Children's Room, Creche and Cinema

[Rod]

Childrens room was also a popular place for staff parties and rehersals for the Wardroom show.

[Trevor Harris]

Here's another view of the Children's Room looking forward.  The door in the center of the photo leads to the enclosed play area just aft of the old Sports Deck.  There are some great photos of this enclosed area in this string of posts especially reply #14 - https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php/topic,5697.msg58676.html#msg58676

Question. What are those red and white cubicles?

[Trevor Harris]

And to round the story off, 3 years after Isabelle was there, and 42 years after our first photos, I saw it in Dubai. 

QE2 in Warm Lay-up in Dubai, April 25th 2011 by Rob Lightbody, on Flickr

I love the whales!

[June Ingram]

Childrens room was also a popular place for staff parties and rehersals for the Wardroom show.

Do you recall any especially interesting parties or rehearsals ? 

[Rod]

Not for public airing, no.

[June Ingram]

 

[Thomas Hypher]

My connection with the Nursery is much the same as Bob C's but started generations later on my first voyage in August 2003, aged 6 - this being an example of how many generations QE2 touched in 39 years at sea and continues to touch in Dubai with children not born in 2008 visiting her now with their schools as shown on Instagram. The last time I recall being a part of the Nursery was in July 2005 on my third voyage as I was nearly 9 years old at the time.

I have vague memories of the Nursery itself and the time I spent there (it was quite separate from most of the rest of the ship physically and in being off limits for privacy and safety reasons) but the highlight of my connection with the Nursery was my first bridge visit in July 2005 on my third voyage onboard. We were led through to the bridge by the Nursery staff via one of the two doors at either end of the Nursery (the other door being the passenger entrance to the Nursery via a long staircase up from Boat Deck) and visited the bridge whilst transiting through a warm, sunny, and calm Bay of Biscay at 28.3 to 28.4 knots. The headwind that blasted me in the face when I stood on the compass binnacle platform and stuck my head up above the leading edge of the bridge wing (I was and still am quite short!) is something I will never forget and on that occasion the weather deflectors built into each bridge wing were not working unlike during my second bridge visit almost exactly three years to the day later in July 2008 (in similar weather and the Bay of Biscay but whilst travelling at around 23 knots) when I was tall enough to easily stick my head above the bridge wing's leading edge and the air was much calmer! Having my photo taken whilst at her wheel (on autopilot though!) was a highlight on both occasions but particularly when first visiting with the Nursery. Both visits have been a major inspiration for my dream career of being a deck officer.

I have embeded from my Flickr, a couple of the photos I took on my first bridge visit (note Ron Warwick's Captain's chair which started life as a Dentist's chair before being repurposed for QE2 by the owner of a bus company in the USA!) and one of the photos the Nursery staff took of me at the wheel at the time with my camera. Unfortunately either I didn't take many more photos on this bridge visit or photos have been lost over time maybe due to an SD Card corruption I had at one point on my camera.

Dad's QE2 Mediterranean digital photos, July 2005 by Thomas Hypher, on Flickr

Dad's QE2 Mediterranean digital photos, July 2005 by Thomas Hypher, on Flickr

Dad's QE2 Mediterranean digital photos, July 2005 by Thomas Hypher, on Flickr

[Rob Lightbody]

Great memories Thomas.

Still find it amazing that those kinds of speeds were completely normal to QE2 day in, day out, but now are unheard of.

[Rod]

With this and another picture of Thomas on the bridge, I am almost positive that that is not the original, as built wheel! Antone any ideas? I think the original was wood with spokes.

[Willum]

  This was the ships wheel as part of the sperry autopilot. Metal wheel with black resin-bakelite spokes handles
photo from 1984

[Thomas Hypher]

With this and another picture of Thomas on the bridge, I am almost positive that that is not the original, as built wheel! Antone any ideas? I think the original was wood with spokes.

The original wheel was replaced by the current plastic wheel (like the wheel on a toy car) sometime in the early 2000s from what I can deduce.

  This was the ships wheel as part of the sperry autopilot. Metal wheel with black resin-bakelite spokes handles
photo from 1984

Willum, do you think that Dubai might be using the original wheel in their representation of the bridge in her lobby building? It looks very similar if not and if I recall correctly has plastic/Bakelite spoke handles too. I've attached a screenshot from one of my videos from last January.

[Thomas Hypher]

I don't know where the creche was -- but the Youth Chillout Room was not located near the Nursery. It was at a corner at the end of the promenade on either Upper or Quarter Deck. We never did get inside it to check how the youth had been chilling out...

I remember the teen club/youth chillout room was quite small and cozy. We had games consoles etc in there, much like a youth club on land really just more cramped!

I'll never forget being discreetly distraught during the final time we all met, for a farewell fish and chip meal which I struggled to finish due to being upset and which led one of the youth staff to ask if I was feeling unwell as I tried to mask my emotions, on my final voyage onboard as we'd had a wonderful time as a group including a group of us visiting QE Grand Suite which one of our group had with his family. I will also never forget craning my neck to look up at that wonderfully designed signal mast from pretty much directly below.

That last time at the teen club was one such moment of finality on that voyage when QE2's imminent retirement really hit home.

I tried to find the entrance of the teen club during my visit nearly a year ago, but looked in completely the wrong place . However the door makes a slight appearance in one of my photos. I wonder if the room is much as it was, a time capsule of sorts, or just a storage place now?