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Solent Richard

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  • Posts

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About Me

  • Location
    Hampshire, England
  • Interests
    Scuba diving, Cruising and Ballroom Dancing
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Cunard and P&O
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Far East

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  1. I would suggest that Cunard 's IT has a system trigger switch linked to 'days from' cruise that will switch the additional options on and a further one for actual bookings and pricing. Fortunately, as stated at # 17 I stated 'I'm certainly neither overwhelmed with the choice of options' and therefore aren't logging in daily hoping to grab a booking.
  2. I'd wager that not many of us have done Borobudur from Semarang and certainly not with a Cunard excursion..... Ours was a whole new adventure onboard Star Clipper and what a fabulous excursion the Borobudur one was... https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2017/11/04/star-clipper-java-sea-limited-edition-cruise/ ******* ******** I was fortunately in the coach front seat and made a short video of the excitement of at the police escort....
  3. I can only think @IB2 either missed reading my blog or didn't appreciate the photographs.... https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2023/08/02/one-way-to-do-flam/ Or maybe he boarded the wrong train.... ****** 😂😁
  4. Have no fear @Drumbeat16 , this is Queen Mary 2 and I can safely state that my wife and I have experienced all levels of balcony staterooms on her and none have given cause for doubt as to the ship's seaworthiness in all kinds of weather: including the North Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay.
  5. While I take the view that this new innovative style of multi choice alternative dining could be a winner for Cunard (and eventually its shareholders), I would also admit I'm certainly neither overwhelmed with the choice of options nor inspired with the launch programme. Having yesterday checked with 'My bookings' and, with 38 days to go, this was the offering.... No prices as yet and a dollop of confusion as to advance booking..... Of course, being a conspiracy theorist at heart, it may well be that Cunard have a plan for this rather special event. 😈 😈 😉
  6. Hah. It was close call for us as well. But that's the look of the draw and we will be out on the water to welcome her arrival.
  7. Like many others I'm following @roscoe39 's Blog from Queen Victoria though none of the ports are entirely new to me. My eyes did however light up when at Hong Kong he took a ship's excursion to Macau... http://exitviathegiftshop.blogspot.com/2024/03/macau-little-portuguese-paradise-in-asia.html?view=magazine .....and I recognised a number of the sites visited. Frustration set in when, tracking through my digital collection of photographs, I could not find a particular photograph that was nestled in my memory bank. When my wife and I spent Christmas 1990 in Hong Kong, digital photography wasn't really available. A quick visit to the attic followed by a minute on my scanner and all was revealed.... Like Roscoe, we had taken the then latest high speed ferry across to Macau where top of my list was a visit to the Protestant Cemetery just a 5 minute walk from the ruins of St Paul's Church. Military history being one of my interests it was the grave of Lord H. J. Spencer Churchill that I came to see. He had been the captain of the Royal Naval ship HMS Druid during what became known as the Opium Wars. Poor chap actually died of Dysentery on his ship while anchored in Macao Roads. He was in fact the Great Grand Uncle of our very own Winston Churchill. Cheers @roscoe39 , and thanks for the inspiration.
  8. Thank you. I'm just so pleased that the arrival details have now been published. Some of us have been under an embargo on discussing our sea borne arrival programme.
  9. Sadly, over the last ten to twelve years, there is not as enticing additional features on the World Cruises as Cunard once included. Even at Grills level the 'experiences' have been somewhat bypassed. I would hazard a guess that @Bell Boy would support me on this as we experienced how it used to be. Including the Governor's House Reception on our call to Hawaii...
  10. Couldn't agree more though I expect our shared view is based on our experiences on Queen Mary 2: sailing on decent length voyages, with our partners, as opposed to short 3 or 4 day shorties out of Southampton. In my view the crew onboard Queen Mary 2 also tend to exhibit more pride in the fact they are serving on Cunard's flagship.
  11. Good morning @watsonbeau . My final offering on this thread is how I did Malta.... https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2014/04/28/one-way-to-do-malta/ Having spent many a fine ship visit there during my time serving in the Royal Navy it was good to get away from Valetta and to discover the far more attractive city of Mdina though the pull of fond memories down the 'Gut' necessitated a roam around modern Valetta and Sliema as well. There's nothing quite like a trip across Grande harbour in the traditional Maltese Dgħajsa .... Anyway, I hope my musings have been helpful to you.
  12. Mostly during the allotment season. 😁
  13. My camera photograph 'shoot time records' indicate a 12 minute turnaround time when we were there.
  14. Good morning @watsonbeau . Today's offering is for Corfu.... We chose to take a ship's excursion on this occasion due entirely to the choice of places and their distance from Corfu Town... https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2014/11/03/one-way-to-do-corfu/ Having then visited these wonderful places we still had time in Corfu for a decent wander....
  15. I expect the 'other' will be tendering, as was the case when we were there....
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