QM2 Caribbean
Calypso Review
1/3/2011 – 1/13/2011
Having had a wonderful time on the QM2 in November of 2009,
we decided to sail on her again. Deck
six mid-ship was a great location being directly under the Kings Court. It is a very short trip for my morning coffee
and danish. Cabin 6185 was available in
a Cat B1 with a hull balcony. While the
thought of a hull balcony might not be appealing to some, it proved to be ideal
for the weather conditions which we were to experience on our way home.
Our trip to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal was done using
Executive Limousine, a local company here in town. They are very reliable and we had Felipe as
our driver. He is a great driver and
also makes a mean hot antipasto for two (a story for another day). He arrived at the house around 10:15, loaded
the four bags into the trunk (you take the blonde, I’ll take the one in the
turban – Young Frankenstein) and we were off.
Traffic was particularly bad this morning as the city was still
recovering from the Christmas blizzard.
Road crews were out in force handling pothole repairs.
We arrived at the terminal a little after 11:30. It was the usual organized chaos. I much prefer the Bayonne terminal as they have bays set up
where a vehicle can pull in, unload and then back out and leave. Felipe managed to find a spot at the curb, we
unloaded the bags and after showing a porter a $5.00 bill, we were all
set.
Inside the terminal the first stop is security. I wisely left my MacGyver Swiss Army knife at
home this voyage. After showing our
passports and photo IDs, we were in line for the metal scanners. Even after emptying my pockets, I still
managed to set off the detector. I was
instructed to remove my belt and go through again. This time I didn’t beep. There is obviously something to be said for
the Max Bialystock cardboard belt when travelling.
The ship had a Norovirus outbreak on the prior sailing and
they were being particularly careful. We
signed the health service questionnaire and were then directed to a line for
further processing. It might be my
imagination, but there appeared to be fewer agents checking people in than on
our prior sailing. We finally got to an
agent, had our photos taken, charge card swiped and were then directed to a
waiting area.
The embarkation is handled in a very civilized fashion. When you enter the check in line, you are
given a number. Many people receive the
same number. Embarkation is done in
groups by your number. We were final
called shortly after 12:30. Having
sailed before, we now had a Cunard Silver card.
One of the things that really annoy me is the first
photo. Here you are in the terminal with
a big Cunard banner. The embarkation
line grinds to a halt as you line up for a photo (the first of MANY). We took the photo bypass and proceeded to
board the ship. In the lobby you are
greeted by a “welcoming committee” consisting of several suited people as well
as some dressed in a bell hop outfit reminiscent of something out of the golden
age of hotels. I was waiting for a
“welcome back” or “good afternoon”. I
don’t recall anyone saying anything.
When we had travelled on Princess, the greeters picked-up on the color
of your Sea Pass and gave you a big welcome back
when they caught a glimpse of it. I must
have spent 2 days on the Crown trying to figure out how they remembered me from
a year ago. Sort of like the Beverly
Hillbillies door bell ringing followed by a knock at the door “don’t that just
beat all?”
We found our cabin quickly (a benefit of being a repeat
cruiser) and were greeted by a bottle of sparkling wine (from Cunard) and a
plate of chocolate covered strawberries compliments of CruCon our travel
agent. After a few minutes we were
greeted by our cabin stewardess Maureen from South Africa. She is one of the most pleasant people that
you would ever want to meet. She always
had a smile on her face and in her voice.
She welcomed us aboard and asked if we needed anything. There was a large storage closet with hooks
but no hangers. They obviously assume
that you will be using a garment bag and will have your own hangers. We asked for some hangers and within a few
minutes she returned with enough to take care of all of our needs.
We left our carryon items in the cabin and headed up to the
King’s Court for lunch.
Upon returning to our cabin, we found most of our luggage
had already arrived. Cunard is the
fastest by far at getting your luggage delivered to your cabin. We were missing one bag which arrived about
an hour later. We had brought our own
diet soda with us as we are somewhat finicky (apologies to Morris the cat)
about what we drink. I put two cases of
diet soda and four bottles of water in a shipping carton cushioned it with
Styrofoam put a luggage label on it and away it went. The beverages arrived at our cabin in tact
and served us throughout the cruise.
We had requested a table for six, early seating in the
Britannia Dining room. We were seated at
table 208 on the upper level by the window.
