Hi Mark
Welcome aboard,Glad you found us. As you mentioned by email heres the photo i took of you June 1986 bound for New York and back with Peter Luff.
I think the two things people remember most about their trips on QE2 are the waiters and the cabin. and can you believe this was 29 years ago.
Its always great when the crew are able to share experiences of what and how they did their jobs onboard.
And we as passengers on your table this trip were all newcomers to QE2 and indeed all new comers to cruising. Its funny how you remember the small things looking back, but as a young 17yr old sailing solo in his first trip abroad our whole table look at the waiters as Gods, and it soon became very clear that you were both down to earth guys and had us all at ease with your great sence of humour. l still have nightmares about the Gaspacho soup, well how were we to know it was chilled !!!!!! and trying Caviar for the first time, and seeing all the cutlery on the table and being told work from the outside in and then our order is taken and you then remove various bits of it, the force 10 gale and being asked if l wanted more fries.. and marvelling at how you did silver service and being able to order whatever we wanted from the menu. It was from my point of view another completely different world to what i had known.
The two sittings in TOW must have been a nightmare and moreso if the passengers were inclined to linger over their meal and then having to reset a full table for the next load and away you start again.
What did you like or dislike about working onboard, and do you think it was the "good old days" before the refit, certainly after the refit the crew become more multi cultural whereas before it was mainly British, were you still heavily governed by the unions ?
What memories did you take away from QE2 when you left ? did you everhave the inkling to go back inlater years or even as a passenger. How did the other ships compare to your experience of life onboard QE2 .
What difference did you find in going from TOW to the Columbia. from my point of view in the early years The Columbia was always the "posh" one and the Grills were simply another world away.
How do you think Alan Whickers Fast Boat to China programme showed a true life experience onboard ?
Anyway Enjoy your time on here and l know we look forward to hearing more of your experiences good or bad on here.
Nice to catch up after 29 years to say THANKYOU for all that you did to enhance and make my first QE2 crossing just soo enjoyable..l was hooked ever since
