Travel on the Queen Mary 2 from Fort Lauderdale, FL to St. Thomas, VI

Recently I took a cruise aboard the prestigious Queen Mary 2, sister ship of the QE2, and one of the most well known cruise liners owned and operated by the Cunard Line. The journey was a quick weekend trip from Fort Lauderdale, FL to St. Thomas, VI and back. The Queen Mary 2, as well as St. Thomas both have interesting histories and so having had the opportunity to go on this journey was wonderful.

Upon reaching the Fort Lauderdale port and checking in we were informed that we had been upgraded, something which in the course of almost 10 cruises through most of the major lines has never happened to me. Silly me, I had no idea what they were talking about but took the new room number and boarded the ship. We were bumped from deck Four, near the bowels of the ship, to deck Twelve, the highest deck and a room with a balcony! As I mentioned I have never been upgraded nor have I ever had a room with a balcony. The only downfall of our good luck was that our luggage was not properly re-routed and so went missing for the entire first day. Was this relatively small inconvenience worth the highly praised balcony suite? Alas, in my opinion, no.

Though the room was beautifully appointed and comfortable we soon realized a flaw. The only downfall of being on the higher decks is that you feel the sea movements much more than on the lower decks. I have never been sea sick in my life, I practically grew up on the sea, but then again I have never been up so high in a ship. The second day of open ocean travel the seas were choppy and I was sick to my stomach. In case you were wondering seasickness pills cost $10 and headache pills cost $8 aboard ship. This fact and this alone made me decide after this trip to never again stay in a room so high up on a ship.