D&N

I've only heard of "The Southern Daily Echo" through this thread. I used to work for a UK wide company with operations in Southampton (plus a significant operation in North America) and it was sometimes referred to as "Soton" and everyone knew what city was being discussed. Unfortunately the business premises were in an industrial estate some distance from the port so I never had the time to look at ships on any of my visits.

As we open the seventh last bottle; Will we cope with the stress of not knowing if our stock will last until the next special offer? 🍸

I think we once travelled in a reduced rate cabin on Superfast Ferries between Rosyth and Zeebrugge by placing a bid online back in the dial-up internet era. We would aim for our TA to book us an A1 on release day and clearly select no upgrades. The most likely would be a P2 and we're not interested in any of the perceived benefits. The walk in wardrobe and larger bathroom might be nice, but dressing table mirror position looks cramped and further from natural light. And we don't need the extra space. We only use the cabin for sleeping and preparing to go out. We don't eat or drink in the cabin. We're more than happy with all our meals and the ambience in BC, which is handy for Queens Room, G32 and Chart Room. I don't think we'd welcome any upgrade. Perhaps if we were 100% guaranteed Grand Marnier as a nightcap! 😂 So no fears of us inflating the bidding.

Not so clever. They sell them here for that purpose. Our last fatal quake in the region was 1909, but residential buildings are poured concrete.

Yes. Being below ground it's the most constant temperature we have, varying between 14C and 24C over the year. I don't buy much that is advised "À Conserver". But I do follow comments on Vivino and CellarTracker about drink dates and try to keep best bottles until they are hopefully tasting good. If I'm going to be getting much at a higher price range I'll look at buying a storage fridge.

It's not looking as if anyone who has tried the "First Growth Wine Flight" is going to post, so if @techteach or anyone else does try it, or simply talks to their sommelier about it, perhaps they could ask my questions: Do you have a choice of where and when, preferably in restaurant pre dinner? Would they allow 2 people to taste from one flight? Does it qualify for the package 20% discount? (bonus but not important) We won't be crossing again until May/June 2025, so there's plenty of time.

We only have 96 polystyrene "holes" in our cellar, which is plenty for us. Most daily drinking is boxes from Languedoc-Roussillon, which is known for it's volumes rather than quality; Red Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon or sometimes blends; Rosé Syrah, Merlot and blends; White Sauvignon, which doubles up as a cooking wine. They are similar to Cunard's $30-$36 wines, we usually pay less than €8 for a 5 litre box. We have bottles marked so we can serve about 600ml between us for a meal. Sunday and special occasions is always a bottle paired to the meal. We don't have any hang-ups about red with fish or white with beef, but usually match traditionally. Most stores have a "Foire au Vins" early spring and late summer. The biggest local store's best one is late August and the catalogue is about 90 pages. I choose mainly what we'll drink over the year but look out for good deals to keep for a few years. Since I've been looking at the First Growth I've also discovered the other classes and realise I have a couple of Château Lynch-Moussas from the fifth at present, and have had other fourths and fifths in past. I mainly go for Bordeaux reds, Burgundy white & red, Beaujolais red, Rhone red (but I do have 1 Châteauneuf white), and Provence rosés. I'll pay more attention to wines from the classifications this year. Château Pontet-Canet is invariably there at about €95. It seems to get best ratings in the "Fifth" at tastings, and when you consider we normally get deals that give about 40% off the list price it would be good value. Montrose from the second was there in 2020 at €75.

Today's strike/protest numbers are down on last Thursday but they plan another on April 6th. It remains to be seen if a downward trend develops. Last week appears to have been a reaction to the forcing through of the legislation by executive powers, the narrow defeat of the main no confidence motion and then the last straw being the President's TV interview, which many of the union folk thought was too confrontational. I got the feeling from reports a few weeks ago that the law might narrowly pass by a normal vote but it appears that so many questions and amendments had been tabled that it could have taken years to debate. On a positive note; half the Paris refuse collectors are expected to return to work tomorrow. The other half were not on strike as they are private sector contractors and probably are not entitled to the same minimum retiral age as their council agency equivalents. Hopefully the areas the strikers cover will get tidied up a bit. And there are supposed to be meetings between Prime Minister and unions between April 3rd and 5th. I get the impression she's not so confrontational so hopefully might smooth things over.

