D&N

I have a small but robust UK->EU adapter, but I also have 2 standard UK shaver adapters, like these: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Fwczhv-9L._AC_SL1098_.jpg They come with a 1 amp fuse as standard that are smaller than most UK capsule fuses. But I have obtained 3 amp fuses of the same size. Provided you are using 2 pin EU or US plugs, and of course that the article is suitable for 230v, they work quite well. Having said that, you may find US sockets in public areas. Here's a photo of the Golden Lion Bar. There appears to be a pair of US outlets to the left of the wall phone. https://widgety-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/2021/10/14/06/30/50/84134930-bb05-41fd-a6ac-b734c8a5cc27/Cunard Line QV Golden Lion Pub.jpg

Red Hook on the South Brooklyn Route. You can see the ferry pontoon in the dock with gangway leading to access road near the terminal entrance and the canopy to left with white blocks in front is where folk queue. If you are capable of getting your luggage aboard the ferry at the boarding jetty, you should have no problem at Red Hook. This should be a link to the current timetable for that route. https://images.ferry.nyc/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/22235744/Web-Scheds-Template_5-23_SBv2.pdf?_ga=2.256678923.1014499596.1657573659-753858623.1657381906

We think 'NYC Ferry' are great. I'd been looking at them from 2018 when we first booked our TAs, and realised that in 2017/2018 they received a fleet of brand new purpose built vessels. We used South Brooklyn route from Red Hook to Wall Street and return on our 5th June day in New York. Then on 4th July, on a separate visit, after a walk around Central Park, continued walking to East 90th Street Pier, boarding the Astoria route to zig-zag down East River to Wall Street. Transferring on same tickets to Rockaway route to Rockaway and with fresh tickets returned about 20 mins later. Nearly 3 and half hours of river cruising in an air conditioned cabin for $5.50 each! Being a public holiday and very hot, the queues/lines for the Rockaway boats were long but everyone got on with plenty of seats still available.

Thank you. There's not much in the photo to suggest where it was! 😂 It was good. We saw everything we wanted to and the flights were better that expected. But if we go to New York again it will be a repeat of our 5th June visit minus the washing line!

I intended to post this yesterday but forgot due to jet lag. Sunrise on the port wing, 7th July 2022. Delta 028, Registration: N836MH, at map coordinates 50.973, -19.673

Happy 4th! From 34th at FDR.

Under the Verrazano Bridge just now from "Forget Me Not". A wee bit smaller than Queen Mary 2 but pretty fast.

We were on a British Airways Concorde yesterday. At the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. It didn't move very far and we had to listen to a young aviation geek rythme off all the things we already knew about her. But it's the nearest we'll get to the experience.

In answer to the topic heading of "Why Cunard"; To date we have chosen cruises primarily for the destination. Alaska; considered various and chose Princess (pre Carnival). Panama Transit; a too good to be true deal came up on P&O Arcadia. Transatlantic Crossing on an ocean liner, I don't recall there being a choice! Ideally I would avoid P&O in future as the food offering was far too British for our taste, but wouldn't rule them out completely. We may return to Alaska in future and the QE itineraries offered in recent years would suit us. If I really felt like prising myself away from home to travel on a ship for the sake of it, the only candidate would be Queen Mary 2 in Britannia Club, round trip. Avoiding any exposure to Midtown Manhattan where we are just now. Or as I like to call it: Blackpool on steroids!

One description given, and I can't remember where, suggested a shirt with a collar was adequate on smart attire nights. I watched one vlogger suggest that the polo shirt they were wearing met that criteria!

Not that it makes things any better, but Cunard are not the only travel company to duplicate the check in process. Delta flying from Nice to JFK let us check in with hand luggage only and answer all the Covid questions and declarations about passports residency etc. Then issued boarding passes, which should have seen us having a final passport check at gate. However security rejected our boarding passes and sent us back to check in where they verified everything again and issued card boarding passes and added stickers to our passports. We were finally allowed to go through security after that.

Didn't get the clearest of photos this afternoon at the Statue of Liberty. The air wasn't very clear. Unlike the morning of 5th June when I got some crystal clear pics of the statue from deck 13. Here's the best one I took. From a tourism point of view, we enjoyed a USTA Tennis Centre tour late this morning then straight to Battery Park for ferry to the statue. We slapped sunscreen on before joining lines to board boat. It was very hot in the sun but I think we've avoided any sunburn. Very jealous of anyone who can get an Illy Americano from Sir Samuels. I've not found anywhere making them in the 'slow pour' fashion here so far. Hope everyone enjoys their crossing.

@rafinmd Hope you don't mind a few photos. Just today. May have a couple later when I transfer from the zoom camera. Just 2 daft folk at The Statue of Liberty trying to photobomb the Queen Mary 2's portraits! And Bon Voyage!

