QM2 Christmas Cruising live thread

When I was on board QM2 in September Canada cruise, once the ship was on Code Red, and questions appeared on this forum about the conditions on the ship, it became extremely difficult to log into Cruise Critic to reply. I had no problem logging on other sites, but Cruise Critic was a real challenge. I must have been doing something wrong because I'm sure ships wouldn't make logging on to certain sites more difficult ;)

 

I would not like to think that cruise lines visiting the Caribbean Island operate under the assumption that their passengers need not be aware of health hazards - that is pure folly.

http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/chikungunya-outbreak-in-the-caribbean-grows-to-71-confirmed-cases-80919/

Edited December 30, 2013 by Salacia

Hello again, Andiamo. Actually, I can connect for free using my Kindle (one reason that I haven't upgraded to one of the touch screen models) but it's hard to type more than a short response on the little keyboard. I promise a longer post later today via my laptop and the ship's WiFi. I've just about burnt through my two hours and will start on DW's now. Next time our allotment will be double so it should last longer.

 

If I look at my shipboard minutes used and my megabytes I think my net throughput has been a little faster than the old dialup used to be, and this includes time when I'm connected but just scratching my nose so I won't complain about speeds. Amazing that we can connect at all, really.

 

Today we're in Tortola (had to think a minute - they begin to run together). I participated in the Discover Scuba excursion which was first rate, even though the currents at the dive site restricted us novcies to clinging to the mooring rope. We still went down about 40 feet over an old wreck and saw lots of fish and a curious porpoise. I'm thinking seriously about taking a certification course before next year.

Where was I?

 

It’s been a couple of days since I’ve provided an update. Frankly, the last couple of days were beach days and the sun and sea wore us out and DW and I went straight to bed soon after dinner.

 

On Saturday we called on St. Kitts. In the morning we visited the town center and in the afternoon we hired a van to take us to Shipwreck beach at the part of the island that if it really was a chicken drumstick like it appears, your thumb would be as you hold the drumstick. Taxi fare was $4 each way and the driver arranged a return time as he dropped us off, with no payment due until the return. A bucket of 6 Carib beers was $10 and there was a small reef area if one wanted to rent snorkel gear, or there was also a clear area for swimming and a raft you could swim to.

 

Sunday was our day in St. Maarten. St. Maarten is a Dutch territory that shares its island with the French territory St. Martin. We got the $7 day pass for the ferry to the town dock and then rented chairs and umbrellas at the water’s edge, 2 chairs with one umbrella for $15 and free WiFi at a nearby café (the signal was not quite strong enough to use at the chairs). Here the $10 bucket only had 5 beers but the bottles were 330 ml rather than 270 ml at Shipwreck. Several other ships were docked in St. Maarten as is typical for that port, including one from Costa, one from Norwegian (Norwegian Sun? My hhotos aren’t clear) the Seabourn Pride (soon to be part of the Windjammer fleet), and a little sailboat I keep track of called Sagita

 

Today we anchored off Tortola. As I mentioned earlier I took a Discover SCUBA excursion which was first rate although the current was a bit strong for a first-timer. Two ships were docked, the Costa Mediterranea and the Oceanic (Oceana?) Riviera. The Riviera departed while we were still at anchor and I took video of it crossing in front of us while both ships sounded salutes on their horns.

 

EDIT:

Some more info that I had forgotten:

 

On the way back from Shipwreck beach we shared the van with a young Engineering officer from the ship. He said the “technical works” involved maintenance on the Azipods, although it didn’t involve the use of divers.

 

There was no mention of the health issues in St Martin before or during our call in St. Maarten.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Underwatr

Sounds like you are having a great time. Thanks for the update...could it be that finally this holiday trip will be Noro free. That would be really good news for all on board.

 

Big plans for NYE? Enjoy. :)

Your sailing from New York had unusually warm spring time temperatures. It must have made a great sail away.

