Cruachan

Funchal webcam showing some of the eight ships. The QE has been moved from dockside yesterday to anchor today

 

http://www.madeira-web.com/camera/cam-03.html

 

http://www.madeira-web.com/camera/cam-01.html

 

Marine traffic website is showing Saga Pearl ll also.

We now have:

On the berths - Oceana, Thomson Majesty, Black Watch, and AIDABlu

Anchored - Magellan, Saga Pearl II, QE, Mein Schiff 4, and Marco Polo

Joining the fleet later - AIDAsol, and Balmoral

Quite a turnout. The weather earlier was absolutely dire with heavy rain and minimum visibility but it's cleared now and there's a lot of sun around. Hopefully it will stay that way for the fireworks.

J

Well, if that doesn't sink QV nothing will.*

 

Sir M

 

*For those newer to the forum, Mr Cruachan has a feature on his ship photography website entitled "Disasters subsequent to my taking piccies of passing boats doing no harm to anyone", or similar. Most of the unfortunate victims of Mr Cruachan's camera lens have subsequently come a cropper.

Don't be utterly ridiculous dead cat! I wouldn't harm a single weld in her rusty old hull - I'm on her again in June :eek:

J

The image I posted as an attachment yesterday was pretty poor quality so here is a sequence of six images taken as we passed QV. Hopefully these are a little better.

J

That's really spooky - exactly what I was going to say.

 

Sir Martin

Shut it cat or I will get Host Hattie to ban you for all eternity and consign you to the deepest and darkest levels of Hell...

... oh wait, I forgot, you're there already! :D

J

Ouch.

On the other hand there are some of us who would likely cheer you up. We can usually be found in the Commodore Club, close to the bar, between 16:30 and 17:00... Give it a try...

And that's seconded from little ole moi :D

J (a happy retirement home resident who rarely complains about anything unless there's no black pudding for breakfast!! :eek: )

...Bring on Jan 6th when I can escape this manner-less floating retirement village filled with Britain's greatest complainers...

Ah, I see you must have met me! :D

J

Christmas greetings to all on board Queen Victoria. What a wonderful, and completely unexpected pleasure, to see you about half an hour ago in Latitude : N34.292978; Longitude : W11.982688

Hope you have a great time in Lisbon. Here's a photo taken as we passed.

J

Just time for some quick shutter work then!

Yes - so that's a load more fine ships going to their doom! :D:eek:

J

Jimmy,

 

MSC Opera? There is a list here - http://www.cruisetimetables.com/visitingfunchalmadeira-31dec2015.html

 

G

Yup - I've got Opera arriving on 29 Dec 15 at 0900hrs and sailing on 30 Dec 15 at 1400hrs. So she misses the date range on the Funchal site.

Info is from Cruise TT

http://ships.cruisett.com/schedule/MSC_Cruises/MSC_Opera/December_2015/

J

AIDAblu, Black Watch, Magellan, Marco Polo, Mein Schiff 4, Oceana, and Thomson Majesty. As per the website mentioned by Fifer which incidentally doesn't mention the QE on that day but I think it is a two-nighter from 30th December? So that would make eight ships.

Stone me - my camera's going to be busy!

Yes, we have a two nighter in Funchal 30/31st and 31st/1st.

J

According to the cruise timetables website there are seven ships in Funchal on New Year's Eve.

Hi Ray,

I've got QE, Oceana, MSC Opera and Marco Polo. What were the other three?

J

I have learnt today that there has been some attempt to disrupt proceedings, by bringing up old information, which is certainly not my intention, as, to reiterate, I'm just a new Cruise Critic and have unwittingly ventured into this foray.

Well well, thank you for reviving my old thread. I think the original post on here must be one of the first (if not the first) that I ever made on CC, all those years ago.

J

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge :)

 

The big question now is what the new Princess will be called.

 

Mary, Elizabeth and Victoria are all out there as possibilities :)

Charlotte Elizabeth Diana seems to be the answer.

J

When we were given our key cards when we boarded in Dubai a few years ago, I pointed out that my card had a red edge, when it should have been platinum. I was told that the computer said that this was my first voyage, and I would have to go to the future cruise desk to sort things out. When I went to the future cruise desk, I was reassured that I was in fact a platinum member, and told to go to the pursers' desk to get a new card. At the pursers' desk they looked at my card, and would not issue a new one, insisting that I was a first time passenger. I was having too much fun to be bothered by this, so I kept my original red edged card.

