D&N

It would be difficult to identify the flag zooming in on the original before CC compress the file. It was only a 1600x1200 image when taken. It's possible the flag has changed. It's a bit blurry but I think the gangway lettering is just Queen Mary 2. There might be a large A at each end of the wording.

It is in the Caribbean, and is a "small island" in both area and population according to a definition I found online.

I've been wondering about posting this one for a while. I think the berth is quite distinctive. I have an almost identical zoomed out a bit if it's too difficult. It is a port that I've seen posted here previously.

Although I've never seen that photo of the runway before I instinctively knew I had been there when I saw the photo. A quick reverse lookup confirmed. We took the water taxi to Froggy Jack's for lunch just after my picture of the plane. Froggy Jack's appears to have become Waterfront Gardens Restaurant since then. I initially thought the photo was from after lunch going by the time stamp, but the sequence of photos indicates that the camera was set to UK time.

Currently on the UK site: https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/activity-types/bars-and-lounges/a-world-of-drinks It shows options where the price drops from 15 nights and then again from 85 nights. $49.50/day for someone sailing 85 nights or more seems very good value. Providing they don't plan too many dry days!

No. It's only a single prop. Reverse lookups suggest it might be a Cessna 208 or 400. DHL seem to have operated both in the region. Edit: We were looking forward to a very nice lunch.

And from another angle....

Talk of Christmas cakes and the prior mention of gingerbread reindeer reminded me that the girls next door brought us some biscuits as a thank you for presents we had given them for helping their dad look after our cats on a recent weekend when we visited London. The girls pet and play with the cats while their dad attends to their food and other needs. Not quite gingerbread reindeer but very tasty with a coffee.

I've not come across that, but then I've never looked at travelling on either. GWR seem to use "cabin" for the Night Riviera Sleeper. I think Scotrail's Caledonian Sleeper used "cabin" when I used them now and again for business travel, although in standard class you could reserve a berth in a shared cabin. The current modern Caledonian Sleeper calls them "rooms". I can understand the use of "compartment" as I've travelled in many compartments in the past, but on seated trains. Our family would reserve 7 of 8 seats in a compartment when travelling Glasgow-London. My mother would hope nobody occupied the 8th seat so that she didn't need to worry about us embarrassing her.

I would call a room for sleeping in or anything else one might do in your private space on a ship, a cabin. I would apply that to rooms on sleeper trains as well. I can understand that a multi roomed cabin could be described as a suite (of rooms). From a practical point of view [cabin & suite] have the same number of letters if one is writing the word, but a larger proportion of folk are likely to spell the former correctly. To me cruise lines use the term stateroom in promotional material simply to try and impress.

I suspect you may need to spend half your life trawling through travel agents and port authority websites around the globe looking for information that is briefly posted on web pages by mistake! I personally think it would be quite rude to ask them to divulge their sources after all the time they've taken to gather the information (I know you didn't actually ask them to) and it would be against forum rules for them to mention travel agents by name.

If we wanted to take in all the dancing we could do a late lunch, afternoon tea and skip dinner. Wouldn't be a problem for us. At home we have a late lunch and only liquids in the evenings on weekdays. It was one of the biggest elements of reducing our weights and remaining well within a healthy BMI. But I'm not sure we would be prepared to miss a Gala Dinner on QM2!

Scheduling isn't great for dancers either. In a YouTube video showing a QM2 daily program from July 2023, it lists Pre-dinner dancing to The Queens Room Trio from 7pm to 7:45pm, then Roaring 20's Gala Night from 8:45pm. Even with the very short distance from Queens Room to Britannia Club Restaurant we wouldn't consider trying to squeeze dinner into an hour.

British sparkling wines have been beating Champagnes in blind tastings and wining awards at wine fairs for many years. It has been suggested that the climate in Southern England has become very similar to that of the Champagne Region 50 years ago. I've never tasted British sparkling but would be more than happy to try if I found it on a wine menu. Personally I prefer Crémant or Blanquette de Limoux to most Champagnes.

Why not check the price booking direct with Cunard, including whether any onboard credit would be offered? That tells you if the agent is adding anything on or discounting the Cunard fare.

Everyone's definition of expensive could be different. I know some folk may not be prepared to buy items from China (including Hong Kong). In recent years one of our sources has been SHEIN. My wife has 20s style dresses, ballgowns and cocktail dresses from them and they've cost between €20 and €45 after discounts. There are always discount codes, we rarely get less than 15% off. Zapaka specialise in 20s style and probably made two of those bought from SHEIN. We've not bought a dress from them. JJ's House are more expensive, but sale and other discounts are available. They're do mainly wedding and prom wear. No 20s style. Other than sale samples or returns, everything is made to order. Regarding delivery; SHEIN average 8 days from China to France. Zapaka took several weeks with little delivery info, I suspect items are made to order. JJ's House range from 9 to 27 days, the latter included a custom order. If you want any guidance on using SHEIN or JJ's House, probably best to ask on one of the other dress code threads to keep this clearer for Bluemarble to gather gala night details.

