part of our journey.

We got to go and visit the crew on The Bridge... see the controls, press a button, check out the iceberg map and the Whale Monitor.... very cool!

The cruise was 7 nights long 16-23 May on the Queen Mary 2. She looked like the Titanic and was very regal and had all the different cruise-esque amenities that you would expect; all the different restaurants, cafes, duty free shops, gym and wellness centre, pools and entertainment like a theatre, arts and crafts and a cinema room. We enjoyed the pool, cafes and cinema watching 2 45 minute documentaries on the Hubble Space Telescope and the history of the T-Rex. We also spent our time reading, playing cards and monopoly and eating about 12 meals a day (if you know you know).

My pasta was cooked table side which was exciting, despite it literally being plain pasta

Ayman had fancy schmancy meal

When we arrived at the cruise terminal, we were met by 2 very friendly gentlemen who when we walked in shouted "Edwina, Bat and Pepe! Heyyyy!". They were the Kennel Masters and were meeting all the dog passengers in the terminal. Initially we were sat in our own area where we completed some paperwork before getting on the ship with priority boarding. We walked onto Deck 3 and through the main restaurant 'The Britannia' (think Dining room on the Titanic) before heading up the lift to deck 12 which is the Dog Deck! We placed the pups in their kennels which were all next to each other, and then went to our room before going back at 5pm to discuss feeding. The Kennel Masters, John and Oliver, were the loveliest men who showed great care and dedication to all the doggos on their voyage, there was a lot of love on Deck 12! Once 5pm came around, we discussed how the dogs like to be fed, talked through feeding and visiting times and were given info on what to do in case of emergency [spoiler alert; all pets are given their own life jackets].

Throughout the week, the dogs became used to the routine and became settled and happy. They liked the other humans, were 50/50 on the other dogs and loved being with John and Oliver. They even managed to get their sea legs a little; this was good as it was quite choppy. We went to visit them 3 times a day and walked them around the dog deck, let them pee on the fire hydrant and lamppost, sat and snuggled with the other dogs and humans in the chill room and of an evening would get to run around on deck 12 once all other activities had finished.

In our favourite coffee place on board

On day 3 we had a special treat as it was photoshoot day! We were able to have photos taken with John and Oliver in their full Cunard QM2 get up, pictures of just us with the dogs under the QM2 sign and then finally a full group photo with all the dogs and humans. It was such a lovely touch, especially as all the dogs were given little Cunard jackets to wear for the photos!! We were also given 3 tokens to get 3 free photos which will get pride of place on the wall... once we have a wall again to hang them on.

Sending your dogs thousands of miles across the Atlantic ocean is pricey, it was $800 per dog which included the photo shoot and their food for the week. Bizarrely, this was cheaper than flying the 5 of us to NYC from the UK. Despite the cost, it was definitely worth the money. We got 5* service and the dogs were safe, happy and well looked after which for us was the most important thing.