Roughly 1,000 passengers will be disembarking today and 1000 new ones will be taking their place. The plan was to take the shuttle bus to city center and browse the stores.
My son in law Steve had requested some specific legos that are not easy to find in the US.
The forecast for today varied from hot, sunny with extreme heat to severe storms with flash flooding depending on the forecast source. Unfortunately the later was more accurate. A band of storms moved over Hamburg from about 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM. Sorry Steve, considering the probability of walking in the rain we thought it most prudent to remain on the ship today and nurture our cold recovery.
Especially in the morning the ship was pretty void of passengers. I spend several hours in the library catching up with my blog.
Normally we expect the buffet to be jamed on a boarding day. Not today. It is mostly empty. Probably a byproduct of all aboard being 7:00 PM.
What we have on board in abundance today is many special guests.
There is a contingency of government officials from the Hamburg mayor's office, several groups of what appear to be travel agents, a film crew from Holland, and a local TV news crew.
A cabin steward is asked by a manager to verify a cabin is "perfect". The Commodors lounge is reserved for a "private function". Tables are extra carefully arranged in Kings Court.
Of course the guests are given no information in advance. Only by asking questions we learn that the QM2 is celebrating 20 years of service to Hamburg.
The group of travel agents being given a guided tour of the ship provided one of the funniest moments of the day. They were a group of about 15. On deck 12, they were headed to deck 3. They start packing into elevator car 1. It goes into overload. It takes a few minutes for them to realize what is happening. When they do, they start filing out of the car and filing into the adjacent car 2.
By the time they are all packed in, it too goes into overload. Experienced elevator passengers by now, it only takes 20 seconds this time for them to realize what is happening.
Of course car 1 is now empty, and the overload condition has automatically reset.
So what do you do? One by one they exit car 2 and all get into car 1. Yes, every one of them.
After it goes into overload, again, they finally figure out that maybe they shouldn't all pack into single car and should split into smaller groups.
I stand back and chuckle. I'll wait for a less crowded lift.
By 4:30 the rain has stopped. We go to the pub a little earlier today. Our first encounter with a couple of passengers that obvoiously "bought the package", drink package that is. Loud and obnoxious, residents of Miami they boarded today and are headed to New York. Unfortunately I am confident our paths will cross again.
The captain makes an announcement that during tonights sailaway the ship will go upriver past the center of Hamburg, turnaround and then head downriver to the North Sea in celebration of 20 years calling here. Now we officially know why all the special guests.
We decide we will skip tonights show and participate in the sailaway instead.
Anticipating the dining room will be a little more hectic tonight, we are seated right on time. Two ladies are seated next to us. From Germany, they are headed to New York. Only one of them speaks english. Both are in our age group. Neither have ever been on a cruise ship before. The first cruising question. Is it safe to drink the water?
The ship is untied at 8:00 PM.
Surrounded by many tourist boats, we head upriver. Many thousands of people line the shore to watch. People are everywhere to catch a glimpse of the queen. Private boats, and tour boats, building balconies and rooftops are crowded. Two tugs assist to make sure no paint is accidently scratched during this celebratory event. Trump would be jealous if he saw the crowds, and then he would proclaim they were all generated with AI.
The publicity detour takes about an hour and a half. The sun has set as we pass our original berth and head down the Elbe river.
We head to the chartroom for some Jazz. The band is waiting for us to arrive. No guests are here, all delayed by the sail away activites.
Our favorite bar tender is tickled to be filmed by the film crew, possibly to be in Cunards future marketing. Over the next 30 minutes the room fills with guests.
As the moon relects across the water we head northerly to the North Sea on our way to Southampton.