We met our dining companions, Noreen and Jeff from Connecticut.
Our waitress was Lavinia, busboy Alex and headwaiter Dominic.
First of all, a word about Purell. On the cruise prior to ours, a fair number of
crew and passengers came down with Norovirus.
In addition to completely disinfecting the ship, there were crew members
stationed at all of the dining venues with Purell dispensers in hand. During the first several days of the cruise,
they were quite adamant at having you use the product prior to entering the
dining area. I for one had no problem
with this, but there were others who vehemently refused. Unfortunately, this is an instance where some
people’s stubbornness can lead to someone else’s illness. By the middle of the cruise, the Purell
“purveyors” had disappeared from the King’s Court. In the Britannia, it was relegated to a stand
inside the dining room entrance. You
actually had to ask for it. There is one
other minor point. In the King’s Court ,
some of the crew members dispensing the Purell had obviously been reassigned
from other duties below deck. They were
not given a “uniform” but wore their tea shirts. It seems somewhat incongruous on a ship that
prides itself on being so prim and proper.
I would have thought that they could have found something for them to
wear other than an “Ed Norton” special.
King’s Court Buffet:
The buffet is divided into four serving areas. The Galley, La Piazza, The Carvery and
Lotus.
The Galley does omelets, eggs, pancakes and waffles at
breakfast, burgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers and sandwiches at lunch and
cooking demonstrations at dinner. The
waffles were quite good. I particularly
like the strawberry sauce. If you need
sugar free syrup, all you have to do is ask.
I had a burger one day and it too was quite good.
La Piazza is Italian
themed. Salads, hot dishes and pizza are
the bill of fare. We never tried the
pizza (nothing compares with NY pizza).
They did have an excellent focaccia.
The desserts were excellent (they tended to serve the same ones in all
three areas). There were some exceptions
to this. One day they had a cannoli
“wannabee”. It was sweetened ricotta
cheese in a rolled up shell. The shell,
however, was covered with a carmelized sugar and was very crumbly. These disappeared quite quickly.
The Carvery specialized in meats. Their turkey, roast beef and prime rib were
outstanding. One day they served fried
chicken. It appeared that they used thighs
for the entire pan. There was not a
breast or drumstick to be found in the bunch.
The Lotus was perhaps the most interesting of the
group. They specialized in oriental
items. My favorites were their Szechuan noodles and sweet and sour items. They also had a large variety of soups over
the 10 day period. There was at least
one sushi day.
High Tea: One of the highlights of the culinary day is
high tea. This is served in both the
Queens Room and King’s Court on sea days.
On port days it is only served in the Queen’s Room. High tea consists of finger sandwiches, small
cakes and the outstanding scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. The last are to die for. People have been seen running through the
ship in a frantic effort to get to high tea before it ends. Service in the Queen’s Room is particularly
elegant with the cream and jam being served in little dishes. King’s Court diners are served in the buffet
(get your own) mode. No matter how much
you eat during the day, there is always room for a scone (somewhat like Jello).
The Britannia
Dining Room: We were located on
the upper level starboard side. As
previously mentioned, our waitress was Lavinia from Romania,
Alex from the Philippines
and Dominic (I didn’t catch his home country).
Lavinia had previously worked for Lufthansa Airlines in Bucharest and was very
sharp (she got all of my jokes which most people don’t). The menu selection in the dining room was
very good, not excellent. The appetizers
were fairly interesting, the soups and salads okay. The salads tended to show very little
creativity. The entrees for the most part
were quite good and prepared properly.
The one entrée which I did not think was all that good was the prime
rib. While it looked nice and pink, it
was quite chewy. I couldn’t help but
thinking that the prime rib in The Texas Roadhouse was much better. I spoke with a gentleman subsequently who had
the prime rib at the King’s Court and he said that it was outstanding. It could just be the luck of the draw. The lobster tail while small was very
good. A little melted butter would have
helped (we melted our own). Yes, I did
ask for two. The desserts on the ship
were consistently quite good. For some
reason, I kept gravitating to the ice cream.
I remembered from our previous voyage that the parfait was not what we
in New York
consider a parfait. A parfait in Cunard
parlance is a gelatinous concoction.
The service in the Britannia was variable. On the nights that Lavinia had an assistant,
things moved quickly. When the assistant
was MIA, it slowed down considerably. In
my opinion it is the job of the headwaiter to ensure that service is consistent
and to re-arrange his staff to accomplish that.
