D&N

You may have a point although renji assures us that wasn't the case here. However in my experience professional dancers and dance teachers are not in the habit of offering their services without payment. Other than for organised charitable work. I think that applies to most professions. I've seen a very odd exception but generally I expect to pay if a service is provided.

We saw this one evening. The pros were Alex & Liuba. We came into Queens Room after dinner but perhaps 20 mins or so before band was due to start and recorded music was playing. A lady apparently travelling without a partner had paid for Alex to dance with her during that period. Liuba was hanging about waiting for Alex to finish. The lady seemed to appreciate the opportunity to have dance time with an expert partner. I can't imagine what complaint any other passenger could have about that.

I suppose this is a good example that we should never assume that safety policies are always the same. They may be updated when reviews dictate that a process could be carried out in a better way. Or they may be updated due to something like Covid. We didn't receive any instruction, verbal or written, to check into muster station first. We'll watch carefully for changes next time.

@Victoria2 That was 29 May 2022. It was of course our first Cunard trip on QM2. Likewise our cards were outside the cabin and we read our muster instructions there. The same bar code is on the boarding card. I suppose we could have gone there first had we been in the know. In practice we were going directly to deck 12 with our bags, one of the very few times we used a lift.

Our Cruise Cards were scanned at muster station last year. We didn't use our boarding cards for anything after we boarded.

I believe it includes the Illy Creations listed here: https://www.cunard.com/content/dam/cunard/marketing-assets/pdf/life-on-board/drinks-packages/Queen Elizabeth Cafe Carinthia.pdf I only drink strong Americanos with a high caffeine content so wouldn't be tempted by the decadent sounding drinks with milk and cream spoiling my coffee. My wife drinks English Breakfast Tea and Hot Chocolate. She liked the Tea Forté version but thought the free Twinings version just as good. Regarding Hot Chocolate; Carinthia serve a version in a pot with marshmallows, which looks good. But she thought the simple cup served in Chart Room, presumably made with Godiva Chocolate tasted far superior. Both were served within the full drinks package. I don't know if that applies to the Hot Drinks package as well.

If that Meursault is still $160 as shown in the list from August 2022, it is very good value. In France I'm seeing prices between €250 and €500 retail.

Thanks. I was aware that all the tastings and packages wouldn't qualify. Just not sure if the first growth flight is different as it is the only "tasting" that is on the main wine list? It would be slightly more expensive but almost as good value to buy a 75ml glass of each from the list. You could do that as one or two per night and just remember the differences.

Regarding the capacity numbers mentioned in post #212; I just linked to a US agent's site from YouTube and the numbers they quote are the same (wrong). Might have been the source.

That does make it more complex, in that I imagine you need two sets of advice. I would have thought the US Government would have a similar facility to the UK but not something I've ever needed to research. Good luck.

I would go to: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice , assuming you are British in that your profile says location UK. Select each relevant country and the information should be there. For a belt and braces approach I'd then go to each individual countries website and check that it didn't contradict the UK gov info.

Surprised PA isn't on that list! It is after all a Blanc de Blancs. 🤣 Seriously though; did any of the non French offerings taste anything like the Chablis, Puligny-Montrachet or Meursault? Glad you enjoyed it.

We are highly unlikely to book QG at any time in future. We've considered what an upgrade from A1 to P2 would mean and location of grills restaurants on QM2. Neither would suit our particular needs/likes better than A1, so we're better spending any extra cash on wine etc. However I would still be interested to read genuine experiences and comments from a regular traveller, albeit someone who is probably slightly biased towards the product 😀.

Back in the 1960s it tended to be more general fancy dress. There wasn't the flood of cheap outfits in shops there is now. My mother used to make us outfits, including a penguin of much better quality than ours, it was made for my older sister but I then used it when I grew into it. I had a kangaroo outfit with a length of curtain rail covered in fabric for the tail and a pouch for the baby joey. I had a bear based on a faux fur jacket worn back to front. For all these she made really well fitted heads with properly positioned eye and mouth holes. One of my sisters had a witches outfit that was also in a church panto I think. And a variety of others. So really just a nod back to that.

It's my bedtime so I'm not about to look anything up. Do you have a source for the QM2 number? I don't even know why the numbers have been quoted? It doesn't ring any bells with me. I'm sure someone with time on their hands will be along any minute!

Sorry. Binned when we cleared our loft before leaving Scotland.

The only time in our adult lives that we have dressed up for a Halloween Party (fancy dress or costume party), was an event at a sister in laws. A variety of cheap poly-cotton sheets were bought at ASDA (part of Walmart) and stapled together. A close study of the footwear can identify the male and female species. I originally thought we might recycle the outfits as nuns the following year but the subsequent party wasn't held (or they didn't invite us!). Potentially these could have been worn for the Masquerade Ball and the Black & White Gala! 🤣

I'm considering white tie with an ordinary dinner suit. My wife plans to wear another white gown accessorised with black for our next black & white night. I wondered how white tie and pocket square might look, so intend to buy those items and try it. If we don't think it's suitable I'll go back to black. I haven't researched whether that might break any sartorial rules but I'm more interested in whether we think it looks better than black tie when we are seen/photographed together. If you like the look I wouldn't bother too much about other peoples opinions.

There is of course no need to follow any theme other than the Gala Night dress code. However themes such as Black & White, Red & Gold or Ice White are fairly clear to most folk. A few people mistake the intentions of Masquerade and Roaring 20s as being fancy dress/halloween party themes. I'm sure the intentions are to recreate the elegance of aristocratic Venetian and 1920s events rather than to dress up as Batman & Robin 🦸‍♂️ or 1920s gangsters (can't find an emoji).

Here it is flipped. There are thousands of QM2 exterior photos online, Marine Traffic has close to 1,750. If you compare photos of both sides you'll see that the lifeboats line up with the same features on each side of the ship, which confirms that they are generally identical. 8013, 8014, 8109 & 8110 are probably the clearest of the obstructed. There are a couple around 8045 & 8046 that have a zodiac instead of a lifeboat, and you can see over the zodiac easily. We originally booked 8014 & 8045 for trips that were cancelled so I looked into the views quite thoroughly although they weren't available for our eventual trip and we had funds to go for an A1.

Imagine 8110 flipped. The two sides are almost mirror images. I don't have tools to do it just now. The clear space will be to right towards stern.

Where folk actually wear a dress intended for the theme, they are generally like some of the below knee versions shown on this website: https://zapaka.com/collections/1920s-dresses Nora's had some beading but hadn't been intended for that. It came from https://chescadirect.co.uk/ sale. We did buy something else from Zapaka a few years ago and I think delivery took quite a few weeks from the far east. We have a couple from SHEIN. Since they're not really gowns she can get plenty of use from them here.

You can buy a connecting flight from Victoria BC to Heathrow. Some of the options were a change at Vancouver. The point was it would mean disembarking QE a day earlier, if it could be arranged, and therefore arriving in LHR a day earlier as well. However it's immaterial as the OP in post #11 decided to book something else.

There was of course one theme night when we intentionally dressed for the wrong theme. Our trip had two Roaring Twenties Gala nights. The first had originally been listed as a Masquerade night. We dressed as planned for the Masquerade theme, although we only donned our masks for some of our own and some of the professional photos. I don't think anyone really noticed and we certainly didn't feel out of place.

"a sharp looking sweat suit". What is that? 🤣🤣🤣 Not the Riviera we live on!