D&N

We saw Chicago last July, Sunday Matinee at the Ambassador Theatre. We were very disappointed. It seemed amateurish compared to our admittedly distant and infrequent West End and Glasgow/Edinburgh experiences.

On board of course. Here it's easier to move them from machine to balcony and for most of year everything is dry in a couple of hours.

Easy/non iron cotton shirts look fine if dried on hangers. Most other things don't need ironed if smoothed out while damp.

Yes. As decided last October we will book a round trip to New York in June 2025 in Britannia Club. And in subsequent years until something prevents us from doing so. I don't really see any disadvantages. If there wasn't a round trip between end of May and mid June we might have a problem, but we could possibly move to September.

My agent was able to give her prices for the grade we want, along with how much OBC, and the number of cabins of that grade that Cunard were stating would be available. Those prices were based on specific cabins from a list I gave her. Perhaps ask agents for some quotes. Doesn't stop you booking direct when on sale.

I can't answer your question, but rolls were mentioned in a previous post. What I can say is that the bread that is baked in our local supermarket (Tesco Extra sized) tastes much better than Cunard's rolls. Presumably it's prepared elsewhere then cooked in the store's ovens. The ovens are visible, but I don't think there's enough space in the prep area for them to be making from scratch. In the last 10 years they have been stocking more British style loaves for sandwich making but the bulk of what is sold is freshly cooked. I'm not complaining about Cunard's rolls but bread isn't my biggest concern when eating on a ship.

I couldn't last 36 nights. When we lived in Scotland and came to our studio here for all our holidays it was hard to go home. The only thing I looked forward to was getting back to our cats. Living here, I just don't want to leave. Two weeks is about all I can cope with. It feels like I'm on permanent holiday and if I go elsewhere it's to experience the few things we don't have here or to visit friends or relatives. It would be better if they all came to visit us.

We used to assist at dance classes held in two masonic halls. One had many photos from lodge activities displayed. In the early 80s I recall meeting one of my colleagues en route to a lodge meeting. At the time I naïvely thought he was heading to a snooker club and his little case contained a screw together cue! 🙂 There are also lots of photos and videos of events on the internet. I'm sure there are things that aren't shown but type of attire doesn't seem to be a secret.

It all sounds incredibly civilised to me. Many many years ago a large group of my former colleagues went to an afternoon banquet in a medieval themed restaurant. They hit the headlines in the local press, since their interpretation of a medieval banquet was that they should have food fights and were throwing food at the folk on neighbouring tables!

I think we've only ever experienced one genuine Michelin One Star dining experience. We've not been back! It was just about OK. I should add that it's about a 1 km walk from us, and there's several non starred restaurants we would prefer to go to from a taste point of view before going there. They seem to give kudos to serving filtered tap water as bottled water due to some misguided thought that it's eco friendly. Well it's not eco friendly when my wife comes home and throws up!

Thank you. I'm looking at lots of videos on YouTube and everything else looks ok. We're not likely to do it any time soon but living within driving range of Toulon or Genoa, it's something we could do on a last minute deal quite easily.

Hello Essiesmom, I'm assuming you have some experience of MSC??? They do 7 night round trip Med itineraries from a port about 2 hours drive from us. This year they're using one of their older smaller ships; Magnifica. We're not really bothered about port calls and I'm certain we'd be ok for food. In your experience do you think we'd get dancing every night? We're not floor snobs and have danced ballroom and latin on some very small floors! We'd stay clear of school holidays to try and minimise collision issues with kids on dance floors. Less important; would I need to dress down for MSC? My wife would just wear what she liked, maybe going more cocktail than gown. I'm used to being the only guy in the restaurant here wearing a tie. Is a tux likely to bother other pax? I could just take lounge suits. I'm not sure we'll do it, but it might be an option if we couldn't do QM2 TAs. Thanks

As Pushpit suggests Marks and Spencers is a good option. There are of course others in UK. An advantage with M&S is you should be able to try on the garments when you pick them up and if they don't fit they will change them on spot if they have stock. If not, make sure you have all your proofs of purchase with you and they should refund you to the original mode of payment in the shop. Unless they have changed policies since we last did it. Theoretically you could even order more than one size and get a refund on those that are unsuitable.

