We did a trans-Atlantic in May, last year. There were two days when the wind and sea was challenging. The first day we had 8m waves and a lot of wind, the following day the sea was 10m and the wind higher. The difference between the two days was actually down to the direction of the sea in relation to the ship. The first day was far more sporting, with the ship making way into the waves - so plenty of motion forward and aft. The second day, the outside areas were closed because of the wind, but because the ship was travelling along the waves and not into them the stabilisers were alble to correct pretty much all of the motion, so very little lateral roll was felt.

I was talking with a couple of grills passengers and they said that they had had virtually no sleep on that first day - the motion was just to great where their cabin was located. Our sheltered balcony on deck 6 gave us no problem. The more you pay the more you sway.

Good gin deserves good tonic. We choose to buy it over the bar, we had already brought on board the gin and the Prosecco. They have a wide range of the Fever Tree tonic flavours, not all bars have all of the flavours. Similarly not all of the bars have all of the gins that they have on board.

If you are bringing it on yourself, as hand luggage, then  I believe no one will bat an eyelid, as long as it fits through the x-ray machine as you embark.

We did the b2b TA in May, from Southampton. I clunked aboard with 6 bottles of prosecco and a bottle of our favourite gin. No one batted an eyelid. We came off the ship back in Southampton having managed to drink 5 of the bottles of prosecco and given one away and only having made a small dent in the gin. For the gin we would go an buy the appropriate tonic in the chart room and then add our gin and consume it once back in our cabin. On one occasion the wrong tonic was asked for - the bar tender questioned the choice.

None of this reduced the bar spend  - there is something rather special about sitting in one of the venues supping a fine cocktail and watching the world go by. We did buy the basic soft drinks package and drank our weight in soft drinks. Possibly it would have been cheaper to pay for those as we went, but it made it a no brainer to be able lounge around in one of the bars/public areas and have a soft drink on the go.

The alcohol package made our eyes water and livers quiver. We shared a dining table with a family that were going for it. I wouldn't be able to keep up the pace required for even a short time.

We were on deck 5, I can't recall exactly but I think the letter we received said the knob technicians were working through deck 5 and 6, but it may have been 4 & 5.

I can attest that it is now possible to hang things from the extended knobs. I do feel that the newly extended knob now sticks out a little too far. I wonder if they are trying a remedy before rolling it out over the rest of the ship. We were left with a mixture of original and extended knobs as some of the draws have hidden screw heads and may require more work to modify.

We have recently returned from a back to back transatlantic crossing. During our outward leg, from Southampton, we had the maintenance folk move through our deck and some of the others changing the way those square door and draw knobs are fixed. The have inserted a spacer to make the stem of the knobs over twice as long. In our cabin they only did it on the knobs that didn't require disassembly of the draws - those where the internal screw head was visible. Here are some before and after pictures. The disadvantage is that now the knobs stand out further and are more likely to catch on things. The desk draw knob pokes into ones belly a bit if one is on the portly side and happen to want to sit up close to the desk.

🙂 Chris

On 4/15/2019 at 10:23 PM, Tigrou said:

 

I beg to differ.

 

The Premier Inn West Quay is directly across the street from the West Quay shopping and entertainment complex, most definitely within a few paces.  It is also close to the cruise terminals, and virtually next door to Cunard HQ.

 

Several other hotels are within very easy walking distance of the city centre and/or the West Quay complex, including Novotel, Ibis, Travelodge, Holiday Inn and the Leonardo Royal (Grand Harbour), plus several smaller independents.

 

Good point Tigrou, I had forgotten about the extension to the West Quay centre. That makes many more dining opportunities available down that end of town, within reasonable walking distance from the cluster of hotels down there. Being local we don't get down there often.

🙂 Chris

I have only driven round it, it is in the middle of a roundabout. It also suffers from being across the parks from the main shopping and entertainment centre of Southampton.

