sfred

7 hours ago, sfred said:

Looking forward to embarkation day beer this afternoon! 

And we're aboard!

QM2 is in Southampton this morning,  Sunday 12 May, arriving from NY.  That's not particularly noteworthy. 

The noteworthy part for us is that Mrs sfred and I will board later on today for a short four night trip to Hamburg and back.  We've been in Morocco for two weeks and the timing worked out nicely to catch QM2 before returning home to Australia. 

(Given our departure from Morocco on stolen letters of transit from Rick’s Cafe,  I wondered if it was a bad idea to be going to Germany.  But hopefully the authorities believed we went to Lisbon instead of Southampton. 😀 )

Looking forward to embarkation day beer this afternoon! 

1 minute ago, D&N said:

It did feel a bit like cheating. I did see some other pics of the port in the reverse lookup, but I knew that if I simply identified the ferry I could probably find the location.

The screenshot I had saved didn't include the ferry.

Earlier that morning in Japan, there was a great sunrise view of the wider harbour.   I saw a small dark blob that I thought was probably QE as she arrived but it was far too small and the lighting contrast of the dark water and brightening sky made identification impossible.   Sometime later that morning the webcam operator narrowed the focus to the ship to the view that @bluemarble posted.

2 hours ago, bluemarble said:

Here's a webcam capture showing a Cunard ship at a port we haven't seen yet.

I was glad to see this webcam zoom in on the ship during its port call, from the usual wider view of this port.

Edit:  I see that @D&N has identified Sasebo while I was typing.  Congratulations! 

@bluemarble, should we record QE's visit by the port name Beppu, or the city Oita, or some combo?

14 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

Here's a webcam capture of a Cunard ship arriving

I was hoping you might capture the arrival or departure!!  I made a diary note to try to have a look, but unfortunately have been in the wrong time zone lately.

23 hours ago, sogne said:

this although not an obvious view is an as yet unseen sail by

I found an online photo of the building and falls, which google maps says is on the Innvikfjorden in Norway.

5 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

Knowing the country based on the previous Casablanca identification helped to narrow down this location. I think this is Essaouira, Morocco. Yeah, I'm not finding any evidence that a Cunard ship has called here either. Looks like an interesting location for a work meeting. Hopefully you avoided any serious intrigues here. 🙂

Essaouira is correct.  An interesting port town with a nice historical Medina and waterfront. 

4 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I was going to ask if you had been to Rick’s. If you have those letters, tread carefully and keep an eye out for potential assassins. I suppose you might say the original Rick’s Café was a little touristy too. 😀😀

I think Major Strasser has been following us ever since!  😀

6 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I’m shocked, shocked I say, but I think it might be Casablanca.

Casablanca is correct!   After posting I tried a google search rather than the cruise critic search, and found the original Casablanca post by @sogne and identified by @Colin_Cameron in the very early days of the game.   

The photo is the Hassan II mosque along the waterfront.   A very impressive building.

Last Friday we had a drink at Rick's Cafe.  A little touristy but good fun.  We left after one drink, also shocked to observe gambling, but we needed to get our letters of transit from the piano in order to depart Morocco later this week. 😀 

Here also is an "extra credit" photo of a different port in this country.   It's not on our seen or unseen lists but I've not found any evidence of Cunard having called here.   I had a work meeting here today and had an early morning walk along the waterfront before starting the day. 

It's been great following the experiences on the new Queen Anne these past days.   For those like me not fortunate to be aboard, here a little "Where in the World" diversion.

This is a port on our seen list.  I'm here for two weeks on a work project and had this past middle weekend to wander around.  I tried a search for the original poster and identifier for this port, but it must be a little too old.

Hope you have a great QE voyage @LittleFish1976!!

In advance of @LittleFish1976's more definitive reply, the bedside power points for the lamps can be challenging to access, requiring moving the bed and/or nightstand.  From distant memory they are European.

Power points at the desk are 1 UK, 2 US, and 1 European. 

10 hours ago, Minnie29 said:

Does anyone know if umbrellas are provided in the Princess grill cabins on Queen Victoria? Thank you

On QE in PG...

On our Aug23 Panama canal voyage there were two umbrellas in our closet upon embarkation. 

On our Feb24 South Pacific voyage we asked our steward and two umbrellas appeared that evening.

Hi @Jack E Dawson.  Best wishes for your voyage.

