groryjm

To conclude…….. My aim for this “live from…” was to offer my observations in a comparison between Celebrity and Cunard. In the past we have sailed with Celebrity and mostly in their royal suites (Q2 equivalent) with the occasional Penthouse suite (Q1 equivalent). I feel this puts me in a good position to compare that to the Carpathia suite (Q2) on Queen Victoria, which we vacated this morning. First let me emphasize that this not a Cunard or indeed Celebrity rant as we loved our cruise and would book again for the right itinerary, only in a Q1 or Q2 mind you. There are in, my mind, pros and cons to each line and I hope this will help those wanting to test the waters in another line. The suite A Royal suite on Celebrity (RS) is in fact slightly smaller over all but the space in the Q2 actually feels slightly less. In the Q2 there is actually the same amount of wardrobe space overall but it is all in the bedroom. In an RS the second wardrobe is in the main living room with subsidiary cloths space too. While there are separate wardrobes in the Q2, if an third guest is sharing the suite its location in the main bedroom is not ideal. I feel Celebrity’s layout in that respect is a little better. I loved the extra dressing area in the Q2 but I did notice the lack of hook upon which to hang a coat. In the RS there is a hook in the guest bathroom ideal for hanging coats etc. The makeup mirror in the bedroom of the Q2 was also better sized. This brings me to one of the real niggles. On Celebrity S class ships there are 22 suites with a door into the living area from the bedroom and a door to the walk in wardrobe and they are all held open by magnets if left open. In the Q1s and Q2s on Cunard’s Vista class ships there are only 6 suites with such doors and there is no means of holding them open. These doors are in addition to the bathroom doors, which I can understand one doesn’t usually leave open, but the walk-in wardrobe door and bedroom door were constantly swinging if not shut. Cunard could at least provide wedges. We can’t be the only couple where one is doing their makeup pre dinner while the other is at the bar pouring drinks - only to have the door shut on them as they bring the glasses through!! We did find the lack of a second toilet a bit odd; all the upper suites on Celebrity include them. The shower was also a bit of an oddity in the Q2. There are 8 shower heads and 2 wand type shower heads up to 8 of which could be on at the same time. In the RS on X there is one overhead rainfall head and one wand type. It would seem on paper Cunard would win this one but for me at a 6 foot I could not get my head under a jet without having to bend significantly even my Gastrognome at 5ft 6ins had to duck to rinse her hair. The bath however was lovely, even if it did creak a bit, and the views from the tub are unbeatable although you do need to sit tall to see them. In the RS on X there is an additionally jetted tub on the balcony with excellent unobscured views. Because of the cold outside I didn’t mourn its lack. Cunards view... Celebritys view... (please ignore my toe!) The light wood panelling is lovely to look at and I feel a far more suitable decore for a top suite that that envisaged by Kelly Hoppen on Xs revolutionised ships. The sofa bed was no were near as comfortable as the RS equivalent and my Gastrognome also felt the main bed to be less than Celebrity’s The dining room table was also the perfect size for our passion for board games More to follow…….. ( give me a day or two as we have 5 cases to unpack and launder )

Thanks @Host Hattie we have had a stelar cruise, or to be more acurate a solar cruise. My aim was to see the northern lights before I turned 60 and I am glad to report i have achieved that in Style. Am I a Cunard convert? that is anothe question . I have particularly enjoyed the food on this cruise, mainly i am sure , due to the QG effect. The cabin, a Q2, is absolutely to our need and I have loved dressing in black tie most nights without fear of being over dressed. There have been a number of pluses over our usual expectations and a couple of fails. I will go minto a more detailed comparison on Sunday or Monday but in the meantime, if the internet lasts, I will say the QG experience is absolutetly Fabulose and one we will repeat , may be not next year but most certainly the year after or the one after that. oh and the vodka on the last night is pretty good... The caviar is pretty good too.......

My last drinkie with nibbles before diner and it has to be a last word...... I will post more tomorrow and Monday when we are back but for now we are heading for our last diner on board. Despite any impressions to the contrary I may have given we have loved this cruise and will probabbly be back in QG in 2024 ( we have already got 3 cruises in upper suites booked for 2023 with Celebrity and I think even for us 4 cruises in a year is too much) 😎

Most shows in the west end start between 7 and 8 and after a show I like to sit with a drink and talk about the performance. Most other lines I know of seem to have thier production shows at around 7 and 9 . Is 8 and 10 a specific Cunard thing? We've allways either gone to the early show at 7 and eaten at around 8.30 or eaten around 7 and gone tom the 9 .

