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DATES & PRICES
| Ship Inside | Ship Out | Ship Balc |
|---|---|---|
Accommodation DetailsA cabin with no window, porthole or balcony. |
Accommodation DetailsA cabin with a window or porthole to view the outside. |
Accommodation DetailsA cabin featuring a verandah, or balcony, that allows you to step outside without going to a public deck. |
DATES & PRICES
| Ship Outside | Ship Balcony |
|---|---|
Accommodation DetailsA cabin with a window or porthole to view the outside. |
Accommodation DetailsA cabin featuring a verandah, or balcony, that allows you to step outside without going to a public deck. |
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Activity note: Hotel check-in from 3:00 p.m.
Afternoon: Program Registration: After you have your room assignment, meet your Road Scholar Group Leader in the lobby to register and get your welcome packet containing your name-tag, up-to-date schedule that reflects any last-minute changes, and to learn where the Orientation session will take place at 5:00 p.m. If your arrival is delayed, please ask for your packet when you check in. Orientation: The Group Leader will greet everyone and lead introductions. We will review the up-to-date program schedule, discuss roles and responsibilities, logistics, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer questions. This program is staffed with both a Group Leader, who will accompany us throughout the program and deal primarily with logistics, and a Study Leader who will lecture, conduct field trips, and serve as an information resource on program-related topics. Dining aboard the Queen Mary 2, breakfast and lunch are in the venue of your choosing. Traditional afternoon tea is served each day in the Queens Room. Road Scholars are invited to have dinner together in the Britannia Restaurant. Snacks along with juice, tea, coffee, water are available 24 hours a day at the buffet restaurants; and there is 24-hour room service. Periods in the schedule designated as “Free time” and “At leisure” offer opportunities to do what you like and make your experience even more meaningful and memorable according to your personal preferences. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. Program activities, schedules, personnel, and indicated distances or times may change due to local circumstances/conditions. In the event of changes, we will alert you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
Dinner: This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to enjoy what you like. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions.
Evening: At leisure. Continue getting to know your fellow Road Scholars, settle in, and get a good night’s sleep for the day ahead.
Activity note: Getting on/off a motorcoach. Driving around 1/2 hour. Embarking ship 2:00 p.m.; some standing in line to embark.
Breakfast: At the hotel, we will enjoy a breakfast buffet, with hot and cold items. Coffee, tea, water, milk, juices included.
Morning: Free time. This block of time has been set aside for your personal independent exploration to see and do what interests you most. Please refer to the list of Free Time Opportunities. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. We will depart for the pier early afternoon, complete embarkation procedures, and board the Queen Mary 2.
Lunch: Aboard the Queen Mary 2, have a late lunch and choose from a menu with multiple options for appetizers and soups, salad and sandwiches, entrées, and desserts.
Afternoon: Take some time to settle in and begin to familiarize yourself with the ship. There will also be a mandatory Safety Drill this afternoon, so please listen out for the Captain’s announcements once on board.
Dinner: In the Britannia Restaurant, choose from the extensive menu offering multiple options for appetizers and soups, salads, entrées, and dessert as well as tea, coffee and water; other beverages available for purchase. It’s impossible not to feel special making a dramatic entrance down the grand staircase.
Evening: At leisure. The Queen Mary 2 is a floating city. The options for activities and entertainment are many and varied. You might like to see a show in the ballroom, go dancing, listen to music, watch a movie in the theatre, have a beverage and a chat with new Road Scholar friends in one of the bars, or wander through the library — one of the best shipboard libraries anywhere — to find a book and curl up in that perfect reading chair.
Activity note: Full day aboard ship.
Breakfast: In the venue of your choosing. Select one of the King’s Court dining options on Deck 7, go down to the Britannia Restaurant, or relax with breakfast in your room as you watch the televised descriptions of the day’s on board activities.
Morning: In our private meeting room, we will begin our first lecture from our Study Leader, who will look at the roots of detection in the late Victorian era and the character and stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Lunch: In the venue of your choosing. Options include the various King’s Court venues, the Britannia Restaurant, a light lunch in the Boardwalk Café if weather permits, or The Verandah (additional cost).
