TheOldBear

Mrs Bear and I did the 'villages and chocolate' tour - the tour guide was [nice word] loquacious [/nice word] with repeated digressions on the 15th - 20th wars impact on Flanders, and more than a little bit of preaching. In the village of Damme we elected to wander away from the tour and have a nice beer 🙂 I'm still going through the photos taken there and at a great house 'castle'. No photos at the chocolate factory stop - but several pounds of chocolate are on the shelf next to the life jackets.

We'll need to see what excursions will be available in Zeebruggge - time to take a look in the 'ports of call' forum

Mrs Bear and I took the shuttle into town, and visited the cathedral grounds. She decided to take the shuttle back, and I took a leisurely walk back to the pier. I still have some tissues left, so that must mean I'm feeling better 😉 While we were getting ready, there was an announcement of a man over board drill on the port side. I was able to see the rescue boar pick up 'Oscar' and then hook on to be winched back to deck 7.

I haven't found out - ended up getting the package for the entire sailing. Will see in the 'my voyage' if anything can be deciphered. Had a lovely afternoon yesterday in the medical center - similar sinus infection to what I had on out 2019 sailing. Got some heavy duty decongestant & codeine cough medicine. I don't think I'll be doing the bike tour this morning.

Mrs Bear was attempting to use her phone camera, when it started offering unsolicited audible advice - to 'hold still' for the long exposure, and other 'friendly' 'enhancements' [two of my curse words for computer and phone stuff]. She also uses a stylus - and the one for her phone is up somewhere near the 'Lookout' after being jostled.

Back onboard after the Northern Lights excursion - at the first stop the lights were visible through the bus windows. Mrs Bear elected to stay onboard - there was an announcement from Capt Hall stating there would be another announcement when the Northern Lights were visible. About 9:30 folks started filtering into Carthenia saying how nice the lights were and showing their photos. A few minutes later, they were gone. No announcement was made - or at least not audible on deck 7. More on 'smart' phone camera woes tomorrow 😕

On QM2 there are three Britannia options: Reserved table early seating (both decks 2 & 3) Reserved table late seating (Deck 2) Open table late seating (Deck 3) - this option also has more flexible seating times, from 7:45 to 9

I went on the 'Polaria and Huskies' tour this morning, and will see if the clouds cooperate for a Northern Lights excursion this evening.

Pierside in Tromso - we have the cathedral concert on tonight's agenda [and 'night' started quite early]. Things do not look too hopeful for Northern Lights this evening - but there may be some clearing after sunset tomorrow. Today's featured enrichment session [playing to a packed house] was in the Royal Court discussing Aurora and solar activity.

Today was a lazy late sleeper day - went to the RSC workshop focusing on Henry V - the 'once more unto the breach' speech. In the afternoon there was a piano concert in Illuminations - featuring music by Grieg. A different interpretation than yesterday at Griegsmusum Docking tomorrow in Tromso is scheduled for about 1:30 - we have the evening concert at the Arctic Cathedral planned.

Lets tally up A pair of 'harness' or engineer boots Shiny Dress Shoes Dance Shoes Sneakers plus Winter boots + Yaktrax for Tromso Norway So, typically four pairs

Friday 4 November Typing this sitting in the Golden Lion after the day’s shore excursion - Odd no wifi connection near the central passageway, fine by the windows Mrs Bear and I went on the Cunard ‘Sights and Sounds of Bergen’ shore excursion - this included a bus drive around the city [with some narration from our local guide] followed by the excursion proper to the Griegsmusum. All this was performed in authentic Bergen seasonal cold rain. It’s a fairly long walk [almost 1 k] from the parking lot to the concert hall entrance at the museum. The concert program began and ended with familiar pieces [“Morning Mood” “In the Hall of the Mountain King”] and in-between included some of Grieg’s lyrical pieces. The Grieg’s house is quite small, with most of the floorspace roped off to protect the antique furniture and upholstery. Apparently Greig’s own piano may be used by special request - but not during bus tours [no one on the tour asked to try it]. Umbrellas were collected at the entrance, and returned at the exit to minimize dripping - and space per visitor. The web site says no photos inside the house, but the docent seemed to have no objections. No one elected to take the opportunity to visit the composer’s composition hut/studio visible downhill. The tour returned in time for a sit down lunch in Britannia ..... its all amours time now, and a few folks are being paged to 'kindly but urgently ' requested to contact the purser I guess they missed the 'all aboard' call

I will need to post a few pictures - probably after tomorrow's shore excursion. It appears to be a good think that my camera is weather sealed with the rainy forecast..

