D&N

On our Westbound the majority of non English speakers were French, Eastbound, which was continuing to Hamburg that was German and it was clear there were a large number of Germans or expat Germans on board, with US citizens who were heading for European trips. The Westbound had been preceded by a round trip to Norway. Not many to Nice. In high season (Aug 8th) there are 2 to Liverpool and 1 to Manchester. On same day there are 19 to London, 14 of them are Heathrow or Gatwick, which have similar transfer times to Southampton. 7 of those are BA to Heathrow so if you need to change the time of a flight it's easily done. Note that Nice is 3rd busiest airport in France after the two Paris airports. The frequency difference is similar to many European capitals and hubs. On our crossings it was more like 45% UK, 35% US, 20% others with largest groups being French or German as mentioned above.

Have you seen these videos? 4193 from last year and the other somewhat older. 4193 https://youtu.be/vcuxGZpngqU?feature=shared 8179 https://youtu.be/ctfcgHR5KQE?feature=shared

We'd rather have Bocelli duetting with his daughter.

We'll just have to continue to enjoy our never ending holiday at home and do without the odd ocean crossing and dancing experience. While we're still alive of course! Probably better value overall to spend the cash on fine dining here, but difficult to find venues suitable for formal/gala wear or offering dance floors.

I hope they don't operate TAs to or from Liverpool while we still want to sail. It would probably be too much bother. We don't have many flights to Liverpool or Manchester, whereas we have at least five a day to and from Heathrow. Not sure what a taxi from Heathrow to Liverpool would cost, but it's got to be much more than Southampton.

Don't think so. But they were on a crossing departing Southampton on May 16th. There have been other reports about that sailing on here about long waits and issues with food. They do seem to have had some valid complaints. I find their comments on travelling Britannia and their general attitude to "dressing up" as they call it irritating. They don't seem to appreciate how odd their outfits look compared to most other passengers. On Gala Night one claims his jacket is too tight and trousers too loose. Why not buy a suit that fits?

The lady from TravelTouristVideos specialises in shots of her eating food very elegantly. She never seems to get any sauce on her chin! She appears to put away an awful lot, perhaps three dishes per course in a meal. I assume the family order a different dish each and then film her sampling a fork full of each. One of their videos has us dancing a solo quickstep at Red & Gold Gala Ball on QM2.

I just watched what I assume is the first of several follow up videos. I no longer hope things improve for them. I'm hopeful that Cunard have carefully planned a period of poor service to put them and their followers off sailing on QM2 ever again! 🙂

I've seen a few recruitment agency videos on YT. There seems to be a Final Interview Event for chefs and other kitchen staff in Bali from June 6th to 9th.

Think you are right. Initially thought the quay there is much more substantial and she's facing the wrong way, but there is a photo showing this less substantial structure on her starboard side with that motor launch.

I had another look at their Britannia Restaurant experience, where they seem to have been allocated a table out of sight of most people and beside a waiters station. They didn't seem too happy at that. But they are both wearing patterned button down collar shirts with creasing that suggests they have been badly packed. Although out of focus, all the other gents in their shots seem to be wearing jackets at their tables. I know that what they are wearing is within the stipulations of the dress code, but they stand out from everyone else and I would be suspicious that the Maître d' has decided they are best seated out of sight! 🙂

Is there a connecting door on the noisy neighbour side, perhaps well hidden? We wouldn't book a cabin that has a connecting door. On QM2 we could only hear neighbours talking if we were both on balcony at same time.

Perhaps not the ideal port activity, but there is a shopping centre fairly near the cruise terminal; The "Docks". https://docksvauban.com/ They appear to have a Lego store, restaurants etc. Their Lidl may have some passable cheap French wine and cheap spirits. It's about 2.6km walk from the terminal on port roads, so you'd be best with a taxi each way. They even have a Primark. I thought we had the only one in France at Cagnes-sur-Mer!

I'm fairly sure I danced to the previous band, Salvation at Clouds Disco in Glasgow. Not sure if Midge had joined them by then. I was more interested in the girls I was dancing with than who was playing!

We're all assuming it's her half life full overhaul. M612 is easy to cancel if it wasn't finished on time. We'd have preferred to do a round trip TA at that time but have had to book September. I hadn't noticed there was no M610. Suppose they could add something at last minute if it was going to be completed early.