One evening it was almost 8:00 before she got any help. That is not fair to her or to the guests.
On our prior cruise we were given candies and candied ginger
after dinner. In addition, at the end of
the cruise we were presented with copies of all of our dinner menus. Neither thing happened on this cruise
although we did see other people with those items on their table. Some of our fellow Cruise Critic passengers
likewise had them each night.
On a scale of one to ten with ten being the highest, the
food gets an 8.5 and the service a 7.
Again, the service is the responsibility of the headwaiter when staff is
missing.
King’s Court La
Piazza Dinner: One evening we
decided to try dinner in La Piazza. Our
reservation was for 7:30, but we arrive at 7:20 and were seated
immediately. The service was superb with
several people attending to our table. The
menu is somewhat confusing as it looks like you can only order an appetizer,
entrée and dessert. You can, in fact,
order as much as you want. The menu
items were all quite good and the desserts were quite unique. I especially enjoyed having a cappuccino
after dinner (no additional cost).
Contrary to what we had heard on Cruise Critic, there was no additional
charge for the King’s Court dinner. The
only thing that bothered me was the fact that we were unable to see the menus
for the evening prior to making the dinner reservation in the morning. They may have been posted somewhere, but we
never found them.
The Entertainment
Daytime Activities:
We particularly enjoy the lecture
series. The lecturers included Dr. Gad
Heumann, Robert Neal Marshall and Dr. Joe Bishop. The topics included My Fair Lady, Newsreel
History, Early Air Travel, Slavery in the Caribbean
and forecasting the weather. We had seen
Dr. Bishop before so we attended only one of his presentations. My feeling is that no matter how old you are,
you can always learn something new. Such
was the case here. The lectures were
well attended and recorded for later viewing in one’s cabin. The recording of the lectures is an excellent
idea for those who were doing other things during the presentation.
Concerts: There were
several mid-day concerts during the 10 days.
We managed to attend only one a classical guitar concert given by Jacob
Cordover. He is an excellent guitarist
and we enjoyed his performance.
Computer Workshops: Cunard
has the largest computer lab which I have ever seen on a ship. There are many seminars held throughout the
voyage, many of which are free. I
attended one on upgrading to Windows 7.
The presenter was very knowledgeable and I learned a few things which I
hadn’t known before. The classrooms have
overhead projectors and hand outs are distributed.
The activities on the QM2 tend more
toward the sedate. There are no hairy
chest competitions or belly flop contests.
There are watercolor classes, bridge classes, the ubiquitous art classes
and things along those lines.
My favorite daytime activity is
sitting up on the promenade deck watching the world go by. My second favorite activity is walking. 3 laps around the deck equal 1.1 miles. On one of my walks, I actually saw a tank
which fell off of a ship floating in the water.
A few minutes later, the captain got on the PA to announce what it was
and that they were reporting it as a hazard to shipping in the shipping
lanes. In 17 cruises, this is the first
time I had seen something like that. I
did find it unusual that the crew was doing scraping and painting while people
were walking and sitting out on the promenade.
It must be a scheduling issue.
The Evenings’ Entertainment
One of the things we enjoyed the
most about the Crown Princess was the evening entertainment. They had a show in the main showroom and an
additional show in the Explorer’s Lounge.
You could see one or both and would have a full evening’s entertainment. Most cruise lines have now reduced the main
entertainment for the evening to one show in the main showroom featuring a
single headliner. Cunard, sad to say, is
no exception.
Day 1: This was your normal welcome aboard
presentation. Entertainment Director
(NOT Cruise Director) Ray Rouse introduced some of the staff followed by a
presentation from the Royal Cunard Singers and Dancers. Three of the four singers were present,
Debbie Chapman, Hannah Block and Mark Morgan.
The fourth singer was dancer Anthony Edwards(?). While he was very enthusiastic and a
fantastic dancer, I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the fourth dancer
whose photograph was on display outside of the theater. He did reappear for one performance during
the cruise. We all know that he didn’t
go on vacation. Perhaps he was hanging
out with Alex our AWOL busboy.
Day 2: “Passion and Pizzazz with Virtuoso Violinist
Jacqueline Roche”. We had seen
Jacqueline on our prior cruise. She is a
Julliard graduate and has studied with some very notable violinists. She had a very comprehensive assortment of
pieces which demonstrated her virtuosity.