A bit delayed, and partially redundant update - finally connected for at bit Wednesday 2 November Updates are a bit delayed by laziness and infuriating Cunard internet access. Apparently internet access can get worse when sightlines to the satellites are blocked by fjord walls. We’ll find out in the next episode. 😉 Halloween was an informal night - unless you were in the passenger chorus. Black tie was requested for chorus members. We elected to have an early Kings Court buffet dinner, before getting dressed for the performance. I don’t know if KC was having an off night, but I fail to grasp any appeal for a KC buffet dinner - despite it being our preferred breakfast and lunch venue. Captain Hall elected to dock in Southampton Mayflower terminal a few hours before the originally scheduled arrival time, so he was not available to ‘conduct’ the Hornpipe. Five members of the Royal Shakespeare Company [in Halloween costume] were pressed into service. The ABP pilot was picked up between the early and late performances. We rounded the Isle of Wight about the time the chorus was settling in, and singing ‘God Save the Queen ^H^H^H^H^H King’ [free history lesson: the control-H character is the code for ‘backspace’] We had a late night snack in KC and met up with Anthony Inglis & family - and most of the rest of the orchestra. We elected to retire about 0100, and not venture to G32. By that time we were secured to the pier, and luggage offloading seemed to be in progress. We managed to put our room service breakfast hanger out just in time for a 0930 delivery time. The next day, the breakfast knock came on the door at 9:15 as expected. Mrs Bear elected to remain on board, and I decided to run an errand or two, and see about visiting a museum or two. That was reduced to a single errand and a small museum [and I wish I had brought my umbrella]. When leaving via the Horizon terminal. you need to walk the entire length of the baggage hall to exit via the unattended Customs checkpoint [Customs had finished with disembarking passengers]. There was another walk to the waiting double decker shuttle and the usual shuttle ride to the usual drop off. Service was supposed to be every 15 minutes. I was planning on finishing errand one, riding back to the ship - then Mrs Bear and I would have a pub lunch and visit Solent Sky with an Uber back to the ship. It turns out there was a long ‘hiatus’ in shuttle service, and the bus shelter leaks. Texting Mrs Bear with updates - we decided she would lunch on the ship and I would get something local as the last of the thunderstorms passed through. The Sea City museum was nearby - so I visited there. Walking back after the museum trip there was a shuttle. This was mostly returning crew, so we were directed to the crew entrance - until it was noticed that there were in transit passengers, so it was time to walk the length of the terminal to the ‘departures’ sign. Along the way we collected other in transit passengers who had just been directed to the crew entrance. Just before security, everyone was told ‘boarding was suspended’ - until they saw we were in transit. I forgot cell phones set off the metal detector. There was an announcement that the ‘sail away’ party would be 4:45 at the Pavilion Pool. This was follows by an announcement that QM2 would be staying pier side until just before midnight. And yes, reserved tables are back for the Britannia late seating - which is back at its usual 8:30 pm time. What was not done was having the late seating’s shows scheduled before dinner, while the early dinner folks were at table. Sitting in Illuminations, we felt the bow thrusters go live just as the movie ended. We went up the deck 12 [no sailaway party expected] to view the stately turn to sea. We slept quite late today - and rested up for our visit to the spa’s thermal suite. Another bit of good news is they have ditched the absurd prescheduling of the time slot - reserve before knowing what was scheduled. Black and White evening tonight. (well, that was last night) Did today's Royal Shakespeare Company workshop in the Queen's Room - and then decided to have lunch in Britannia, asking for a shared table.

We should now have a fixed table reservation - hopefully continuing the same waiter & table that we arranged for the eastbound crossing. Brittania lower level will be reserved / assigned tables, with 8:30 PM seating time. The upper level will continue with ‘open’ seating.

I believe that self disembarkation has started. We should have a room service breakfast arriving in about an hour.

I was on stage with the passenger chorus as we sailed around the Isle of Wight and into Southampton water. There was barely noticeable movement from any waves in the channel. Sitting on stage the heel as QM2 turned was quite apparent. Captain Hall was not available to “conduct” the NSO foot the Hornpipe, so there were five ‘guest conductors’ from the Royal Shakespeare Company 🙂

For todays afternoon performance [Ravel's Bolero ] the NSO will be joined by the members of both the Queen's room and Royal Court orchestras. Mrs Bear and I need to reschedule our spa 'thermal suite' booking - already moved it once due to rehearsal conflict on the 31st

On board the QM2 now for an eastbound crossing - there are at least two 'insights' enrichment lectures a day. There are other lectures in odd places - for example yesterday I was in search of a decent wifi signal, and stumbled across an art history lecture in the Queens Room. The current crossing features Anthony Inglis and the English National Symphony - this is an annual event, and features a passenger chorus performing with the Orchestra on the crossing's last night.