The person who is going to make our booking in a few weeks was on an agents preview of Vista recently and posted lots of photos on Facebook. It looked absolutely beautiful. But it's not a liner and I don't think it does non stop trips from Europe to New York and then return immediately. They were on Explora recently too. Again the photos were lovely. But it's certainly not what we want from a ship. Nor is QG. We spend as little time in cabin as possible so larger cabins are just a waste of space to us. Like I think you said earlier; depends what you are looking for.

But do they have dancing every night with a dance floor even half the size of the Queens Rooms? Is it not more of a smart casual country club? Would anyone be put out if I dressed in tux and my wife in gowns/glitzy cocktail dress every night?

Googling "cunard queens grill Q1 size" gives me a result of 2,249 sq ft. Are they telling lies?

I see they've added Le Havre to that April 27th crossing making arrival May 5th. Unless of course that was spotted earlier and I missed the post.

@exlondoner We just want two weeks of dancing per year. That being the only thing we miss about Scotland. 💃

We're more than happy for QM2's itineraries to stay the same. A Southampton->Brooklyn->Southampton in early June for rest of it's service life will suit us nicely. It's a Fly-Cruise for us anyway. Med port calls are going out for a walk, or if we're really adventurous maybe get a bus or train. 🙂

Could you have been connected to a land based free WiFi at that point? KPN have hotspots all over Amsterdam and at IJmuiden and Strand Wijk aan Zee, which would have been near QV's location at that time. KPN are the Dutch equivalent of BT in the UK. I wouldn't have expected a satellite system to show them as the base connection.

@BeachTunes My calculations are very similar to yours. We saved on the package last time and tried to stick with wine by the glass. We found that too restrictive and ended up buying 3 decent bottles of wine. Next time we plan to have a half bottle of decent wine every night. We might make better use of our free water supply in BC but we're not going to trail bottles of water all over the ship. I have also averaged the current prices of wines by the glass that we would drink and come up with lower item prices than you. Even so with the package our total spend is likely to be around $85 per person per day. Without we would be looking at $110 per day. That's about $700 saving over 14 days. And other than the possible variation in the price of the seven bottles of decent wines we decide to buy, which we'll save 20% on, the price is fixed for the trip. Our average intake will be 2 drinks each at lunch and 5 or 6 each between 6pm and Midnight. Those that drink less than that may not find it cost effective.

@exlondoner I just had to read this thread when I saw you were the first to respond. 😂 On topic; the gym facilities are good. For those that are used to doing their own cardio and muscular exercises a short workout each morning, or alternated with swimming or deck walking should keep the pounds off, provided you only eat what you need, rather than what you see. The gym facilities are free. If classes are all you're used to, sorry can't help. We hear all that stuff going on in our local gym but just ignore it and get on with our work.

Ask not what your cat can do for you — ask what you can do for your cat.

Staysure Expat cover "Brits living in France, Spain or Portugal". If you don't fall within that they are no use. They do cover non Brit spouses/partners living in those countries if a Brit takes out the cover. Before they resumed their offering after Brexit, I looked into other alternatives. US company Seven Corners appeared to offer cover that might have been suitable. In the end we got Staysure so didn't use them, and I've no experience of them. I did read a positive press review, which was what prompted me to check them out.

We were lucky to visit on the previous Sun Princess in 1998. We discovered that the atmosphere on the open decks was extremely moist, and even though we still lived in Scotland at that time we've always been averse to getting wet unintentionally. However the prom deck was covered and proved to be the best place for glacier cruising, along with the Shetland Wool blankets from our cabin. We've not been on QE, but I don't think she benefits from a covered prom deck.