D&N

We acquired a variety of masks before our trip in 2022, and then they replaced Masquerade with Roaring Twenties, which meant we had two Roaring Twenties galas. On the original Masquerade night we dressed as planned and donned our masks for a few photos. We'll probably wear the same outfits next time although my wife's dress has since been modified to fit properly and be short enough to dance in safely without clothes pegs to hold it up. Having bought some quite intricate masks at extortionate prices such as £15 😀, we eventually went for these, which cost €2 for both as part of a larger order: https://fr.shein.com/2pack-Plain-Costume-Eye-Shield-p-9710597-cat-3082.html As others have said, most people don't follow these themes and simply dress for a gala evening. I believe Black & White (possibly Ice White in Alaska) followed by Red & Gold are probably the most observed, but not strictly.

Bit of a local ramble today to a spot we've never been before. Had to give up first attempt to get onto hillside paths as a big travel tech company has the whole area fenced off. Had to do a few more kms than we'd aimed for. The tree behind us is the one seen on the platform of the other photo. Was a bit hairy getting there, and even more so on way back down! Pre breakfast we did a 10km coastal run. Nora usually does 8km/5miles. I've been pacing her for 10km on recent Sunday mornings. She sets new personal bests each time. Today she had PBs at 5km , 8km & 10km. All under 5:30/km. Note the collared shirt for rambling, giving upper arm sun protection and a breast pocket for placing phone or sun specs. 😀

Both get same rating of 3.3 on Vivino. Grand Imperial on 494 comments and Pol Acker 310. Grand Imperial descriptions predominately Citrus, Fruit Tea and Ageing. Pol Acker gets Fruit Tree, Citrus and Vegetal. Seems like there's not much between them. Interestingly a positive comment for PA comes from someone introduced to it on QV.

My wife was happy with the Forte English Breakfast, however she didn't find it any better than the Twinings. As with various other things, it was sometimes difficult to find stock of it last June. At home she drinks PG Tips, but Typhoo works fairly well with hard water and suspect Yorkshire might be ok as well. Those blended for use with soft Scottish water don't always taste as good here. When drinking Traditional British Tea she is looking for a relatively high caffeine content and no fancy added fragrances, late at night she might consider drinking camomile tea although a Grand Marnier would invariably trump that!

Carmel was back for 2nd recall with her dental consultant on Tuesday afternoon. He was very pleased with her. The gums have healed well after the extractions and there is hardly any inflammation remaining. I don't think I noted that a small mass had been removed with the teeth but it was found to simply be inflamed tissue. She doesn't need to go back. The photos were taken about a week ago. Not sure why she was lying between her covered bed and her cushion, it's only time we've seen her do that. And the following morning there were two of her in a sun spot.

Perhaps everyone could chip in to send Mercruiser on QV and QE to survey all the APs. 😀 Suppose it would be a Go Fund Me page these days.

If you are taking these on flight(s) as carry on there shouldn't be a problem going through the carry on scanners at Southampton. We have very light weight backpacks that can go to max size for traditional airline carry on: 56x45x25cm, which I calculate to be 22.05x17.72x9.84 inches. Some budget airlines have introduced smaller sizes in recent years. We pack them with enough to last us the first week including some formal wear, just in case our checked bags go missing on the flight to London. It guarantees we can dress as we please on first night too. I don't know what happens if you have an item that is too big for the scanner. If you think yours might be too big to go through a scanner and you want to carry them aboard, you could pack an empty plastic bin bag in each and decant some of the luggage to fit the scanner. However I imagine those behind you might not be impressed. 😀

We had forgotten that it was a listed perk. But part way down a huge single queue it split and we noted that to the left was listed Britannia Club and several much higher levels. So we promptly went left rather than join the long snaking queue to the right! 🤣

No we've not been on a Cunard Excursion. It's quite a few years since we've been to St Tropez. It's a bit out the way for us and since it's not on the rail line we need to get the train to St Raphael and catch a ferry across the gulf. However I would suggest lunching on the north of the peninsula overlooking the Golfe de Saint Tropez and on a clear day having views of Port Grimaud, activities in the gulf, and towards St Raphael, The Esterel and the Lerins. You probably want to be on Bouillabaisse beach. Of the restaurants there, two seem to be higher rated than others; The Golfe Azur and The Pearl Beach. The former's wine list looks reasonably priced, I can't see a drinks list for Pearl. Best to research them, and others on Trip Advisor. By October you should be able to sit outside without getting too burnt, but make sure you choose a restaurant with cover in case it rains.

As others have, and probably everyone else will tell you, of course it will. Most people don't bother with the themes. The vast majority, easily 95%, do dress up for gala nights. We dress up and try to follow the themes since we like dressing up, and travelling on Cunard is a good excuse to do so! We've only done one B2B crossing in 2022 but will do another in 2025 and probably make it an annual event. We're not typical cruisers. We simply want to sail for a couple of weeks on an ocean liner and have no interest in using the ship to visit places. Last time for red and gold my wife wore a calf length red dress with various gold accessories; on the left of this photo. The black hosiery didn't work and the plan had been light but she forgot when dressing! Next time, being perfectionists 🤣, we'll use the gown on right. It's just short enough to dance safely in and we think it's a shade or two closer to Cunard Red! I think I've found a more suitable replacement for my teddy bear tie as well. But we've been thinking of gold with red accessories and considering dresses like those below. They are of a length that could be worn regularly going out for dinner but we're not sure if we should keep looking for a gown. But then it would only be usable for formal occasions. I see you have Roaring Twenties on your cruise as well. My wife had bought a near full price dress from "Chesca" in London but we got her another in their online sale. It fitted well when she was 2½ dress sizes bigger than in the photo and still looks good without adjustment. Teamed with headband from a craft supplier. Next time she'll go with something more flapper like and a much cheaper headband with a nicer broch replacing the cheap pearls on it. I'll repeat, there is no need to do anything other than dress formally on gala nights. And even if you did stick with "smart attire" there would be something to do/watch in several eating and entertainment venues.

