Phil50

Really picky I know...but that is a poor quality sign!! 

4 hours ago, fizzy1 said:

We are on this sailing. Just ordinary balcony and our checkin is 1.30 . We will be there late morning. There are 4 ships going out in that time frame , the 3  queens plus Celebrity  Sil , I think she is timed for 5pm but may be wrong . Goodness knows what order. But i think the gent needs to be there way before 4pm if he wants a good view  as it will be heaving with bye standers    

Really?! Is it that popular? We'll be making a day of it either way, will be lovely if the weather is good.

4 hours ago, exlondoner said:

 

The Hythe ferry timetable I've just looked at has it running well into the evening in the summer, so I think you should be OK.

I've just checked again and it definitely says 5.40pm is the last ferry back to Soton on Sundays 🙁

Thanks both. Still undecided. I can get to Southampton from Birmingham on a direct train and for free in 1st Class too as I work for XC Trains! So if I’m going to drive 140 odd miles it’s got to be worth it. 

Maybe we’ll just get the train and see them in Southampton, then get the ferry to Hythe and if we can’t get back by the ferry then an Uber might be an option back to the rail station?

That's great, thanks Hattie

Going to take a trip down to Southampton to see this, either by train or car. Any tips for viewing them? I'm guessing they all depart about 6pm?

I looked at getting the small ferry over to Hythe but the last one back to Southampton is 5.40pm, which is too early to get back to Southampton for the train back, so we might drive down instead and go straight to Hythe in the car. Maybe once they've sailed past us we could drive down to Calshot Point and see them again? This is just some info I've found online but would prefer some tips off here!

It will be nice to see QV departing on the 11th as when she gets back on the 23rd we'll be boarding her for our first ever cruise to the Baltics 😀

Thanks Richard. That’s very interesting, and those pies....wow!!

Good stuff thanks. Will cross that off the “excursions” list then. 

Just looked on VP - these are the stops - Oslo, Klaipeda, Visby, Tallinn, St Petersburg, Gdynia.

Fabulous, thank you all so much. I know it was probably a silly question for all you experienced cruisers, but I wasn’t really sure if staying on the ship in port was a viable option. Obviously it is, so that’s fine with me, although I think we will do a tour of some description on the first day there. We would definitely like to see St.P but just a few hours will do us. 

Our cruise is taking in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Norway if I remember correctly so should be quite interesting. 

Thanks again. 

I think going via Stonehenge would be a bit risky time wise. You wouldn’t get chance to have a good look around at a leisurely pace. 

I’d get the train to London and see the sights for a few hours, you’re then an easy transfer to Heathrow. 

I get to Southampton regularly with my job, it’s not a bad city but not enough to do for 10 hours. The Titanic museum is excellent though. That can easily use up a couple of hours. 

We have never done a cruise before, but we did QM2 TA last October and that was fantastic. We were really impressed by Cunard and didn’t hesitate to look to them for this cruise - we just wanted something that included our 25th wedding anniversary date, which this one in late August does. We weren’t too fussed about destination, just to have 2 weeks on a nice ship will be good enough! Whilst we are quite looking forward to visiting different places, we don’t have that much desire to visit St Petersburg. It will be nice to see I guess, but we aren’t bothered about doing all the museums and things. 

So I’m now getting into planning but I am not sure how to tackle St P. I don’t really want the hassle of visas and going it “alone”, so we will probably just do one of Cunards excursions. However, it’s the second day that I’m unsure about - I would probably be happy just staying on the ship, but is that a “normal” thing to do?!

I think I’ll probably be on here soon with some questions about the other ports, but just want to get this St P “problem” sorted first! 

Thanks, Phil. 

Hi Mark, yes we did register for self-disembarkation and were prepared to follow the instructions to congregate at the Queens Room. On our way there we saw an elderly American chap at the top of the Grand Lobby and he was struggling to move a chair into position so I helped him. I got talking to him and he said he was a regular traveller on QM2 and that this would be the line for self-disembarkation if you wanted to get off quickly. So we duly joined this queue behind this gentleman. It started building up in an orderly fashion until it was time to disembark, by then there were about a dozen people there at most. 

