World Voyage: Here I come!
After years of planning, researching, and imagining, I am off to New York for the first leg of my World Voyage. The original plan was to meet my friend, Dr. Pat, and spend a few days enjoying Christmas decorations in the city. But COVID finally caught up with both of us, and that plan was scrapped. Instead, I flew up the night before, caught an UBER into Manhattan and just spent one night in the city before boarding.
I enjoy New York for a few days – the energy is infectious and invigorating. For a few days. Upon arrival at my hotel, I took my pre-cruise COVID test (at the time of this writing, this is still being required for longer voyages), danced a jig when it was negative, and set out to find something to eat.
After wandering the streets for a bit and deciding that the restaurants were too crowded to be pleasant, I defaulted to my preferred method of city exploration – street food. There was a gyro cart on the corner near my hotel which suited the purpose. Notice the steam coming up from the underground – such an iconic winter NYC sight.
For me, the best part of travel is talking to people. In New York, people come from everywhere in the world. Taurek is from Egypt, and while he grilled my gyro, he told me about his home in Giza, his new wife and shared honeymoon pictures – many, many of them 🙂 He encouraged my dream of travel to Egypt and gave me so many suggestions. When I asked him why he came to New York, he replied, “I came to work”. I think that exchange with Taurek in the street was superior to a restaurant by far. 
The next morning, I did a marathon of course work, since my clinical license needs to be renewed while I’m at sea in March, then took another UBER to Brooklyn for my first view of the Queen Mary 2. It was cold and raining and perfect. She’s gorgeous! Here’s my first look at the world’s only true ocean liner which will be my home for the next 8 nights. In my next post, I’ll talk about life at sea and the QM2. See y’all then!
22 Comments
Pam Heward
So excited for you and it will be great reading about your travels! We are traveling to South Korea this June to visit our son and his family, so we will experience a different type of travel! Of course T@b travel will still happen, but it will be fun to do other traveling as well. Have a great time!
restlessnative365
How exciting! I know you are looking forward to that! We are so lucky to have these amazing T@Bs to explore North America. Life is good y’all!
Wendy Milnes Gaskell
I hope you will love QM2 as much as I do!
restlessnative365
She really is special! It took me a couple of days to find my way around. What a gorgeous ship!!
Steve and Karen
Looking on Cruisemapper – https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9320556 – we can “see” both the QM2 and the QV docked at Southampton this morning! Best of luck with the transfer.
restlessnative365
Pretty exciting! They did a great send off for us!
DL
Amanda’s Excellent Adventure is underway! Happy, fun, safe travels!
restlessnative365
Thanks Dave! Hope you follow along!
Pat
Fantastic.
We’ll do NYC next December.
Have a blast
Steve and Karen
So excited that you are finally on your way and that we’re able to follow along on your blog!
restlessnative365
So far, the blog is cooperating after its long rest 🙂
Cindy Darling
How exciting! So happy you are are your voyage! Xo
Mallory Goff
Huzzah!! I can’t wait for more of these posts, mama! I love you so much!
restlessnative365
Thanks sweetie! I’m feeling confident about the WiFi on the ship so may go ahead a purchase the whole package so I can stay in touch. Thanks for the encouragement to keep the blog alive. I love you.
Pamela Storm Artis
What a great start — I’ll be following you all along the way, even as I take my first two trips in February and March. Travel mercies friend — enjoy!
restlessnative365
Wonderful – glad to have you along. Looking forward to seeing your posts about your adventures!
Joyce V
Prayers for safety as you travel. You are one brave and adventurous woman. Joyce
restlessnative365
Thanks Joyce! Will miss seeing you in June! Safe travels!
Laura Huesman
Mindy, I am very excited for you. Thank you for the website. I will follow it.
restlessnative365
Thanks so much!! ❤️
Christine Massey
Amanda- have an awesome trip- such a dream come true!! I will be following along with your travels through your website. I laughed at the “marathon of course work” as I am doing the same before our trip to Spain.
Be safe and enjoy!
restlessnative365
Thanks! I’ve had 2 years and out of off🙄. I’ll probably finish my license renewal and do my taxes when we dock in San Francisco. Have a wonderful time in Spain!!! Thanks for following along!