For a few years before my mother retired, I'd said I'd take her on a Norwegian fjord cruise when she did. It was time to pay up!

I booked a 2005 fjord cruise on the now-retired Cunard QE2, round-trip Southampton to Southampton.

QE2 exuded history. She also had no stabilizers, making crossing the North Sea rather interesting! Grasping the ropes, we made our way to dinner the first night to find that our table was in the restaurant's smoking section. Ack! I'd not been given an option at booking.

The next morning before lunch, I went to the restaurant to see if we could be re-seated in non-smoking. The gentleman was happy to oblige and handed me a slip of paper with the new table number. As I was walking away, he called me backed and asked to confirm the number of my party was "Two, correct?" "Yes, two." He retook the slip of paper and wrote in a new number. I thought nothing of it.

We arrived to dinner the second night and met our table-mates, all lovely wonderful folks enjoying a holiday. Then our table host arrived. Table host? Why do we have a table host? "This is the Captain's table." What?! How awesome is that?!!

We were at this table the duration of the cruise, each night hosted, wined and dined by a different ship's officer. This stuff does not happen to me so I guess it was my mother's first-time cruiser good luck. Thanks, Mom!

One dinner we were joking about wanting to push the noon-time horn. A couple of days later, we found ourselves on the bridge doing so! This was post-9/11 and a special treat as large cruise ships do not generally allow passengers on the bridge. Here's Mom steering the ship.

Another night we had pre-dinner cocktails in the captain's quarters before dinner.

Some very special memories were made that cruise. Very belated thanks to Cunard!