I would've thought that any EU flight to LHR would have to clear UK customs at LHR.  I haven't heard of any special circumstances coming from Ireland, but others may know more.

One thing you might wish to investigate is that Aer Lingus has a morning flight from Dublin to Southampton airport.  It is an Emerald airlines codeshare on an ATR72 propeller plane, but carries an Aer Lingus EI flight code.  It departs 7.20a arriving SOU at 9.10, so should be a valid connection from the Chicago flight arrving Dublin at 5.15a.  Flying into Southampton would simplify your logistics of getting from airport to QM2, and avoids LHR. 

A nice recent increase in our port count totals.  Thanks everyone!  I've recorded them as:

651  Sibenik, Croatia

652  Olbia Sardinia, Italy

653  Tokyo, Japan

654  Conflict Islands, Papua New Guinea

655  Alotau, Papua New Guinea

656  Kiriwina, Papua New Guinea

9 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

I think this is Tokyo, Japan 

6 hours ago, bluemarble said:

I can help with a photo showing QE at Tokyo to make it official.

Tokyo is correct.  In previous years, QE has used the Daikoku facility in Yokohama as its home base for Japan itineraries  This year it is using the new terminal in Odaiba, much more convenient to central Tokyo, near the Rainbow bridge and on the Yurikamome transit line.

Congratulations @Host Hattie and thanks @bluemarble for making it official for the game.

By the way also, for our New York mates, Odaiba has a Statue of Liberty replica.  It looks a little smaller than its NY counterpart.

Here's a webcam view of a new port, on our unseen list.  However, I'm not sure whether it will qualify for our game.  The problem is that the cruise terminal, and the Cunard ship there, are hidden behind the buildings in the webcam view. 

I tried finding a different webcam, and also tried on two different days to see if I could catch a glimpse of the Cunard ship either arriving or departing the port between the buildings.  My attempts were unsuccessful.

So that leaves us with a webcam view that would show the ship, except that it doesn't.  Anyway, hopefully there are enough clues in the photo to identify this new port.  We can then decide  whether this webcam shot qualifies for the game.  Or perhaps someone who was aboard/embarking/or disembarking the ship will see this and post a better photo.

I've actually had a client work meeting in the building in the centre-right  of the photo.  It was a few years ago, however, before the cruise terminal on the other side of the buildings was built.

15 minutes ago, sogne said:

Zeebrugge correct

Wow - definitely a lucky guess.  I had found a photo of wind turbine and church spire that had been posted by a British fellow on a WW1 history tour of the Ypres area.  I don't know if it is the same turbine and spire in @sogne's photo, but it was the closest match I found, so I guessed the only major port in the area - Zeebrugge.  @bluemarble's research that found Sint-Donatianuskerk looks likely from the shape of the spire.

8 hours ago, sogne said:

ten minutes previously the port would have been easy to identify this much visited port

 

Unfortunately the fog has defeated me.  I've tried to find the church or town hall in the lower left, but I don't have enough detail to get a good match.  The best I've found is in the Ypres Belgium area, but clearly no Cunard ship has ever made it to Ypres.  So without any foundation beyond geographic proximity, I'll take a wild guess of Zeebrugge??

9 hours ago, NE John said:

Sorry to bring this wonderful thread up but I thought you and @sfred would be interested in a recently posted You Tube vlog of your voyage by a Scotsman named Fraser.

Thanks @NE John.  Interesting video.  It's always fun to see additional different aspects of a trip to compare to your own experiences. 

One day I hope logistics will work out for us to stay a night on QM in Long Beach. 

As @bluemarble says, this has been an amazing thread.  The collection of photos submitted by the Cruise Critic community from all over the world is a great trip down memory lane from past voyages, or a source of inspiration for future trips.

The photos cover 650 ports in 135 unique countries, speaking 55 unique languages.  Some updated analytics:

(What have the Romans ever done for us??)

And of course the "famous mountain" is Mt. Fuji, or Fujisan as it is called in Japan.

Unfortunate that it was so overcast and hazy for QE's arrival this morning.  But that's not too unusual.  Clear sitings of Fujisan are rare.

Well done @bluemarble to have gotten this webcam shot entering port.  I had made a diary note to look this morning, but was both too early and too late and I missed seeing the ship.

I'll let others have a try, but for an additional hint the weather at this port has cleared just a little, and the view of the famous mountain is slightly better (or perhaps slightly worse without the benefit of the Cunard ship in the foreground).