D&N

It's been nice and bright here for a few days. After the initial purchases of new camera gear, I've been picking up used kit on leboncoin, which is a small ads site equivalent to UK's Gumtree. I've got some more flash gear and lenses. 2 fairly low aperture wide angle lenses and a long zoom. The latter is not really for my camera, which is a "full frame". Those for "APS-C" are hugely cheaper and at maximum zoom there's not much difference. I've removed a plastic baffle from the lens and on full zoom there is only a tiny amount of vignetting in the corners. The subjects I'm targeting are likely to be centre frame (QM2 at 7.5miles) so that won't be a problem. This first shot is of The Southern Alpes. Monte Argentera is to left of tallest conifer in the photo. It's the highest peak in Southern Alpes at 10,817ft. It's nearly 38 miles away. I've cropped that photo to remove the vignetting. Mont Mounier and it's friends are to left. They're a little bit smaller. Then we have Carmel lounging in a sunspot. You can just make out the vignetting in her corners. And finally here's a sunburst that clearly shows the vignetting. It would have helped if I'd cleaned dust from the lens and sensor before taking the photo.

I'd be happy for QM2 to take as many days as possible to go either way. I'd prefer not to have to get off in New York though. The problem is that after about 12 days I can't wait to get back here. Couldn't she just embark by tender from Nice or Antibes and sail continually around the bay and let us nip home to check on Carmel (or whatever cats we have at the time) whenever we feel the need?

Sorry for resurrecting this but I didn't think my observation merited a thread of it's own. I was perusing what appears to be a recent version of the Wine List and I came across a Slovenian white named: Pinot Grigio Quercus, Klet Brda, Goriska Brda, 2018 at $34. I'm wondering whether this might be based on the hand wash, shower gel or shampoo? 🤣 Surprisingly it actually gets some decent reviews on specialist wine sites.

I would still suggest looking at booking.com even if you don't book through their site. You can search for "Penn Station, New York, New York State, United States" or other landmarks and set filter to less than 1km (1,100yds). It will show hotels on a map and you can sort by "distance from landmark" letting you see what's nearest the station. When you look at the hotel's rooms, whether available or not, you should find the room size. My experience is that although there are hotels available for May 2024, there may be more about a year before dates. If I found one I liked now I would book a deal that allows cancellation up to a few days prior to stay. Then if I found something better I'd book it and cancel the original. In the unlikely event that I was booking in that location I would be tempted by: The Herald 8 by LuxUrban on W35th at 6th. Doesn't look the most stylish of hotels, but room sizes are good and look functional and the deal I'm looking at includes cancellation up to afternoon of arrival. And it's 600 metres from Penn Station. Might even be closer depending on where you exit

@PORT ROYAL No, I wouldn't approach this at that level. It's not the Chief Exec who stands to get the extra tip before we leave. It's easy enough for us to carry a small bottle, the 250ml plastic Coke bottles are good for that. I've even used a 100ml yoghurt drink bottle if we're flying somewhere with only hand luggage. We always carry a "dog bag" (Radley Tote Bag) in the evenings for dance shoes and camera gear. It won't add much to the weight. 🍸

Thank you, but I'm well aware of that. We do not like drinking in our cabin. Our cabin is for sleeping in and preparing to go out and about on the ship. We do like drinking a small glass of Grand Marnier in the Chart Room before we go up to bed in our cabin. If Cunard can't supply Grand Marnier, we are more than happy to gift it to Cunard so they can sell it back to us! Unfortunately we don't have enough to supply the whole ship so it would need to be reserved for us. Unless we feel assured the supply issues have been resolved, we'll take the stuff with us and come to an arrangement with the bar folk if required. I'm sure it won't do their books any harm if they charge us for a couple of drinks but don't serve the measures.

You'll find this display on deck 12 just forward of Pavilion Pool. It fluctuates between this screen, a location chart and one with course and speed. Not sure if there are any more in other parts of ship. This was probably the worst sea state declared but we weren't really aware of any motion unless looking out windows.

No. There are various wordings depending on what set of T&Cs you look at but all state own alcohol can only be consumed in stateroom not public unless a corkage fee is being paid, which suggests they're only thinking of bottles of wine and champagne.

Back in 2018 the UK brochure suggested the hotels and prices below. We looked at many booking sites but made all reservations on booking.com. Much bigger rooms were available at about half the Cunard prices at several hotels. Due to the pandemic we made repeated bookings and cancellations. In 2022 we ended up in Sofitel which had comfortable 355 sq ft rooms and was just far enough away from Times Square. Out TA had suggested Marriott Marquis but having seen how close it was to the craziness of Times Square I would have hated it. Marriott Marquis Times Square; RATES FROM £220*, ADDITIONAL NIGHTS FROM £160*. Four Seasons Downtown; RATES FROM £430*, ADDITIONAL NIGHTS FROM £310* Hilton Midtown; RATES FROM £190*, ADDITIONAL NIGHTS FROM £130* *All hotel rates are per person per night in £ sterling based on two adults sharing a double room in 2020.

By 9 o'clock she'll be in dance heels and she's only barefoot in sandals so the problem doesn't arise. Here's another matter, the odd time she wears heels in high summer they often come off at foot of apartment staircase. But she has Mephisto sandals for then.

The logistics more or less dictate the need to pour in lounge. Our late night route will be deck 3 aft to midships then climb 10 decks to cabin. We don't use lifts unless my wife has put on the wrong earrings or finds dance heels are too high to heel turn in. Then it's my job to swap them as quickly as possible. With a bit of luck their stores will be overflowing with Grand Marnier and the situation will never arise.

