bluemarble

There was special coverage of QA's arrival at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria this morning on the live stream of the WingCam YouTube channel. Here is a capture from the stream.

You are definitely on the right track. We just need to narrow it down a bit further to a specific port on that island which is mentioned on a very recent Cunard itinerary.

No fireboat send-off from Arrecife this afternoon (that I saw anyway), but it was still a good show watching your departure on the "Lanzarote Cruise Ship Dock" live stream from the LanzaroteWebcam YouTube channel. Here's a capture from that stream.

Here's a webcam capture showing a Cunard ship arriving at a port we haven't seen yet. The port city itself is just a few miles off to the left while the cruise terminal is only about a mile out of view to the right.

QE2 called at Dalian in March 1979. It took me a bit to find it since it's recorded on QE2's itineraries under the former name Dairen.

Yes, I think the language in this latest photo is Chinese. That helps quite a bit to narrow down the possibilities from both our seen and unseen ports lists. There's a match on Tripadvisor to one of their top 10 most popular landmarks in one of the Chinese cities on our seen ports list. I think this is a view of the Russian Street (aka Russian Style/Folk/Folklore/Culture Street) in Dalian, China. I believe we've only seen Dalian once before on this thread. The earlier image of Dalian was a public domain photo submitted by @sfred back in post #3598 and identified by @ExArkie. Now we have someone's own photo taken while visiting there on a cruise. Thanks for that contribution, @babs135.

That's a subject of discussion which comes up on this forum occasionally. Here's a thread I remembered from several years ago which partly turned into a discussion about the usage of the term "Cunarder".

Excellent synopsis @jam19872016. Just to set expectations about your upcoming 18-day round trip crossing, I assume that's on QM2 (round trip from New York to Hamburg or Rotterdam). The Golden Lion does not serve dinner on QM2, only lunch, unless there's been a very recent change. But one dinner venue on QM2 that's not well advertised is the Chef's Galley. That's a casual dining venue with table service in the evening with a pizza and pasta menu. That might be a good option for you instead of the buffet on one of your gala evenings.

"Paddle Tennis Tournament" is listed in the daily programmes for two of the days on both of the QM2 crossings we took last September. No mention of pickleball that I see listed there.

Is this the same problem I have just run into with several threads on the Cunard forum? The error message I am getting there is as follows: Sorry, there is a problem Something went wrong. Please try again. There are only two threads on the Cunard forum I have found so far that have this problem. Here are the links to those two threads I've found that are getting this specific error. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2758822-where-in-the-world/ https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3008102-irish-folk-duo-on-qm2/ Edit: Never mind! No sooner did I post this reply, than those two threads on the Cunard forum I mentioned above are working once again. Problem resolved.

Good show for QA's departure from Funchal as seen on the www.madeira-web.com webcam. They had a camera operator to zoom in and follow along. Here's a capture from that webcam showing the fireboat display.

In the US, if you have booked a fare with a non-refundable deposit and you are still outside the final payment date (120 days before departure on cruises of 30 nights or less, 150 days otherwise), then you can receive the lower fare without losing your deposit. But since the promotion for the new fare inevitably says "new bookings only", the process involves canceling your existing booking and creating a new booking to receive the new fare. That means any perks associated the current booking (such as OBC) will be replaced by whatever perks apply to the new fare. And if you have made any purchases under the current booking (such as shore excursions, drinks packages, alternative dining reservations, etc.), I believe those will be canceled and refunded to you. Edit to add: Note in particular regarding suites, for this Memorial Day Sale, "Offer is not combinable with ... Grills promo ZED (Gratuities and drinks package)". So you would probably lose that perk if you wanted to reprice an existing US grills suite booking to take advantage of the Memorial Day Sale.

Here are your scheduled port timings as found on the itineraries for your cruise on various cruise booking websites and cross-checked against the port schedules found on the CLA Alaska website. Sep 11 - Ketchikan: Arrive 8:00 AM, Depart 5:00 PM Sep 12 - Juneau: Arrive 12:00 PM, Depart 8:00 PM Sep 13 - Skagway: Arrive 7:00 AM, Depart 6:00 PM Sep 16 - Sitka: Arrive 9:00 AM, Depart 4:00 PM

This Memorial Day Sale likely won't be mentioned on the "Offers" page of the Cunard website until it opens on May 16th. But perhaps more to the point, if this sale is as it has been in the past, it's a US-only promotion in line with our Memorial Day holiday on May 27th. I gather from your posting history you are from Australia so this offer probably won't apply to you.

Thanks for that information. Is that $30 supplement for the Diamond perk specifically for dinner at Sir Samuel's Steakhouse (where I understand the cover charge may be $58.50 if booked in advance and $65 if booked on board)? The other alternative venues appear to have cover charges less than or close to that $30 supplement so that would be odd to apply a $30 supplement to those other venues.

