D&N

If you mean the Germans; we only see a young male in the video. He looks to be suitably dressed for his activities when he is in shot. They appear to be dining on deck 2 of Britannia. Some of the blurred folk in the background on what should have been a smart attire night seem to be formally dressed. There are a few shots of him in a well fitting dinner suit! I should add in case anyone isn't aware; on YT there is an option to activate auto translation in subtitles. Not that there was a huge amount of commentary.

Here it is but my arithmetic was a bit off! 😀 They would have disembarked May 23rd.

I was looking at several million $$s of cover with Seven Corners, before Staysure resumed their Expat service after Brexit

@CatalinF I'm not aware of a European policy to match UK requirements. As UK nationals we qualify for Staysure Expat, but at least one of you needs to be a UK expat and all covered must live in Spain, France or Portugal. Cunard's French site used to link to a policy that offered much less cover. Companies like AXA and Allianz offer policies where medical fees might be limited to €150,000 or maybe a bit more but repatriation costs are specified as actual fees (theoretically unlimited). However provided you can post insurance company name and emergency contact details in My Cunard and carry paperwork showing you have some cover it's unlikely that it will be checked in great detail. Besides if you are in the Mediterranean any resulting medical fees are likely to be within European insurance values. I wouldn't want to be hospitalised in the US without significant cover!

I wonder if his points make sense or it's just sensationalism: @Kordy It's been discussed on this thread previously. A bit of both. They travelled on 16th May. There's another vlog in progress relating to 12th May four day to Hamburg and back with similar issues. And there were comments on CC about poor service at that time. However I watched a German video covering May 14th from Hamburg to May 19th New York and those people didn't seem to have same experience travelling in same type of cabin, but I think on fixed rather than open dining. More recent comments here have been better, so it's probably mainly down to staff issues related to experienced staff being transferred to Queen Anne and newbies needing trained up.

I'd be inclined to have a Château Clerc Milon, Pauillac, 5ème Cru Classé 2018 and a Château Giscours, Margaux, 3ème Cru Classé 2014. 🍷

Queen Anne has multiple combined A & C installations in all cabins. They seem to share a 2.4A output. I was on an ITA Airways A220 in economy recently with 60W output USB-C ports on the seat backs. The flight wasn't long enough to need to try it out. With the lead time from specifying to delivery they will always be a bit behind the latest technology.

Good point. That's often the case in airport lounges as well.

I referred to them as a circus act, which is how I view many of these people. You can suggest if you want. If I could have remembered their names that would fine. I keep thinking of Ben & Jerry, but is that ice cream? You see I could have remembered "Ben". Don't know why I couldn't remember "David" as it's my favourite name. I've not got a problem with Ben & David as people. I don't like their presentational style, including having watched some of their other stuff. Their whole approach is a bit too casual for me. And I'm not that keen on any of the vloggers where huge chunks of the video are them talking rather than showing what they are talking about. I believe that they may have experienced some service issues, there are other reports that back that up. I think they sensationalise those a bit more than necessary, but that will be a ploy to try and get more folk watching.

Besides, I'm afraid you would need that light switched on to power the socket! It's just not designed for it. We tried plugging in a toothbrush charger, but realised it stopped charging when light was switched off. We obviously had other means to charge the brush.

I watched a lengthy German YT video of the same crossing as him? & him? earlier today. I activated auto English translation. They seem to have sailed from Hamburg to New York on May 14th in same cabin category as the pair who had problems. There was no indication that they suffered from poor service or poor quality food. The young gentleman involved did appear to be suitably dressed in all the shots on the video, we are not treated to pictures of his travel companion. It may be that they have sailed on Cunard before, or simply did their homework before boarding.

I have some sympathy with that view. But I do want any photos taken on phone or camera to be backed up to cloud, or other media if the transfer fails. And I'll want to post photos and a few notes here and on other media during our voyages. The phone is an integral part of that process. I don't bother with a laptop or tablet as the phone can do anything I would on a bigger device. Regarding a different thread; I checked earlier with a bundle of photos I took this morning on my camera. Switching my Android phone to Aeroplane Mode, connecting WiFi, activating Hotspot and WiFi FTP Server. Switched on camera and all 89 photos quickly transferred to phone and onward to cloud without any problem. It was iOS that was suggested had a problem with this but I thought I'd take the opportunity to make sure Android handled this without any issues.

