D&N

We've only taken 1 x QM2 cruise, May/June 2022 (18 years 4 months old). Only the 3rd proper cruise in our lifetime, after Sun Princess 1998 (2 years 8 months old). P&O Arcadia 2005/6 (9 months old). We've sailed on many ships in the Med, Baltic, North Sea, Channel, Biscay and West Coast Scotland. So this is not simply a defence of Cunard. I just don't see the point of those photos. If you don't expect to see rust and stains on outer decks of a ship you really should be choosing a holiday at a luxury resort hundreds of miles from the sea. The door; Yes folk really should use the handle provided to open the door, keep their hands away from their face and wash them as soon as possible, but if you don't want to touch where others have then it's quite clear from the photo where you should hold. 😂 I don't really see the practical use of silver candlesticks or vases, so get rid of them and the polished wood won't get so marked. (You don't honestly think that those symmetrical marks were caused by a variety of different glasses?). I wouldn't pick that mauve shade for my lounge, but I don't see anything wrong with that chair. Personally I would tidy that afternoon tea table a bit more before leaving it, but then I know I have OCD. We found everything we used to be spotlessly clean. The only marks on our clothing were where we splashed them with sauces etc. This isn't the 1st post of this kind I've read. I find most of them laughable. I think folks expectations of various forms of public transport need to be more realistic. Of course everyone has the right to their opinions and to choose where they spend their money, so some may not agree with anything I've typed and are welcome to do so.

I hadn't been familiar with Vlaardingen & Maassluis, but we sailed frequently between Harwich and The Hook in the 1990s when my brother in law was based in Germany. Interesting to see all the cameras.

https://webcam-vlaardingen.nl/pages/cameras/oost.php QM2 is currently heading towards the camera at Vlaardingen that points East. On the West pointing camera folk can be seen gathering on a small jetty on the North Bank to watch her sail past. And the operator is following her too.

https://docs.vikingcruises.com/pdf/14-PreCruiseRequirement-All-US_CAN_UK_AU_NZ.pdf Assuming it is correct, this Viking document was updated on August 12th. The info for Spain doesn't seem to matter what you do after arrival, and is quite clear. The only difference I've seen elsewhere was transit passengers not leaving the airport were exempt, which obviously doesn't apply if you travel from airport to docks.

I keep forgetting about this. Delta serve quarter bottles of this stuff. It was better than the Californian red & white that they served by the cup from big bottles. Anyone tasting this would never complain about Pol Acker again.

Not sailing. Moored in Rotterdam, not that far from where QM2 is today. Shows on MarineTraffic. [actually that position is from June 2nd, so it could have been moved] Wikipedia: "The new owners intend to use the Astoria for conversion to a hotelship....... The plans were abandoned and the ship was again made available for sale, never having left port in Rotterdam.

In service at least. I think there's a few more moored around the world. But are they afloat or resting on the bottom? 😂

The main engines fitted to QM2 are 4 x Wärtsilä Vasa 46C. I found what appears to be a rather large manual for that engine online. It includes manufacturers data on emissions and a diagram that shows a NOx Analyser built into the exhaust system, so they probably know what is being spewed out most of the time. Like many cars, it probably complied with all standards when built but as they change it might be difficult to modify. The auxiliary engines are GE LM2500s and probably emit less as I think they run on LNG rather than heavy oil.

I wasn't clear as to whether the QE itineraries covered it properly. Do they actually sail through the Strait of Georgia, between Vancouver Island and the mainland? For us It's immaterial anyway. We were thinking of doing Banff-Vancouver on Rocky Mountaineer, then QE round trip including Victoria in 2025. We didn't do Rockies or Victoria when on Princess in 1998. However I've decided I can see all of those things on YouTube videos without doing the long haul flights, and we'll probably just do a round trip on QM2 again. I've since seen a video of Gold Leaf service and it looks like I would turn my nose up at the wine the waiter was serving!