Her concert was thoroughly enjoyable.
Day 3: “Crazy In Love”. This is a stage production featuring the
Royal Cunard Singers and Dancers backed by Joey Mix and the orchestra. I would like to say that the “orchestra” led
by Joey who hails from Atlanta,
GA does a fantastic job backing
the stage shows and visiting artists.
This production was quite clever using a number of multimedia inserts to
allow for scene transitions and mood setting.
It follows the cycle of love through a series of vignettes and musical
numbers. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give it
a 9.
Day 4: Comedy featuring Rondell Sheridan. What a FANTASTIC comedian. Rondell is very personable interacting with
the audience members and incorporating this into his act. He successfully walks the fine line between
antagonizing people and entertaining them.
If you have a chance to see him perform, definitely do so. You can get more info by searching for him on
Facebook.
Day 5: “Variety Show in the Royal Court
Theater”. This featured Rondell Sheridan and Jacqueline
Roche appearing on the same bill.
Although there were two performers, the overall length of the show
remained unchanged. Both of them were
outstanding.
Day 6: “A Royal Cunard Concert”. “Cunard Singers with a collection of songs
from the Belinda King production ‘Singers in Concert’”. This struck me as what I would term low cost
mid-cruise filler. They used the
resources at hand to present a show. It
kind of reminds me of leftover night at home.
The show was good, not great.
Day 7: Master Magician Brett Sherwood. This guy is OUTSTANDING; blink and you miss
it. This is not your Catskills magician. He did things which really left you
scratching your head. To the amazement
of many, he did quite a few tricks in short sleeve shirts; now that takes
skill. This was another not to be missed
act.
Day 8: The “Rolls-Royce Voice of Music Theater
Sensation Anthony Stuart Lloyd”. Anthony
is a BIG chap. I couldn’t help but
seeing him in the role of Max Bialystock from The Producers with Leo Bloom
yelling “please don’t sit on me”.
Anthony has a fantastic voice and an outstanding stage presence. He did a wide variety of songs and was
another thoroughly enjoyable act. I had
the opportunity to speak with him on debarkation day and he was extremely nice
and personable.
Day 9: “The Spectacular Production Show –
Apassionata”. The billboard outside the
theater says 7 successful years. Hey
folks, this isn’t Broadway, if you don’t like the show, you don’t see it. You don’t have another choice. The fact that it gets a crowd at each
performance is not necessarily a valid indicator of its quality. The show was okay, we had seen it
before. I realize that mounting a
production such as this requires a major outlay of money and has to run for
quite a while to recoup the investment made.
Once a production reaches 7 years, the 7 year itch should set in and
perhaps it is time for something new.
Day 10: The farewell show featuring Brett Sherwood
and Anthony Steward Lloyd. Once again
Cunard gives us two for the price of none.
This was another enjoyable evening.
The only problem that I have with this kind of combo is that each
performance is shortened, leaving you wanting for more.
Onboard Performers:
Campbell
Simpson: Campbell is an extremely talented
pianist. He appears all over the ship
with late nights in the Commodore Club appearing to be his forte. He plays without sheet music and has a very
wide repertoire ranging from The Simpsons to Rhapsody in Blue. He interacts very well with the guests
especially in the smaller venue setting.
My wife tends to fall asleep during concerts and he serenaded her with Brahms
Lullaby.
Russell Holmes: Another talented pianist. He too has a wide variety of songs in his playbook
and does some wonderful medleys.
Greg Sampson: Greg’s “haunt” was the Golden Lion Pub. He is the prototypical “piano man”.
The Simon Galfe Trio: If you like excellent jazz, this is the group
to see. They frequent the Chart Room
nightly in addition to appearing in a few other venues.
The EOS String Quartet: Another group out of the Ukraine. The Sunrise String Quartet which we saw on
our last voyage also hailed from there.
This is another talented group.
Some of these ladies looked like they were still in high school.
Maria Nikitina: The resident harpist. I am also amazed at the skill which it takes
to play this instrument. I never
realized that a harp has pedals similar to a piano. Maria played this instrument with aplomb.