Mrs Bear is up in Carthinia listening to 'Amethyst' perform after a light lunch. I have 10 minutes to go before I need to check the deck 5 washing machine. We needed to change our spa booking so it did not conflict with the Chorus rehearsal on Monday. The rehearsals with Anthony Inglis are always both fun and require concentration. Last nights concert was excellent, including some stunningly good piano playing for 'Rhapsody in Blue'. There is a daytime concert scheduled for tomorrow, featuring Ravel's Bolero

I have encountered no one on the current crossing who thinks the 'open' dining is a better option than assigned tables. According to the folks on the 'platform' in Britannia there are currently no plans or directives to switch back to reserved seating availability for the late seating. Apparently no one at Cunard shore side [including their faceplant presence responsible for the 1 November policy change claim] speaks with the folks actually on the ships. As noted in the 'live update' thread we were able to finagle a reserved table for the eastbound crossing by invoking 'special needs' and our linked booking [ship side had no knowledge of the linked booking]

I've noticed onboard that the 'myvoyage' site loads on my phone - but does not display any content after logging in [login form, with saved info, login, and landing page only has the page frame , Cunard logo - and our room number. There is a fundamental problem with the website's design - there is no reason to have public postings like the daily schedule restricted so login is required to [in theory] view them. A modern web site design would use some of the current HTML5 'offline storage' tricks so each device only needs to download the schedule once - that would east the load on their apparently overburdened server. The server is likely Microsoft IIS - and that is a resource how compared to common alternatives. Also, the Ship's intranet apparently does not host a local time server [ntp] - that way most devices would have their time updated automatically when connecting after the ship's clocks are changed.

Internet is working (for the moment) while laundry is in progress.

It's not the big band cruise - its the English National Symphony Orchestra cruise. We got our sheet music and had the first rehearsal for backing up the orchestra on Monday evening - we'll be in the late show at 10 pm.

Finally posting - bad internet connection at best Well, apparently Mrs Bear and I made it on board, and have WiFi at least partially resolved. We will report if the World Club WiFi is renewed segment by segment - or is awarded once for the entire 26 night booking. In the room, my computer is showing full signal strength, but the internet.cunard.com page does not load - posting this will be delayed a bit. Tuesday 25 October Boarding in Brooklyn was both quick and confusing - baggage drop off and security screening were repositioned. Mrs Bear was pushing her ‘rollator’ so we were shown to the expedited boarding line. The only paperwork that was examined were passports and the printed out boarding pass. A printout is preferred as the pass acquires stickers and stamps before its final scan at the ship’s entrance portal. We made our way to our room [5194 for those folks seeing score at home] and it was a sauna. Mrs Bear started the day with a lovely perky hairdo - that flattened and uncurled into a “wilted sweaty mess” by dinner time. We are booked for late seating dinner, and Cunard shoreside was contacted months ago linking our bookings to another couple (with special diet requirements). The folks on the ship has no record of the linkage, or the other couple’s special requirements. There is no polite term to describe the open seating fiasco (is ‘cattle call’ a polite term?). For our party, Mrs Bear was able to apply some pressure for at least a partial resolution. Dining staff _must_ be _cheerful_ about open seating as an ‘improvement’ no matter how may passengers in a row express a desire for a late seating reserved table. With the linked booking and invocation of ‘special needs’ we currently have a reserved table for the late seating. Put the room service door hanger out about midnight, and set the alarm for half an hour earlier than expected delivery. Wednesday 26 October The ball ‘formerly known as the Royal Cunard’ ball was scheduled for our first formal^H^H^H^HGala evening. Anthony Inglas filled the Royal Court theatre for his presentation on music and ocean liners - including details of the 8 players on RMS Titanic playing to the end. A spot of good news is Friday at 0945 guests interested in the passenger chorus should go to the Royal Court for auditions. This cheered up Mrs Bear no end. Mrs Bear and I decided to book spa ‘thermal suite’ passes - 7 visits each over the full length of the cruise. At dinner time, we had the same table *and* our wine found us - a nice dinner. There was a glass of some bubbly ‘from Captain Hall’ in lieu of a formal night reception. We decided to turn in early - but not set a pre-breakfast alarm. Thursday 27 October One of the short - 23 hour - days a reasonable excuse for a previous early night. Slept a bit late, but still in time for breakfast. We previously had located where american style bacon was available - but the Chiefs Gallery section of KC only had some rather liquid looking scrambled eggs to go with them. Better eggs in the main area. Went to an enrichment lecture on ‘400 years of observational astronomy’. Afterwards realized things will soon be an hour later, and went back to the cabin to ditch hearing aids and grab swim suits. This was followed by a light lunch in Carthinia. The spa thermal suite looked quite familiar despite the ‘Mareel’ rebranding. A number of lockers on the gents side were non functional, but my usual locker was fine. I noticed that the spa no longer provides combs, twin blade razors or shaving cream. One of the shower stalls was marked as out of order (same as 2019). Mrs Bear reports a similar state of affairs on the Ladies side. The pool area was missing one feature - the ‘waterfall’ that normally is between the two vigorous jets. We had a relaxing time, then rested up from our spa in the Kings Court for self service afternoon tea. When we checked in on Tuesday, both the ‘welcome aboard’ bubbly and the Champagne purchased with the celebration package were sitting warm on the table - no ice bucket in sight. A minor surprise as there was no ‘Pol Acker’ - instead it was ‘DUC De Valmer Brut’. We have not sampled it yet. Its a ‘Smart Attire’ night - I’ll exceed minimums with jacket and QM2 necktie.