TheOldBear

2 hours ago, 2Oldpeopleinlove said:

We'll be going on a roundtrip TA in December. How likely are we to want bathing suits? Will the covered pool be open? We do plan to buy passes for the spa. I assume we'll need bathing suits for that, yes?

The deck 12 [Pavillon] pool and hot tubs will be open, as will the spa. Check the prices offered for the spa day pass - the per day price drops with multiple days. Check with the spa folks - on our last round trip [M929B] the spa insisted that the 6 day spa pass purchased on boarding expired in Hamburg after only using 4 days. The purser's office / guest relations was able to straiten things out.

Bathing suits are required in the spa's 'thermal suite' [pool, hot tub, steam room, saunas]. There is a locker room, so I prefer to change there.

I would not be surprised to see folks in the deck 8 [terrace] or deck 6 [minnows] hot tubs. 

3 minutes ago, ducklite said:

Seabourn, SIlversea, and Crystal are the most expensive lines listed, and they all have formal nights--that are enforced.  The Grills on Cunard are the same, with Cunard being the sole line that I'm aware of that has different requirements among the "classes."

 

No super premium or luxury cruise will seat someone in the dining rooms in the evening who is in shorts and a t-shirt--not the case on the mass markets.

On Cunard, the dress code applies to the majority of public spaces on the ship, without any distinction based on stateroom category. [no class specific areas on Cunard similar to NCL 'Haven' or MSC 'Yacht Club']

On QM2, casual dress is limited to the buffet, the adjoining 'Carthenia' lounge, the pub, casino [both new this year] and the G32 disco - this implies that casual dress folks will be walking through dress code compliant spaces [e.g. waking through the Queens Room on the way to G32] but I have not noticed any issues.

28 minutes ago, travellingnana said:

We will be disembarking a Norway cruise in Southampton.  We are US citizens.  Will we have to go through customs, or can we just walk off and go?  Thanks.

Its going to vary with the ship and itinerary - for example, our recent cruise had on board UK customs both on the NY to Southampton and Hamberg to Southhampton legs.

There was no id check other than scanning the ship's card leaving and returning to the ship.

What was odd is that there were no passport stamps for the entire cruise, and I needed to show my passport only once - when returning to the ship after a Normandy tour.

35 minutes ago, sealeggs said:

We all like to get Dressed for Formal Nights. That is the reason I bought my Tux. My whole family dresses for Formal nights. Now that being said it doesn't ruin it for us when others do not.

There were eight formal [Cunard calls them 'gala'] nights on a 19 day round trip crossing. The tux needed cleaning, but I apparently avoided noticeable stills.

I even hand tied a real bow tie for five of eight nights [only needed the 'emergency backup tie' three times].

On my recent cruise [M929B, NY round trip] I had two 120 minute internet allocations. I exhausted the eastbound allocation between Hamburg and Southampton [technically on the westbound M930 leg] and signed back in later that day to start the next allocation.

Things were inconsistent if the round trip was one booking or two. For example, the Spa folks insisted that the unused spa pass days had expired at Hamburg - The Purser's office/guest relations was able to intervene so we could use all the days we paid for.

There was only one 'world club' party invite on the eastbound leg [checked with out 'diamond' status table mates - they also only got a single party invite]. There was a 'Captains' party on each leg.

Either of the suits will be fine.

Tuxedos were most common on 'gala' / formal nights - over 70% I would guess. Suit and tie also complies with the dress code, and that was the vast majority of the remaining gents.

Exceptions included one of our table mates - luggage was lost between home and boarding in Brooklyn. He made do with sport jacket, wool dress slacks and an ascot over an oxford cloth shirt [gave him one one mine]. 

We did the Brooklyn to Brooklyn round trip - sheltered balcony, deck 5.

i don’t recall seeing the Boardwalk open, at least I never noticed any tables on deck 12.

We chose this round trip as the eastbound crossing was the National Symphony, the space week westbound and Steve Payne on the Hamburg legs were nice. It did seem that Steve Payne was the only other person wearing a QM2 tie.

Our only disappointment was that we both picked up a nasty sinus infection - still working through the medication from my third medical center visit. 

The Spa definitely is overdue for a refit - this week the facilities [pool, hot tub] were closed/roped off for a couple of days this week while the overhead above the hot tub was being fixed [large piece fell off]. The pool was open yesterday while repairs continued. Discussing the state of the facilities [balky lockers] with another patron, I remarked that I have not noticed and significant updates since 2008 - he replied 'none since 2004'.

Outside of the spa, I noticed a myriad of 'deferred' maintenance details & deficiencies. On our balcony [5132] the fire sprinkler brackets had failed, and were replaced by four zip ties. [some 'running rust' from the rail where the sprinkler line should have been fastened]  Both the balcony and bathroom doors had loose / missing screws. Mrs Bear noticed a broken door in one of the ladies rooms. We both noticed lots of little things that added up to a very noticeable pattern.