 

Get ready for a January reality check. Temperature upon arrive in New York this Friday will be about 18degF (-8 deg C). 70% chance of snow Thursday night into Friday, so I hope it doesn't foul up flights.

We've heard about the cold and snow scheduled for Friday. My wife is on the balcony soaking in the last warm weather we're likely to have until April.

 

Tonight’s New Year’s Eve celebrations:

- Countdown to British New Year with the Entertainment staff at 8:00 pm ship’s time (midnight London time) in the Golden Lion

- New Year’s Grand Lobby party with VIBZ starting at 9;45. Hosted by the Entertainment Staff and covered with balloons at midnight

- New Year’s Eve Ball in the Queens Room starting at 9:45 PM. With the Queens Room Orchestra under the direction of Andrew Hiller, featuring vocalist Michael Chartier. Also featuring a special floor show at 10:45 by dance couple Nadya and Volodymyr.

- New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in G32 with DJ Dave from 10:30. Do the countdown in the hottest night spot at sea and watch the balloons drop at midnight.

 

British comedian/TV Host Roy Walker is the scheduled entertainment in the Royal Court Theatre at 7:00 and 8:45.

 

Now that we’re back into the run of sea days, the Insights lectures, bridge lessons and watercolor painting is once again on the day’s agenda. There are a few showings of “Search for Life” (the one narrated by Harrison Ford) in the Planetarium between insights lectures. I’ll probably need a nap around 1 PM…

Underwatr,

 

Thanks so much for advising all is well. Sounds like you have been making the most of this trip.

 

I giggled when I read about your nap at 1:00, as I was thinking the same thing. However, today is such a magnificent day, and the nap went by the wayside. Wine tasting at 3:15, but I am on the fence about giving up this glorious weather.

 

It has been wonderful not being a sick ship. For the first time (Christmas Voyages) since 2009, we finally have the perks back on the Grills Sun Deck, as the staff have not been needed for other duties, i.e. sanitizing 24/7.

 

Hope you have a wonderful celebratory night tonight.

 

Jeanne

After bridge this morning I attended an insight lecture about the public art in Rockefeller Center given by the Center’s archivist. Very informative and I’ll look around with a bit more knowledge the next time I’m there.

 

The Christmas tree in the Grand Lobby disappeared this morning and the balloons are hung in anticipation of tonight’s festivities.

 

After the planetarium show (lunch service went a bit long, so I ended up in the 1:30 show rather than the 1:00 show – I stayed awake although my eyes went shut once or twice), I found the Chart room just as the nautical trivia competition was beginning. Three teams were tied at 15, and I singlehandedly won the tiebreaker, having the closest guess about the longest distance someone has walked on water. My Naval Science instructors would be so proud of me…

 

Tonight’s dinner menu presents a difficult choice:

- Broiled lobster tail, sesame crusted shrimp and parmesan tomato pilaf

- Pan roasted medallion of Prime filet on haggis cake with caramelized pearl onion and melted stilton and whisky sauce glaze

- Seared magret of Barbary duck, honey quince and cider sauce, roasted red onions and pommes Elizabeth

- Rack of Lamb, baby vegetable ratatouille and baked garlic and port jus

 

...all in one night. I’m going to try to convince my wife to pick two and I’ll pick the other two. Otherwise I’ll look a bit like a glutton. I think I'm winning her over.

 

Yesterday we casually inquired about receiving the dinner menus from the trip and the Maître d’ said it depended on whether we had asked the waiter to retain them. The waiter said that he hadn’t been because we had not yet requested them. I had grown to assume that they were always presented on either the final evening or the last formal evening, but apparently that isn’t the case.

 

I’ve recently discovered the Lapsang Souchong teabags onboard. My new favorite tea.

PS: I met Bluemarble and a few other CC'ers in the Commodore Club yesterday. about 10 of us in all...