To be fair the equipment on Queen Anne was specified much more recently than QM2. I'm not going to be booking a trip on Queen Anne because she is not QM2. But if I did, and it is likely I will have bought an updated phone before the sailing, will the USB sockets offer 125W charging as will be the fast charge specification of the new phone? We'll just continue to take the electrical equipment and connections that we know will provide for our requirements.

There is. I think it's at right hand side of lamp over mirror. It is a shaver socket. Not a charging socket or nightlight socket. If you were using a powered rather than rechargeable shaver you would plug it in and need the light on to see what you were doing. When QM2 was specified pre 2004 that would have fitted with what was required of electric shavers.

On a recommendation we chose to miss that and do a cycle ride instead. A minibus took twelve people up the Klondike Highway over the Canadian border to the Skagway Grade Summit Rest Area. There was a trailer on the back with bikes on it. They provided helmets, trouser clips, and waterproof trousers for those that wanted them. We had to show passports at the US customs post on way back down and there were another couple of stops for photos. We could see the train on the other side of the valley. The van followed with spare bikes and in case anyone didn't feel like doing the full descent. It was mainly a gentle downhill ride with a short gentle climb and some flat sections. That suited us better than sitting looking out a train window for a couple of hours. We did the Misty Fjords seaplane excursion to Big Goat Lake from Ketchikan and Helicopter Glacier trip from Juneau as well and enjoyed both.

I note that the filename contains "QE-QV-QA". I doubt if it would make any difference to wines by the glass, but perhaps the QM2 version might contain a bit more choice in bottles. However I can't find an up to date version. QM2 previously had a Pauillac that we enjoyed that is not on that list. It was a bit cheaper than those shown as well.

They were unlucky. There were a few comments from others regarding standards on that sailing, possibly as a result of staff being stolen for Queen Anne a few weeks earlier. However some of their experience was down to their approach. First night they turned up in MDR wearing creased casual shirts. If you look at the blurred images behind them all the other males are wearing jackets. Therefore the staff hid them away beside a waiters station. On Gala Night one wore a tux that didn't fit and other made no attempt to meet dress code. In my view they didn't research what they were doing and went with the attitude that it would be too posh for them. Yes their food looked poor. I wouldn't have chosen some of the stuff they did, and I have had some of their dishes that looked different from what was served to them.

On each of our next two B2B crossings we will be on QM2 for fourteen nights. Cunard will probably schedule four, themed as Black & White, Red & Gold, Roaring 20s and Masquerade. We will be observing another ten un-themed Gala Nights each trip. At least I'll be wearing a tux every night, my wife would probably wear the same cocktail dresses, skirt suits and gowns anyway.

A UK wine site lists Cannonball Merlot: "This wine is a blend of 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Syrah, and is a product of the rich soil and abundant sunshine of California's North Coast." Vivino lists 2014 & 2015 amongst it's best years with tastes running: Oak, Black Fruit. Red Fruit. I generally prefer those with more coffee/carmel tones instead of red fruit, at least for meals.

I can't see that there would be any need to, unless they were supplied by Illy as part of the contract. The ones I've seen in photos and videos (I didn't bother to check when on board myself), were LaCimbali, looked like M39s. I suspect they'd make good coffee with just about anything!

My wife found the hot chocolate in QM2's Chart Room much nicer than the pot with marshmallows served in Carinthia. However that was in Godiva days. With it gone the hot chocolate may be different.

How many would you like?

I downloaded a number of updated menus earlier. They are all describing "Union Hand-Roasted Coffee" rather than Illy. Never heard of them before but seems like it might be ok: https://unionroasted.com/pages/about

I've never come across a restaurant in France that didn't allow dogs, ranging from toy to enormous. Almost all of them are impeccably behaved, usually staying under their owner's feet throughout the meal.

I can but would prefer not to. And I like a 24 hour display.