Mo Green
30-08-2004, 12:15
Earlier this year I promised I would write a trip report of our drive from New York to Florida and return on the QE2.
We had been planning to move Cliff’s elderly parents closer to us and expected to return to help them move. We returned to find Cliff’s Dad had had a stroke while we were away - the family had decided not to spoil our trip. Over the next 4 months just about anything that could go wrong did! I will not bore you with all the details but finally life is getting back to normal and I have found time to type up my trip report.
A few days after we married in April 1969, the new Cunard liner - Queen Elizabeth 2 – made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic from Southampton to New York. For several years we had promised ourselves we would make the crossing for our Silver Wedding Anniversary but, when the time came in 1994 the trip was out of the question.
In 2002 we discovered that after 35 years of Atlantic crossings, the Queen Elizabeth 2 (or QE2 as she had become known), was making her last transatlantic voyage in April, 2004. She was then due to leave New York on Sunday April 25 in an historic tandem crossing with the new Queen Mary 2 (QM2). The last time two ‘Queens’ were in the port of New York together was in the 1940s with their legendary namesakes, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. With this coinciding with our 35th anniversary it seemed a very appropriate time to go.
The price included a flight to New York so we decided to fly out early on April 1st, drive down to Florida and spend a few days at our villa on the Gulf Coast before flying back to New York. After weeks of research we had planned a route from New York to Florida and booked several overnight stops along the way.
Having heard that east coast USA was having unusually cold weather we were equipped with everything for cold to hot temperatures, casual to formal occasions. There was no luggage allowance on the QE2 but we still had to comply with airline regulations. Fortunately we had been able to take over some formal clothes in December and leave them in our villa.
Day 1 - Thursday 1 April
Finally the day had arrived. We woke to a beautiful spring day and soon the taxi arrived to take us to Heathrow Airport for the first stage of our journey.
After a good flight we arrived at JFK Airport, New York at 3.30 pm to discover it was only 4°C. We had not been to JFK for 16 years and then we were driven to and from the airport at night time. We were amazed at how large it was. Tempting as it was to go into New York, by the time we had reached out hotel, a Holiday Inn Express, it was 11pm UK time (for mathametecians the USA did not change to summer time until the weekend) and we wanted to start as early as possible next morning. When we saw the view from our bedroom window (10 lanes of the Freeway East, 10 lanes West) we were pleased we had made the decision to collect our hire car in the morning.
Maureen
http://orlandovillas.com/villaview.asp?villa=1267
We had been planning to move Cliff’s elderly parents closer to us and expected to return to help them move. We returned to find Cliff’s Dad had had a stroke while we were away - the family had decided not to spoil our trip. Over the next 4 months just about anything that could go wrong did! I will not bore you with all the details but finally life is getting back to normal and I have found time to type up my trip report.
A few days after we married in April 1969, the new Cunard liner - Queen Elizabeth 2 – made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic from Southampton to New York. For several years we had promised ourselves we would make the crossing for our Silver Wedding Anniversary but, when the time came in 1994 the trip was out of the question.
In 2002 we discovered that after 35 years of Atlantic crossings, the Queen Elizabeth 2 (or QE2 as she had become known), was making her last transatlantic voyage in April, 2004. She was then due to leave New York on Sunday April 25 in an historic tandem crossing with the new Queen Mary 2 (QM2). The last time two ‘Queens’ were in the port of New York together was in the 1940s with their legendary namesakes, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. With this coinciding with our 35th anniversary it seemed a very appropriate time to go.
The price included a flight to New York so we decided to fly out early on April 1st, drive down to Florida and spend a few days at our villa on the Gulf Coast before flying back to New York. After weeks of research we had planned a route from New York to Florida and booked several overnight stops along the way.
Having heard that east coast USA was having unusually cold weather we were equipped with everything for cold to hot temperatures, casual to formal occasions. There was no luggage allowance on the QE2 but we still had to comply with airline regulations. Fortunately we had been able to take over some formal clothes in December and leave them in our villa.
Day 1 - Thursday 1 April
Finally the day had arrived. We woke to a beautiful spring day and soon the taxi arrived to take us to Heathrow Airport for the first stage of our journey.
After a good flight we arrived at JFK Airport, New York at 3.30 pm to discover it was only 4°C. We had not been to JFK for 16 years and then we were driven to and from the airport at night time. We were amazed at how large it was. Tempting as it was to go into New York, by the time we had reached out hotel, a Holiday Inn Express, it was 11pm UK time (for mathametecians the USA did not change to summer time until the weekend) and we wanted to start as early as possible next morning. When we saw the view from our bedroom window (10 lanes of the Freeway East, 10 lanes West) we were pleased we had made the decision to collect our hire car in the morning.
Maureen
http://orlandovillas.com/villaview.asp?villa=1267