Was it just Latin? That would seem stupid. Most afternoons/evenings of general dancing held in Central Scotland would be about 75% ballroom and 25% latin, sequence and party dances. There are certainly folk who specialise in latin dancing but they're unlikely to fill the floor. I find it hard to believe that the Irish duo wouldn't play some numbers suitable for ballroom or latin. We dance 90% ballroom & latin to the bands and disco music in G32. I disapprove of them putting chairs on the dance floor though. That reduces the number of people that can dance at any time and risks having sticky drinks spilt on the wood. Nice to read your posts. Hope it's not too cold when you return. The forecasters are even threatening us with 1°C some mornings this week!

From YouTube videos. Most recently from a cruise during the 2023 English October half term there are two recumbent cycles shown to port side of the run of treadmills facing the bow. A few months earlier there were two cross trainers in that space and three recumbents behind the run of treadmills. Recumbent cycles are a fairly standard piece of Technogym kit, I'd be surprised if they ever removed them completely.

I wonder if it might have been to give better access for maintenance work on some of the lifeboat derricks? It looked as if most of the lifeboats/tenders were removed whilst in Rotterdam.

That could almost be taken as a challenge for someone to sit in The Chart Room or Commodore Club with a phone to their ear and fabricate a similar conversation just to shock those around them. 🙂

I've found what @Catchum was referencing. Princess offer two levels of cruise upgrade. Each of them offers the corresponding drinks package and surprisingly and confusingly are significantly cheaper than the drinks package alone. For someone that is happy to order a glass of Merlot or Chardonnay without knowing or caring where it was produced or how it tastes, it looks to be an excellent deal. Their more expensive package does give the wine details and we wouldn't drink most of them. Whispering Angel Rosé is on list, it's the only one we would drink. Not our first choice as it's a wine that's not widely stocked in France. It tends to go to export markets (a sign of something the French don't rate highly). We'd need to buy bottles to get whites or reds. It's difficult to compare bottle prices as the labels offered are usually different, however the Whispering Angel is $65 per bottle on Princess against $60 on Cunard. Their is a huge difference in Cunard's favour on Pétrus, which could be explained by the vintage but Princess don't bother to state the vintage on their list, and I doubt there are many passengers spend that amount on a bottle of wine, particularly those that are complaining about the price of a package. We know we'll pay more on QM2 than we do here in France but we're happy to factor that into the cost.

Sounds a fair bit cheaper if all tips and wifi are included. Although I can't find that deal searching on Google. What I've found suggests it's increased to $64.99 + 18%. But that's not from Princess itself so I wouldn't trust it to be correct. From what I've seen of their wine lists I wouldn't consider drinking many of their wines. Our travel agent has been on their ships a few times this year and posted hundreds of photos on Facebook, including menus. Generally apart from sparkling I don't normally drink anything other than French. We sailed with Princess once 25 years ago when our tastes were different and enjoyed it. We only want to sail on QM2 anyway so have no choice but to pay up!

I believe the package is currently $70 per person per day for cruises of 5 days and over if booked in advance. That gives you up to 15 drinks per day and includes the 15% service charge. Plus it covers real coffees soft drinks and bottled water. Would you drink the wines by the glass that are included in the package? And how much cheaper would a similar package be on Princess?

We had gas central heating. The living area was rarely at less than 24C, particularly when I was sitting at my PC working for hours at a time. I do have/had a few navy/black fleeces that I can add if I need them. We only have electricity here and installing central heating isn't practical. Reversible air heat pumps are the cheapest way of heating in winter and cooling during heatwaves. And very effective since we rarely have a difference greater than 10C between the outdoor and indoor units.

At 67 I'm not sure if I'm an older person. I sometimes wear one heavily checked thick soft cotton lumberjack style collared shirt here in winter to help me keep warm. I only bought it because it was in a sale. I don't own a jumper/sweater as I don't like wearing them. The check shirt I wore to travel to Southampton last time looks to have quite a strong pattern in the photos, but it looks more subdued in reality. Otherwise I wouldn't wear a highly patterned shirt anytime or anywhere. I prefer plain coloured or fine stripe or check. I won't have that issue in future trips on QM2 as I'll be wearing a dinner suit every night so the shirts will all be white. I do have some collared polo shirts that I should really throw away. I haven't worn them in about 15 years.