@Host HattieDo you have a version of that where you can actually see yourself? If not would you like one? I thought it was an ideal shot to try out some of the wizardry in the Gimp2 photo processing freeware that I use. Of course it changes some of the other colours in the photo at same time as it highlights you. Can I attach a photo to the report function if you didn't want it published?

I came across this YouTube "Vlogger" tasting many of the dishes in the Golden Lion on Queen Mary 2. I believe it's actually from our return (eastbound) sailing in June 2022. The young lady eats very tidily, and appears to put away an awful lot of food! One assumes she must be tasting her companions dishes for the video.

Further to @PORT ROYAL's comment on another thread it sounds unlikely they would. By the time we next plan to sail hopefully the supply problems we encountered will have been resolved. But just in case I'll probably stick one or two bottles in our luggage. If they don't have any I might try asking the waiter for two cognacs but just to serve empty glasses and I can have enough for us decanted to a small plastic bottle. It's only for our final drink of the day, but we'd much prefer to drink it in the ambience of a lounge rather than in the cabin.

Can you present a bottle of spirits to a lounge bar person at start of trip and pay corkage to have measures served each night? Our biggest disappointment last time was that they had run out of Grand Marnier. To be honest I would even donate the bottle(s) for our exclusive use and pay for the drinks (again!). We don't pay much for bottles here. Has anyone experience of this?

I had intended to take some bottles from our cellar last time and would have paid corkage in the restaurant, then we decided to try the drinks package. Depending on what is in our cellar and ready for drinking, I may do so next next time. We're not really interested in drinking in the cabin. We brought 3 bottles of PA and a Cunard Red gifted by a friend home with us. We would rather drink in the ambience of a comfortable lounge when on board. I'll start a new thread for this, but if anyone here knows; Can you present a bottle of spirits to a lounge bar person at start of trip and pay corkage to have measures served each night? To be honest I would even donate the bottle(s) for our exclusive use and pay for the drinks (again!). Our biggest disappointment last time was that they had run out of Grand Marnier.

That wasn't my experience. Coverage in cabins is not good. Repeater routers are roughly one every 14 or 15 Britannia cabins and the heavy cabin doors block the signal. In public places you will see the routers on the ceiling. Sit near these when having a drink . Large photo files take ages to upload. I used "Photo Compressor and Resizer" for Android to reduce files to upload quickly. There must be something similar for Apple products. I was posting here, on Facebook and WhatsApp several times per day. Checking banking, and news sites and accessing our cloud photo archives any time I wanted to show anyone pics from decades ago.

I recall a dance teacher having a music disc many years ago that was produced to raise funds for The British Heart Foundation. It was the same tune set to different beats, supposedly to suit the various dances. He insisted on using it for months. I thought it was awful. I think this might have been the offending product:

I don't agree on the six pack/keg comparison. Not sure that I have a six pack. I've certainly got some concave bits on my torso that I seemed to have lost for over 20 years! Here's a comparison of two almost identical outfits over 16 years apart. The tie and shoes are the same in both cases. I'm clear on which I prefer. What is it they say about lipstick and pigs? P.S. Queen Mary 2's Atrium Balcony beats Arcadia's pool area hands down for a photo backdrop!

And of course that's fine. Not that it's any of my business of course! I don't like the photos of me in chinos, tailored shorts and short sleeved shirts. So I don't plan to take any of them next time. I probably won't wear a jacket and tie at breakfast, and I'll have suitable attire for the pool and gym. I dress casually at home so QM2 is an excuse to get away from that.

It won't make any difference to us. I was rather disappointed in how scruffy I looked in several of the photos we took around lunchtime when we were on QM2. Next time I'll wear a jacket and tie every lunchtime. I might place the jacket over the back of my chair now and again. The one exception being our day in New York when we plan to lunch at the Red Hook Lobster Pound.

I posted scans from June 2022. We were in Britannia Club but the standard dinner menu is the same. Club has an additional à la carte menu. The norm was 4 appetisers, 2 salads, 2 soups, 5 or 6 entrées and 6 desserts (inc cheese).

Still learning to use the new camera. I think it’s the most expensive piece of electronics I’ve ever bought. It came with a “kit lens”, but some of the vast range of lenses available for it can cost several times the price of the camera. I’ve been searching the used market for cheap kit that I might not use very often. That included a zoom for taking distant shots. In turn that’s led to finding out how F-stops and exposure compensation can enhance results on those. I want to master such shots before Queen Mary 2 next sails past our window on August 3rd! Here we have Carmel taken on automatic settings. A max zoom video frame from yesterday’s 777-300ER arrival from Dubai. The SW tip of the airport runway taken at f/11 on max zoom. The plane is about 2½ miles away. QM2 will be about 7½ miles but have about 5 times the profile. The small domed structure at the runway is 3½ miles towards the course of ships heading to Villefranche. QM2 will be slightly more than twice that distance. Of course CC compresses the photos. Originals are much bigger.

On Cunard's system you should be able to view or edit the offered stateroom. That should show you the section of the ship it is in and a portion of the deck plan. You should also be able to download deck plans or brochures including them. Or go to https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/index.php which has deck plans for most ships.

On an early June 2022 crossing, the Pavilion Pool was quite cold. We were happy to swim round in circles in it but started to shiver if we stood still for more than a few minutes. Someone else posted that it had been a bit warmer recently.