It's actually fine here. The coastal Alpes-Maritimes are surrounded by the sea, the Southern Alpes, hills of The Mercantour and The Esterel. Other than the unusual situation of a red hot wind coming from the west over the plains of the Var, the temperatures are reasonably moderate. As long as you have air conditioning to fall back on when it gets too hot it's not a problem. I would never live in Scotland again. I couldn't face a mild winter, let alone one with snow and ice. The problem in New York was not the weather. It was how busy the tourist areas were with idiots trying to outdo each other in posing for the most outrageous selfies. Plus the difficulty in finding palatable wine, and surprisingly the dearth of decent coffee. For me there's no place that's a good swap for where we live at any time of year. We think I might just about be ready for another 2 weeks on Queen Mary 2 in 2025, but even there after 2 weeks I'm just desperate to get home.

Direct flights Nice to JFK are usually only with Delta who use Terminal 4. Although JFK info suggests "Returning ESTA" is a class that can use the faster gates, I saw no sign of that on the list. Other Nationalities, VISAs, ESTA were all signed to keep to right of 3 lanes and channelled into the main queuing area. Perhaps going to New York early July wasn't the best time. Times Square was like Blackpool on steroids, and stinking of all the junk food trucks. I absolutely hated it. Although our hotel was a couple of blocks away, we needed to pass through the area to get to many restaurants that interested us. We did enjoy all the sight-seeing though.

If he had just boarded in Hamburg; That is common in Germany. Some sauna/spa suites prohibit any clothing beyond the entrance area where they provide lockers.

Can't say I'm that much of a purist. The size in relation to number of dancers is the important thing for me. After all a rectangular floor ceases to be such when you scatter 20 couples around it. You just have to go in a direction that permits you to dance and if no clear line exists, select other steps. The corners of the Queens Room floor either side of the orchestra are perfect for checks and spin turns etc. We won't be on Queen Anne anyway. I'd rather not leave our home vicinity in first place and it would take an ocean liner to tempt me!

On the 1st point, I can't say we agree. We flew there for 6 days at end of June. 4 days would have been quite enough! On future round trips we'll go for lunch to take up the minimum time off ship required by immigration. On the 2nd, it does. On 1st July this year it headed for Bar Harbor, Boston & Halifax for 7 days. Our original plans for 2020, and then 2021, were to make use of that time to visit New York. On the final re-booking we decided to split them up to save one potential cancellation affecting other plans. No sign of any on June 30th this year. Non US Citizens/Canadian visitors all had to be face to face with an agent and have photo taken. First timers had prints taken as well.

@gfs1ram Did you get any benefit from priority boarding? We had either not noticed it applied to Club or forgotten, but when joining a short queue that split to where a mass of folk were in snaking queues for Britannia on right, the notice stating Britannia Club (amongst others) priority to left was most welcome.

Here, the emergency services are warning to prepare for floods. Long dry spells are often followed by torrential rain and the ground is too hard to absorb it quickly. They point out it's best to check there's nothing in basements that might get damaged. We're on slightly higher ground anyway, away from main water courses, and anything substantial has always flowed past us. Hopefully those in low lying campsites and homes will prepare.

And there lies my problem! Depending on the complexity, it might take me the full 3 minutes to memorise the sequence. Whereas with freestyle I simply need to do whatever comes into my head that gets us in and out of corners and between other dancers, without coming into contact with anyone. I found White City Waltz on Youtube, and White Heather as well. They weren't danced at any general dancing evenings in West Central Scotland that we attended when we lived there, but may have been at specialist sequence groups.

Twice we found ourselves alone for first dance of night. Hopefully because others wanted to watch, rather than us scaring them off. First time might have had something to do with my wife's "very" little black dress! 😂 There were lots of good dancers onboard and we weren't taking up much space and doing fairly basic steps. But I'm always watching; If I see folk approaching the floor I dance well clear of where they might want to start. We don't do much sequence, and I'm not familiar with "White Waltz". We probably wouldn't have attended the morning practice. But with only 6 couples on the floor we usually join in watching those either side of us to learn as it goes along. There must have been plenty of space on the floor. One Gala Night, the floor was full; A German male couple joined the floor. They were impeccably dressed in slate grey tux suits and adopted a competition hold as they started to dance. I saw them set off and quickly decided that we would stay well clear of them on safety grounds. They left a trail of open mouthed folk all around the dance floor. Their posture and steps were superb but unfortunately they had zero floor-craft. Talking to them later it transpired they'd done some competition dancing in Germany and it seems to be acceptable to collide with other couples on the floor in that setting. We did actually watch a local competition in a town we visited many years ago and wondered why those crashing were not being marked down. Thankfully on QM2 they were the exception to the rule. Like @ballroom-cruisers we were lucky enough in our early years that our teacher ran evenings where those in their 2nd season (they had 3 intakes per year), were encouraged to join in and more experienced dancers were not allowed to intimidate you

Our experience was that clothing magically un-shrunk due to covid!

