D&N

10 minutes ago, Tattycoram said:

I'm not a huge fan of men in short

Apart from my seafront runs and gym visits, I did wear shorts a few times in the last fortnight for 10km walks with my wife in sunshine. My last bloods did show a slight decline in vitamin D. I thought I best expose a bit more skin to the sun. It'll be a while before I let the doc have another look at me so there is plenty of time to raise the reading.

But I probably will be wearing tailored shorts around the house and outside in daytime for the next few months because the temperature isn't going to drop below 20C until September, and probably 30C+ in the sun for most of that time.

15 minutes ago, Tattycoram said:

Would we both need the plan?

Yes.

You can run one plan with the other device linked by bluetooth/WiFi hotspot, but not if you're in different places.

Edit: And of course you'd need to text by WhatsApp or other message service. A phone text will be charged through the satellite system.

1 hour ago, Victoria2 said:

Don't get too jealous.

It's not all plain sailing. There can be some extremely unwell passengers during tendering ashore and back. Happens every time when anchored in The Firth of Forth for example.

Last year, an elderly lady needed the attention of the medical centre she was so unwell during tendering back.

 

Swimming under the Forth Rail Bridge was never something I envisaged doing.

The RS Feva that was one of the boats used in the RYA Dinghy course had other ideas. Most times I tried to gybe, the wind caught it and over it went chucking me in.

9 minutes ago, Jonem2001 said:

Jealous of your tendering experience… I’ve only ever been on one, on the Norwegian Epic. Not exactly a White Star experience, but the view on the approach to Cannes has set a high bar for an eventual second attempt!

I've noticed that Norwegian and a few others have been using the local ferry company to supply tendering facilities at Cannes for a few years. Yesterday Norwegian Escape was using two of it's own tenders and I think up to four of the local ferries. The ferries are probably faster, steadier and higher capacity than the tenders, with local crew.

Most countries including the US and UK have anti-bribery laws. It's very likely that offering or accepting a bribe is committing a crime.

In practice these laws are aimed at multi million $/£ contracts but it's the same principle.

11 minutes ago, Dandypanda said:

We might have a couple of alcoholic drinks most days, maybe as many as 4 or 5 on a good day, but my math says we need to have six for the drinks package to be a deal. Any thoughts?

If that's your alcohol intake and you don't insist on coffee coming from proper espresso machines, and you use the buffet, then I don't think drinks packages are worth your while.

We have at least six a day, don't go near buffets, and I only take two coffees per day but always made exactly to my taste.

Not knowing what @Pushpit heard being said, perhaps the maître d had already agreed to whatever request was made. I still find it distasteful though. I thought allocating tables was a significant part of a maître d's job and that they would do their best to accommodate requests.

In my view gratuities for good service are better kept until end of trip unless it's a staff member you don't expect to see again.

I'm thinking of having two pairs of dress trousers bought in 1997 professionally taken in by two sizes. Not sure if I need the extra pairs though.

I disposed of the black jacket and white tux already. I did try shrinking the latter in a hot wash, and it did reduce a little but I decided new ones would be better.

4 hours ago, exlondoner said:

And I was wondering whether there would be a large plate accessible to grab.

Victoria2 seems very resourceful. I'd imagine there might be one in her cabin, or she might ask her butler to source one, or simply borrow one from the MDR.

7 hours ago, jay1283 said:

 

It's also a load of baloney. I've used all those services with and without a VPN on this voyage and they all work fine. I guess the reviewer had a problem with their laptop.

That was my thought.

Sounded like someone that shouldn't be allowed to work remotely since they don't know enough about their equipment to solve minor connection problems.

Ahh, Hurrah!! A dress code thread! 🤣

There were a couple of YouTubers recently. One of them was wearing an ill fitting black tux on a Gala night, the other pointed out that his medium grey large checked suit didn't really match the dress code, but it would appear he got away with it. So you'll probably not have a problem either.

Personally I plan to wear a black tux on all four of our Gala nights and for the ten smart attire nights I will use my cream tux, my new navy tux, and the black tux. Saving on luggage by not taking any casual wear.

