groryjm

While we are docked in Tromso I have a good signal on my mobile from Telia N. I will take advantage and post a few of the menus....

At about 3am the captain made an announcement in our cabins.... Not the best pics but a good start

Now lovely as the duck a l'orange was I will point out that from a discusion yesterday with both our somelier and the barman at th grills lounge. There is no GrandMarnier on board. Bit of a cheek to show the bottle and not mention that its contents are cheap curacoa.

we started to depart as the sun set and I took after taking a pic or two from our deck I headed to the Grills terace to watch... pictures taken we had a quick drinkie with our canapes before heading to dinner a Jasmine

Yesterday after a fabulose sunrise over the fjord with coffee and fresh squeesed Oranges in the room we head for our first Cunard organised tour. We followed instructions and made our way dirrectly to the coach. Our tour was to the "Atlantic" road and our guide and th tour were fine we paused mid road to take some photos and on the way back stopped in Bud for lunch. It was not substantial , being merely a bowl of soup. Bud is where the locals recieved the passangers rescued from the Viking Sky in 2019 and Viking gave the people of Bud the anchor from the ship as well as substancial finacal thank you. on our return to the ship the weather had change but the snow peaks were still visible we had a quick snack in the Lido as we felt we had missed lunch and I was surprised how little there was at 3.00 pm

Yes it is. She has been doing an excellent job of looking after us so far. Would you like me to remember you to her?

True I have manage to place relevant short cuts on my phone a laptop which does speed it up a bit and saving passwords also helps. I don't seem to be able to save my dob on my laptop although it dose hold my phone. I'm sure given a few days practice I'll have cracked.... Its still a bit clunky though

I suspect the systems has changed with the introduction of the Myvoyage app First you will need to refresh your conection to the Guest WiFi Next in a browser log into http://myvoyage.cunard.com enevitably this will require you to reenter your date of birth even if all the other data is reloaded or at least in chrome that seems to be the case most of the time. This is what appears.... Then order to then conect to the internet you will then have to select internet purchace. Even if you have already purchased a package youl still need to log in. with your usernam and password. next you will be told, assuming it is over two hours since your last log in or after midnight, that you are disconected and will now be given the opertunity to conect... This is not a few keystrokes and can take five or ten minutes due to the enevitable pauses while the various stages take place due to the relatively slow connection speed and ping as the information is bounced back and for via satalite between the ship and the states. If you switch betwteen say your phone and lap top this has to happen every time unless you pay for multiple devices. What is most frustrating is when one types a post and waits for the images to upload only to find the system has disconected you . On Celebrity in upper suites the reconnection proces is I admit only slightly quicker BUT it only needs to be done once per day and each guest in those suites gets four devices included.

Yesterday we arrived in Åndalsnes at about 7.30 and the sight of the snow-capped peaks was stunning …. Then the sun started to rise and really brought home how beautiful Norway can be

My Gatrognome likes a simple gin and bitters so we allwsy travel with a pack of minitures for emergancies😮😎

Black and White Gala.... We had Caviar to start, with iced vodka for desert we both choose the Grand Marnier soufflé. I thought a glass of said would make a nice accoumpniament and asked are excelent somelier, Stallin, for a glass. He said he was affraid they had none. I pionted out the bottle not two feet away that the Md was using to flame a duck in . On futher enquirey it is apparrently Curaçao but in a Grand Marnier bottle. So what is in the soufflé? Don't mistake my intentions here. The souffle was actually superb 😊 Post diner drinkies

As I have managed to get a bit behind I will just post a few pics from yesterday and the evening before and catch up tonight. I’ll try to get pics of all the menus for tonight as well. The internet is terible, but I don't blame Cunard as the same happens on Celebrity in the fjords. However while on X the internet is just patchy Cunard disconects you after two hours and you are forced to trapse through a long process to get back on line.... Don't ask me about Cunards Myvoyage web/app! Wed lunch and High tea in Princess grill The North sea........

Thanks, I wasn't intending to be confrontational . From what I have seen on the room service menu and breakfast hangers a Bloody mary would be charged as shown on your image of the door hanger. This is th X upper suite hanger that is for Royal, Penthouse suites only, Q2 and Q1 equivilants If I ordered it at a bar it would be covered by the packgage I have bought but our lovely waitress said that the bar , and I asume she meant the Grils lounge, didn't open until 10 am so she could not get one in the Queens Grill resturaunt..... I will try to find an open bar tomorow morning and a take one in to breakfast with me. prehaps the chart room or winter garden? These are the Celebrity hangers for info the top one is upper suites (Royalsuites , penthouses and reflection suites) The middle is all other suites , aqua and concierge . The bottom is all other cabins

All that is included is 2 bottles of spirits but Cunard have an adult approach to booze you can bring into the cabin. From the FAQ on Cunards web site.... Can I bring alcohol on board to consume in my cabin or in restaurants? Answer You may bring beer, wine or spirits on board (subject to the age limit law of the Port of departure) to celebrate special occasions. However if it is consumed in any of the dining rooms, alternative restaurants or bars then each bottle will be subject to a corkage fee of $25 (fee subject to change). There is no corkage fee if it is consumed in your cabin. Wine and champagne gifts purchased via the Cunard Gift Collection are exempt from the corkage fee, please show your gift card to your waiter....... https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/frequently-asked-questions.life-on-board.faq390.summary

