D&N

I think pictures of routers were mentioned earlier in the thread. This was the one above the bandstand at the Pavilion Pool. They are fairly plentiful throughout the public rooms. I only counted 2 in the corridor on deck 12 for 28 outside cabins. There were another 8 inside cabins that may have been trying to get a signal from one of those routers, but might also have picked up from the corridor behind them. We sat fairly near to one of these on the ceiling if we wanted a decent connection.

Might as well post a few pics. These little "mules" worked very hard all day to keep us straight and moving through the locks. A bit of a theme was the ships photographers who were busily snapping away at the ship and us. I took the opportunity to catch them a few times, the last of them taken through the MDR window. And we were escorted throughout by a squadron of Pelicans, who of course were unaware that the P&O larders only contained frozen fish shipped in from the UK!

As often it's down to personal taste. My wife hates ripening Brie. She would only eat a firm Brie that's not intended to soften. Has anyone ever come across Comté on cheese trolley's in any class on Cunard? I would generally go for a sweet desert rather than a cheese board, but might be tempted by some Comté, particularly if it was fairly mature. It's not an essential as we have it all the time here in a range of vintages from about 9 month through to 36 month and in various flavours, but mainly lactique or fruitée. Our GP probably thinks a couple of weeks without it might be viewed as a good opportunity to detox.

Can you tell us what device you are using, and version of operating system? Mercruiser's phone is a model released in July 2022 running on Android 12 or 13. The one I used last year was released 2 years earlier and was running Android 11. I've replaced it since because it fell out my pocket once too often onto concrete and the screen shattered! Although I was happy with internet access I didn't manage to run that speed test successfully, whereas Mercruiser seems to be able to run it every day.

We did the canal in that direction on P&O Arcadia Jan 6, 2006. According to my photos, we approached the first locks at 07:45 and the pilots left the ship at 17:06 having cleared Gatun. We left Pedro Miguel locks just after 10:00 and were entering Gatun locks at 14:30. We had a partially obstructed ocean view (it was very cheap!) and I spent all day other than breakfast and lunch in MDR wandering the outer decks taking photos and videos. Even with a balcony cabin, I don't think I'd have been sitting on it much, particularly in the locks. Too much going on at the ship's sides with the "mule" locos, the lock machinery and the other ships passing by. The section in between is more scenic cruising.

Our local council pays for this team of gardeners to visit various less accessible corners of the town to control vegetation.

My experience was with a Moto G 5G+. Motorola are known for their Android versions with lack of bloatware, which I'm happy with. But maybe the OS and device both being from Google helps the test run better. Of course you may come across periods when the satellite connection drops off as the trip progresses. I wonder if there's a difference in the walls between the corridor and inside/outside cabins. I usually had to stand close to cabin door to connect to router 3 cabins along. It was easier to sit at Pavilion Bar, which was just a few cabins away.

Following on to SeaLegs23's comment; I estimated our tally of stairs climbed after a trip: .... over 14 days we ascended an average of 1000 steps per day travelling between decks 2 and 12 at least 5 times and once a day between decks 7 and 12. We descended a similar number ....... To save anyone else counting decks 2 to 12 on staircase B is 191 steps. Decks 7 to 12 on staircase A is 99 steps. We only used lifts for embarkation with bags and self disembarkation with all luggage. Other than one instance where we were with another couple and didn't get impression they would join us on the climb.

Where on the ship did you run that test? Were you in sight of a router? Would be interesting to know if you maintain anything like that mid Atlantic. And can you advise what device you are using? I did try Ookla last year but the test didn't run. I was happy with the access though.

I tried some research, and only thing I've come across so far is: Propeller Cavitation. Apparently it causes blade erosion and degradation and is affected by water temperatures. Perhaps the TEMP marking is related.

If you have transport, you could consider a buying trip to France. Even outside the EU, you are allowed to import 24 bottles of still wine and 12 bottles of champagne or other sparkling wine without paying any taxes. If there were 2 adults travelling, you double that. If you were buying good quality wines it's likely to be financially beneficial and there will be much more choice than in the UK. When we lived in Scotland we took an annual mini-cruise, Hull-Zeebrugge, which gave us about 10 hours on the continent. We generally spent about 6 or 7 hours visiting an area NE of Lille and around Roubaix, where there were 2 x Auchan, 2 x Carrefour, Leclerc, Cora, and Casino Hyper plus high street chains like Nicholas. There are 2 periods per year, around March and September, when most stores run a wine promotion "Foire aux Vins". https://www.larvf.com/,vin-foires-aux-vins-printemps-calendrier-enseignes-cavistes-grande-distribution,4428971.asp During these periods extra discounts are given and ranges extended, and it's a time when many French folk stock up their cellars. Well worth aiming to catch as many of these as possible.