Did you find this one as well: https://www.brixhamsteampacket.co.uk/product/cunard-3/ It looks a bit shorter than the current ones, allegedly came from QE2 before retiral. I'd be inclined to phone that company just in case they have what you want, but don't have it listed. I read through their "About Us" section, and the owner claims to have worked on QE2. The operation looks genuine, you can get a glimpse of their shop frontage in Google street view.

Wouldn't having something like this in the kitchen solve that problem? We have one on hand all the time. They don't have cakes on them though.

Not sure how authentic this set is: https://www.brixhamsteampacket.co.uk/product/beautiful-cunard-wedgwood-cavendish-tea-service/ And I haven't checked their delivery policies, but there are forwarding services that can arrange to send stuff almost anywhere. Or is the straight sided ones that would be preferred?

@MylesS Something that might work, but would add other complications, would be to disembark at Victoria the previous day and fly to London from there. It would need a connecting flight but would get you there a day earlier. You might need permission from Canadian Immigration to do so and probably self disembark. I think B.C. had problems with wild fires last year. I don't know if that disrupted air traffic, but there are so many risks to flying in on departure day I wouldn't go for it.

I should have said that it is nearly 25 years since we flew that route. It put me off long haul flights for life. It was part of an Anchorage-Seattle-Heathrow-Glasgow trip, which took about 24 hours. I optimistically (stupidly) thought we might make an earlier connection at Heathrow and only checked the luggage to there. In reality we had no chance. Heathrow is a bit better these days with T5 but it's still much too risky.

Theoretically you can do it if you book on the direct BA flight at 1:35pm or Virgin at 4:25pm. And a taxi/car service from Heathrow to the port. I would NEVER consider doing that. I would sympathise with your insurer if they refused to pay out because you missed the sailing. I would always want to be within easy distance of the port the night before.

While I'm sure it's nice for many folk, I couldn't do 98 nights. I found myself homesick for where we have chosen to live after about 12 nights on a B2B crossing. I never experienced that feeling when we lived in Scotland where I was born, raised and spent nearly the first 60 years of my life in. Plus I wouldn't consider leaving whatever cats we had at the time for that length of time. We'll do another 14/15 day B2B crossing on QM2 in 2025, and by that time I think I can possibly convince myself to make it an annual affair. last time I took some more casual day clothes and in many of the lunchtime photos we took of ourselves as a couple I feel that I looked really scruffy in comparison to my wife, therefore next time and on subsequent trips I intend to correct that. On smart attire nights I wore a suit with tie last time and we added an extra formal night each week because at time of original booking there were 3 per week and that was reduced to 2 by time of travel. Next time to rationalise clothing a bit I'll wear tux every night (cream for a few of them) and a dark suit or a blazer and trousers with tie for lunch. We have a problem choosing what to leave behind from my wife's wardrobe so we view the whole thing as an opportunity to dress up. That's our choice. Nothing to do with dress codes or what anyone else wants to do.

I forget to prepare for this photo yesterday, so captured this arrival earlier today. Emirates went back to using an A380 on their Dubai-Nice service from June 1st, first since before Covid. Another welcome sign of the world getting back to normal! I prefer not to leave this area if I can avoid it, but it's nice to know it's possible to do so.

No you're not mistaken. Obviously I wouldn't wear a pair of old chinos that I'd used for a week decorating a room, but if I had a new pair of black chinos freshly pressed and some accident became of an only available pair of dinner trousers, I would wear them with a tux and I doubt anyone would notice. That won't happen though because I don't intend to take any chinos next time we're on QM2.

All the M&S shirts that are intended to be worn with dinner suits are described as: "Dinner Shirt". The Jaeger shirts they sell of that type are described as: "Bib Front Dress Shirt". I don't think anything shown in the dress shirt section has a breast pocket, even the much more casual looking linen offerings. Personally I split long sleeved shirts into dress and business. Business shirts have a pocket that can be used to hold a pen or while travelling for passport and boarding card. Dress shirts I would wear for going out to dinner or social occasions when I wouldn't expect to need such things.

Perhaps 25 years ago, but my wife has always been blonde, my hair has been much shorter than that for over 40 years, and I've always been clean shaven. 🤣

My apologies in advance ............ Unfortunately I am finding it difficult to get a potential single letter change to the name of the SpaceX internet system out of my mind. So here is a possible photo of a future Starling Internet system being fitted on QM2:

@techteach, @Mercruiser & @majortom10 are onboard just now. Perhaps they might have an opportunity to ask a sommelier if they actually have any of the bottles listed in the photo, and if they expect the stock to last until June 30th? I imagine it's a case of checking a computer screen of their stock list rather than actually going to a cellar. I think there are other regular posters on board, but can't remember names. I only name folk because they might not otherwise follow this particular thread whilst onboard. Please feel under no obligation if you don't get a chance to ask!

Can someone request that they twirl around and sail back up the sound? They've lots of time to get to Belfast.

Not sure if you mean; Can someone onboard at present ask if they actually have what is listed? From the list dated last August, this is a photo covering those years: