sfred

So that's where the leprechauns hid the pot of gold? Nice rainbow photo, @Lanky Lad.

Congratulations @Colin_Cameron! This wasn't my first time, nor certainly my last, that I've been looking in the wrong side of the world. As compensation, I did find several very nice webcam views of the scenic passages of British Columbia I'll have to remember them as possibilities for when QE returns next year.

It looks like this webcam could be in the Canadian pacific northwest, somewhere around Vancouver Island on the approach or departure from Victoria or Vancouver. I haven't found an exact location yet, however. Will keep looking. (Of course I might have also gone down a rabbit hole... 🐰)

Welcome back home, @bluemarble! Hope your voyage was good.

Thanks @pberk. Great videoing and editing job. You captured the occasion very well. This concert ranks as one of the top highlights of any voyage we've ever taken on Cunard. A few years afterwards in 2019, on QE's initial voyage to Alaska from Japan, we were fortunate to have Paul O'Laughlin as entertainment director. We spoke to him one evening in the theater, saying how surprised and happy we were to have him aboard QE from his usual role on QM2. I happened to be wearing my 175th voyage lapel pin that evening, and Paul noticed it and we began talking about the concert. He said that his biggest memory of the occasion was how heavy the Boston cup was to carry into the cathedral, and how they almost dropped it a few times along the way. Thank again for sharing the memories.

Well, unfortunately I'm stumped. I tried various searches for port lumber yards, timber yards, etc., but no matches. It appears that the road traffic is driving on the right, but that doesn't narrow it down too far.

There's nothing better than a nice walk and climb to a view of QM2. Enjoy!

My thanks to all game participants also. And best wishes for Thanksgiving to those from the US. With the milestone of 600 ports and cruise-bys, I thought I would post an update to the graphic outputs from the seen-ports text analytics model. Europe still dominates the world region by a significant margin: North America is a distant second. There are 132 unique countries. The top 10 countries have changed somewhat. The US and UK are now tied for first place at 55 ports each. There are still a few US ports remaining on the unseen list, including several Alaska cruise-bys, Wilmington NC, and Galveston TX. Norway has a very respectable 37 ports already seen, with ample potential for more. Canada has inched ahead of Brazil for 9th place. While most ports are in the northern hemisphere, our southern lands are at a fairly respectable 102 ports. The letters P and S are the most frequent first initials of all seen ports. P is popular partially due to all the Port/Puerto locations. S due to San/Santa/Saint combinations. All letters of the alphabet are represented. 182 ports and cruise-bys are located in places that were formerly part of the British Empire. English is the most frequent primary language, and there are 54 unique primary languages. And finally, Alaska is the most frequent state within the US, with Florida a distant second. As always, if you have questions or suggestions for additional analytics, please let me know and if I can I'm happy to give it a go.

Hi @bluemarble. Hope you are having a great Caribbean voyage. When you have a chance, we need referee decisions on whether three recent @sognecontributions are new seen ports for the list. If so, these would be ports 598, 599, and the significant milestone of 600. 598 Bosporus, Turkey (post 4293) 599 Ailsa Craig, Scotland, UK (post 4308) 600 Belle Isle Strait, Newfoundland Canada (post 4326)

Thanks @sogne. I never would have guessed. Thinking "hurricane", I had somewhere in the Caribbean or Central America in mind. But of course hurricanes and their remnants can impact the US northeast, Canada, and northern Europe also. We missed having Captain Wells on our recent QM2 journey. He was one of our favourite captains. I hope he is enjoying whatever has come next for him.

No idea here, either. I tried to think of which port departures in tropical-storm prone places would be westbound into a setting sun, but the potential list was way too long for the limited terrain clues in the photo.

That's correct, well done @bluemarble. A photo of four mile beach at Port Douglas was originally contributed by @babs135 on 25 August, page 159. post 3951 of this thread. This webcam from tourismportdouglas.com.au covers several views of four mile beach. One of them captured QE at anchor offshore. The webcam is a little finicky, and it took several page refreshes to get a view that covered QE. Earlier this year I had placed a note in my diary for 21 November knowing that QE would be in Port Douglas and there might be an opportunity for a webcam photo. At the time Port Douglas was still unseen, until @babs135's contribution in August. Thanks for taking time for the game during your Caribbean QM2 voyage @bluemarble. Hope you are having a great time!

We have previously had this port here in the Where in the World game, but the earlier contribution did not feature a Cunard ship. Here is a webcam with a Queen floating in the calm waters offshore. There's not a lot of clues in this webcam image, so I'll offer an early hint that this webcam was taken very recently.

Thanks @TheOldBear. I wish I had known that there would be puppies -- we would have gladly been muddy paw marked. We had previously done dog sledding several years ago at the ice hotel in Kiruna Sweden, so we chose not to do it again in Tromso. Puppies might have tipped the balance towards repeating the experience. In Kiruna, we were amazed how the cacophony of barks, howls, whines, growls, and general canine mayhem quickly became completely silent and focused when the dog sled teams got underway. We were also surprised at the comparatively small size and leanness of the sled dogs. They were all muscle and fur, very unlike our two soft pampered labradors. I'd love to see your video if you are able to post it.

Excellent! I like your sled dog also. Where is he/she from?

Best wishes for your QM2 voyage @bluemarble!