No but hope to get some photos

Quite late for a sunrise but buildings are so tall it takes a while. This morning over 19 W45th Street, Midtown Manhattan.

One thing to note about the wine list I photographed on Queen Mary 2 and wines by the glass within the wine package was that due to logistics problems many of the wines that should have been available to those on the drinks package were not available at all or in selected restaurants or lounges. We believe that between, bottled water, Illy coffees, teas aperitifs and wine we benefited by several hundred $$. Even taking account of the 3 quality bottles of red that we ordered at a 20% discount. Our sommelier and several waiters that we dealt with in our regular dance and lounge venues noted our cabin number and our cards were not requested again. We encountered very considerate waiters who either served or offered 250ml servings in place of 150ml servings. While this gesture was appreciated we thanked them, but explained that if we were served 150ml glasses we had more control over our overall daily alcohol consumption. We calculated that we benefited from the package with 6 drinks per day and often had 8.

Thanks to @bluemarble for the detailed explanation on Britannia Club Balcony. We had Luis as head waiter and Juanito & Rodolfo as waiter & assistant with Harry the sommelier. I don't recall having any noticeable delays in service. Harry was much busier in the 2nd week, when the majority of non UK/US guests were German. Our 1st week had a large number of French. When asked if he had more passengers that week, Harry responded that "they drink more"! That is not of course intended as a slur against any nationality!

Any clutter is in wardrobes, drawers and cupboards. We just have lots of them. You can't leave anything out unless you want the cats to play with it. 🐈🐈

This isn't fair! You know that I couldn't resist the photo editing! 🤣 I stand corrected anyway. Nora left a pair of walking sandals behind that I thought had been packed, so it was only 15. But we'd both have left the pool sandals, I could have done without 1 of the blacks, the red and Nora would have left the gold and brown.

I'm assuming you are talking about Britannia Club rather than Club Balcony. I understand since I think all Britannia Club are balcony cabins. Can I ask are you on port or starboard side of the restaurant? As far as I gathered port was mainly deck 12 cabins and starboard deck 13, at least that was what one waiter said before we were allocated a table at the port side and thought nothing further of it. We were 3rd table in from window, which afforded us a sea view from a few tables away, but made it easy to see throughout all sections of the port restaurant and wave to waiters/sommelier as the need arose. If you're on deck 12, I often went to Pavilion early in morning, where wi-fi was more reliable than in cabin, although the corridor repeater was only 2 cabins along from us.

We recently flew BA Nice to Heathrow and back for a 14 night B2B TA on QM2, with same allowances as a domestic flight. Our total bagage weight was 58kg. Theoretically that would have easily fitted in BA's cabin limit of 92kg for 2 people. Our problem would have been volume. Our total was around 264 litres, spread between 2 x 80 litre cases, 2 x 44 litre backpacks and 2 x 8 litre underseat bags. The max on BA in cabin would have been 162 litres. If we'd been pushed we could have left 7 of 16 pairs of shoes behind and I didn't really need 6 suits! My wife might have selected more separates than gowns, and we might not have planned for her to wear dressy outfits for lunch every day, but we could have probably done it. One issue might have been keeping liquids and gels to less than 100ml containers that would fit in 2 x 1 litre clear bags. But we don't normally use any of the shampoo or shower gel other than those we use at home.

Oh well, no washing lines this time!

More of a dawn than a sunrise this morning. As before looking towards St Jean - Cap Ferrat. I should note that Cap Ferrat is the lower ground to the right behind the trees, The high point is probably Mont Agel, about 2 miles inland from Monaco Accompanied by a photo of Hazel, who had insisted that I got up just after 5am as she felt they had been left on their own far too long. @rafinmd Do you by any chance have an odd numbered balcony cabin? If so, and if you have the means to hang something of a bright colour on it as soon as you board, probably a little after 3pm. It might be interesting to see the photographic results! 🤣

We can highly recommend avoiding the lifts. Recently 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. Always wearing masks and at lunch and dinner my wife was usually wearing 3 or 4 inch heels. Along with saying no to many of the excesses that the waiters tried to force on us, regular gym visits and a lot of dancing, we are happy to say that we were the same weights on return as we were to start with! 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.

I have views from the outside taken on 5th June 2022. The port side at 08:11 and starboard at 13:46. There are very slight differences in both vertical and lateral angles as port was taken from the gangway to the Red Hook Ferry Pontoon and starboard from the upper deck of the Staten Island Ferry. In my opinion, other than the position of small equipment below the zodiac the two sides appear identical. Importantly the separators between 8051/8049 and 8052/8050 seem to be in same place. The view straight out and to aft in both will be substantially obscured but there should be a reasonable view forward over the zodiac