Paul Christopher: Paul is the big band singer in the Queens
Room. Something about his style turned
me off. His performance seemed to be
almost forced. It somewhat reminded me
of the piano singer from the flop ABC TV series “It’s a Living” which ran one
season beginning in October, 1980. Maybe
it was my imagination, but he should learn some of the song lyrics.
Vibz: The onboard Caribbean
band. We didn’t have that much
opportunity to hear them perform, but what we did hear was enjoyable.
Ports of Call:
St Thomas:
Our first port of call was Charlotte Amalie,
USVI. The ship docked at the Austin "Babe" Monsanto Marine Facility,
located in Crown Bay.
From there it is a $4.00 “taxi” ride to downtown. While you can walk it, the route is less than
scenic and not particularly interesting.
We had no shore excursions planned
here as we had visited the island several times before. We opted for the $4.00 ride into town and
decided to just walk around. In many
ways Charlotte Amalie
reminds me of the old 42nd
Street in NYC.
The only difference is that they are selling jewelry. Every other storekeeper tried to pull us in
to look at their bargains. After a
while, it begins to wear on you.
Looking at the map, we noticed a
synagogue not far from the main “drag”. We
decided to explore this. The Hebrew
Congregation of St. Thomas was founded in 1796 and is still an active house of
worship. We were told that it was the
oldest active synagogue in North America. It was truly fascinating with many
interesting artifacts displayed in a museum area. The floor was done in sand, something quite
unusual. There was a separate gift shop
building with some very nice items.
After a little more walking around
downtown, we headed backed to the terminal.
The shops are basically what you would find in any Caribbean
port. There were some vendor stands set
up selling some of the “local” items.
Saint Lucia:
Our next port of call was Castries, Saint
Lucia.
I had done some research on Trip Advisor and booked a tour privately
with Cosol Tours. The cost was $65.00 pp
all inclusive. We were to meet on the
dock at 8:15 and begin the tour at 8:30.
Unfortunately, the ship did not dock at this port. We were anchored out in the harbor and the
shore tenders were utilized. With this
system in place, we were told that the ship would arrive in Saint Lucia at
around 10:00 and tendering would begin shortly thereafter. I was one of the first to get tender tickets
and we were on terra firma by 10:30. I
had told Ellen that if I were Cosol, I would be there to greet the guests no
matter what time the ship arrived. Sure
enough, he was on the pier with a sign and a list of passengers who had booked
with him. By the time all was said and
done, it was almost 11:30 before we began the tour. He used two mini-van buses in a convoy. Saint Lucia is a volcanic island
with MANY winding roads. This was
complicated by the cleanup from Hurricane Tomas which was still underway. Many roads still showed the affects of the
storm as crews worked to repair them.
During our tour we passed the remains of a house which was buried in a
mud-slide. The only marker for the
burial site of the family that lived there was a cross on top of a mound of
mud. The decision was made to leave the
site the way it was as any action might precipitate further slides.
Our tour included many viewing
points, stops for bananas and “breakfast”, a visit to the volcano pit, a “water taxi (aka large motorboat)”
to a beach between the Petons for swimming.
I was not feeling that well by beach time. I’m not sure if it was something that I ate,
the winding roads or a combination of the two.
I decided to spend the beach time lying in a lounge chair. This was an incredibly beautiful spot. On the way back, we stopped for a lunch of
fresh hot bread and cheese. Given the
state of my system, I decided to pass.
The tour which we got from Cosol
was far superior to anything that you would have booked through the ship. He made many viewing stops and had a
bottomless cooler in the van containing soda, water, beer and the ubiquitous
rum punch.
We arrived back at the terminal
around 4:45. That gave us a few minutes
to look around before heading back to the ship.
I would highly recommend Cosol’s
tour. He does have a website.
Barbados:
In Bridgetown we had booked our lone ship’s tour;
the 4x4 Jeep Adventure. We met our
guide, Ron Arthur, just outside the terminal in the “tour mustering” area. Six of us piled into the back of the jeep
which more resembled an army transport truck and headed out for our
adventure. Barbados is relatively flat with
rolling hills. The concept of
off-roading sounds very appealing in the brochure description, but there are in
fact very few off-road locations to visit.
In the long run, you would probably see almost as much with a straight
island tour. This was our third visit to
the island so we had decided to give it a try.