Perhaps 99% isn't accurate statistically, but the vast majority of men on QM2 crossings wear tuxes on Gala nights.

@Bell Boy

These were the photos that told me that the sensor on my 40x superzoom compact camera was far too small!

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2855494-queen-mary-2-29th-may-round-trip-crossing/?do=findComment&comment=63336810

6 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

Hello D&N, as a seasoned Cunard cruiser as you and your wife are, I'm flabbergasted you are advocating hanging out washing on a line on your balcony. 🤦‍♂️😅

Quite often it has appeared in the daily program a caution not to hang washing out on the Balcony in the event it could go over overboard .

 

Not only that, to be quite honest it's rather Naff, we don't want to see your smalls   hanging across the balcony ( when in port) when we return back to the ship.  😁   

 

I did ensure that it was secured so it wouldn't blow overboard. Hung low and quite near the balcony door, with lots of mini pegs on each garment. Plus we only use it for light, quick drying fabrics of gym wear as soon as we return from our workouts. There's not enough to bother taking to laundrette and we wouldn't want to let it wait for other garments to accumulate. As soon as it stops dripping the cord including clothing moves to the shower. By then it's virtually dry.

We only visit one port and last time I did leave the line out with clean dry items for a photo from the Staten Island Ferry. 🙂

And of course we're novice rather than seasoned, only having one round trip under our belts so far.

16 minutes ago, abdullahhoneymoon said:

I plan to wash and hang dry cotton clothing during our cruise to avoid overpacking for our three-week trip. I've seen a travel clothing line online which I could place on some magnetic hooks across the stateroom, assuming the walls are magnetic and would allow for this. I know the bathrooms have a retractable clothing line, but it seems small, and frankly I'd prefer to just launder weekly and dry all the clothing at once as opposed to a few articles of clothing a day. 

 

Would magnetic hooks work in Queen Anne staterooms?

 

And, has anyone had any issues flying internationally with magnets? I'm considering bringing a couple of these 40lb hooks: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTYBHYD8/?coliid=IK0GTDFJMG0WS&colid=3QNNSTJ7YHSP4&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

Someone will confirm specifically for Queen Anne, but as far as I know all reasonably modern cruise ships have magnetic walls and ceilings.

We have a thin bungee cord washing line that we can stretch across the balcony (as far from the railing as possible), which might help if you get reasonable weather. The cord has hooks at each end and we find something to catch it on at each side. To secure garments to the line in the wind we use sewing pegs like in picture.  

1 hour ago, Big N said:

 

No - it never crossed my mind they would entertain it! I told my TA and made my displeasure known but he never replied!

Perhaps I should ask him to check with Cunard and see if this is possible. (I won’t hold my breath but many thanks for the suggestion. Why didn’t I think of that?!)

Sounds as if you need to change your agent!

It's a shame you are not allowed to name agents here, as it would then let others know to avoid him. Not much point having an agent if they don't reply.

9 hours ago, schattenfell71 said:

Here is a quick and sad update:

 

First a very, very big thanks to Safarigal for helping me out with my lost Queen Anne Teddy.

 

She bought me a teddy and send him to me from Southampton nearly 2 weeks ago.

 

But the teddy seems to be lost once again because he did not arrive here in Germany yet.

 

I feel to be inside an episode of "The Twiligt Zone".

 

We are very sad about it but on the other hand glad to meet so many fantastic and helpful people here on the board.

 

Perhaps the teddy will show up but my hopes are not very high.

 

😭

Do you have any contact with the local customs people?

In France they wave anything through from China, Malaysia or India, but immediately jump on anything posted from the UK.

10 minutes ago, david63 said:

by the fact that Carnival do not release the pre authorisations when they take the final amount - whether this has to do with there being multiple pre authorisations against one payment or that Carnival's IT is just not up to the task, I cannot say.

