D&N

I don't know. Which is why I would make sure that administrative detail was recorded in advance. Unless you are suggesting you won't know until check in if the other booked passenger can't travel. In that case I suppose it wouldn't be possible.

It might be best to make sure Cunard modify the booking in advance in case you plan to buy any of the drink packages. If their system thinks there are two guests in the cabin it would insist on buying for both. And they might charge the Hotel and Dining service charge for both if the records weren't updated.

Not sure why that is, but for their expat policies that they sell to residents of France, Portugal or Spain they offer the cheapest Europe price excluding: Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco & Tunisia. We've no plans to go to any of them in next 12 months. We'll change it to worldwide with cruise next April. And thanks for reminding me, I'd forgotten renewal was due although we do have CEAM cards for medical cover on visits to Italy and UK.

Unless it's something connected to Cruise Critic, we're not allowed to post links of that sort. Besides I can't think why anyone would cross the Atlantic on anything other than QM2! 🙂

QM2 doesn't normally do repositioning cruises. She does Transatlantic Crossings. You need to go to the Cunard US website and use the trip filters to select the ship QM2, the months of 2025 that you are interested in, and the type of cruise: Transatlantic. If you want an Eastbound only you can also filter the departure port as New York. This link might get you to the site: https://www.cunard.com/en-us It defaults to UK for me without using a VPN

Nora preferred the hot chocolate she was served in the Chart Room to the one pot of hot chocolate she got in Carinthia. However we think the Chart Room version may have been Godiva based, and with Godiva gone perhaps she'll not like it as much.

We don't eat or drink in our cabin, other than water for hydration purposes. We only drink in lounges and MDR. We both drink much the same things other than one being a coffee hater, so she has tea or hot chocolate. We do drink more on a ship mainly because we have an extra meal each day, and we go to a lounge pre dinner, and we have a nightcap every night. At home we'd have 2 alcoholic drinks most days and up to 5 at weekends.

Yet again I read comments on this thread that suggest you need to drink a great deal for the "Beers, Wines, and Spirits Option" to be of value. What you actually like to drink will of course affect the result. If you only drink low value beers or pricy cocktails then it won't save any money. For us; if we have 2 x hot drinks, 2 x soft drinks, and 5 alcoholic drinks per day we benefit by a small amount. But we take 2 hot, at least 4 soft, and normally 7 or 8 alcoholic and save about 31%. It seems to me that many folk don't do the calculations.

No surprises here; my favourite airport approach is coming into Nice from the west on a clear sunny day.

There may also be a few safety aware people sitting waiting with their outdoor shoes and coat on. I worked most of my life in an industry where failing to follow procedures and ignoring notifications and instructions results in fatalities. Whether anyone is asleep at 6 am should be the last thing the crew consider.

I suspect it's a rigidly enforced protocol. If the extent of the fire is not yet clear it is much safer to notify passengers and crew in case of the potential need to issue a muster station instruction. It may then save valuable minutes. And if the all clear is then issued most people will understand the absolute need for safety.

No. When the queue split for check in we had as much priority as anyone else, which meant we only waited a minute or so for an agent. But they sent grills and the various loyalty levels to security scan before us. We had stood for a few minutes then occupied seats vacated by the first boarders and made a point of telling the lady that was directing folk our status. Nora's hay feverish symptoms have been much better with her healthy weight but we still wouldn't risk having her face that close to feathers for eight hours.

The shortage of two more runways that any self respecting national hub would have.

As long as Nora isn't given feathers, we're fine. Priority check in made a slight difference, but you are at the foot of the priority ladder for embarkation so it's not much earlier than Britannia.

On date of booking my travel agent sent me an email including their own statement, a copy of their terms and conditions and a file named "Guest invoice 06MAR24.pdf", issued by Cunard and containing all the information that I would imagine would be sent to someone that booked direct, with the addition of a note: "Please ensure you check all of the detailed information and should anything be incorrect please call your travel agent, xxxxxxxx on xxxxxxxxxx".

On QM2; A pod coffee machine that we don't use. Still or sparkling 1 litre bottles of water replaced as required (limited use as we wouldn't carry them to a restaurant). A full rather than half bottle of PA. We find the cabin size more than adequate for two weeks transatlantic. The fixed table in the BC restaurant for all meals (other than lunch in New York) is the main difference. Ours were 11.811" apart (30cm). Waiters never attempted to squeeze between, they always walked around our table to get to the other tables.

I would be shocked if you did not get a table for two in Britannia Club on QM2. There is no shortage. The only issue you might have is the distance from the next table. We had a table for two, third table from a window. We loved it. We could see clearly out of the window and could also see what was happening in most parts of the port side restaurant and parts of the main Britannia restaurant. We were well positioned to flag down the sommelier, waiter or maitre'd. However there was about one foot space between each of those three tables. Our table neighbours would arrive at different times to us and we would engage in conversation as suited each couple almost as if we were all on the same table, but without any expectation that we would all dine together. The conversation was completely detached from the timing of the meal, much as it would be if you struck up a conversation with a neighbouring table in a restaurant. There were also some that were not as closely positioned to others.

Nora hasn't read a real book for nearly fourteen years. She started off with a Sony e-reader that was smaller than a Kindle and fitted in a pocket. When the battery started to pack in after about seven years she went for her current Kobo. She reads between two and three per week and normally has at least 150 titles sitting unread either on it or on my PC waiting to be transferred. In two weeks on QM2 she didn't have time to read any, but did read on the flights to and from Heathrow. She'll have a reader with her next time as well, and I wouldn't envisage her running short.

A YouTuber reported an engine room fire on February 12th on QM2, which apparently took about three minutes to resolve, while they were preparing for bingo. Captain Hashmi was in charge at the time, of QM2 rather than the bingo. That one does like to dramatise his postings, but he did make it clear that nobody seemed the least concerned about it and praised the Captain and crew for their professionalism and for keeping everyone informed.

We take all meals in the MD and never use room service, so have no experience of this. But I would have thought the staff involved would come within the scope of the hotel and dining service charge. However if you really wanted to give a tip, I'd be inclined to treat it as you might for a pizza or Uber Eats delivery. Not that we've had many of them either! On the basis that it might be a different member of staff each time, per delivery would seem sensible.

If we weren't in BC we'd be more than happy with that table every night. We use one of the two curved staircases every night, although we emerge at port side rather than centre to avoid walking closely past other diners. We don't notice any of the goldfish below on our descent. My wife is far too busy watching she doesn't trip on the hem of her gown or that her heels don't miss a step, and I'm too busy watching that she doesn't fall and preparing in case I need to catch her.

Probably the best ones are of Coco-Canel and Ursel (linked). There are others on that thread but some are taken with a phone and any Christmas cards are compiled from various sources. There will be lots when we're next on QM2 in June 2025 and September 2026. Hopefully I'll be expert by then. Any from the A7C should be in 6000x4000 format. And would have been posted since February 2023.

I wish. At least ten-fold in my experience!

Hopefully we are merry throughout all our waking hours. Life's too short to be sour faced. 🙂 You may have seen my recent breakdown of our likely spend. I don't expect five alcoholic drinks in a day to affect us much.

You will find the dress code stated on page one of that publication to the right hand side opposite the day and date. You'll probably then see it again in the heading of page four, assuming it's a six page programme. Then on page five in the "For your information" section it will appear again with a full description of what it means.