 

Towards the end of the voyage I looked at the monitor as I was boarding again from a port visit, and noticed that the picture was of some rather nice looking lady, but definitely about 30 years older than me. The security people didn't seem at all put off by this. I returned to the pursers' desk, where this time they did acknowledge that there was a problem - the card had my name and cabin number, but all of the other information was for another passenger on the ship. Yes indeed, they said it was a computer error back in Dubai.

Just goes to demonstrate how much use photo ID is. When the Argylls were stationed in Ballykelly in Northern Ireland in the early 1980s I had a friend who spent 2 years gaining access to the barracks by showing the civilian security guard an ID card that had been issued to him by the Sultan of Oman's Army some five years earlier. The photo was ok but all the textual detail was written in Arabic. Never seemed to bother the security guards though.

J

It really doesn't bother me one way or the other whether they have a cinema or not. Two things I can easily live without in cruising terms are a cinema, and right at the very very pinnacle of the list - in-cabin TV.

J

Notice that I didn't mention the g*mn*s**m. Those of you on here who know me well will know that that goes without saying.

J

Thanks J

 

Yes - I did finally find this - but Cunard have removed the actual times. They must have done this sometime during the last 2 years since we last cruised with them. They are the only cruiseline that I know of which seem to be unwilling to tell their passengers this info.

Yeah - I agree. I don't think I looked at it for the 2014 cruise but I defo checked on them in 2013 and they were there. To be fair to Cunard, they do give the times in the daily program, but that's not really a whole load of use if you are trying to organise private tours in advance.

J

AAH! -- thanks for that. I have also subsequent to my post found that the CruiseTT website shows port times for various cruises. They seem to mostly agree with your info - except for Pago Pago , where Cruise TT says departure is 1800. Of course , none of these times are written in stone :) - but useful as a general guide.

Bazz, the Cunard page still exists too. If you go here:

https://ask.cunard.com/help/cunard/life-on-board/dress_code_all

you will find a link to a PDF document for the whole cruising season for each of the three ships. There's only one bijou little snagette - it no longer gives the arrival and departure times. Clearly those are state secrets that must never be revealed on pain of death.

J

try Hythe Pier west side of Southampton Water

I agree - as an avid ship spotter and photographer, I would strongly recommend Hythe Pier. Access is simple as there is a frequent ferry service running to the pier from the Town Quay in Soton. The short trip across the water also give you the chance to get a good view of anything on the QEII Terminal berth and several other commercial berths.

Only one small word of caution I notice from Soton VTS data that she is booked to sail at 1630hrs so it will already be pretty dark when she gets away. That's ok of if you just want to watch her sailing but, if you have photography in mind, it could make it tricky.

J

Very young, very fit Cougars. I think the cages were to keep us out.:eek::D

Ah, sounds like the cages provided a certain amount of mutual benefit. Hee hee :cool:

J

Exactly where Queen's Grill was created.

Well, I will never forget them! As a college kid on the way to a summer backpacking in Europe, May of 1969, I spent all my evenings wistfully staring at a pair of "older women" (probably 25) Goddesses in very short Go-Go skirts and boots. I am sure I had a permanently slack-jawed look over the immortal Disco with Diana and Sue.:D:D They were top billing on the Daily Programme.

Why did they keep them in cages? Were they cougars?

:eek:

J

:D :D

 

Maybe we should. I am sure there are people who don't realize that you can use rum runners on Cunard, and am equally sure that there are also people who actually use them... ;)

Given the Cunard demographic you're a lot more likely to find colostomy bags than rum runners :eek:

J

Intentional deletion

Maybe it is your browser or ISP?

Sounds like it Cap'n. I can't see the pesky things.

J

Wonderful, they get the blood sample, after the incubation period has passed, to confirm that the she is Ebola-free.

 

Actually it really is an intelligent move to get a blood sample so they can PROVE that she didn't have, doesn't have, Ebola, because it will help stem the craziness.

 

Today, for instance, I was talking on the phone to a friend who told me that they couldn't schedule a flight because of the Ebola scare. Really? I told her that her chances of winning the lottery three weeks in a row were better than her chances of catching Ebola on an airplane.

 

How many of you know, or have met, someone who has, or has died from, AIDS? If you fly often, it is a safe bet that you have flown with someone infected with AIDS. I say AIDS because it is transmitted is pretty much the same way as Ebola. Do you worry about catching AIDS?

 

How many of you personally know, or have met someone who has, or has died from, Ebola?

They are now reporting that the blood test was negative.

J

Really there is a little beastie crawling around next to your picture of captain pugwash. It is next to your one again on last post as well. How very odd. Hope it isn't a virus but I can only see it next to your pugwash picture not on anyone else's posts.

Still can't see it I'm afraid

J