One person wore a strange hat about the ship
She was on a couple of my cruises, and sat at the next table on the farewell trip.
there were a number of people that were shall we say "eccentric." I knew of one party that booked one suite for themselves and one suite for their luggage and used it as a utility room. Others paid extra to have stuffed animals seated with them in the dining room. One person wore a strange hat about the ship. Others had more minor pecadillos but each none the less interesting in their own way.
Then you had the chap uptop with the top hat and tails, l know one guy who sailed with a teddy, a sole teddy at that, not the multiple ones the other couple took. He was quite harmelss, but a total snob, always in QG and his teachings of when a white DJ could be worn were an education and most certainly never on the Transatlantic crossings. he came to a party in my Four deck inside cabin, he had never been in steerage before, l told him l had smelling salts if it proved to much, you want to have seen his face when he opened the toilet door, for sake of space at one of my parties l had placed the cabin chair ontop of the toilet, no rest but l had to take a photo of him sitting on the chair ontop of the toilet. he loved the fact l had decent champage , and how the cork was attached to the neck in the cage, he had never seen that before, l saw it done on the MSC Melody and thought it very tricky.
A very dear friend of mine who l met onboard in 1986 at the time was quite normal, turned slightly odd in later years , l stayed over with her and went shopping, whatever food coupon she had she would buy that product to save money, she booked the big daddy of cruises and travelled with a single suitcase,l asked her how on earth did she manage with so little luggage her dress advice was" black trousers or skirt, white top and coloured scarfs and accessorize, accessorize dear" . Another lady l sailed with l would stop over with in Guildford and we would drive down to the QE2, our last time it was for the round UK and both crossings 21 nights, she was very insistant we have a large car, l booked one , l turned up at her house the night before , she was in a panic she couldnt find her passport ,and there were suitcases and clothes everywhere, we found the passport . in her bread bin, she always had toast in the morning and knew if it was there she wouldnt forget it ! she ended up taking a load of old clothes , to be laundered onboard, she didnt like how the local laundry did them , the QE2 laundry did them just right, she had ordered new clothes, no time to try them on, they went into the suitcases labels and all. packing the car was crazy, but l realised we would never manage for the return journey if l was buying souvenirs etc. We did get away early to drive to QE2, stopped at a service station to wash our face and headed off, chattering away and lm thinking im sure we saw these signs on the way down, plugged in the sat nav, it was saying do a u turn, l was going back the way we came. It ended up that on our return to Southampton before continuing on the two farewell crossing had to phone the car hire firm and explain that l need to upgrade to a bigger car, it resulted in us disembarking from QE2 shell shocked and sad that it was all over finding our luggage and leaving in a white Ford Transit to drive to Guildford, where with the help of Margarets daughter we unloaded the van and sorted the luggage out , she was simply out of her mind that two people could travel with so much luggage, and l had a little rest before heading upto London and navigating the late night traffic .
As it happened my parents were coming onboard in Greenock for the day, they left with a suitcase of stuff, souvenirs , souvenir life and other such things. A fellow friend was onboard with his son, and flying home at the end of the round uk trip. he had left a small bag with me to take across the atlantic, naturally l asked whats inside, he said stones and sand , and it was, he had collected stones from the beaches and various bags of sand on his travels in scotland prior to the cruise , it weighted a ton in his holdall , during the crossing l panicked and chucked some stones and sand over the side so l wasnt going to be sweating going through customs in NY, he laughed about it and saw my point of view when l saw him in NY.
I have had my own quirks , one crusie l was doing back to back , got in a mix up with my packing and took 31 casual shirts, well l didnt want to be paying for laundry on QE2 at their prices, and on QE2 you could take what you want, no luggage limitations, so l did just that. prior to the farewell trips, l posted down about 10 bottles of bubbles to save me carting them down. they were all drunk during the trips. The trouble with QE2 and the take what you think you might need idea is that to this day i have never got out of that habbit. But l do so envy those than can go away for a week with nothing more than a cabin bag. For me excess baggage is part of life when travelling.
But yes Dear QE2 passengers were a very mixed bag.... but really quite harmless
