D&N

Sunrise this morning. It rises much further west at this time of year. I can't catch it emerging from the sea, only over a neighbouring property. Got a full frame camera last week and I'm learning how to use it. Hopefully it will be as much point and shoot as possible but it has just about every possible setting on it! I'll probably still take most pics with my phone, but I was quite disappointed with the results I got from what I thought was quite a good superzoom camera last year and eventually realised that the sensor size was too small to get decent detail.

Not sure I understand what you are asking. Our agent will only collect a deposit from us when she has made the confirmed booking on the day that Cunard releases it for sale. I'm not sure if our World Club status now entitles us to book on that first day rather than wait for day 2.

Some people like to have the information available as soon as possible to make decisions well before the actual release date. I've already sent my TA full details of what we want to book for travel in late May or early June 2025 so that she fully understands our requirements. She has been taking quite a few cruises herself recently so I'm not taking any chances in case she has less time to familiarise herself with the details. I don't expect her to be able to make the reservation before late September, and if it follows the same pattern as the previous year it might be mid December. The only thing I've still to inform her of is the actual cruise number.

I think If you are to make the most of your crossing you need to think creatively. You could get away with a dark suit with tie. The tie won't take up much space in Canada or leave it behind on ship. You can probably wear dark suit trousers with an open neck shirt on evenings in Canada and not feel too overdressed, and probably even the jacket if evenings are cold. Alternatively, and assuming you don't plan to return by QM2, you could take a section of wardrobe just for the crossing and post the stuff you wouldn't wear in Canada home to a friend or relative. One of the many parcel brokers was quoting about £75 for 1 Parcel, 5 kg, 40 x 30 x 20 cm. In that case you'd want the formal wear to be as light as possible, polyester rather than wool etc. Or depending on what you pay for the garments, again simply abandon them. You can just do the minimum to get by, but to really appreciate the ambiance of the ship you might regret not pulling out all the stops.

Going by your profile name; If you have any experience of the Lerwick-Aberdeen ferry you should not even be aware that Queen Mary 2 has left the berth. I only made that trip once in January 1958 in this: I have no memory of the sailing but was assured it was the worst my mother had ever encountered!

We were very pleased with this dress from JJ's House. It was 2 sizes too big having been bought before the decision to diet was taken. We would buy a similar replacement in a smaller size but will try to get it altered locally to fit before we do that. If you dance you might want to specify a shorter length. This was fine with the 4" heels in the picture but needed pegged up with 2½” dance shoes. This time the models are Arthur and Cindy, who were some of our previous owners.

@alibabacruisers I should also have said that even if the dress is cheaper on Ever-Pretty, the SHEIN site will give you a better view of sizing. Lets you compare the model's sizes against the garment size they are wearing. Plus you may find customer feedback that may show what real people look like wearing the item and their opinions of whether it is true to size. You can then order from the cheapest. When ordering from thousands of miles away it's best to have as much information as possible even if the supplier has good return policies.

In June 2022 on a Trans Atlantic, the Pavilion Pool on deck 12 was quite cold. We swam round in circles for a while and it was bearable for that. If we stopped and stood to the side we were shivering within a few minutes. The two jacuzzi pools beside it were nice and warm.

Has anyone established if there is a noticeable difference between Essential and Premium? We uploaded a few compressed photos with messages to various social media accounts each day and backed up all our photos and a couple of videos to cloud storage. I also used it to check online banking and have a quick look at news sites, and researched a few of the wines on specialist sites. We took Premium for the duration but wasn't sure we really needed it.

For the 14 nights we were on QM2 there were very few folk dancing in G32. 90% of the time we had the floor to ourselves. We mainly danced ballroom & latin in G32. With a bit of disco when the music wasn't suited to any particular dance. On Gala Nights in the Queens Room when the band was playing the floor was generally full. On other nights that ballroom/latin music was provided the floor was fairly well used, other than 2 dances where there was only one couple on the floor 😂. Once might have been down to a certain black sequined mini dress, I've no explanation for the other. But as has previously been stated; those that can't dance are often happy to watch those who can, we spoke to some that were doing just that. It's what spurred us to take lessons 30 years ago. We sat through a few latin numbers watching a couple who were on another level to us. There were a couple of nights where party bands or rock/swing music was played. We were able to fit ballroom/latin dances to much of that although there is a problem where untrained dancers position themselves so that ballroom dancers can't pass them. Youngsters should really be trained to dance disco, classes are available. We often mix; samba, cha cha & jive steps into disco. We don't really go in for "jiggling".

