bluemarble

Here's QV sailing past Cabos San Lucas a short time ago as seen on the Villa La Estancia webcam found on the cabovillas.com website. QV was originally scheduled to call at Cabo San Lucas today. That call was canceled when QV had to spend the day in Fuerte Amador for hull cleaning and inspection following her Panama Canal transit. Now it turns out she ended up at Cabos San Lucas briefly today after all to evacuate a patient with a medical emergency.

Thank you! That is the port authority website for Hawaii I was looking at earlier. I didn't realize the Traffic Schedule portion of that website contained the schedules that far out. That's a good find. I'll add that to my list of port authority websites who post their schedules well into the future.

I see they've corrected the titles for these voyages to indicate Cape Town instead of Dubai. Bizarrely, they've managed to change the title for M409A to New York to "Cape Town to Southampton", the same as M409. They do have the itinerary and number of nights correct though. Pricing and availability are now posted for both M409 (Cape Town to Southampton) and M409A (Cape Town to New York).

That agrees with what I've found elsewhere and reported on the "Cunard 2026 Itineraries Preview" thread. Did you find that on a port authority website for Honolulu? The one I've found only lists their cruise schedule for 2024.

QA was back to the same area to add some more low speed maneuvers during the early evening yesterday. Here is the combined track from both of those sets of maneuvers.

I'm seeing elsewhere that QA's maximum design speed is 22 knots. There are several spots on her past track around 3:15 UTC and a few more around 9:30 UTC where marinetraffic is showing her speed made it up to 22 knots.

Here's QA's track from earlier today. Some low speed maneuvers at that time.

I'm anticipating the announcement in February based on their post on their facebook page a couple days ago which talks about "300 awe inspiring new voyages" (including the world voyages) and concludes by stating "Look out for more information coming February 2024."

The new itineraries are posted but they haven't yet updated the titles for the voyages starting or ending in Dubai. M406B is still called "Sydney to Dubai" but the itinerary is Sydney to Cape Town M407A is still called "Hong Kong to Dubai" but the itinerary is Hong Kong to Cape Town M408 is still called "Singapore to Dubai" but the itinerary is Singapore to Cape Town M409 is still called "Dubai to Southampton" but the itinerary is Cape Town to Southampton M409A is still called "Dubai to New York" but the itinerary is Cape Town to New York That's progress anyway. All of the above are "Sold Out" at the moment. I imagine that will change once Cunard allocates available inventory to these segments.

@MaineCruiser243, in the Britannia restaurant you may choose fixed dining or open dining. For fixed dining on a QM2 crossing you have your choice of early sitting at 6:00pm or late sitting at 8:30pm. You will have the same table and wait staff each evening. You may request a table size (2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 people) but not a specific table. There will be a card waiting for you in your cabin when you embark informing you of your table number. For open dining on a QM2 crossing, you may dine any time from 6:00pm to 9:00pm but you won't have the same table or wait staff each evening. There will be a card waiting for you in your cabin when you embark indicating a time that has been reserved for you for the first evening. They ask that you make reservations for subsequent evenings using the onboard My Voyage facility but that's not strictly necessary. When you arrive at the restaurant for open dining there may be a queue until they are able to seat you. You register your preferred dining arrangement in the "Your dining choice" section found under "Booking Summary" when you log in to your booking in "My Cunard". Here's a screen shot showing a booking where we have requested the early sitting of fixed dining at a table for 8.

A note about the QM2 2024 Dress Code and Theme Schedule. I updated the QM2 document yesterday to reflect the changes to the world voyage itinerary rerouting QM2 around Africa for the return to Southampton. One of the dates originally scheduled for a gala evening was 12 April which is now the first of two port days in Cape Town. It's unlikely they will hold a gala evening on that date now, so I have predicted that gala evening will be moved to 14 April. I don't like to assume changes to the schedule like this. I also realize updating the dress code schedule for this itinerary change is low on Cunard's to-do list right know as it should be. When things settle down, I'd appreciate any updates to the QM2 dress code and theme schedules for the changes to her world voyage itinerary if they become available in your My Cunard calendar.

Not that this helps answer any questions about this topic, but I found it interesting that Cunard have added a post to their facebook page today celebrating National Hot Chocolate Day here in the US to promote their Alaska sailings. Quoting from that post: "Happy National Hot Chocolate Day! We can't wait to have a cosy hot chocolate while sailing around chilly Alaska! Who's joining us? ..."

