sfred

That is Wellington New Zealand. RNZB is the Royal New Zealand Ballet. The modern building in the left of the photo is the Michael Fowler event centre, and the more historical building in the middle is the boating and rowing clubs on Whairepo lagoon. Wellington has changed and grown so much since I first went there in the 1980s on some of my first consulting projects. It was a rather small town in those days. (So was Brisbane!) I can't be sure of the Cunard ship, but odds are it is QE.

Congratulations @Yaldi! I had made no progress at all at identifying the first webcam photo.

Perhaps I've been silly all these years, but I've always booked direct through Cunard. I similarly go direct to airlines, hotels, etc. No good reason, really, it is just instinct and a (perhaps irrational) feeling that I have more control. The benefits of using a (good) agent seem clear - potential discounts, extra OBC, assistance when things hit the fan, etc. Is there any benefit at all of going direct through Cunard? I'd hope there was some incentive somewhere for saving Cunard the commission paid to agents.

Looks like La Spezia, Italy. The webcam resolution doesn't enable me to tell whether QV or QE. QV tends to spend a bit more time in the Med these days, so I'll play the odds and guess QV? Google maps shows several restaurants, lookouts, and hotels on the SP370 road in the hills to the southwest of the city. I'll guess the webcam is at one of those locations?

Thanks @sogne. There aren't too many clues available for a definite ID, but I'll take a guess and say Basseterre St. Kitts. St. Kitts has a finger pier with cruise ships docked either side, and a rocky breakwater just to the west of the pier, which might be a match.

Three thoughts not previously mentioned.... Although Cunard hasn't been consistent recently in their requirement to show proof of covid vaccination at checkin, don't forget to bring a paper or phone copy of your vaccination status. Also any other required vaccinations for your itinerary, like yellow fever. Where possible, arrange any needed visas or electronic travel authorities well in advance, and bring paper copies with proof. With the intermittent nature of ship wifi, you might not be able to do things last minute. Lastly, one time I forgot cufflinks for formal nights. The ship's retail shops sell them, although at rather high prices.

No worries! My research on the islands from your 2022 trip turned up a lot of great Christmas pictures. Mrs. sfred and I will have to get to that part of the world, at this time of year, one of these days. We had been scheduled to do Caribbean Christmas 2020 on QM2, but covid cancelled that plan.

I think I'm in a slump lately on port identifications. I assumed, probably incorrectly, that the tree was located in one of @bluemarble's recent QM2 Caribbean ports: Charlotte Amalie St Thomas Basseterre St Kitts Castries St Lucia Bridgetown Barbados Roseau Dominica Philipsburg St Maarten But I can't find a match to any of these. I also tried a more basic "Caribbean Christmas tree" search, but that is too general to come up with any matches.

I would not have guessed Singapore. There's some vehicle traffic to the right of the AXA building on the right (ie wrong 🙂) side of the road, so I incorrectly presumed right side driving. I guess they must be one way streets.

Well, it's not the tallest grain silo - that's in Zurich, apparently. The biggest (although perhaps not the tallest) water storage tank is in Doha, but the remainder of the photo isn't a good match. The tallest telecom tower is in Tokyo, but again the rest of the photo isn't a match. The street traffic is driving on the right, but that doesn't narrow it down too much.

QE voyage Q328C San Francisco to Barcelona August to September 2023 August 20 San Francisco Smart 21 sea Smart 22 Los Angeles Smart 23 sea Formal B&W 24 sea Smart 25 Cabo San Lucas Smart 26 sea Smart 27 sea Formal Masquerade 28 sea Smart 29 Puntarenas Smart 30 sea Smart 31 Panama Canal Smart September 01 sea Smart 02 Oranjestad Smart 03 sea Smart 04 sea Smart 05 Ft Lauderdale Smart 06 sea Formal Red and Gold 07 sea Smart 08 Bermuda Smart 09 sea Smart 10 sea Smart 11 sea Formal (unspecified) 12 sea Smart 13 sea Smart 14 Madeira Smart 15 sea Formal 20s 16 Cadiz Smart 17 sea Smart 18 Barcelona Smart 19 sea Formal B&W 20 Naples Smart 21 Civitavecchia Smart 22 Ajaccio Smart 23 sea Formal Masquerade 24 Majorca Smart 25 Barcelona disembark

Thanks @Yaldi. Well done. My only consolation is that Santander isn't a place I've been to, nor was I the contributor or identifier of the original port photo in our game. (That would have been very embarassing!)

I think I've seen a google image of every cargo and storage tank facility in the world -- except for this one. Unfortunately the wording on the orange striped tanks is tantalizingly indecipherable. No luck either with the previous coastal photo. I admit defeat. Hopefully someone else has recognised the locations?

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!