Before I try and catch up on the last couple of days and answer some of your posts let me explain my absence for the last few days. We have been without internet for the last 24 hours or so and I was only able to get a connection on Thursday through Telenor when in sight of land or docked. Norwegian Wi-Fi is excellent and sailing through the fjords and when in sight of the islands 40 to 50 Mbps up and down have not been unusual. I can hotspot from my phone to my lap top to use two devices and for that service I only pay £10 a month through giffgaff and am very happy. For Cunard’s WiFi I have paid £480 for two devices for 12 days and have barely had more than 2Mbps for half the days for which I have paid and even then have had to constantly re login to the internet to have a connection. If one moves from one part of the room, bar or lounge to another there is invariably a slight break in connection and while most Internet services I have had at sea before have just meant a slight pause while the system automatically reconnects, the Cunard system requires one to go through the complete log in scenario each time. In fact while I write this I have a good connection…. But not in our Q2 cabin at the desk unit by the phone or dining room table with its comfortable chairs but only sitting on an arm chair by the door….. Rant over. I have spoken to the concierge about this and she has said there will be a refund for the last two days as the problem was with their US provider.

Yesterday was another sea day but this time calm so again it seems all we did was eat and play games 🙃😎 The internet is some of the worst I’ve had at sea. The main problem is the system constantly logging one out and thus the need to log in again and again. If I was paying by the minute I might understand but the constant logging in is frustrating to say the least lunch... tea.... I am afraid I always put the cream on first, which my Gastrognome entirely disagrees with as she does the reverse. After the sunset we headed to the QG for diner and as there had been nothing to take our fancy on the menu we had requested the dover sole after lunch The sole was excelent and expertly deboned table side. After coffee and a post dinner drink we set off for the late show. The show times have not been ideal at 8pm or 10pm. We generally like to eat at 7.30 or 8 which makes the 8pm sow difficult and the 10pm show seems far to late. I feel Celebritys show times of 7pm and 9pm are better. That said "Top Hat" was excelent

Lovely sea day yesterday on what the crew are calling "independence day". They are now free to go about without masks, the can of course choose to wear them if they wish but it is entirely thier own choice. We are now in Stavanger and have Internet. I will post more this afternoon but the Internet was horrendous yesterday. Last night being the roaring twenties what better than a sidecar with a bubbly bath at sunset 😎

Crew now able to to choose themselves whether they want to or not. The rule is that it is the individuals choice😎

I usually use the photos on my camara to review the days activitiies but being a sea day it seems that all we did was eat !!! we played a few games too as we watched the seas rock n roll through our window but I won't bore anyone with pictures of board games. Breakfast... Lunch.... and Dinner...

Slightly more interesting seas last night 😎

Whilst within sight of the Norwegian coast or in the fjords the internet through my mobile data has benn excellent but as I write this we are at sea (day 2 in Narvik !!) and the ships Wi-Fi is terrible. So I am typing this on my lap top in word and will up load it when I can connect. Yesterday we were in Narvik and had a tour booked for the cable car. I would have booked it independently but on the Narvikfjellet Cable Car web site it showed as closed Mon to Thu and the only way to use it appeared to be on a ships tour. The coach left the ship at 9.30 as planned and we expected a 10 min run to the cable car station. The tour was billed as….. Narvik by Cable Car 2.5 hours Board a cable car for breathtaking views of Narvik and the surrounding area. …….. the coach set off in the opposite direction and we had two photo stops at local churches before arriving at the cable car station at by 10.50 a very circuitous route so nearly an hour and a half for a 10 min journey!! . Both churches were closed but the first was at least the other side of the bay which allowed for a photo of the ship and the cable car stations terminus near the top of the mountain. The guide spoke at length about the significant buildings of Narvik naming the architects responsible for designing each. Very interesting perhaps but not the 2 hours we were expecting up the mountain. After we had arrived he gave us our tickets to ascend and descend independently but told us we needed to be returning on our downward journey by 11.50 . So we were not even going to get an hour at the top. We could have walked to the cable car station in about 45 mins and despite indications to the contrary we would have been able to buy a ticket independently, as a lot of the crew in fact had done. That said the views were great and it was lovely to be in the snow. I do feel Cunard may have slightly misled us. We were given the opportunity to be dropped off in town halfway back which allowed for a Norwegian fish lunch in Narvik and a chance to shop. This is something we had hoped to also do during the day in Tromso but had been unable to due the fact it had been a Sunday and Norway generally shuts down. Once back on the ship and rested we played a game in our room with our pre diner drinks and watch the sun set and the town light up. We had another fabulous diner in QG ..... ..... preceded by cocktails in the QG lounge. On Celebrity I have allways managed to find a barman who would create a drink for me off the book and last night Aaron in the lounge rose to the challenge. His was delicious and is now on my list🍸😎. I decided to take one last trip up to deck 12 and...... I can't get enough of these lights😎