Many of their dresses are on SHEIN sites. Often cheaper and once you create an account you should find discount vouchers. We rarely buy without at least 20% off.

We're just back from a lovely meal at our local Chinese, 7 mins walk from our home. It was about 5C outside but felt more like -5C! Shivered all the way home to join Carmel and her heater. As usual meal was amazing value, 3 really tasty courses, 2 bottles of a very good house Rosé and a litre of San Pellegrino for 99€.

Just to complete the trio, and an excuse for a cat picture. The EverPretty dress arrived yesterday. It's a perfect length for my wife's dancing heels. It's an opaque fabric and the skirt section is unlined. We'll need to test it out dancing around the living room to check whether any static is generated and if it needs a lining. We brought Tina out to model it. We lost her to a feline coronavirus in March 2014, which prompted the adoption of Carmel and her sister. Her colouring suits blue.

An update for anyone interested in Carmel ...... She's doing very well. Has had quite a good appetite for several months and got back to a normal weight around Christmas. We're now going to gradually try weaning her off the mind bending gel that gets rubbed in her ears. Hopefully her brain will remain trained to be hungry and eat, but we'll monitor her weight as we do so to make sure. We're a bit scared that continuing at current dosage might make her obese, although we can of course refuse to give her food if eating too much. This was her 12 days ago.

The red dress turned up today and the purple last Saturday. The overlay on the red dress is 3 layers of soft net without a hem. We will carefully trim them to the level of the under lay (which is hemmed) and that will make it safe to dance in. My wife finds it difficult to make "heel turns" in heels of over 3". The purple will be a candidate for a smart night on our next QM2 crossing, but will probably get used going to restaurants here. We got our cyber girls to model them for us....

We found these to be very useful: They hold my napkin to my tie/shirt as a bib if I'm eating a sauce dish while wearing a light Tux or shirt. We use them with our bungee cord washing line on the balcony, and when we realised my wife's gown was too long for her dance heels they held the hem up several inches. They travelled around with us every evening.

We've not been drinking them so often in the last few years. On Arcadia they refused to mix as requested and I spoke to the Food & Beverage Manager (or whatever his title was), who claimed he would instruct bars to serve as we requested. I don't recall it making things any easier. On QM2 I by chance came across a uniformed chap as I was queuing for the "Jubilee Street Party". His badge stated something like Hotel Services Director. I mentioned it to him and he wasn't at all helpful, stating that it was how Carnival Corp dictated they be served and that staff were held accountable for the quantities used. We just have Prosecco or Aperol Spritz instead. The 'correct' way of making them just tastes like contaminated champagne, cava or prosecco. I don't understand why anyone would use decent sparkling wine for mixing anyway. As I said, in most mainstream restaurants on the Cote d'Azur they use more crème de cassis. The content is a dark Ribena colour. But it's not something important to us so I won't be complaining about it.

Yes. Price of drink/bottle of wine etc plus 15% service charge less 20%. So a bottle of wine listed as: $68 was charged at $62.56. We took the package for 14 nights and wouldn't do so again. Purely from a cost point of view, there is no doubt that we saved money. But we normally drink wine with our meals, and the choice of wines available to us by the glass just wasn't wide enough, hence why I know how the 20% thing is calculated. There wasn't anything on the wine by glass list that would cope with a good meat dish, or a decent white Burgundy for fish and white meats. We were fine for lunch wines, aperitifs, wine that we drink supplemented by water while dancing every night and nightcaps, but the lack of choice of dinner wines was too much for us. We had Illy coffees, Tea Forté, Godiva Hot Chocolates and water with lunch, dinner and throughout our dance evenings. We were ok with being able to take a glass of dessert wine with or instead of a dessert. But the dinner wine issue was the killer. A couple at a table near us were also on package but they had different wine tastes and drank beer as well. They seemed quite happy with it.

Nora's last night dress was below knee Cornelli style from Phase Eight. It would look great on sizes above and below it's label. It can be crushed in a bag and come out perfect. She has another that we felt was a bit wedding'ish for Cunard. I think we've only ever paid sale prices for their stuff. Next Direct are another good source, with lots of different labels that may not be in their shops.