Sorry no idea then. I never had that problem.

Not sure what you mean by "dropped off"? It disconnects if you don't use it for a short period, and you need to go through a multi stage login process, which I've posted in past.

It's unlikely that the internet connection will be consistent enough to stream sports reliably. Possibly once it's converted to Starlink, but that probably won't happen before any current Med booking is over. Depending on your mobile plan you might pick up a good enough terrestrial 4G signal in some of the ports, but that depends on where the signal masts are compared to the ship. If you try to use the satellite 4G I suggest you take out a mortgage to cover the bill. A week of streaming on board could easily cost thousands of pounds/dollars. Some sports events such as cup finals are shown on screens in the Golden Lion Pub. I've not attended any of those screenings so can't advise how reliable the reception was.

Where the TV is mounted on the wall of the cabin it can be difficult to access the ports on the rear. I was able to plug in a USB adapter to review camera photos on an SD card but it was quite fiddly. In cabins where the TV is on a desk, which I think might be the case in those with upper berths, it should be much easier. But, and I suppose I really shouldn't comment, but of course I will 😀; You've asked two questions here that indicate that you want to spend time on QM2 doing things you could easily do at home, and do better there! By the time we eat our meals, go to gym, walk the deck whale and dolphin spotting, swim and relax at the pool, sip drinks in the lounges, and dance the night away in ballroom and disco, we don't have any time for shows, musical performances, lectures, arts and crafts courses and many other activities onboard. Plus in the Med you have port calls as well that we wouldn't have to cope with on a crossing. I certainly wouldn't waste my money and just stay at home, watching my films and streaming my sports!

In the unlikely event of a child falling from a bunk you would be safer in single bed formation as it would be difficult for them to fall on top of you. Having it as a double would break their fall but your injuries would probably be more serious than anything they would suffer. Looking at layout I'd certainly put the ladder at foot of bed on side without the desk. It would be difficult having ladders facing both ways between the bunks. If space allows at desk side I'd put that one at foot as well. Most 10 year olds should be flexible enough to access from any direction. We regularly host a family of 4 in a 10.26m2/110sq/ft room with bunks crossing the top of the double bed. The room layout was designed with them in mind. But they don't spend much time in the room other than for sleeping. It will be a tight squeeze but all the more incentive to be out and around the ship enjoying it's facilities. On the falling comment. I do mean a child in their sleep rolling about and accidentally falling rather than being thrown out by bad weather!

There was a post over a year ago where someone on a crossing claimed to have joined one or more business Zoom calls on the WiFi.

@AspirationalFlyer I'm quite happy for you to have any lighting and lasers that you want. And I don't really care what the floor is made of either, just as long as we can dance on it! We'll dance to any style of music that is close to strict tempo. We prefer to dance ballroom and latin but revert to disco if we can't fit anything else round the music. When Exxile were playing we danced more in G32 than we did to the not so good bands in Queens Room. Other than the odd gulp of refreshment we're on the floor dancing constantly. Most others there seemed quite happy to sit and watch and listen to the music.

I just looked at the waist. Maybe I need to stretch a few inches. But maybe not, extending all those trouser legs could be a problem.

They seem to have increased it to $4 since we were there last year.

Premium.

I posted all the pics and comment in posts #11 through to #157 using the WiFi and received all the replies, other than a few in New York when on 4G. I also contributed to various other threads. I also posted much the same content on Facebook and a WhatsApp group and received responses easily. Only thing was I used a compressor app rather than uploading 2.60MB photos. I kept up with various bank accounts. Wise kept me informed as to what Cunard were charging to my card. Emails were fine. I was able to retrieve photos from my cloud archive whenever I wanted to illustrate a past experience. I think you would need two subscriptions to send messages around the ship. Not something we needed as we're almost always glued together. Other than connection not being good in cabin, our cabin was near Pavilion Pool where it was fine. Obviously we'll look forward to Starlink, but what we had was adequate for our needs. I should also have said that all those 2.60MB photos were backed up to cloud so I didn't need to use the SD cards I'd brought for backup.

It's on the dance floor and "I" quite enjoyed dancing round it. My wife got a bit fed up when I went round it three times in quick succession. They could do with adding some padding to the head level wood around the DJ's station. My wife's head does get quite close to it as we spin turn in and out of that corner.

Not sure what difference lights and lasers make to ones dancing, but please leave the floor alone! I think it was wood and we found it absolutely fine for dancing on.

@Host Hattie Is that Biggles?