We're finally back home after the long flights from London. I noticed AIDAbella also in Trondheim on the day that QM2 was there, 9 November, but AIDAbella was moored at the opposite end of town to the west of QM2, and is a very different colour and shape. I didn't notice the ship in the webcam. I've looked through my photos from the day but I don't have anything that covered that pier. So at a rough guess based on the the hull colours I'll say one of the Hurtigruten ships?

We sadly disembarked QM2 earlier today, and are now at our Heathrow hotel for the flights home tomorrow. I thought I might write down a few parting thoughts on our overall experiences from the Norway voyage. The really-really-really good Words cannot adequately describe how absolutely wonderful it felt for us to be back aboard. We enjoyed every minute of this Norway voyage. It was our first time back since leaving QV in Santiago Chile in February 2020, a week before Australia’s international borders closed “for the duration”. And it was our first time back on QM2 since July of 2018. We treasured all our usual onboard routines and habits, and reacquainted ourselves with QM2s unique design quirks which we find charming. The good We didn’t get sick, either with covid or Cunard flu. Hurrah! We took the ordinary precautions and were outside as much as weather allowed. It is still somewhat of a relief to be heading home tomorrow in the same good health as when we started. This was our first time in Britannia Club, and it was a very pleasant experience. We had a table for two in a row of other 2’s, and our adjacent companions were friendly, interesting, and of similar traveling experiences. Our waiters, Roderigo and Stanley, were capable and attentive. A special note of thanks to the maître d', Richard, who was one of the best we’ve encountered on any Cunard ship in any grade of service. The Norway ports we saw, Bergen Tromso and Trondheim, were great. It is a big change for us to travel to arctic locations from summertime Australia. We liked the novelty of the cold and dark, and while it was certainly cold, our winter gear was adequate for the temperatures. We did our own thing in each of the ports, and did manage to see a glimpse of the northern lights one evening in Tromso. Embarkation at the Southampton Mayflower terminal was smooth and easy. The Cunard IT systems probably tried their very best to disappoint, but everything worked. Boarding pass and health declaration information was correct and available to the agent at checkin, and we were though to security and onto the ship in minutes. Disembarkation was similarly easy. We were given a 10.10a time to depart, which was fine as we were in no rush to leave. An announcement came through shortly after 9a that the bags were all offloaded and we could depart at our convenience. QM2’s internet worked well. Based on other Cruise Critic posts, I was expecting the worst. We used the ship’s satellite internet with our Diamond credit on sea days, and a UK mobile carrier SIM roaming to Norway and Belgium on port days. We had a good wi-fi signal in our deck 12 cabin, and in all QM2 public rooms. Additionally, the wi-fi shifted access points seamlessly as I moved around the ship. I did have to reconnect if I had gone more than two hours, but a shortcut placed on my phone’s home screen made this easy. The could-have-been-slightly better We greatly regret missing the last two Norway ports, Alesund and Stavanger. I realise that the ship’s safety must come first, and the day that we were supposed to be in Alesund was particularly nasty. I don’t know when or whether we are likely to return to Norway (it is a long way from Australia), so missing these ports was disappointing. Our day in Ghent was a nice consolation (thanks @Host Hattie, @exlondoner, and @Solent Richard for your suggestions!). Although QM2 had around 24 hours in Southampton at the start of the voyage (she arrived at around midnight the night before, and left later on departure night), she was missing several passenger items. Bar soap and conditioner were apparently never loaded, according to our stateroom steward. Laundry detergent for the launderettes ran out mid-voyage. Gas canisters loaded for the restaurant tableside flambés were the wrong size for the burners, so flambés were suspended. All first-world problems, and of course we muddled through. But especially given the duration of the turnaround, Cunard might have done slightly better in provisioninig. The new internet pricing arrangements, at a minimum of $20 per day for the basic service on one device, caused us to quickly run through our $135 Diamond credit even though we used mobile coverage for port days. Cunard might consider a pricing alternative to make the Diamond credit last longer. Maybe offer an additional price point of $5 for 2 hours? I didn’t really need a full day of continuous internet each day, and 2 hours would have been adequate to do email, catch up on news from back home, and check-in on Cruise Critic. Or maybe the simplest approach would be to just make internet completely free for Diamonds? That’s all from me. Best wishes for a great remaining voyage for those who were lucky to stay aboard today for the westbound TA, and safe travels home to those back on land.

Back aboard from a very pleasant day in Ghent... ...and... Oh No!

Sunrise in Zeebrugge. We're off to Ghent in a little while.

What @sogne said. We live in a warm climate so we brought all the cold weather kit we own, which isn't much: winter coat, hat, and gloves. It was enough for us. Tromso was the coldest and darkest. 0 or -1 for lows and 3-4-5 for highs. It was cloudy most of the time but when visible the sun was always low near the horizon giving the illusion of sunrise even at midday.

A very moving service for Rememberance Day 11 11 11. Lest we forget...

Close. I think it is Andalsnes, Norway. There are matching buildings on a street called Vollan between Strandgata and Jernbanegata. If correct that implies the ship is QV. Perhaps the recent voyage that @photosg was on? Although I think that voyage departed Andalsnes after dark so perhaps this @bluemarble webcam was taken on a summer voyage. QM2 was southbound offshore of Alesund and Andalsnes earlier today but the forecast high winds and sea state did in fact result in a rather bleak day and missed port. So near but so far.

So close.... and yet so far.

A rather bleak morning from a relaxing chair at the port window of the Commodore Club. It doesn't look like it would have been a good day in Alesund even if we had been able to go.