I believe this is another case where the terms and conditions vary between the US and UK. I'll quote a relevant portion for each country. Excerpt from the US Cunard Upgrade Terms and Conditions: "You must submit a valid credit card number when prompted by the offer site to make an upgrade offer. If your upgrade offer is accepted, we will immediately and automatically collect payment from you by charging the credit or debit card you provided, using the details submitted." Excerpt from the UK Cunard Upgrade Terms and Conditions: "You must submit a valid credit card number when prompted by the offer site to make an upgrade offer. These credit card details are required to validate your upgrade offer and will not be stored or retained by us once your upgrade offer is submitted. We will not automatically collect payment using these credit card details if your upgrade offer is accepted – you must still contact us to arrange payment in accordance with these terms."

@D&N, Sasebo, Japan is correct. As @sfred has indicated, the Sasebo port webcam doesn't usually zoom in so close, but they did for QE's visit the past couple days. I thought I'd throw in a shot showing that ferry to provide a little extra help just in case it was needed. Well done with that identification. Here's an earlier capture I took not long after her arrival at Sasebo showing a broader view but with QE less identifiable to the right of center.

Here's a webcam capture showing a Cunard ship at a port we haven't seen yet. It's also a port not listed on our unseen ports list.

Just saw a facebook post from a guest on the Queen Victoria May 13th cruise who says they are a bit disappointed after Cunard notified them on Tuesday they have been downgraded from a balcony to an obstructed oceanview (with compensation). Whatever's going on with that cruise has impacted at least one other guest it would appear.

Here are the passenger and crew counts for this Queen Anne cruise to the Canaries courtesy of the blue spanners on the Solent Ships YouTube channel. These are the figures reported by Queen Anne via radio to Southampton VTS upon departure this evening. The radio reception last week didn't allow for hearing the figures for the maiden voyage but better luck this week. Queen Anne - May 10, 2024: 2,596 passengers; 1,252 crew

Oddly enough, I think I've figured this one out by starting with the identification of one of the tugboats in this photo. I'm getting a match to a tug named Sheringa (ex Marrakai) for the tug closest to the camera. The current location for that tug is Adelaide, but this photo doesn't match up with that port. And the current livery for Sheringa isn't quite right either. However, a review of photo archives for that tug when she was Marrakai are a better match. And they provided a location which does match up with this photo quite nicely, using older photos of the area around the cruise terminal more so than current photos. It looks like this walkway to the terminal may be covered now based on recent images I'm finding. Anyway, it was a roundabout way to get there, but I think this one is Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Here's a transcription of a menu for the second Gala Evening on Queen Anne's maiden voyage. I believe this is from the Princess Grill which would explain some of the details such as caviar and flambé. I have been able to verify several of the entrées and desserts were also on the Britannia menu. Gala Dinner Appetisers Slow Cooked Pork Belly with Crayfish Candied apple and purée Scottish Smoked Salmon Served with classical garnish and brown bread Sweet Onion and Goat's Cheese Tart Piperade of vegetables Roasted Peppers Sumac yoghurt, charred courgette and toasted almond Salads Pea, Broad Bean Salad Pickled Vegetable Quinoa Salad Radish and coriander Soups Roasted Cauliflower Soup Lyburn cheese croûte Chicken Consommé Poached chicken and vegetables Entrées Fillet of Beef Wellington Roast potatoes, asparagus and glazed vegetables with sauce Perigourdine Duck à l'Orange Hazelnut croquette potatoes and garden vegetables Sea-Bass Fillet Buttered and roasted leeks, Lyonnaise potato, shellfish bisque with caviar Roasted Tomatoes Filled with Couscous Wild mushrooms and pine nuts with a goat's cheese soufflé and balsamic Miso Grilled Aubergines Sticky rice and pickled cucumber kimchi Desserts Baked Alaska Morello cherries flambé Carrot Cake Cheesecake Toffee sauce Dark Chocolate Mousse Mango, coconut and coriander Prune and Armagnac Sticky Toffee Pudding Caramelised apple purée and Earl Grey cream Choice of Ice Creams: Turkish delight and strawberry ice creams with mango sorbet and kiwi sauce Selection of Cheese and Biscuits Coffee and Petit Fours

Did you have Beef Wellington, Duck a l'Orange and Baked Alaska on the menu? I saw one posted elswhere with those items but wasn't sure if it was for Britannia. If so, I'll transcribe the menu and post it on the "Queen Anne Menus" thread.

Gala evenings do not always have themes. It is a bit unusual for 23 December to have no theme, but since they are following two days later with the Red & Gold theme for Christmas Day, that may have something to do with it. It has been typical the past few years for 31 December to have no theme. Prior to the shutdown, they typically scheduled 31 December with a "New Year's Eve Ball" theme. But since the restart of operations, they now only schedule the four standard themes Black and White, Red and Gold, Roaring Twenties and Masquerade (plus Ice White on QE Alaska itineraries). As a result, 31 December now ends up with no theme. It's always possible they will add themes at a later date (or even once on board the ship). Please keep checking the daily calendar for your booking in My Cunard and let me know if you see any changes. It's quite possible those dates will have no themes though.

I suggest going with "Beppu, Japan" since that's how it's listed on the Cunard itinerary.