We've had the Krups Vivo since 2006. Tiny, simple (it self primes if you forget to fill reservoir), and makes lovely coffee. It was threatening to develop leaks, hence the tray, and I got the Gaggia to replace it. But it keeps on going; it started smoking about a year ago so I opened it up and found a melted mains cable terminal, which I replaced and put in a new mains cable. Doesn't seem to leak as long as I fill the reservoir without removing it, and it's the least complex to let any visitors use. The Gaggia's a bit more temperamental; I replaced a stupid pressurised basket with one with all over holes and it needs primed if it accidentally runs dry, but it makes great coffee too. We use them alternately to make sure nothing corrodes. And there's an unused Lidl machine in a cupboard as a backup.

I did find a front on photo of the machine in Sir Samuel's, which I suspect is copyright. However I'm confident that this is the machine or at least the latest model of it. I can get one delivered here in France for €10,300. I think I might just make do with my existing pair.

The machine in Sir Samuel's was a traditional commercial pressurised machine as in the first picture. There is a similar one in Carinthia Lounge and I think in Commodore Club. Not sure if there are others. After the first day we decided we preferred the ambiance of The Chart Room for my coffee, and my wife's tea and hot chocolate. The waiters there went to Sir Samuel's to get my Americanos. One less experienced waiter brought me a cup of brown water that was promptly returned. Apparently there is also a push button machine in the back area of The Chart Room bar, and he brought it from there. So if you want proper coffee rather than just something hot and wet, make sure they bring it from the right machine.

I hope Central Scotland is a bit warmer than that in mid April. We might have to re-think the wedding attire. Ski Suits? ⛷️

Other than a mention in the Afternoon Tea overview panel I can't find anything on the UK site. There is a page on the French site with a short description, although I'd have expected the UK site to be more up to date.

Tripadvisor have some pictures from the menu. They seem to be about 3 years old. The latest bar menu shows Illy Americano at $3.70 rather than $3.60. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Cruise_Review-d15691723-Reviews-Cunard_Queen_Mary_2_QM2#photos;aggregationId=101&albumid=62758&filter=7&ff=451271436

It's on page 4 of the most recent wine list: https://www.cunard.com/content/dam/cunard/my-voyage/pdfs/qm/qm_wine_list_aug_2022a.pdf I also found a 2016 copy of daily programs somewhere that someone had posted that gave similar info with the instruction to speak to sommelier. Might take a while to find that again. It's not unique to Cunard; I also found a video of two guys sitting in a garden tasting the 5 wines concerned. I'm thinking it's a good way to establish whether our palates would really appreciate the difference between those and something we might pick up on offer here for €50. Then if one of them came up in the wine fairs at €300 to €500 it might be worth buying. Although if that happened I'd buy a Coravin Timeless as well.

I think they were saying that being on the drinks package they wouldn't be paying Cunard for the extra cans/bottles they would take off the ship. 😀 But in practice it depends where you shop. On our first full day in New York last summer, not having had the chance to stock up on small bottles at Wholefoods, we found ourselves at Battery Park and needing hydration. There was no time to waste as we were heading for the Statue and photos of QM2, who was in port that day. A 500ml bottle of Poland Springs water from one of the food trucks was at least $3. Disgusted at myself for falling into that trap I picked up a case of 24 on way back to hotel!

We've used Jungle Formula MAXIMUM for over 20 years, which contains 50% DEET. But if you open a browser and use Google Search and type in "deet" you'll get these results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEET https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts185.pdf It is highly toxic. But my wife's reaction to mosquito bites is extremely risky, so it's a matter of weighing up the risks.