Off-roading - This Was One of the Jeeps in the Convoy
On The Beach
Upon returning to the ship, we had
lunch and headed out on foot to Bridgetown. The city is about a 20 minute walk from the
ship. You just follow the water past the
fish market to the center of town and turn left. Our destination was the Nidhe Israel
Synagogue. While it was marked on
several maps, we ended up having to ask directions from a policeman outside the
library. As it turned out, we were only
a block away. The synagogue was quite
interesting although not quite as historical as the synagogue in St. Thomas. The cemetery was quite interesting. At first it looked like the graves were raised
above ground level similar to what one finds in New Orleans.
We were told that they had actually been below ground but were semi-excavated
to prevent cars from using the area as a parking lot. Apparently that was the previous use prior to
restoration.
Dominica:
We had booked another 4x4 tour for
this port but decided to cancel it and just stay on the ship. Once we docked, however, we decided to see
what the deals were on the dock. There
were LOADS of tour operators all basically showing the same map of the
island. I’m sure that Dominica has
many natural wonders, but access for vehicles seems to limit tours to a basic
loop. The operators were hawking their
tours here similarly to the way the jewelry stores were pushing their
merchandise in St. Thomas. We walked down the row of shop-tents until
the end. The going price for the tours
was $25.00 per person. We did find out
that only approved tour operators were allowed inside the fenced in area by the
terminal. Those operators outside this
secure area were apparently not “approved” by the local licensing authorities. The vehicle types were either mini-buses or
maxi-buses. After the mini-bus ride in Saint Lucia, I
decided that I would only do this tour in a maxi-bus. As we were walking back to the terminal
entrance, we saw a tour operator with a large bus talking with some
people. They were off of the Princess
ship docked a ways down the waterfront from the QM2. He also wanted $25.00 per person. We decided to go for that deal but I did not
want to wait on his empty bus. After
around 20 minutes we began to realize that people would not go with him as he
kept showing them the bus which only had 2 people on it; so we decided to get
on. The bus then filled up rather
quickly (hey, this must be a good tour, look at all of the people on the
bus). Once we were filled, the price
dropped to $20.00 per person. Loaded up,
we headed off with our driver Saxon and tour guide O’Neal (aka “O”). O’Neal was a younger man who was studying
computer repair via the Internet. He
certainly had the gift of gab, something necessary to be a successful tour
guide. We made several viewing stops
along the way. At Trafalgar Falls,
we were told that the admission was an additional $5.00 per person. This was actually a better way to do this as
there were people on the bus who couldn’t negotiate the path to the falls. If the admission was included in the tour
cost, they would have lost out. The
Falls were quite beautiful and O’Neal assisted people across the rocks down to
the whirlpool. Everyone made it
successfully with no injuries, a minor miracle.
We made a few more stops on the way back including a viewing of the ship
from the hill above. O’Neal did an
excellent job of taking everyone’s photograph.
When we arrived back in Roseau I noted that the
4x4 tour which left after us had already returned.
I guess that the “on your own” tour paid off
here.
Debarkation: Cunard offers self debarkation for those passengers able to take their own luggage off of the ship. This commenced around 7:00 AM. I find it amazing that people going away on a 10 day cruise with so many formal nights can survive with only one suitcase each. We had two each plus our liquor purchases.
Cunard utilizes a process called a "silent debarkation". You are assigned a color and number based on your cabin location. Each group is then told to report to a specific waiting area. The shore staff and the on board people communicate via radio. As the luggage comes out and is ready for pick up, the appropriate group is called. This does not go over the PA system but is done very orderly with announcements in the appropriate waiting area. The process is quite civil and a marked improvement over those lines that tell you to wait in a public area for a PA announcement. Hearing groups called before yours only heightens the anxiety and stress levels of the guests. In the terminal we found our luggage quickly, cleared customs and was out on the street by 9:45. Our scheduled debarkation time was 10:15.
All in all we had a wonderful time. We met some really nice people including our
dinner companions Noreen and Jeff, the Cruise Critic organizers Gary and
Jeananne, Mrs. Wilberforce aka Julieann and her husband Todd, Mike and Laura
from Pittsburgh and Marcy the puzzle doer also from the Pittsburgh contingent.
As I travel, I find that most people are always willing to
stop and chat. Take a moment to talk to
the person next to you in the theater; you might have a really enjoyable
experience.
Till next time,
Bon Voyage,
Rich