I've no idea what it is like on Divina. In this area MSC and Costa compete on 7 night Western Mediterranean cruises from Genoa/Savonna. Most reports are of constant announcements in 6 or 7 languages and of a fairly low end experience. A few years ago, we could have bought off season 7 night trips for €350 each! We always felt we would enjoy staying at home much more. I imagine we would feel overdressed on one of those cruises wearing what we wear to a beach restaurant at home. Queen Mary 2 is a real Ocean Liner and part of the experience is to feel how little movement there is in heavy seas. I'm not a big fan of leaving my home environment at all, but we are considering doing another 14 night round trip crossing in a few years time. Our advice would be embrace the elegance of the surroundings and dress to the nines as often as you can.

Orange juice at breakfast in the MDR was fine for us. We had two glasses each every morning as their glasses are about half the size we use at home. No need for a package to include that. Unless your wife drinks an awful lot of soda, it sounds like you would be considering the Hot Drink option at $10/day each. On that basis I think you need to have 3 each per day to benefit. We only take coffee/tea twice per day at 11 am and 4 pm, so took Illy Coffees and Tea Forte in The Chart Room. That would be a bit short of $20/day so would not have been good value. I don't know if premium coffees/teas are offered in MDR as we don't take them with meals so that may also affect your decision.

https://www.staysure.com/ We have used Staysure Expat, who cover: "Brits living in France, Spain or Portugal". Not sure if that poses a problem for a Swedish Citizen? They use a Spanish Underwriter. Their cover at least matches what Holiday Extras and other UK insurers offer. Travel insurance offered by AXA, Allianz and others in EU doesn't give anything near the medical cover. And their annual including cruise cover policy was good value for money. We have not needed to make a claim, so can't vouch for how easy/hard their claims handlers are to deal with.

According to my Google Timeline we only waited 1h10m, which is much less than some of the horror stories I've read. Although it felt much longer. We were quite lucky as we joined a queue/line threading through about 8 rows of herding tapes. Several flights must have arrived behind us as we saw that had at least doubled when we were waiting in a desk queue. On reaching the head of the snaking line a member of staff directed folk to desks that had space in their short queue. Some groups seemed to take forever to get their photos and prints taken. I think there was one person ahead of us when that agent decided he was finished and told us to find another desk. Joined end of the shortest neighbouring queue, which moved at a reasonable pace. When it came our turn they only wanted photos as we'd given prints at Red Hook a few weeks earlier. The agent was most amused when she asked me to pose for my photo and I immediately broke into a huge smile. I explained that I'd been conditioned by two weeks of posing for photos on QM2 with photographers saying "happy, happy, happy" each time. Whatever happened to "Say Cheese"?

On business in Plymouth many years ago. Ate at a restaurant in the Sutton Harbour area. One of two men on another table indicated an interest in a bottle of wine on the menu, but wouldn't want the whole bottle. A chap dining alone chirped up that he too was interested in the same wine. The waiter offered to split the bill between the two tables. The chap on his own said "I don't know about that". Waiter: "Why not?" Lone diner: "He looks greedy!" After the rest of the diners had a good laugh the waiter assured that he would ensure that the wine was shared evenly and they continued to enjoy their meals and wine.

We wear masks in shops, on buses, trains & planes, lifts and anywhere that we come across large crowds. In restaurants we stay clear of others and can eat outdoors most of the year. We only use lifts if impractical to use stairs, e.g with a 100kg+ supermarket trolley. If unmasked folk join us in a lift we leave the lift and wait for the next one. We only visit my relatives in London once a year but we know that if we passed Covid to my nephew it would kill him. We don't know how many folk we pass on a daily basis that might have friends or relatives with problems that put them in the same risk bracket as my nephew.