Here's a partial view of QM2 at Cape Town this morning as seen on the "Port Control Cape Town Harbour" YouTube live stream courtesy of the folks at "vanilla.co.za". I wasn't sure QM2 was going to be visible since Norwegian Dawn is also at Cape Town today. Fortunately QM2 is at E-Berth within view here while Norwegian Dawn is at L-Berth well out of view off to the left.

It depends on whether you book a fare with a refundable or a non-refundable deposit. Cunard offers both type of fares. It used to be that virtually all Cunard fares offered in the US had refundable deposits. Then Cunard started introducing fares with non-refundable deposits on a regular basis a few years ago. On the Cunard US website you may notice a fare called "Our Lowest Fare". Elsewhere that fare is known as their "Value Fare". That fare has a non-refundable deposit. Occasionally other special limited time promotions are offered in the US that have non-refundable deposits. Now having said that, if you are also considering a Queens Grill suite for your 2025 booking, that might not factor into the situation. As far as I know, Cunard does not offer "Our Lowest Fare" on grill suite bookings. I can't speak to whether that's always the case on all their various promotions though. Do check the terms and conditions on the fare you are considering booking for 2025 to verify that the deposit is refundable. Edit to add: If you are booking through a travel agent, you may also want to check to see if that agent charges any non-refundable service fees. The agent I book with does not, but again, I can't speak to all travel agent policies.

As an aside, here's a comparison of QM2's and QV's itineraries from Colombo to Southampton as QM2 basically follows QV around Africa one day later. Note QM2 and QV are now both scheduled to be in Cape Town on 12 April. Date QM2 QV 30-Mar-24 Colombo 31-Mar-24 Colombo 1-Apr-24 2-Apr-24 3-Apr-24 4-Apr-24 Port Louis 5-Apr-24 Port Louis 6-Apr-24 7-Apr-24 8-Apr-24 9-Apr-24 Durban Port Elizabeth 10-Apr-24 11-Apr-24 Cape Town 12-Apr-24 Cape Town Cape Town 13-Apr-24 Cape Town 14-Apr-24 Walvis Bay 15-Apr-24 Walvis Bay 16-Apr-24 17-Apr-24 18-Apr-24 19-Apr-24 20-Apr-24 21-Apr-24 22-Apr-24 23-Apr-24 Las Palmas Tenerife 24-Apr-24 Funchal 25-Apr-24 Lisbon 26-Apr-24 27-Apr-24 28-Apr-24 Southampton Southampton

Fortunately that's not too many more sea days than the original itinerary from Colombo to Southampton. I count 18 sea days on that original itinerary; 19 if you count the Suez Canal transit as a sea day. It's probably the repetition of Port Louis, Durban, Cape Town and Walvis Bay on this return leg that would concern me more if I were doing the full world voyage. But Cunard likely didn't have a lot of options in that regard. On the positive side, this new itinerary is adding a call to Lisbon (and Las Palmas). That makes up for the canceled call to Lisbon that was originally scheduled as the first port of call on the world voyage after Southampton.

Cunard are teasing the realease of additional itineraries on their facebook page. "Discover over 300 awe inspiring new voyages with our Cunard Queens. Norwegian Fjords, epic World Voyages, Caribbean escapes and so much more await. Whether your ideal adventure involves a visit to a bustling metropolis, warm Mediterranean sun or spellbinding glaciers and valleys. With our biggest launch ever coming up soon, you’re sure to find the voyage that makes your dream holiday a reality. Look out for more information coming February 2024." Unfortunately they aren't being more specific than February 2024 for the announcement date at this point, but at most that's just one month more to wait.

Marinetraffic is reporting her average speed as 10 kn and maximum speed as 10.1 kn which is rather bizarre as well.

It's also interesting to note that her destination indicated by AIS is Palermo. There is a Fincantieri facility in Palermo, so perhaps that's her next stop after her sea trials. Just speculating.

Welcome to our game, @Sarnia 432! Always good to see new players. Torshavn is the identification I came up with. @sogne will be able to confirm for us.

You are on the right track. This port's name is derived from Norse mythology.

That's correct. That is indeed a very recent photo of QE at Port Lincoln today, the first time a Cunard ship has called there as far as I know. And it wasn't a scheduled call until very recently when QE's current cruise was diverted away from Queensland because of Tropical Cyclone Kirrily.

Here's a photo of a Cunard ship at a port we haven't seen yet and it's not on our unseen ports list either. This photo is courtesy of Justin Merrigan.

Oops! Of course the previous set of locks are the Pedro Miguel locks. To complete the trilogy, here's QV at the Miraflores locks as seen on the Panama Canal Authority's webcam.

Here's QV entering the San Miguel locks as seen on the Panama Canal Authority's Cerro Luisa webcam.