Afternoon: Free Time. Take advantage of a variety of enrichment activities. You might attend a presentation by a guest speaker, take a class such as watercolor painting or ballroom dancing, take a dip in one of the swimming pools, or any of the many other options.
Dinner: Britannia Restaurant.
Evening: At leisure. Enjoy a variety of activities on board, from movies to shows or simply enjoying the ambience of the many themed bars.
Activity note: Full day aboard ship.
Breakfast: In the venue of your choosing.
Morning: In our second lecture, our Study Leader will analyze The Detection Club. This discussion will investigate how Agatha Christie and her colleagues in a mysterious literary club transformed crime fiction between the wars by delving deep into true crimes as well as their own complex private lives, eschewing the notion of “cozy and conventional” British mysteries.
Lunch: In the venue of your choosing.
Afternoon: Free Time. Weather permitting, you might like to take a leisurely stroll around the Promenade Deck and take in the fresh sea air.
Dinner: Britannia Restaurant.
Evening: At leisure. You may wish to visit the Queen Mary 2’s beautiful theatre, home to nightly productions from stars of stage and screen alike.
Activity note: Full day aboard ship.
Breakfast: In the venue of your choosing.
Morning: We will enjoy a lecture from our Study Leader on “locked room” mysteries, a sub-genre wherein murder is committed in a small or sealed-off area, seemingly impossible for the culprit to escape. Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is a classic example.
Lunch: In the venue of your choosing.
Afternoon: Free time. A perfect opportunity to visit the spellbinding planetarium show, polish your bridge skills during a tournament, or perhaps retreat to the spa for a massage.
Dinner: Britannia Restaurant.
Evening: At leisure. The Golden Lion, a traditional English pub aboard the QM2, runs a competitive pub quiz — perfect for showing off your newly gained knowledge.
Activity note: Full day aboard ship.
Breakfast: In the venue of your choosing.
Morning: We’ll enjoy another illuminating lecture by exploring true crime, including the case of Hawley Harvey Crippen, and crime fiction.
Lunch: In the venue of your choosing.
Afternoon: Free time. When not performing in the ship’s theatre, members of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art give you the opportunity to flex your acting muscles at daily workshops.
Dinner: Britannia Restaurant.
Evening: At leisure. The Queen Mary 2 travels with expert sommeliers, who host nightly wine tasting and appreciation events.
Activity note: Full day aboard ship.
Breakfast: In the venue of your choosing.
Morning: We’ll enjoy a unique experience, hearing first-hand about our Study Leader’s "life of crime”—writing crime fiction.
Lunch: In the venue of your choosing.
Afternoon: Free time. You may wish to explore the history of the Cunard Line at a unique exhibition running through the halls of the ship.
Dinner: Britannia Restaurant.
Evening: At leisure. Enjoy your last evening onboard and prepare for disembarkation and transfer to London in the morning.
Activity note: Full day aboard ship.
Breakfast: Aboard ship.
Morning: Our Study Leader explores two interesting locations for crime fiction: cruise ships and the city of Oxford. Be afraid!
Lunch: Aboard ship.
Afternoon: Free time.
Dinner: Aboard ship.
Evening: At leisure. Enjoy your last evening onboard and prepare for disembarkation and transfer to London in the morning.
Activity note: Getting on/off ship, motorcoach. Driving 68 miles, around 2.5 hours, with a stop en route. Walking on city streets up to 3 hours, around 2 miles
Breakfast: Early in the venue of your choosing.
Morning: We will complete disembarkation procedures and make our way to the motorcoach for our transfer to Oxford. We will arrive in the "city of dreaming spires" before lunch and check into our hotel.
Lunch: At the hotel restaurant, we will enjoy a served, two-course lunch. Coffee, tea, water included. Additional beverages available for purchase.
Afternoon: With our Study Leader, we will take a walking orientation of the major sites of Oxford, where we’ll see famed highlights such as the Sheldonian Theatre, the Divinity School, the Bodelian Library, and Radcliffe Camera, and learn about their place in history. We will return to the hotel by foot. Local taxis available at own expense for those who prefer not to walk back.
Dinner: At the hotel, we will enjoy a served, three-course dinner. Coffee, tea, water included. Other beverages available for purchase.
