D&N

Think you are right. Initially thought the quay there is much more substantial and she's facing the wrong way, but there is a photo showing this less substantial structure on her starboard side with that motor launch.

I had another look at their Britannia Restaurant experience, where they seem to have been allocated a table out of sight of most people and beside a waiters station. They didn't seem too happy at that. But they are both wearing patterned button down collar shirts with creasing that suggests they have been badly packed. Although out of focus, all the other gents in their shots seem to be wearing jackets at their tables. I know that what they are wearing is within the stipulations of the dress code, but they stand out from everyone else and I would be suspicious that the Maître d' has decided they are best seated out of sight! 🙂

Is there a connecting door on the noisy neighbour side, perhaps well hidden? We wouldn't book a cabin that has a connecting door. On QM2 we could only hear neighbours talking if we were both on balcony at same time.

Perhaps not the ideal port activity, but there is a shopping centre fairly near the cruise terminal; The "Docks". https://docksvauban.com/ They appear to have a Lego store, restaurants etc. Their Lidl may have some passable cheap French wine and cheap spirits. It's about 2.6km walk from the terminal on port roads, so you'd be best with a taxi each way. They even have a Primark. I thought we had the only one in France at Cagnes-sur-Mer!

I'm fairly sure I danced to the previous band, Salvation at Clouds Disco in Glasgow. Not sure if Midge had joined them by then. I was more interested in the girls I was dancing with than who was playing!

We're all assuming it's her half life full overhaul. M612 is easy to cancel if it wasn't finished on time. We'd have preferred to do a round trip TA at that time but have had to book September. I hadn't noticed there was no M610. Suppose they could add something at last minute if it was going to be completed early.

I just examined our cards from 2022. Oddly they are Silver rather than Red. However our final Guest Invoice shows "First Time Guest". Possibly Cunard cancelling four, seven night trips before we finally boarded confused their systems.

I've seen cards issued to new Cunard passengers described as "Red Tops" on this forum several times.

We originally wondered about booking an inside for a TA. However we weren't keen on having a room with no natural light for seven or fourteen days. We looked at Ocean View but decided we wanted the floor to ceiling windows and a glass fronted balcony to get as much light in as possible. Originally it would have been a carefully selected obstructed balcony that wasn't very obstructed and eventually we ended up in an unobstructed balcony in Club. We travel during late spring or summer when there is good daylight. My wife rarely wears makeup but on QM2 applies some every evening between 5pm and 6pm. Having the full windows and pulling curtains back gives her more light for that. We've looked at PG layout on QM2 and don't think the dressing table mirror location in them will get same natural light benefit. The balcony was also useful for our gym wear washing line. The garments are so light and quick drying that there's no point going to a laundrette with them. We quickly wash it through in sink and hang on balcony. If it's raining there is some cover from the deck above and we let it drip then finish the drying in the shower cubicle.

I've not found anything about a strike in Le Havre on June 1st or 2nd. That doesn't mean there isn't one. However I did find an article about an Anti Cruise Ship protest, although it says they are gathering at 4.30pm. I've read of similar things in Marseilles and Toulon, and just the other day someone wanting the Nice Metropole authorities to ban cruise ships from the Port of Nice and Villefranche. https://www.paris-normandie.fr/id527562/article/2024-05-30/le-collectif-stop-croisiere-le-havre-manifeste-samedi-1er-juin-la-catene-de It's a local news site and in French. Here's a Google translation of the most important bits of it: "Saturday June 1 , 2024 at the Catène de containers, the collective “Stop Croisière Le Havre” demonstrates against the expansion of cruise ship stopovers in the port of Le Havre. The “Stop Croisière Le Havre” collective is organizing a first event on Saturday June 1, 2024 from 4:30 p.m., under the Catène de containers. He denounces the expansion of cruise lines in the port city in contradiction with energy sobriety. While a new cruise terminal should see the light of day in Le Havre before 2026, the “Stop Croisière Le Havre” collective protests against a “very polluting” cruise industry , in contradiction with the objectives of the public authorities to reduce carbon emissions. greenhouse gas ". The “Stop Croisière Le Havre” collective recently joined the European Cruise Activist Network (Ecan) movement which wants to make June 1 the international meeting place for anti-cruises."

Hadn't thought of that. Been in and out of Zeebrugge numerous times on ferries without any issues. You often felt the difference when the ship cleared the breakwater, so it seemed a well sheltered port. Not sure if ferries still get pilots as they call at least every second day.