We're going to try this with dinner this evening: Unfortunately not the Château Mouton or Château Lafite, but Rothschild's wine for the masses; Mouton Cadet. By combining various discounts and cash back offers we ended up getting 2 at a nett 3€78 each! Initial tasting was good although not exceptional. If we like it with the meal, we'll go back for another 6 tomorrow.

Has anyone tried this, particularly on Queen Mary 2? The current price shown is $350 and an old daily program confirms that 15% is charged on top, and states to ask ones Sommelier. I'm aware of what they are, how I would expect them to taste, and how Cunard serve them using the Coravin Timeless system. I'd be interested to know where they were served? Do you have a choice of when? Would they serve one set of 5 x 50ml glasses and allow 2 people to taste from those? And if anyone knows; If you have drinks package, would this qualify for the 20% discount? If we were to try this, the ideal would be to arrange with our sommelier to come earlier for dinner one evening in BC, have the flight served at our table and treat it as a replacement for our aperitifs. 125ml each with water to clean the palate would be similar to what we normally have in pre dinner drinks.

Apart from our local news site NiceMatin, I review https://www.francetvinfo.fr/ regularly. That is the French equivalent to the UK's BBC. It's in French but most browsers will translate for you. If you can afford to I would suggest giving things a bit more time. Today's headlines are more about demos against a large artificial irrigation reservoir scheme in Deux Sevres in Western France. The local news on pensions demos suggests between 500 and 1,500 demonstrators in Nice today depending on who's numbers you believe. Those are relatively small numbers. Admittedly this area isn't a barometer for the country as it's extremely right wing. The pension thing may eventually fizzle out. They've been trying to address the problem for at least 15 years, and what's now tabled is so watered down they'll probably need to do more in a few years time. BTW. The Bordeaux Town Hall fire wasn't quite as scary as some make out. It was only the facia of the old wooden front door that was set on fire and quickly dealt with by the emergency services. Should never have happened of course but some news sites do like to exaggerate.

I've just spotted a change in the T&Cs for the drinks package. When we used it last year the pdf of T&Cs stated: *Discount does not apply to bottles of wine with a menu price over $150. The current T&Cs don't list that exclusion: https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/my-cunard-tcs There are a couple of phrases that might permit them to refuse to offer something where the 20% discount would be substantial: Cunard reserves the right to introduce exclusions or limitations without prior notice. And: Shipboard management also reserves the right to add additional restrictions........... Unlikely to affect us as there are lots of wines under $80 that we'd be delighted to drink. But it could open up a big saving for some.

It was €2,850 for the 2011 vintage in the Monaco branch of our local hypermarket in July 2021. If it was available in a September wine promotion and I used all the loyalty program discounts I could possibly get about €1,000 off that.

The bog standard Sauternes will do for us. In fact we often have much cheaper Monbazillac instead. I would quite like to try a Pétrus some day but I'm not paying $415 for 75ml!

@NE John As always with SNCF be aware of the risk of strikes. Although the Paris St Lazare-Caen line appears to have a reasonable Guaranteed Minimum Service. Details of that and access to normal timetables and fares are at: https://www.ter.sncf.com/normandie/se-deplacer/info-trafic/greve

We drink lots of tasty Cabernet or Merlot from 5 litre boxes at home with our mainly batch cooked everyday meals. Wine by the glass is certainly available in MDR and I believe in all bars and restaurants. That's my philosophy with making a good wine last two dinners. The wine should survive to a second night but probably deteriorate after that. A decent full bodied red may actually develop different flavours on the second night. After the first decent sized glass we know the difference but won't be too bothered and the steak or whatever we are eating will be gone. The Rioja and the Chablis were too expensive for the package at the time of our crossings. They're possibly the only ones we would have been happy with for our dinners. What we eat for Sunday dinner, special occasions and when we have visitors is similar to meals on QM2, and we always drink decent bottle(s) from our cellar for those.