Should have mentioned "Chesca". I believe they only deliver to UK & Ireland. They do from UK size 12 to 24. My wife has 2 x 16s, both worn last June on QM2. First bought full price in John Lewis' Oxford St and the other in their online sale. Their styles are very forgiving but although she would probably be ok with their 12s now, the 16s don't look really big. There are services available that will provide a relay address in UK or many other countries then forward to you, charging for the shipping and customs fees.

We've used SHEIN for nearly 3 years. My wife has 3 Ever-Pretty dresses (awaiting 4th). All are well made and did fit when bought. We've been delighted or pleased with most stuff. A green pleated jump suit you'll find in an old thread of mine is stunning! One garment was as photo but the fabric was horrid, straight to bin. 2 items were wrong, size or item different from bag label. Both times return label promptly provided and refunded when La Poste scanned as I handed it over. Our issue is that some items ordered before my wife dropped 2/3 dress sizes over the last 2 years to a healthy weight is now a bit big. She has some larger relatives, so we give hardly or unworn stuff away. Deliveries from China take between 6 and 14 days to France. We get 25-30% off if we place an order over €105. You do need to take care. They give the model's sizes and you can compare them with the garment size. If there's customer feedback with photos we compare colours taken in their snaps and how the garment sits on real people. The latest Ever-Pretty dress was seen on their own site but detective work found it on SHEIN much cheaper with discount. The red one will be her first BABYONLINE D.R.E.S.S. the model claims to be 1cm taller and her dress 5cm shorter than our order. Hoping the outer layer can be easily trimmed if too long for dancing, otherwise we have alteration services nearby. Both Ever-Pretty and BABYONLINE D.R.E.S.S. do bespoke sizes on their own sites and we have a gorgeous grey gown from JJ's House, which are another specialist dress site. Can be quite expensive though unless it's a reduced line.

We sailed on Arcadia 14 nights eastbound Panama Canal Transit over New Year 2005/2006. We sailed on QM2 14 nights B2B Trans Atlantic on May 29th last year. We enjoyed both trips, although we'll only repeat one. And P&O's charter flights from Glasgow to Acapulco and return from Barbados were awful. On Arcadia the food was generally ok, but many dishes were a bit bland. I don't mean something that could be cured with salt & pepper. We don't use salt for cooking or add it afterwards. Over the fortnight we were offered 14 different descriptions of potato dishes. The waiters were even trying to get us to take potatoes and 2 x veg with curries and pasta dishes. Our summary of it was that the food was too British for our tastes. We wouldn't travel on P&O again unless they had an itinerary that we couldn't resist. Since we only want to travel B2B Trans Atlantic on a liner that's unlikely to arise. As we expected QM2's cuisine was far more to our taste, more like the French home cooking we're used to, with a bit of cordon bleu as well. The worst dish was their Dauphinoise, which wasn't a patch on our home produced version where we use a UHT cream recommended by one of the ladies in our local hypermarket. Dancing was better on QM2, with live music each night in Queens Room and all but 1 night in G32. We're not 'floor snobs' so we were fine with The Globe on Arcadia but I think there was only an odd night with live music and it was unavailable at least one night for a movie or some other show. Kir Royale was hopeless on both. Restaurants here serve about 30% creme de cassis topped up with champagne. Carnival Corp seem to work to an 'international standard' with much less creme de cassis.

We've had that quite a bit recently for outdoor temperatures. We need several extra layers to cope. My cat would leave home if we allowed that sort of temperature indoors!

Unless you have an qualms about origin, you could try SHEIN. The attached have been ordered this week, the red and blue are to replace dresses recently given away due to being several sizes too big. They'll probably appear on QM2 in a couple of years.

@NE John Have you tried Googling "Q3 Royal Suite on QM2"? That brought up some YouTube videos for me. One practical comment was that the cabin is directly under the fog horn, so that might be louder than in other locations. I wouldn't be bothered by being forward. Stena briefly used a ferry that we liked on their Harwich - Hook of Holland route, which we used regularly in the 1990s. It had some larger forward facing cabins, which were on a par with those on cruise ships. I would however prefer midships near a stairwell to save time moving around the ship.