Just made this to go with the canapes our butler has brought 😉

This i the recipie I use at home...The Ophir Szechuan gin makes a real diference as does just 2 drops of saline. However if someone else is making it for me it always tastes good😎

Monday was a late day after such a heavy couple of nights hunting the lights so we set no alarms and woke only just in time to still get breakfast in the QG. My dearest Gastrognome had headed up a few minutes ahead of me and when I arrived at our table she had managed to get me a Bloody Mary The day was a bit wet and missy so we spent most of it playing games in our room and watching rainbows interspersed with meals at QG and the odd trip to the Commodores. Actually to us a brilliant way to spend a day though to others it may seem strange. The Beef Wellington was delicious. Though the need to have it carved at the table seemed a bit unnecesary.

Sunday was an interesting day with all our Northern lights hunting, some of the pictures from I posted here earlier. A few months ago we visited Istanbul on the Celebrity Reflection only to discover our overnight stop was on a major Islamic festival and consequently very few if any shops were open. Sunday was a bit of deja vue as we walked into Tromso to find yet again a cruise line had opted for a schedualed stop on a day when virtually no shops were open! After kippers for breakfast it was a stroll around the closed town a visit to the Troll museum then back to the ship for lunch.

@LadyL1 you should look at the photos you posted last week. Did you get all of the identifiable persons in your images permission?

For pre dinner drinkies....am I getting predictable! 😮Ah but my Gastrognomes gin is with a different bitters 😎

Personally I wouldn't call it stuffy. It is white glove service and very attentive. Especially when it comes to the tny little details . There are, as with every thing , the occassional miss. Murano, on the other hand, i might be tempted to refer to as "stuffy" though to be more precice pretentious might be a better word and with the subdued lighting and lack of windows I could see were stuufy would apply. Overall so far I feel QG staff get to know ones likes and dislikes very quickly and do make the little things that make all the difference without any fuss where as Murano staff are anything but discrete and tend to draw attention to the things they do.

I will write a summary of QG and its food in more detail towards the end of this cruise but in a general in comparison I prefer QG. The venue is lighter and more airy with lovely sea views as opposed to Murano’s dark though elegant corners. Murano’s menu is good and well presented with wonderful table side service but QG has a menu that changes every day and I would not hesitate to say that the service is far better in QG especially the tableside service. They are both of an era as to dishes and I would probably put them in the peak of haute cuisine from the 1970s and 80s. Not to knock the food as for both it is excellent, QG having the advantage of changing every day as opposed to Murano’s fixed menu. The one thing I feel both lack is any modern twists and adventurous elements from around the world. Luminae does offer a bit more but it’s menu has relatively few options each day and as there are only 14 menus in it’s cycle if you cruise more than a two or three times a year does get a touch boring. QG is new to us so at the moment that is not a problem for us here but may happen if we took many QG cruises. I don’t know how often the QG menus cycle. As to dress the standard on Cunard is much higher and for a formal I would recon by our experience 50% of men are in DJs ( Tuxes) and 40% of the rest are in dark suits and ties. On smart casual nights the numbers of DJ’s are less but in QG even though the standard is only a collared shirt most are wearing jackets and ties as well This is the theater on the first formal

The sky was alive tonight.... We did a fabulous private tour with 9 others and stopped a number of times,,, The lights were amazing and at the last stop the pictures I took were basically what we saw with the naked eye 😎

upto 16/10... more to follow in a few days

and more...

cont...

cont....

While we are docked in Tromso I have a good signal on my mobile from Telia N. I will take advantage and post a few of the menus....