Having said that, my son (now 23) would say that it is excellently placed for easy access to the two premier Indian food venues for those wanting a curry after midnight (with or without having consumed a good amount of alcohol).

None of the hotels in Southampton are located in areas right on top of the retail and entertainment part of the city, none offer the ability to walk out of the front door and locate somewhere to shop or eat within a few paces. They are all a short walk away from such areas.

We went to a function at the Southampton Harbour Hotel  a couple of weeks ago. It looked beautiful and for a Saturday evening there were loads of staff around in the reception area.

If you stay in Southampton you can visit the Sea City Museum - celebrating Southampton's maritime heritage and also go and visit the Tudor House Museum and look at the varied life of the property - from medieval merchant cellars and years of Tudor prosperity through sub division and squalor when the money moved further out of town. Also in Southampton is Solent Sky an aviation museum - Southampton was the home of Supermarine, the Spitfire and flying boats.

I would say get the train to Salisbury and visit the Cathedral (with the famous spire) but that may be a little too adventurous.

There is a slot in the Cunard FAQ, but for me the link doesn't resolve, it is probably down to the switch to the new web site:

https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/frequently-asked-questions.life-on-board.FAQ51.summary

I get a 404 response, that made me laugh

Resource at '/content/dam/cunard/marketing-assets/pdf/life-on-board/bars/qm2-carinthia_lounge.pdf' not found: No resource found

The best precaution though, in view of your needs, is to ring Fred's customer service as they should be able to find out about electrical sockets in your specific cabin. We find each cabin tends to have fittings in slightly different positions on Fred's ships. On Braemar recently we found two sockets low down by the end of a bed and under the work surface below the mirror - so looking carefully may reveal other sockets that are not easily seen.

Yes, phone up and speak to someone at Fred, they will know what is what and you can discuss your needs with them - first hand. They should be in a position to advise you directly. It may be that a specific cabin is more suitable than some other.

Enjoy the elegant Black Watch.

Yep, I just checked the city forex web site and it is still stating USD, EUR and NOK for the buy back. I wonder if not doing it for NOK is accidental.

Be aware that the buyback guarantee is only for Euro, US dollar or Norwegian Krone.

I don't know what would happen if you can't go on the cruise, best ask City Forex or Fred.

Our balcony cabin mid ship on deck 8 was pleasant, with a good view down onto the terrace balcony, on the promenade deck below! I wouldn't want one of those terrace balconies with people wondering by or stopping.

I thought the ship was looking rather tired. We found the vibrations a bit of a problem. We found it mostly a problem when the ship was travelling slowly. The vibration node would run up and down the bed depending on the speed. So, it was lovely to sleep well on the three nights at a berth. The other thing that struck me was the way that some of the public space didn't really work very well. The flow in the garden room (buffet area) was poor, get more than a handful of people at the buffet station and it was very congested. The morning light pub was essentially a wide corridor. I found the Neptune lounge a bit of a disappointment too, very little rake on the seating area and all a bit packed in. We were on the shortened Fjord cruise last May on Balmoral, so used our compensatory discount for this cruise. So, I am comparing the public space on Black Watch to those on Balmoral, not quite a direct comparison because of the size difference.

The one public space that we did really like was the observatory bar up on deck 9. It was a warm, inviting intimate space with a good view. We spent a lot of cruising time there. On Balmoral we found it a cold cavernous area with a panoramic view of the grey roof of the bridge deck below.

In our cabin we had a pair of power sockets on the fascia behind the vanity unit - one European style round pin and the other a more modern UK square pin one. However, the square pin socket had obviously been put in place of a round pin one and was so close to the vanity unit that any plug with a thick flex or a strain relief on the flex coming out of the bottom would not have fitted. This socket is almost but not quite useless.

All in all we had a lovely cruise, everything that last years was not. The ports of call were wonderful and spending a night in each port meant we didn't have to worry about getting back on time.