Toffeegirl68

Call this a thread?! No-one appears to have got upset or taken offence.... :)

Point to note for taxi travellers: whenever we have arrived in Southampton and headed for the taxi rank, we have always been asked 'Which ship?' - never 'Which terminal'?.

Love your blog - being about you on the ship rather than about the ship (if you see what I mean).

Nine Forward...... you're a deck short of a full pack !

Hope its fixed by January - I always sleep well in there! :)

As others have confirmed the footie is shown when available though we've never experienced signal issues on a TA.

On one of our first voyages (2006 or 2008?) the pub was getting so busy ahead of the Champions League final that they screened it on the cinema too.

If the trivia quiz clashes with the advertised football then they will relocate the quiz :) In these cases, its amusing to see people arrive 'early' to grab a seat for the quiz and then sit there for a few minutes very pleased with themselves having bagged a table... until more time passes, few others are arriving .... and they realise that they are in the wrong place! Sorry, but it is quite funny to watch.

Another classic we have witnessed was a couple who had obviously relocated from the Chart Room to the pub to avoid the relocated quiz. On arriving in the pub, accompanied by the waiter who had fetched their drinks / ice bucket down, they asked him to have the sound on the TV turned off! (Everton were playing, so that was NEVER going to happen :) )

In May this year we did a westbound TA with return flights from JFK departing at 18:35.

Our coach trip took us to the 911 Memorial - we were there of about half an hour - then we were dropped near to Macys for just over an hour before heading off to the airport we got there about 3 hours before the flight.

The coach was dropping off at a couple of terminals at JFK.

Make sure that you are clear which airport and which terminal you need. Thinking 'Flying to Heathrow' (or wherever) or 'Flying from Newark' won't be enough as there are always a number of coaches going in different directions.

You are always 'hostage' to the timeliness of other people...

You will love it. And, to be honest, the only people who talk about class don't have it. :)

You are quite correct 3GC..... we did go to one show on QV with our table mates a couple of trips ago.... it was a show which starred 3 different acts and it was very good. An excellent 'night out' as such.

The joy of being on board is that there are so many things to do / go see to keep yourself happily entertained.

Must say that after reading all of your posts I feel somewhat blessed. Hubby is not into musical theatre type things, so on our multiple crossings, I have neither cajoled him into going nor abandoned him to go on my own.

I remain in the (seemingly) innocent state of having seen neither Viva Italia nor Apassionata!

Who referred to 'Trouble'?

The OP....

I'm less offended by what people wear than how they behave, what they say - and how loud they say it !! :)

Another option to using the lifts at the far end when boarding the ship.....

Since most people want to go UP in the lift .... choose to go DOWN. You're on board the lift even if it means taking a slight detour !

(Don't share this gem with anyone... )

https://www.gov.uk/registered-traveller

Apply for the Registered Traveller service to get through UK border control faster.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/expansion-of-us-global-entry-service-to-british-citizens

Global Entry, which provides expedited clearance for members at the US border, will be available to British citizens from 3 December.

I like them as they are. :)

Recent discussion, which apart from the sharing of opinions, shares real experiences of 'early arrivers'..

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2268327

To me, DVDs of voyages are the equivalent of DVDs of concerts / live performances. They do not portray your view of the event and are NOT something which you will look to view time and time again (unlike a favourite movie).

The best memories are those retained in your head, which are brought to mind by a single picture / momento.

Money is best spent on creating new memories methinks. ;)

I've been next to a laundry room and didn't have any issues.

Our London focus group agreed that whatever the Winter Garden became, it shouldn't be turned into another café-esque area.

There is a plan to remodel Kings Court to improve circulation and reduce the number of entry / exit points.

We had a good debate about the merit of trays.....

Looking forward to seeing the cabin refits.

I get why people checking out of accommodation might arrive at port early. One might as well stare at a wall at port than look for somewhere else to stare at a wall.

However I do think that (for example at the large terminal at Southampton) they should be more discerning about how they dish out lettered order-of-embarkation cards. I'm not happy to turn up on time and wait for an hour whilst they process those not due to turn up for another 90 minutes. So sure, turn up ahead of schedule, but be prepared to sit in the corner and await your time.

If the early embarkation fairy has capacity, all well and good, but it quickly gets to the point where the queue does form, so to some extent, yes, they should enforce embarkation slots.

Sure, get there extra early to get a seat - but you're going need it if you turn up too early - as I waltz by to check in !! :):eek:

A tiny part of me thinks that this is sad.

There are fewer places to hide away these days :).

I can concur with BlueRiband's comments - I went to a small focus group in London in early summer.... all attendees had been on board recently - some for the first time, others had sailed more often.

As well as fixing broken things, they plan a tweak of cabin décor and also an over-haul of deck 7 public areas.

We will be on board in January '16 and not likely to return to QM2 til 2018 (Jan '17 TA will be on QE) - so will await everyone else's photos to see the outcome.

The voyage personaliser currently states the dress code as follows:

10 January Day 1 Dress: Informal

11 January Day 2 Dress: Formal - Black & White Ball

12 January Day 3 Dress: Formal

13 January Day 4 Dress: Informal

14 January Day 5 Dress: Informal

15 January Day 6 Dress: Formal - Roaring Twenties

16 January Day 7 Dress: Informal

In meantime... we were given a book : 175 Years of Cunard plus a red 175 lapel (?) badge each too.... Both placed on bed on penultimate evening.