martinmct

Just back from QM2 World Cruise - can’t possibly have enough magnets for maps, itinerary, customs doc, birthday cards, tour tkts and information, flags on the stateroom door etc etc etc! Note to self..order some more from Amazon for the next voyage!

On the QM2 world voyage at the moment, there was a tour offered earlier in the voyage and another is imminent. $120 USD

‘The best ‘parking spot’ in the world!’ Capt Aseem Hashmi - Monday 26th February.

It was an amazing departure from onboard - thank you so much for posting those shots! Martin

These are screen shots from the internet purchase page on QM2 at the moment… PREMIUM starts at 36 US per 24hrs, ESSENTIAL starts at 24 US per 24hrs. Multiple device discounts as shown. Hope this helps.

@reeves35 sitting on QM2 berthed in your hometown at this very moment doing Soton to Soton and enjoying it immensely! @artvlay For extra reassurance - My wife is an avid diet Coke drinker, on departure from Southampton last month I wheeled 48 cans of the stuff direct to my stateroom without so much as a murmur from anyone. She accepts that it will be drunk in the stateroom/balcony, so a couple of cans are kept in the stateroom fridge at a time. Obviously the supply has run down over the last couple of months so we just top up at various stops with smaller quantities - obviously I’m not carting 48 cans around again!

Hate to say this….Insurance companies will be thinking somewhat differently to this - they will be calling tunes. We are on the QM2 for the WC and very much hope to be doing the journey as advertised - we were looking forward to visiting Vladivostok on QE last summer….. the rest is ongoing sad history. Now back to the packing for Thursday!

We were on QE’s first 2023 visit to Juneau - pretty much identical experience to 3rdGenCunarder - there were an awful lot of frayed tempers amongst fellow passengers. This is my only experience of tendering to date - agreed we’d never tender again. We leave Southampton on 11th Jan for her world cruise, some tendering is scheduled….I’m told it’s quite nice staying on board during port days!!! - hardly the point of a world cruise though!

I’ve just completed payments for QM2 next year, and received confirmation back from Cunard that all is well! I too, experienced difficulties with the website - particularly making payments using my Windows Desktop. All was well when I used my Apple ipad to carry out the transactions. Whilst I acknowledge that not everyone has different hardware access to the internet, this worked for me. It has to be said though, that this solution can be useful with other websites from time to time along with use of different browsers - eg chrome/safari. The technical world is not a perfect one, whatever we may be lead to believe!

@sfred Great to hear you are back aboard again - doesn’t seem long ago that we disembarked in Vancouver - June 20th. Enjoy yourselves…and QE! Martin

‘You need to inform them that you want to claim your benefit, and provide them with: Your legal name Your booking number Your ship and sailing date Proof of your stock ownership You can mail your details to Customer Solutions, 24305 Town Center Drive, Suite 200, Santa Clarita CA 91355. Alternatively, you can fax them to +1-661-753-0180, or you can email them to sb@cunard.com.’ Hope this helps… M

@Mike & Zen recently posted this on the Open dining discussion

….and finally back at Canada Place on Tue 20th June..thanks for your kind words @sfred. Next report will follow on 11th January 2024 from QM2! Martin

Almost over for us for now with QE back in Victoria for our second visit (Mon 19th June). We decided to take the shuttle into town and then walk to Government House to take a look at the gardens. All very worthwhile, and a very nice part of residential Victoria - Rockland. Returned to the ship via the the coast and straight into afternoon tea, which we felt we deserved having walked a few miles! All aboard for 8.30pm in time for the ‘long’ overnight voyage to Vancouver! Always hate seeing bags in the corridor awaiting collection for disembarkation - and I know that others do too - ours have now joined them!

QE has the current timings for her dining as per this photo of the Daily Programme for Monday 19th June - although this is a port day in Victoria, the only variation to a ‘normal’ day being that there is no lunchtime service in the Steakhouse, normally 12.00pm to 1.30pm. Regards, Martin

QE is in Ketchikan today - it has been dry and sunny whilst docked. A large ‘birthday’ cake has been made for the Kings official birthday. The daily Programme proclaims ‘Happy Birthday Your Majesty’. It goes on to say ‘Today His Majesty King Charles III celebrates his Birthday. Cunard is delighted to be able to say that The King attended his first Cunard event in 1968 when he was 20 years old; as young Prince of Wales, he joined Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) as the ship sailed from her birthplace at Clydebank.’ The late Queen Elizabeth II looks calmly on in the Queens Room.

@rafinmd Roy, I’ve photographed the sheet we were given before ‘going ashore by tender’. Hope this helps. Kind regards, Martin

…and here is QE at Juneau today…a day that started well, and deteriorated into soaking rain. In fairness we have been aboard QE for nearly 6 weeks and encountered very little rain, so you could say the ‘books were being balanced’. The tendering process was interesting… @sfred mrs martinmct did have an excellent birthday with Hubbard again centre stage and performing superbly. A very pleasant late meal in the Britannia with some nice wine, nice folk and a resounding rendition of Happy Birthday from the waiter’s finished the meal off nicely. It was probably the latest sunset of our trip and we finished watching it from the stern of the ship on Deck 3. She’ll be back for more!

….and here is the picture.

QE was at Hubbard Glacier on 14th June - comparable with our visit 10 days ago! I have a view taken from the entrance to our stateroom 5004 along the corridor to the door onto the bow deck - we didn’t have far to walk! Interesting comments re overcrowding at ports - in just over 5 and a half weeks we’ve hardly docked with any other ships…well today we dock in Juneau…along with 4 other ships…and we are the one having to tender!

QE is in Haines AK today Tue 13th June. Not a bad view from the bridge cam either!

Thanks for the feedback…sitting back in Sitka using the National Parks wifi in the NHP visitor centre. (Extremely good!) It’s Mon 12th June and QE is back exactly 7 days after the previous visit - which also brings Norwegian Bliss to the port on her weekly blast from Seattle. I’ll stick with QE if you don’t mind! @sfred know what you mean re changeover days, we’re lucky enough to have had 3 during our travels, 2 in Tokyo and 1 in Vancouver, and have made the most of them all. I have photographed the Frontier menu from last evening and include it here. @techteachdidn’t actually make it right to the glacier but the fjord was staggering nevertheless - @lilacsam thanks for your good wishes, we will be like ships in the night on the 20th, we have a couple of nights in the Pan Pacific before returning home so will be watching QE leave for Alaska. Have a great time!

After a day in Tracy Arm yesterday (10th) QE has moored at Icy Strait Point today. Bear Ghrylls has been with us as part of the Insights Lectures and has held the audience spellbound for 2 great sessions. @sfred I’ll do some work on the Lido popup - internet sure is a challenge in this part of the world!

8th June 2023 and QE back in Vancouver for her 2023 season. It’s a lovely day and there is a holiday feel in the air. Some friends we’ve go to know well are on their way home - we’re back aboard later for another 12 nights - sounds like we’ll be leaving with a full ship!

Having left Sitka, the captain informed us that we needed to bypass Ketchikan in order to visit Victoria for Canadian authorities to inspect QE, before getting into Vancouver on 8th June. We spent about 5 hours anchored off Victoria before being allowed to dock. It’s a very pleasant evening in Victoria - all aboard for 11.30pm.