The gentleman I mentioned did get very annoyed with one or two people who started congregating near to him, obviously hoping to jump the clearly visible queue - he was very vocal towards them and good on him for doing so. There’s nothing worse than queue jumping. 

Hi all,

It's taken me a while but here goes my review of our WB TA on 18th October. If you can't be bothered reading it all, I'll summarise it in one word.....WOW.

Really, I was ever so slightly concerned after reading one or two negative reviews/comments, but I needn't have worried. It is an absolutely amazing ship. Stunning. I enjoyed every single moment on board and can't wait to travel on her again.

Check in at Southampton - no problems here. We arrived there at about 1245, our check in time was 1330 and that ended up quite accurate. The security staff weren't the friendliest, but luckily that would be the last of the miserable people for a while!

We boarded and went to our stateroom, 11010 which we were very impressed with. The location and the size of the room were perfect. Yes the bathroom is a bit small, the shower floor a bit old and the curtain not the best, but more than adequate. Our steward was Albert and was really nice.

Having a balcony was the best decision we made, even on a late season Atlantic crossing. We were Port side so got the sun on the bright days, which were were a few. We managed to spot some dolphins from the balcony too, but not much else. At one point, mid voyage, we asked a bridge member of staff where the nearest ship was and he said there was nothing within 250 miles at least!

Departure from Southampton was lovely, we had a glorious October evening and sunset, it was so pleasant at the rear of the ship with champagne and live music, that we didn't bother rushing off to our dinner at 6pm and went to the buffet afterwards instead. This turned out to be a good move as we wouldn't wanted to have missed the sail away party.

Britannia class worked fine for us. I don't think I'd pay for anything extra to be honest - I'd rather do more trips! The Britannia restaurant was lovely for the evenings. We enjoyed dressing up too, which was a first for me, but not once did I feel uncomfortable in my tux. In fact I really enjoyed it. We tried Britannia for breakfast one morning, but to be honest it wasn't as good as Kings Court. I absolutely loved KC at all times! We found a lovely little quieter spot at the far end away from the hustle and bustle, and other times we took our food into the Carinthia Lounge, which is a lovely area. They do a small amount of snacks in there too, which are delicious, but there's so much more choice in KC. I was worried that KC would be the usual type of buffet, but far from it. The food there was fantastic, the only problem was trying my best not to over indulge! 

That leads me onto the gym, where we went a few times to balance things out a little. I was expecting it to be fairly empty but it was quite busy most of the time. I even went there at 0600 one morning and there were half a dozen people in there then. The gym is quite well stocked, but it's a strange sensation on a treadmill with the ship moving (it did move quite a bit some days when the Atlantic "looked like the Atlantic" as Captain Wells said). 

We paid for use of the Canyon Ranch Spa for the week, but that was about the only bad decision and disappointing thing about the whole voyage. It is dated and too many facilities were out of order, like a number of lockers (which are frustrating to operate), the steam room (out of order at least 2 days), one of the foot spas, one of the sensory showers. There were also no towels at one point in the changing area and no shower gel. We complained about the steam room to the spa reception but were greeted by a very abrupt and bad mannered receptionist. (My BIL and his wife complained about this lady as she was similarly rude to them). Maybe she should work at security at Southampton!

One other thing I will mention is that as I was getting changed one evening after using the spa, I was the only one in the changing room as it was 7.45pm and it closed at 8, a chap came in and got changed to use the spa. We exchanged pleasantries and I realised it was Captain Wells! He dashed off saying he was going for a quick blast in the steam room - I hope it was working!

Sorry about there not being much order to this review, I'm just thinking as I'm typing, ....

Drinks packages - we didn't bother as we don't drink! But we didn't bother with the soft drink package either. Good decision as plenty of reasonable soft drinks were available in KC. We paid for the odd decent coffee and even though we don't drink, we had a cheeky cocktail once or twice, plus I had a Guiness in the Golden Lion. We played Bingo in the pub, which cost about $30 for 6 cards, it was fun I guess but not really our thing. We never did get round to having lunch there though, probably because we loved KC so much. On a rough sea day, the view out of the windows in the pub is ace.

