D&N

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

The internet service is not great but there is a routine to follow that helps:- Firstly make sure you are in range of a wi-fi repeater (as pictured). Then check you are logged into MyVoyage. If it looks like you are, don't trust it, refresh the screen and you'll probably find you need to log in again (login settings can be saved, not really security risk as they are only set for your voyage). In MyVoyage select Internet Purchases That should open a screen showing the purchased package with button 'use' press that. It then shows another button 'connect' again press that. You should now be connected to wi-fi and you just have to hope that the ships wi-fi has a good connection to a satellite! It sounds very complex but once in habit of following the process it takes between 10 and 15 seconds to do. I'm not suggesting it's ideal but I managed quite well with it. Sometimes you can get away with going to the last 'Internet' page and pressing 'connect' again.

@techteach They are doing quite well. Parts of France have experienced high temperatures recently. Our S.E. corner is milder due to sea, mountains and hills that surround it. However they have been resting a bit more due to the heat. They tend to eat less when it's hot but they do seem to be getting enough. Mosquito screens cover nearly all windows but the balcony ones have a small space at top, and when the odd insect comes in and gets fried in the ultra violet insect killer it makes a loud crackling noise that scares them. Thankfully doesn't happen often. Hazel cried a few minutes ago as she was directly beneath it when it crackled. It goes off in about half an hour when we close everything up for bedtime. Carmel (our Siamese) kicked the side of her face and eye today while scratching and I needed to bathe her eye earlier. She wasn't the least bit pleased about that, but it appears to be a bit more open than it was about 5 hours ago. If it doesn't respond to basic treatment the vet is only 5 minutes walk away.

There are various points. Working conditions - Similar things sometimes alleged of mainstream and luxury brands. Throwaway fashion - I see that as responsibility of buyer rather than vendor. Copyright violations - Haven't personally seen any. The green jumpsuit initially sold out in days and I spent ages reverse image searching looking for an original alternative without success. Thankfully they re-stocked about 8 weeks later. Carbon footprint, unfair competition to local jobs etc ...... From a constructive point of view, another source we've used in past is the next.co.uk website also known as Next Direct. I checked as I wasn't sure but they appear to supply a wide range of brands worldwide. I'm sure there must be similar US based suppliers. For accessories; Amazon, ebay and Etsy can probably supply most of what we have bought.

Funnily enough the pro photographers had a set on the Grand Lobby Balcony on day 4 in both directions. We of course had designated day 4 as Semi-Gala Evenings for our own purposes! They also appeared on day 5 Eastbound with a cerise background set. And if Masquerade theme is not offered, you can just introduce your own ........ Masks, tiara, necklace, bracelet and I think the cuff links all from the aforementioned supplier!

You may have seen our recent posts from our return crossing. We had most of the dressy outfits already but could quite easily have obtained all we needed from SHEIN. I realise some folk may have qualms about ordering from a Chinese supplier. We've placed many orders, which have taken between 6 and 12 days to be delivered to us in France. Always look for free delivery but pay a small sum for delivery insurance, and always use a discount code giving 20% or often 25% off orders over around €109. Carefully check the sizes given for clothing against your own sizes and that of the mannequin displaying the items and only order below your measurements if there is stretch in the garment. If user review photos are available look through those to see how the garment looks on real people. They do sizes between XS and 4XL depending on the garment. In the photos we posted you'll see; a jump suit, bodies, tops, blouses, shorts, shawls (including red & gold and white), belt, masquerade masks, necklaces, bracelets and tiaras. All came from SHEIN. A red outfit with gold scarf, or black with white scarf (or even white with black scarf) cover both those themes. We've had 2 issues with SHEIN. Early on a garment described as organza was a horrible hard fabric that wouldn't even have been any use as a duster and went straight in the bin (we'd probably have paid more for a decent duster). And more recently a skirt arrived in a package labelled 'L' but in fact contained an 'XS'. A return paid label was promptly supplied and account credited with refund immediately on receipt. We reordered and correct size arrived.

The suggestion keeps cropping up that; sinking of a cruise ship could be the end of the industry as we know it. A bit more than 10 years ago a ship with 4,252 passengers and crew on board sank with loss of 32 lives. While that incident was horrific, the cruise industry seems to have survived.

2 km into a rather slow 10 km run this morning. It was around 25C when I left the house this morning so I thought I might as well waste a few more seconds stopping for the photo. I wasn't likely to break any time records in the heat!

Possibly. It was just thick enough to spread over the jam. Not sure if they added icing sugar to thicken, it was quite sweet. My wife describes the serving as 'quenelle' shaped on a tiny rectangular dish.

I should also say, and this did not surprise us as others had pre-warned us. Although the Afternoon Tea was very nice, the one aspect that let it down badly was the absence of clotted cream for the scones. Scones, jam and cream are very nice, but clotted cream raises the level to a celestial experience.

The form left in cabin certainly offered those trips from the ship. I kept it as potentially useful information. I've scanned it, and it can now go in the recycling bin. NB. That £74 fluctuates constantly and depends on the card provider using commercial exchange rates without fees. Cunard Southampton Transfers June 2022.pdf

WE used Aero Taxis https://www.aerotaxis-southampton.co.uk/ Based on feedback research carried out 3 years ago. But there are many other local firms. West Quay seem to be one of the biggest and most popular. Others on the forums have made several other recommendations. We only had 2 x 80 litre cases and 2 x 40 litre back packs plus a small bag each. That fitted easily into all 5 cars we travelled in during our trip. If you have lots more make sure the car supplied has enough luggage space.

We took Afternoon Tea once last week instead of a lunch. Completed immigration formalities in Britannia Deck 3 then went straight to Queens Room and sat quietly while a piano recital finished, then occupied front row seats about 40 minutes early. Used the time to take photos and relax until tea was served. We were careful not to impede the waiters setting the tables.

Last week Pavilion Pool and hot tubs were working. Pool was just warm enough to swim round in circles but chilly if just standing in it. Hot tubs were lovely. There weren't many young children on board.

Can confirm that was price on forms in cabin before debarkation Sunday 12th June. Today that equates to about £74. Our taxi to Heathrow was £120 and I tipped £20 because they came 30 mins earlier when we were off quicker than expected. 10% is normal in UK. Cunard transfer is expensive in comparison. We advanced our flight 3 hours on arrival at Heathrow to one at 11:20.

I can't answer with any authority. We were on drinks package. On boarding we toured most of the bars and picked up their A4 card menus to compare whether their by the glass options varied. I've looked at those card menus and none list the ports available. We're not "traditional English pub" people so never went to Golden Lion and we only tried Carinthia early in trip, Commodore once at night and Chart Room, which we quickly decided was our favourite. The Chart Room changed from the card menus to books on the 2nd week, possibly a relaxation of Covid restrictions. They also changed from day to evening menus at about 5pm each day. If I recall rightly, only the evening menu had a short list of ports at the end of the wine by glass page. Most of the ports on page 47 were there. We only tried the Chip Dry, Taylor once as a possible alternative aperitif, but felt it was a bit bitter for that purpose. We took the 20yr Tawny, Sandeman several times as an alternative to Calvados or other spirits. It was very smooth with a long aftertaste. Given the ambience of Commodore I would expect to find a few there. Afraid that's best I can do on that.