I would expect a substantial update the the WiFi onboard - the system was *adequate* in 2008, but is laughably far behind the times for today - the LeHavre to D-Day beaches tour bus had much faster satellite internet.

We have a dog/house sitter - and a general contractor son doing renovations, so the house is accounted for.

The checked luggage is packed, ready to go - just need to put electronics and other carryon items into their bags. [actually three bags - a big one with the wine, a small one stacked on top with electronics & stuff and my old camera bag]

The only think that will be in my [jacket] pocket at check in will be my passport. The top of the camera bag will be for anything that normally rides in a pocket plus sun and reading glasses. Mrs Bear will be pampering her new knee, and not bringing a carryon.

Considering our most recent cruise and the one leaving this Sunday are round trip crossings, I think that would indicate a preference for sea days.

The roll call for the cruise would be in the QM2 sub forum, of the “Cunard Roll Calls” forum. Just scroll down the page, the roll call section us below the cruise line forums, and above the photo and technology section

Back in 2017 the pools on Queen Mary 2's deck 8 [Terrace Pool] and deck 6 [Splash Pool] rarely had more than a single swimmer, and no one was using a deck chair.

Then again, it was the middle of the North Atlantic, with a nearby tropical storm supplying Force 11 winds. 😉

We'll see what happens Sunday - muster station will be in Kings Court, and see if we need our PFDs

Cunard does seem a reasonable fit if you prefer formality.  I've got a pair of the two night short cruises [Southampton to and from Hamburg] coming up in between eastbound and westbound transatlantics. I have noted some remarks that the short cruises are 'not like' longer sailings, but I have not noticed a discussion of this in detail. These short cruises feature a formal/gala night ['black tie' dress code in most public areas].

There are three (and a half) main dining rooms, depending on your stateroom category

The Britannia dining has two dinner seatings [with assigned seating] plus open seating for breakfast and lunch.

The Queens & Princess Grill (and Britannia 'Club') have assigned seating (its always your chair), but do not have fixed seating times within their service hours.

Back in 2017 the Upgrade Fairy blessed our tablemates with a Queens Grill upgrade, but they elected to dine with us in late seating Britannia. 

Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 likely is the best promenade of any ship currently in service,

its about three laps to the mile, with an enclosed breakwater forward of the superstructure. 

How about wishing for  new A9 model, with a true 'global shutter' ?

I would advise getting at least one extra battery, a couple of memory cards, and a lens hood for the 70-300. Also take lots of pre-cruise pictures to get re-aquainted with the camera.

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

I wonder what the I-95 is called on british cruise ships, I tried googling it but no luck

I have heard a reference to the 'Burma Road'

Do you want a smaller interchangeable lens camera, or a fixed lens camera?

For interchangeable lens cameras, look at some of the micro four thirds bodies from Panasonic or Olympus.  The Olympus OMD M5 mk2, with weather sealed 14-140 mm lens typically sells for about 1k or less (new model expected almost any day now

For fixed lens lens cameras some of the ‘bridge’ zooms (like my ancient FZ50) are fairly large - but the integrated zoom provides angles of view/telephoto reach that would take multiple zoom lenses for larger sensor bodies. This range includes the current large sensor cameras like the Sony RX10 series, and Panasonic FZ1000 series. The ‘tiny sensor with ludicrous zoom’ examples are the Nikon P series. 

We’ll be doing Cunard.’s tour of Juno and Sword next month, and back in 2017 did the American sector, also on a ships tour.

if you do not want to take a ship sponsored tour, you may want to search this forum for information on Overlord tours, and also for threads about car rental at the port. 

27 minutes ago, Underwatr said:

Good find, but he's only shown as Executive Producer. Dean Parisot is listed as Director for Bill & Ted.

"Face the Music" - shouldn't that be filmed on the National Symphony crossing?

Amazon was showing the FZ 1000 mk1 for less than $500 

I think the current top model small sensor FZ is the 330

if I was looking to replace my ancient FZ50 I think I would look at getting the FZ1000 rather than a 12-200 lens for my Olympus

20 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

In particular, take a look at post #22 by TheOldBear from that earlier thread indicating the Cunard D-Day landings excursions are priced at $145 for QM2's upcoming September 27, 2019 call at Le Havre.

 

 

 

Also the Cunard excursion includes a lunch stop.  [A very nice lunch stop]

There have been threads started by folks relocating, and bringing lots of luggage [more than will fit under the bed in a Britannia class cabin]

Cunard does have per item weight limits on checked luggage - but not on the number of items

9 minutes ago, BandBWCsmom said:

Forgive me if this is redundant to all of you that answer these questions, but it appears the state department says you should always take your actual passport on shore during an excursion. It also appears that the cruise line says a government issued ID (license) is sufficient with your sign and sail card. 

 

What do most of you do? take the real passport on shore? 

This innocent and sensible question is apt to trigger another bout of an irreconcilable dispute.

i tend to leave my passport in the safe, unless it is required. For example in 2017 passports were examined and stamped before and after shore excursions at LaHavre.