Ah... But on Celebrity in Upper suites such things are included and no charge although charged for everyone else regardless of package. In this thread my aim is to compare two similar products and highlight differences

I didn't manage on our first breakfast in QG on the first morning they just brought lemon, L&P and tabasco. Yesterday morning however we had brek fast in the room and with the Tomatoe juisce the butler brought along, a few shakes of pepper, the juice of a fresh sqeesed lemon ( I always request fresh WHOLE citrus in the suite and I bring my own squeezer) and 60ml of the gin provided in the room I did a pretty good job. I even managed to shake it with ice as the ice in the bucket in the fridge was still ok. My bar on board...... Citrus, mixers etc plus 3Qs gin and Campari provided by Cunard . The rest provided by me. We do pack pretty well all bar the kitchen sink......

I believe they call it feeding the fish 🤣🤣🤣

In comparison to Celebrity the portions generally seem smaller. Especially compared to their speciality restaurants

I'm looking forward to trying it tonight 😎

Sunrise from Queen Victoria in Åndalsnes today

Being a sea day gives us a great opportunity to explore the ship and take the ubiquitous photo of the grand lobby. There is one thing that X ships lack and that is a full promenade deck around the ship which was lovely to walk around a couple of times. Xs walking / jogging track doent get you as close to the water. The Grills terrace is also a great place for seeing the views . it is more extensive than the Retreat sun deck which is only available on a couple of the X ships. This deck I feel is a great asset to the Grills. It allows for some of the best views from the ship

First of many sea days and what better way to start than breakfast in the Queens Grill. The food was excellent….. but while the window view is lovely it would have been better if the windows had been cleaned at some point. Perhaps when we are docked in Åndalsnes?. I also noticed no mimosas or bloody marys are routinely offered and on asking not available in the morning.

The portions are small but we have found it very refreshing, Being able to manage a desert with out feeling totaly stuffed is a really nice change. I know I should learn to eat only what I want but I was brought up to think it bad manners not to finish a plate so having smaller portions is great and probably better for my health. We have become very familliar with Celebrity and it has been nice to feel a slight thrill of something different

And we’re off……. Very pleasant sail away as the sun set over the Isle of Wight. We had friends on the balcony for a drink and the Q2 balcony is perfect for such things. It is about the same depth as the royal suite (RS) balcony on an X S class ship but the Q2 one feels slightly larger as it has no hot tub and two doors on to it. Overall the suite is great but we do miss the second guest bathroom and while the wardrobe space is similar its is all in the bedroom. I am used to having my jackets and shirts in the wardrobe in the living room in an RS which I think I prefer. The draws in the bedroom dressing area look great and are plentiful but as they are quite worn the bottom of each draw grates against the one below it meaning the soft close doesn’t really work and opening one opens the aw above at the same time. This is very much a first world problem but there are no magnets on the doors to hold them open so when one doesn’t close them they move quite a lot with the roll. It is a little detail but it does make difference. I suspect it is only the Q1s and Q2s which would be effected https://studio.youtube.com/video/kPRI33IjVhc There is also a lovely pack of 10 Penhaligon’s scents in the guest dressing room which is a nice little touch. Interesting watching them at sea though….. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCynDHl4bwa1YmBA4hXCPmyA/ Dinner was excellent and I will publish all the menus later but in the meantime something to wet your appetites. The food in Queens grill is I have to say exceeding my expectations. The cheese though while good was not the best Coffee and petit fours were excelent .... and my Mr Black Boulivardier in the Grills lounge was made to perfecton I even made myself a pretty good negroni before bed 😎 Moon rise over East Anglia

To continue…. The announcement came through at 1pm that boarding could commence and within ten minuets we were on board and making our way to our room via a brief check-in at our designated muster station. A very quick and efficient and far speedier muster drill than watching a video on mass. On arrival at our suite we were greeted by our room attendant who showed us around our suite and frantically phoned our butler. Apparently he was waiting down in the lobby looking for a green coloured card that is usually given to upper Queens Grills guests but had obviously been forgotten post pandemic. I did a quick room tour which I have posted on YT but the upload is being very slow This is the link (when eventually it uploads). Despite the niggling cost of the wifi it is somewhat infuriating th it automatically disconnects after about and hour requiring a lengthy login process before reconnection! Once we had been shown our room and realised our luggage had beaten us there we head to the queens gril to find our table, a lovely window seat. Lunch was excellent and I was pleased to find as anticipated the food far exceeded that we were accustomed to in Luminae’ Xs suite dining venue. My Gastrognome ordered the Lobster thermidore for dinner that evening. It is very nice to have the menus for the evening at lunch. We also discovered that night that the next days menus along with the daily were waiting for us on return to the room. A nice little touch that X could learn from.