I just examined our cards from 2022. Oddly they are Silver rather than Red. However our final Guest Invoice shows "First Time Guest". Possibly Cunard cancelling four, seven night trips before we finally boarded confused their systems.

I've seen cards issued to new Cunard passengers described as "Red Tops" on this forum several times.

We originally wondered about booking an inside for a TA. However we weren't keen on having a room with no natural light for seven or fourteen days. We looked at Ocean View but decided we wanted the floor to ceiling windows and a glass fronted balcony to get as much light in as possible. Originally it would have been a carefully selected obstructed balcony that wasn't very obstructed and eventually we ended up in an unobstructed balcony in Club. We travel during late spring or summer when there is good daylight. My wife rarely wears makeup but on QM2 applies some every evening between 5pm and 6pm. Having the full windows and pulling curtains back gives her more light for that. We've looked at PG layout on QM2 and don't think the dressing table mirror location in them will get same natural light benefit. The balcony was also useful for our gym wear washing line. The garments are so light and quick drying that there's no point going to a laundrette with them. We quickly wash it through in sink and hang on balcony. If it's raining there is some cover from the deck above and we let it drip then finish the drying in the shower cubicle.

I've not found anything about a strike in Le Havre on June 1st or 2nd. That doesn't mean there isn't one. However I did find an article about an Anti Cruise Ship protest, although it says they are gathering at 4.30pm. I've read of similar things in Marseilles and Toulon, and just the other day someone wanting the Nice Metropole authorities to ban cruise ships from the Port of Nice and Villefranche. https://www.paris-normandie.fr/id527562/article/2024-05-30/le-collectif-stop-croisiere-le-havre-manifeste-samedi-1er-juin-la-catene-de It's a local news site and in French. Here's a Google translation of the most important bits of it: "Saturday June 1 , 2024 at the Catène de containers, the collective “Stop Croisière Le Havre” demonstrates against the expansion of cruise ship stopovers in the port of Le Havre. The “Stop Croisière Le Havre” collective is organizing a first event on Saturday June 1, 2024 from 4:30 p.m., under the Catène de containers. He denounces the expansion of cruise lines in the port city in contradiction with energy sobriety. While a new cruise terminal should see the light of day in Le Havre before 2026, the “Stop Croisière Le Havre” collective protests against a “very polluting” cruise industry , in contradiction with the objectives of the public authorities to reduce carbon emissions. greenhouse gas ". The “Stop Croisière Le Havre” collective recently joined the European Cruise Activist Network (Ecan) movement which wants to make June 1 the international meeting place for anti-cruises."

Hadn't thought of that. Been in and out of Zeebrugge numerous times on ferries without any issues. You often felt the difference when the ship cleared the breakwater, so it seemed a well sheltered port. Not sure if ferries still get pilots as they call at least every second day.

Glad you enjoyed it. It's been really helpful to hear how it was done. Thank you. We'll hopefully arrange ours pre dinner one night. We should be in same area of the Club dinning room as before. Last time our sommelier was very good. He was a Cellar Tracker and Vivino user himself and was there all fourteen nights. He was sometimes substituted at lunch time, but we'll only be drinking basic stuff then. Of course he may have been moved, but if that's the case hopefully they'll have a decent replacement. We normally go to Chartroom for our aperitifs, and will replace that with the tasting. In effect it's equivalent to a 125ml glass of red each in place of a spritz or glass of prosecco.

Great information. Thank you. I first spotted this on the August 2022 Wine List. Then it was $350. And the individual glasses were offered in 75ml servings, the most expensive of those being $135. General price increases and changing the servings to 125ml has drastically increased the price of them. The idea of having a glass per night was fine when it was only 50% more millilitres, but 125ml is a bit much for tasting purposes. I see your follow up confirms you are trying them. Enjoy!

Three dots in top right. You only get a number of minutes after posting to do it.

I do watch many of the QM2 vlogs. I sometimes see quite nice shots of bits of the ship, and even spotted us dancing for about ten seconds in one of them. We also enjoy criticising some of the interpretations of the dress code that vloggers come up with! 🤣

I wasn't impressed by that either. Admittedly I did watch most of it on subtitles as I've been watching Gael Monfils playing tennis on TV at same time.