Evening: At leisure.
Activity note: Getting on/off motorcoach, driving under 1/2 hour. Minimal walking.
Breakfast: In the hotel dining room, the breakfast buffet offers a variety of hot and cold items, as well as juices, coffee, tea, milk, water.
Morning: We will travel by motorcoach to North Oxford and then walk into the city center, as well as explore Summertown, and discover why this area holds such a special place in the genre of detective, mystery, and crime fiction. The enclosed communities of Oxford Colleges provide a natural habitat for "academic sleuths.” A number of notable writers who studied and taught here include detective novelists—Ronald A. Knox, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edmund Crispen, J.C. Masterman, among others. American author Amanda Cross has her academic character Kate Fansler spend a sabbatical in Oxford, while Robert Robinson and Timothy Robinson created humorous parodies set in the university. We will also stop at Somerville and Balliol Colleges.
Lunch: At an historic Oxford pub, frequented by scholars through the centuries, we will enjoy a plated and served 2-course meal with coffee, tea, water included; other beverages available for purchase.
Afternoon: We will continue on to the Martyr’s Memorial and then enjoy time on our own before returning to the hotel.
Dinner: Served hotel meal.
Evening: At leisure. The adventurous among us may choose to join our Study Leader on a "pub crawl" to famous hostelries such as the Turf Tavern, the King's Arms, and White Horse (drinks at own expense).
Activity note: Minimal walking; getting on/off boat.
Breakfast: Hotel buffet.
Morning: We’ll board a motorcoach for a short journey to the largest and most prestigious of all Oxford Colleges, Christ Church, passing the police headquarters in St Aldate’s, where Colin Dexter’s characters Morse and Lewis work, as well as Old Palace, where Sherlockian scholar Ronald Knox wrote. At Christ Church, we will have an expert-led exploration of the college buildings that were once home to writers J.C. Masterman, Michael Innes, and Lewis Carroll. It is also the model for Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series. We’ll see Christ Church Meadows, the Peckwater Quad, Tom Tower, and the Cathedral, where Sayers’ father was headmaster of the Christ Church Cathedral Choir. Let’s follow in the footsteps of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.
Lunch: At a traditional riverside pub, we will enjoy a served two-course lunch with tea, coffee, and water included. Additional beverages available for purchase.
Afternoon: We will travel by boat along the River Thames, cruising around ancient Folly Island and past Christ Church meadows. After the cruise, the motorcoach will take us to the Old Parsonage for afternoon tea, with some time to ourselves at the end of the day before dinner.
Dinner: On your own.
Evening: At leisure.
Activity note: Getting on/off motorcoach. Walking and standing on city pavements up to 3 hours.
Breakfast: Hotel buffet.
Morning: The motorcoach will take us to Blackwell's Bookstore, with its extensive range of Oxford mystery novels and books about Oxford itself. We’ll continue on to Exeter College, the fourth oldest Oxford College, with alumni including William Morris, J. R. R. Tolkien, Richard Burton, Roger Bannister, Alan Bennett, and Philip Pullman. The college figures as setting and inspiration in several pieces of literature we discuss on this program.
Lunch: On your own.
Afternoon: Our motorcoach will take us the short distance to the Jericho area of Oxford, the setting for Colin Dexter’s novel “The Dead of Jericho” and his character Inspector Morse. Here, we will see the Anglican St Barnabas Church and walk the canal.
Dinner: At a local pub, we will have an early dinner. Coffee, tea, water included. Additional beverages available for purchase.
Evening: We’ll return to the hotel by motorcoach to pack and rest before our journeys home.
Activity note: Hotel check out by 11:00 a.m. See the “Travel Information” section regarding transfers. If you are an independent traveler (POP status), see “Ground Transportation from Last Location.”
Breakfast: Hotel buffet, depending on individual departure times. This concludes our program.
Morning: If you are returning home, safe travels. If you are staying on independently, have a wonderful time. If you are transferring to another Road Scholar program, detailed instructions are included in your Information Packet for that program. We hope you enjoy Road Scholar learning adventures and look forward to having you on another rewarding program in the future. Don’t forget to join our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!