That was not my experience. I registered a Wise debit card, which had a USD balance in excess of our potential spend. As each transaction was registered the Wise app notified me of the update to the authorised amount and the available balance was updated immediately. The number of transactions was limited due to purchase of drinks package. There were two charges on the first day that should have been covered by the package. These were refunded a day or two later and I knew from the Wise app that they had been refunded before I checked the account on My Voyage. There were fifteen transactions in our two weeks. Early on the final morning the total was charged to the card and the remaining balance was instantly available.

Wise recorded the final transaction as being the date of the first authorisation.

15 minutes ago, MylesS said:

I wonder if they’re packing things away early to expedite cleaning? 

Might they have had any sand contamination?

We had a weather episode for several days over the weekend. They tell us that the light clouds are carrying Saharan sand. The result is that all the cars parked outdoors and house windows become coated in small splodges of sand.

1 hour ago, Winchester Ranger said:

a period of up to 30 days depending on the bank,

I don't quite understand what that has to do with Cunard, or any other supplier of goods or services. Is the problem not your bank's policy?

In our case if real time exchange rates are likely to be favourable to us, we would use a credit card that charges no exchange fees and uses close to live money market rates.

We have a debit card, which we can load with USD from GBP or EUR when the dollar is weak. That card removes any authorisation amounts instantly when the authorisation is either replaced by an actual charge or an authorisation for the same charge is made on a different card. I've watched this happen on the app related to the card on my phone screen both on QM2 and in a New York hotel belonging to the Accor Group.

We can recoup the card's small FX fee when converting any remaining USD back to GBP or EUR by choosing to do so when the dollar is strong.

Le Benitier gets a decent rating on Google, and prices for beds are similar to a restaurant in a much less fashionable town near us.

Food/drink prices aren't that inflated.

1 hour ago, HopefulCruiser123 said:

at the next drydock (anybody know when that is?)

There's a big gap in her schedules May 2026 into June 2026. We would have booked for June 2026 but she doesn't have sailings that we would normally have chosen.

The review referenced in posts #21 to #23 covers the same voyage M412B that others have listed negative experiences on, and was the voyage taken by some YouTubers who seemed to have no end of problems in a sheltered balcony Britannia cabin.

It shows that people can have very different experiences in the same grade on the same sailing.

I don't think they've been on QM2, at least I don't think they've any videos from there.

If you see any dance where couples are not dancing round the floor there's no reason why you can't do your own thing at same time. Rhumba music would be more suited to a couple in close hold than individuals dancing.

If we do ballroom in a disco and folk join us on the floor dancing disco we either dance round them or if that's not possible we change what we're doing since it's billed as their type of dancing.

When party dancing is arranged for Queens Room, which is a much bigger floor, we and others should be able to dance ballroom on the perimeter while others dance in middle, but nobody else thinks about that.

Sometimes we can thread between other dancers depending how they position themselves.

And for Dancing in the Streets, we'd be doing foxtrot, cha-cha or a slow jive before we'd resort to dad dancing.

39 minutes ago, Silverspringcruiser said:

Here's an example. It's Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love but it's swing style and everybody is coupled up and dancing like it's a '50s sock hop.

Tony Maria (dance), in bottom left of screen, are keen hobby dancers so that was probably an advertised dance session and may well have been 'called' as Swing or Ballroom Jive.

As you often find on Strictly or Dancing With The Stars, playlists are often compiled using more contemporary music, perhaps with tempo slightly adjusted to suit the dance.

There's nothing to stop anyone getting up and disco dancing to that, or any other dance where most of the steps are in one place.

It becomes more of a problem to share the floor when it's a travelling ballroom dance and the bulk of dancers are moving around the floor, a stationary dancer/couple would cause a traffic jam.

Edit to ask; Have you looked at the rest of their playlists? I think it's exclusively dancing, mostly on Cunard or Princess ships.

15 minutes ago, new to cuising said:

Was there any sequence dancing? Usually most Cunard cruises I’ve been on feature such sessions to recorded music

There were two morning classes and a 45 minute session at 7pm one evening each week/way on our crossings. We only made the last evening one due to my failure to fully analyse the daily programs.

We're not big sequence fans, preferring freestyle, but there are a few we quite like.