 

It was a great way to start the journey! Thanks all of you for such helpful advice...I love so many things about this journey and I truly wish we had more sea days ahead of us.

 

If you all decide to do one more meet and greet for a bookend to this (not sure it's ever something that's done) I'd love to be there.

 

If it does happen and someone could leave me a message in 6101 with details that would be great!

John.....plan on getting there very early if you want a seat. I don't know exactly how early because we've not made it in time so we always ended up in the atrium.....very lively at midnight. ;)

 

Happy New Year from the QM2!

 

Thanks for the advice about getting to the Queens Room early. We got there about 9:00pm and were able to find good seats. However, by the scheduled start time of the New Year's Eve ball at 9:45, seats where definitely hard to come by. The staff brought in a few extra chairs around 10:30 or so. By then it appeared to standing room only.

 

We had a most enjoyable evening and it was certainly a memorable way to greet the new year.

 

Regards,

John.

Hello again, Andiamo. Actually, I can connect for free using my Kindle (one reason that I haven't upgraded to one of the touch screen models)

 

This is interesting - why & indeed how can you connect a kindle for free on board? I hope to find out.

Hey Jeanne.......I'm glad to hear you made the trip again this year.....and that the ship was healthy. Norovirus puts a damper on the fun, doesn't it?

 

We are in NYC this holiday season...nice and quiet...and cold.

 

Enjoy the trip north......snow predicted for Friday.

 

And Happy New Year to you and yours,

 

Jim

I made it to 10:00 but the appeal of going to bed the day after you get up has always been somewhat lost on me. We both did ring in the New Year London time, but DW began fading after that. I attended the show with Roy walker and he was good. I walked back to the Queens Room around 9:30 but nothing there captured my interest so I headed on up. Thanks to bluemarble for contributing some detail I would have missed.

 

Mercifully for the revelers the clocks were set back one hour to New York time overnight. We still were feeling lazy and sipped the bridge lesson this morning. We ran into a couple of the other attendees and they said only three people made it there.

 

While catching a quick wash in the launderette I ran into one of our dinner tablemates from last year’s voyage. We had a brief reunion with the promise to keep in touch.

 

Other observations:

 

The pump bottles of Purell gel are the VF481 Antiviral variety, marked as virucidal according to EN 14476. It wasn’t clear to me which variety is in the automatic dispensers where you place your hand under the spout.

 

I think the scheduling of the Cunard Insights lectures has been improved; they now finish in the morning at 11:45 where they used to run until noon or 12:15, which would interfere with the noon announcements. I recall that lunch used to start at 12:30 and it now starts at high noon.

 

The Executive Chef onboard is Nicholas Oldroyd, who looked familiar and I was sure that I had sailed with him before. Today I learned that his twin brother Mark is Executive Chef on Queen Victoria, so no I’m unsure (although I think it had been Mark that I recall).

 

Chef’s Galley appears no longer to be used for its original intended purpose of demonstration cooking. Now it appears to be a quick service burger-and-pizza station.

 

You can access cunard.com for free using the ship’s WiFi. It used to be that the cruise booking pages were served by a different URL (such as P&O) which meant that browsing future fares was not possible without the clock running. Now you can go through the full online booking process without logging in and starting the meter.

This is interesting - why & indeed how can you connect a kindle for free on board? I hope to find out.

Not onboard per se, but when in port a Kindle with a keyboard and 3G capability will connect to the local phone network and let you surf the web without any fees whatsoever. It's slow (but then again not as slow as shipboard WiFi) and a bit clunky but it works.

 

It doesn't connect to the ship's cellular network, only land-based networks. More recent Kindles won't let you surf other than to Amazon.com or Wikipedia, but the 3rd Generation models (which have a keyboard without a row of number keys) and certain 2nd generation models will work anywhere you can get a cellular signal.

Edited January 1, 2014 by Underwatr

The Commodore has just completed a public announcement that due to the impending snowstorm the ship has sped up and we will be docking in New York by 11 PM tonight, although we will not clear off the ship until our scheduled departure time Friday morning.