Glad you enjoyed it. It's been really helpful to hear how it was done. Thank you. We'll hopefully arrange ours pre dinner one night. We should be in same area of the Club dinning room as before. Last time our sommelier was very good. He was a Cellar Tracker and Vivino user himself and was there all fourteen nights. He was sometimes substituted at lunch time, but we'll only be drinking basic stuff then. Of course he may have been moved, but if that's the case hopefully they'll have a decent replacement. We normally go to Chartroom for our aperitifs, and will replace that with the tasting. In effect it's equivalent to a 125ml glass of red each in place of a spritz or glass of prosecco.

Great information. Thank you. I first spotted this on the August 2022 Wine List. Then it was $350. And the individual glasses were offered in 75ml servings, the most expensive of those being $135. General price increases and changing the servings to 125ml has drastically increased the price of them. The idea of having a glass per night was fine when it was only 50% more millilitres, but 125ml is a bit much for tasting purposes. I see your follow up confirms you are trying them. Enjoy!

Three dots in top right. You only get a number of minutes after posting to do it.

I do watch many of the QM2 vlogs. I sometimes see quite nice shots of bits of the ship, and even spotted us dancing for about ten seconds in one of them. We also enjoy criticising some of the interpretations of the dress code that vloggers come up with! 🤣

I wasn't impressed by that either. Admittedly I did watch most of it on subtitles as I've been watching Gael Monfils playing tennis on TV at same time.

They have only shown their first night so far, but don't seem to have had very good service and the food they've ordered didn't look too appetising. They haven't complained about open dining. My personal opinion: They're apparently in middle of moving house, which is an incredibly stressful time for most folk. Considering they're experienced cruisers/travellers they don't seem to have done much research, perhaps down to the house move. But they've got six days more to post and things might get better.

We wouldn't book that because you have no guarantee of the same table or staff every meal. Britannia Club suits us because we can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner on the same table with same staff whenever we want during opening hours. The extra à la carte choices at dinner being a bonus. We're quite happy to take leisurely meals but wouldn't want to risk being almost ignored as those chaps look to have been on their first night. If we were not booking club we would opt for a fixed time just to get the same table. It's probably been compounded on their sailing with staff issues. Although I believe they plan to post more videos from the rest of their crossing, and hopefully things will have improved for them.

I spotted one of their luggage labels, and they were on M412B sailing on 16th May. I think they've made several mistakes. Booking for when so many staff have been transferred to QA, picking the connecting cabin, and open dining in Britannia. Don't think I'd have picked the Gnocchi, but I've had that Cod dish and it was tasty when I had it.

No photo, but I read a comment elsewhere regarding 4069 that the obstruction was minimal since the life boat was mainly on deck 3.

When we were on they were also serving CanO Water. Sparkling was in a black can and still in white. There was no problem in Queens Room or G32 getting glasses of wine plus bottles/cans of water at same time. I wasn't given a tutorial the first time I saw one of these lids and just about butchered the can to get remaining water out! 🤣 In my defence the lighting wasn't great and I didn't spot any instructions.

You are of course right. I don't tend to notice or get too hung up on that sort of detail. In the main wine list they do show each wine with it's correct appellation. At least they did in the most recent copy I have. If @usbeef69 establishes that they can serve this to your dinner table that would be great! The other thing I'm interested in is whether the 20% discount from the paid for drinks package can be applied to it? And if not whether it applies to individual 75ml glasses of the same wines? If it applied to individual glasses but not the flight it might be better value to sample a 75ml glass on sequential nights. Our plan would be to share them between us as we only want a tasting.

Not sure what the big deal is about Tiaras? They are just sparkly hairbands. Here is top left Masquerade Night (that Cunard decreed would be a 2nd Roaring 20s Night, that didn't suit us!); top right Red & Gold Night, bottom left a smart attire night that we felt should have been a gala night, and bottom right a niece's wedding we were at in Scotland in April 2023. She'll probably wear one most nights on our next two fourteen night return crossings because we don't plan to observe any smart attire nights. For €2.60 we got one silver coloured and one gold coloured lightweight tiara.

You may be getting the wrong impression. Nora's tiaras were €1.30 each from SHEIN! At that price anyone can wear them.

We didn't find that portion sizes were less than we required on QM2. I was a bit worried having seen pictures of massive servings of Beef Wellington, however what we received was manageable. I hate wasting food and generally in a restaurant our approach is to order a main course then in the unlikely event that it's not enough we can order another savoury or a cheese course before our dessert. On a cruise I wouldn't hesitate to request more of something I particularly liked if I was still hungry although it's not something I've ever done.