ExArkie

A few years ago, I had reason to research temperature and pressure conditions in airplane cargo holds for a client who had to ship a product sensitive to both. The following was accurate at that time; I have no indication that it has changed since (i.e., my client has not called back in a panic...yet). Cargo holds in commercial passenger jets are pressurized generally to about 75 kilopascals (kPa), give or take a few. Normal atmospheric pressure is around 100 kPa, so this would be equivalent to atmospheric pressure at an elevation of around 2,500 meters or roughly at the top of Mt. St. Helens. Separate from that project, I have also been told that the cork/cage assembly on sparkling wine bottles are designed to contain internal pressure of 500 to 800 kPa, depending on a few factors (e.g., sweetness/dryness, etc.). A reduction of 25% below atmospheric should not be enough to cause the cork to pop out, or to lose its seal. Of course, having said that, there will indubitably be dozens of examples where sparkling wine bottle have popped open in checked luggage. There certainly can be a difference between my theory and your experience...I can say that I have brought sparkling wine back in checked luggage several times without incident.

For us, the trip always starts before the sail date. Our time in the UK prior to a TA back to New York varies from a week or so to more than a month. I had a contract for a while to teach short courses (less than a semester) at a couple of places in the UK. We'd pack one of our suitcases (formal clothes, mostly, with a few other shipboard clothing items) a month or two before the sail date - depending on the timing of the trip - and send it via the luggage forwarding service, a.k.a. White Star, to meet us at the ship. The rest of the trip's packing would occur the day before we left home, which could still be a month before the sail date. We have become familiar with the QM2 laundry rooms.

Correction to my earlier post: The My Cunard summary does now show all of the information as depicted in the screenshot above. I hadn't actually checked to verify before I posted, but as of last week, only information was a listing of the cabin number, deck, bed configuration, and approximate size in square feet. Today, there is also the category description as shown above. The photo actually even matches the category now.

We booked a December 2023 westbound TA about a year ago when I found out I would be in the UK for a (relatively) extended period, ending about that time. When I first looked at the booking on “My Cunard” (US version), the cabin number was shown in the location as noted by bluemarble above. After some time, I needed to add emergency contact information (it would not save originally, there’s a thread from last year on that somewhere on this board), the cabin number was nowhere to be found. A few months ago, I checked on another detail and found that the cabin number had reappeared in the place listed. So far, it has shown up each time I looked after it’s reappearance. The information displayed for us is a lot less than shown in the screenshot above, but our cabin is larger than bluemarble’s 0 square foot version…

Thank you for that information - I was not aware Carnival did this. I've been on an Oceania Riviera transatlantic where the same service (tea in individual pots, carts traversing the area with food, etc.) was offered in Horizons, their forward lounge similar to the Sky Observation Lounge on Celebrity Solstice. And several TAs on Cunard where afternoon tea is a near-theatrical event as well as providing food and drink, of course.

Personal experiences vary. Our April embarkation on Oceania took over two hours with no water or other drinks anywhere in sight. (Port of Miami, if that matters)

or in Iowa

Follow-up on the question of “dining choice” being missing for our December reservations: My wife just looked at the My Cunard page and there was a heading on the first page that allowed her to request a table size - since we are in Grills, there was no choice of time, just table size. I logged in under my name and confirmed that the dining choice option was being shown now, where it most definitely was not previously.

Unless it has changed, the airfare can be added only over the phone, not on-line. The last time I did that was 2018, when I was teaching a short course in the UK and we decided to sail home (our sixth, bucket-list, once-in-a-lifetime QM2 transatlantic). Cunard was able to book one way business class to Manchester, arriving about three weeks prior to the crossing at a price below half of what I could find otherwise and on my preferred airline. One-way transoceanic flights from the US are very often priced the same as a round trip full fare. My best pricing on such bookings almost always involves flying to Toronto, then taking the one-way from there. By the way, those lamenting the red eye flights JFK to LHR, there are flights by both BA and Virgin the leave about New York at 8 AM and arrive in London about 8 PM. That would require a hotel near JFK on disembarkation day to get the daylight flight the next morning.

There are some discussions on other boards about the Platinum AmEx Cruise Privileges Program. I have received the OBC and wine when using the AmEx site to book. Others report receiving it when just using the card to pay. Best to ask them.

The producer for the Cunard Private Label Wines is Jean d'Alibert in France's Languedoc region (as noted above). Most of the independent ratings that I have seen for various Jean d'Alibert wines are in the range of 3 to 4 on a scale of 5. Generally, middle of the road for that region, not the best and not the worst. I find them to be drinkable and enjoyable.

Looks like NCL was selling you that Airbus A330 Cunard claims I'm booked into on the December Transatlantic.

That is where I saw it as well, when we first booked this trip several months back. It is definitely not showing up there now. I did just check the Windows browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) and all are consistent with it not showing up. Since you mentioned seating time as one of the choices on your screen and we have booked Grills for this TA, perhaps the idea is that one doesn't choose a seating time in Grills, so one does not need to be offered the choice...and, as Victoria2 mentioned, 2-tops being the norm, the assumption is that is what you will get unless you ask for something different. Probably not worth more time investigating at this point, since the entire site is likely to be different at any time without warning.

Perhaps it is because I’m an idiot (or so it has been suggested at times), but I’m not seeing a “Your Dining Choice” anywhere. Does not appear near the “Bed Configuration” button where I had seen it before. The “Dining” tab takes me to information on Verandah, but not to our personal dining table (Grills). I have tried this on an iPad (Safari and Chrome) and, to duplicate your conditions, Chrome on an Android. Never saw that heading on any of them. I will try Windows when I open my laptop later. This is a curiosity, not a real concern. Pretty sure we will get our 2-top in the Grills as requested, but just wondering why I can’t see this. (Yes, before anyone asks, I cleared cache, cookies, and used a private tab.) By the way, I did verify that our cabin as identified in the picture accompanying our “Cabin Information” is definitely an Airbus A330.

Another data point: We have two QM2 bookings, the December 10 Dutch Christmas Markets (5 nights) followed by the December 15 westbound transatlantic. The "King/Twin" choice is identified on the radio button on each. I also appreciate that one can actually find a reference to the actual cabin number, albeit buried in the Web site (under "Before You Sail" and "Life on Board"). It was interesting that, when my wife logged in, the cabin number was shown without an accompanying picture. When I logged in, there was a picture captioned something like, "Photo may not represent your actual cabin." The picture was of a passenger jet (not good enough to positively identify the actual model, but I think it was an Airbus A330), so I am pretty certain that it does not represent our PG cabin. I remember there having been a place to select one's preferred table size for dining (2, 4, or 6 persons, as I recall). I did not see that anywhere. Was it removed due to COVID restrictions, or am I remembering the ancient Voyage Personalizer pages?