The Commodore has just completed a public announcement that due to the impending snowstorm the ship has sped up and we will be docking in New York by 11 PM tonight, although we will not clear off the ship until our scheduled departure time Friday morning.

 

It's good news for the crew, at least they have the chance of an overnight in New York although getting around may prove a challenge.:)

The Commodore has just completed a public announcement that due to the impending snowstorm the ship has sped up and we will be docking in New York by 11 PM tonight, although we will not clear off the ship until our scheduled departure time Friday morning.

 

That beats getting up at 3:30 AM to watch sailing under the bridge and sailing into Brooklyn, but it is one less night letting the ocean waves rock you to sleep:). Enjoy your last day on board, and safe travels home. I have really enjoyed reading your posts and look forward to meeting you later this year.

Edited January 2, 2014 by safarigal

I live downtown Manhattan & the snow should start soon after sundown & promises to deliver quite a show - its very cold here & will get worse(28 degrees & w/ windchill feel like 16).

 

Saying that sailing into Manhattan at night during a snowfall should be quite memorable.....

 

Sit back in a lounge & have a drink & enjoy!

That beats getting up at 3:30 AM to watch sailing under the bridge and sailing into Brooklyn.

 

All decks may be closed already due to the risk of ice on deck.

It's good news for the crew, at least they have the chance of an overnight in New York although getting around may prove a challenge.:)

 

 

Well, that's looking on the bright side. :)

 

 

Safarigal...that was my first thought also but I don't get up till 4:30 for the Statue of Liberty. :)

 

Underwatr......I also enjoyed your posts...thanks for taking the time to keep us informed. I hope it's not going to be too unpleasant tomorrow morning. Enjoy your last day of leisure.

When you dock the storm will be in full swing and it will continue to snow until tomorrow morning...so most likely no one is getting off QM2 all too soon...they have already cancelled 150 flights out of Newark, 35 out of LaGuardia & 15 flights out of JFK.

 

The Commodore has just completed a public announcement that due to the impending snowstorm the ship has sped up and we will be docking in New York by 11 PM tonight, although we will not clear off the ship until our scheduled departure time Friday morning.

The Commodore has just completed a public announcement that due to the impending snowstorm the ship has sped up and we will be docking in New York by 11 PM tonight, although we will not clear off the ship until our scheduled departure time Friday morning.

 

Thanks for the update. Although the snow storm would not directly impact a ship the size of QM2 the harbor might be closed to smaller vessels such as pilot boats and tugs. If winds go above 20 knots (if I remember the number correctly) at least one tug is called in to assist docking as a margin of safety.

 

She's not yet in VesselTraffic range and the latest Sailwx report from midnight shows her doing 19.9 knots. She'll be speeding up. At times like these one can see the foresight in planning reserve speed for the ship.

Is there a reason that passengers won't be able to disembark early.....seems like it might be an advantage for those who live in NYC.

In NYC there should be about 6-10 inches of snow w/ hi winds(blizzard conditions north & east of NYC w/ up to 16" of snow. Tomorrow morning(Fri) it will be 5 degrees w/ a wind chill factor making it feel like -8 below zero. The winds will be quite strong all nite long.

 

As far as getting off the ship =-you better have a plan..the Governor is already shutting down roads and it doesn't seem like there will be may taxis out late tonight. THe other problem will be clearing customs...enjoy the nite in NYC onboard....

 

 

When you dock the storm will be in full swing and it will continue to snow until tomorrow morning...so most likely no one is getting off QM2 all too soon...they have already cancelled 150 flights out of Newark, 35 out of LaGuardia & 15 flights out of JFK.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Rotterdam

Is there a reason that passengers won't be able to disembark early.....seems like it might be an advantage for those who live in NYC.

 

I believe Customs agents won't be there till the morning to conduct their business.