We tried afternoon tea in the Queens Room once. It was quite nice but again just as good in KC (I asked the waiter and he said it was exactly the same scones/cream in KC).

My BIL and myself really wanted to do the behind the scenes tour, so we made sure we got down to the tour office desk at 0830 the first morning. It opens at 0900 and spaces are limited I had been told. When we got there, 7 people were in front of us. At 0900 we waited our turn only to be told the tour had sold out and we could only go on a reserve list - we were not happy at all and I chuntered to myself about this for the next 3 days, until a letter appeared in our stateroom saying we'd got a place! They ended up running 2 tours consecutively. I think it probably had something to do with a few people complaining. Anyway, the tour lasted 3.5 hours and was brilliant, but we had to dash for our evening meal that night at 6pm. 

Planetarium - ok, but wasn't worth queuing for in our opinion. The "show" was a bit boring and it made you feel strange with the movement.

Cinema was good but all films are repeated on the stateroom tv the next day, just in case you fell asleep during the movie!!

The Royal Court Theatre is fantastic, we were lucky enough to see the Last Night of the Cunard Proms, which was just fabulous, Anthony Inglis is such a funny man and made it a real fun experience. The comedian on board, William Caulfield was hilarious and very naturally gifted.  

The on board speakers were very interesting. We especially enjoyed Josh Levine and I also managed to have a quick chat with him when I saw him on the way to the gym. He's a real nice chap and his talks on Dunkirk and WW1 were very interesting. John Peters story about being shot down in Iraq was interesting and harrowing. Again the stateroom tv showed the previous days talks. 

Commodore Club is very plush and we had a nice cocktail in there one evening.

The library is amazing, but got quite busy, but there was no way I was going to find time to read - far too many other interesting things to see, do, and explore! In fact, someone had said that you will run out of time to do the things you want to do, and they were right. Really. I could easily have had another 2 weeks on board. I didn't get chance to go the CC Meet and Greet either - apologies, but it clashed with my diary that day!!

The daily programmes delivered to the stateroom are really useful and I'm glad I packed the highlighter pen! I've kept all of them too, I'm a bit of a hoarder.

The promenade deck is nice, but even though I'm quite keen on keeping fit through walking, running and cycling, I don't agree with being able to run around the deck. If you just want to have a pleasant romantic stroll, you have to keep looking behind as runners keep charging through, sometimes even shouting at you! Not acceptable as far as I'm concerned. There's treadmills to do that. Keep the Promenade deck to walking/enjoying the view.

We had a mix of weather, some nice sunny but coolish days, some miserable wet and windy days, but I did manage to have a dip in the outdoor spa at the back of the ship one day - I was in there in my swimming shorts whilst those around me on the deck were in hats and coats - they must have thought I was a right loony - they might be right, but it was on my (big) list of things to do - and honestly it was lovely and warm, until I got out of course....

Lounging on the sun beds by the Pavilion indoor pool was probably more pleasant, especially with the sun coming through the roof. Perfect for a little snooze..

Laundry - didn't need to use it really as we took far too many clothes anyway. But on the last day they did a special offer of £30 I think for 20 items, washed and ironed, so we did that.

Arrival day in New York was just a little bit special for me, considering it was my 50th Birthday that day! I was up at 0400 and headed up onto the decks. I was the only one there, but then it started filling up. The view of NYC was great, and you just have to be up top for when it sails under the Verazzano bridge. I'd seen videos on YouTube but it was incredible how close it was to the underside of the bridge.

A great tip we picked up was for disembarkation. We wanted to get off as quick as we could as our kids had arrived at the hotel the evening before. We joined a small queue at the top of the Grand Lobby staircase. We were about 4th or 5th off the ship and on our way to our hotel in an Uber within minutes. In fact were were in the hotel before 0800.

So, I'm bound to have forgotten loads of stuff, but I'll do my best to answer any questions. It will be nice to be able to help on this forum after previously being on here for help myself. We have never cruised before, but we will certainly do so again. We have already booked QV to the Baltics next August for our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

So to summarise, it was a fantastic way to celebrate my 50th, the TA voyage was awesome as was the ship. As I said before, we really did enjoy every single minute on board. 

