D&N

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.

You asked this on August 1st. Your post on August 2nd suggested you were going to report it. Have you not done so? The main issue must be for Cunard to have an accurate list of passengers on the ship when it sails. That must be compiled just before departure as I imagine there will always be a few passengers that don't turn up for various reasons. I would certainly let them know in advance as a courtesy, and perhaps some refund would be due for port taxes as MCC retired suggested. Better to have that extra to spend on board rather than paid to a port authority for a passenger that hasn't used their port.

I wasn't aware of a website called People of Walmart; but many years ago a friend used to regularly share People of Walmart photos by email. I haven't seen such things in recent times. They were supposed to be amusing but typically quite gross. Whoever took the photos was presumably a customer or employee so there was never any suggestion that these photos were representative of most customers, and I never saw any unusual outfits that appeared to be worn by staff. I'm sure the reference wasn't intended to insult all Walmart users. I suspect if you hung around Harrods with a camera you would probably get some photos of folk in bizarre outfits.

Have you tried online? Many French online pharmacies do mail order and some will send abroad. I've no idea what import restrictions the US might have of course!

Have you tried ballroom or latin dance shoes. They often come in patent. Werner Kern and Freed are just two of the makes I can see online. There are shops in London might have some in stock. They usually have soft suede soles, which would be fine as long as you don't go out on wet decks, and they are usually quite supple and comfortable.

Doesn't that make perfect sense? One would hope that totally unnecessary excursions in and out of the canal at the same end would be cancelled before anything else. They are only going in for tourism purposes and wasting a huge amount of water so that a few thousand folk can take pictures. Taking people or other perishable cargoes across the isthmus would hopefully get priority.

I've been very busy sifting through the catalogue for our local shop's wine event, which starts tomorrow. https://www.geantcasino.fr/bons-plans-du-moment/catalogues/ I've checked reviews, profiles and ratings for a range that interest me and have a list compiled to guide me. I hope to pick up the basics tomorrow and leave the expensive stuff until Friday evening when they will give me a voucher for 15% of what I spend on wines that are not on reduced offers.

Who said "after"? That sort of event is a bit different from a Cunard dining room. The act starts playing mostly subdued numbers early in the meal and couples get up and dance between courses, or if they particularly want to dance to a tune they like they will abandon the food and hit the dance floor. Making the most of good dance music can be much more important than letting your food go cold! I'd expect to take up to 3 hours over the meal with lots of dancing in between. Towards the end of food service the musicians take a short break then return for rest of night. The floor would be full for that session whereas earlier you get a bit more space. Waiters need to understand that it's dangerous for them to encroach on the dance floor! During the meal those whose hands are free will applaud the musicians and other dancers. They understand that isn't practical if you are using cutlery.

The Verandah menus do not appeal to us. However we would love to dine in restaurants that advertise a Dinner Dance and provide live musician(s) that play strict tempo music suitable for dancing. We sometimes came across such events in Scotland, usually in hotels that had restaurants serving decent food with space for a dance floor. We'd typically spend 5 or 6 hours over a meal and drinks in that sort of venue, from aperitifs to nightcaps. If I could find that every night both ways on an Atlantic Crossing it would be my idea of heaven. Those that don't like music or dancing with their meal could easily stay away as it would be clear what to expect.

I made a post in another thread earlier today, which needs to be taken in context. We lived most of our lives in and around Glasgow and experienced winter temperatures as low as -19C. We have chosen to live the remainder of our lives in a warmer climate. I have a video of the only sleet we have encountered here, on morning of February 26th 2018. We are equipped to stay comfortable on the growing number of days per year that the temperature exceeds 30C. I don't have any inclination to visit somewhere colder between autumn and late spring if it can be avoided. But many folk are happy to brave sub zero temperatures to observe Wonders of the World first hand and shouldn't be put off by my aversion to cold. 2 weeks of dressing to the nines, dancing, eating and drinking on QM2 is about the only activity that has tempted me away from our daily routine, which I liken to being on an everlasting holiday.