Phil & Vicky.

Thanks Hattie & Ged. Had an absolutely amazing time on board QM2!!! Arriving in NYC on my 50th was better than I could have expected too. 

Will put my thoughts/tips as a first time cruiser on here soon. 

..Happiest of early birthday wishes to Phil50 and Philsuarez's daughter....And Firstmate63 - we too are using this adventure to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary at sea...

PS Phil50 - I'm not seeing you on the roll call for the cruise? We're just doing westbound ourselves. Do check it out - Queen Mary 2 October 18-November 1 2018 - Transatlantic Roundtrip

Thank you Sheryl. Congratulations on your milestone anniversary too. We’ve booked QV to the Baltic’s for our 25th next year.

I forgot about the roll call - will do it now

Phil

Wow, lucky girl! I’ll look up, erm I mean out for you Phil :D

Congratulations on your upcoming milestone birthday, Phil (how is it that I missed this thread?).

 

Here a little video I took on QM2 while passing under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge 3 or 4 years ago. It's worth getting up for - I think this was around 4:45 AM.

 

Wow!! Thanks Peter. I was watching that thinking, yeah it’s quite close but then when you turned round and showed the funnel coming through - that was REALLY close!!!

There didn’t seem to be many people on deck? I’m going to be on deck about 0330 knowing me - I’m an early bird anyway and regularly have to get up at that time for work, so I can certainly manage it to watch the lights of NYC coming into view.

Think I might need a little power nap by the time we get to the hotel though :)

Phil, if you are returning to the UK aboard the QM2 on Oct. 25th, I hope I run into you on board and have the opportunity to buy you and your lady a celebratory birthday drink. It's my first time on the QM2 myself and am looking forward to it. I'm frankly a bit jealous that you shall have been in the company of the National Symphony. If I had researched the schedule better, I could have booked Southampton to NY and return.

That is very king of you indeed!! Unfortunately we’re not coming back on it. We’re having 5 days in NYC then 3 in DC, then flying back.

Have a wonderful trip back across the pond.

Congratulations on your 50th Phil. We'll be on the same cruise. It's our first time on QM2 and first visit to NY. We booked the cruise 18 months ago to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, so very special for us too. Hopefully we can all meet at meet and greet which is currently being arranged.

Thank you. We booked it in November 2016 so it’s been a really long wait, but I’m certain it’ll be worth it. We’ve been to NYC before but like you this is our first ever cruise.

See you onboard!

Yes. It will be the first morning of that segment of the trip. You’ll really enjoy it. It’s well worth the wait, standing around at the tour desk! I was just as excited about it. I did the touron my third trip on QM2. Enjoy your trip...I can’t think of a better way to start my birthday than standing at the top of the QM2 going underneath the Verrazano bridge into the NY Harbour! I will be a few weeks behind you on 4th November for trip 4!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks. Yes I’m looking forward to the early start that morning!

Just reading the thread HH put a link to and it seems that you can register for this tour on the first morning after the ship departs port. Our crossing from Southampton actually starts in Hamburg so I’m hoping it’ll still be the case that they will be available on OUR first morning???

Going back to post 14 - you’ll have to be at the tour desk early to book the ships tour. It goes on sale on the 1st morning after you leave Southampton at 9.00am. We had been told to get there early as places were limited. We arrived at about 8.10am and we 3rd and 4th in line. We signed a form that expressed an interest I. The tour, and later that day got an official invitation to the tour which would happen a few days later. People arriving at 9 were disappointed not to get on the tour. It was $120 each but well worth it.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you so much. I certainly do not want to miss out on this - I’ve been reading a few books on the QM2 including the Haynes Manual one, so I’m really interested in everything QM2 now. Looks like I’ll be queueing up at about 0745!!!

The hours for the gym on QM2 are stated in the daily programme as 6:00am to 8:00pm. The Cunard UK FAQ states "The gym is typically open from 8am - 8pm every day." But I believe the 6:00am opening time as stated in the daily programme is correct based on other posts I've read on this forum.

Yes I think that's where I'd got confused. Thank you for that - I "intend" to get to the gym quite early, but good intentions and all that......