bluemarble

That's correct. I've been saving that webcam capture of QE's arrival at Kanazawa since this past April when QE called there. Those images I posted were captured from the Ono Lighthouse webcam. Edit to add: It's certainly been a good learning experience for me. I knew nothing of Karakuri puppets until I did the research to figure out what that domed structure is.

Another thing to keep in mind about the Royal Court Theatre on Queen Anne is its seating capacity. The specs for Queen Anne indicate a total passenger capacity of approximately 3,000 with a seating capacity of 825 in the theatre. That compares to approximately 2,700 passengers on QM2 with a seating capacity of 1,105 in the theatre. Plus there is also Illuminations on QM2 providing an additional 500 seats for concurrent events. I'll be interested to see how that's going to work out on Queen Anne. Queen Anne will also have the Bright Lights Society. Not sure what the capacity will be for that venue although it doesn't sound like it will be all that large.

Thank you @matdark and @Host Hattie. I was disoriented. That's the minnows pool we're looking at on deck 6, not the terrace pool on deck 8 with the band stand.

It looks like they've redone the area aft of the main pool to add another smaller pool in the middle between the hot tubs on the sides. Didn't there used to be a band stand in that location or am I disoriented?

Here's a capture of QM2's departure from Southampton this evening as seen on the "Cruise Cam" stream of the Solent Ships YouTube channel. Some interesting new lighting apparent here.

Yes indeed. I usually listen along to the VTS Radio feed Solent Ships provide on their Discord server to hear the counts for myself. Today I just reported the counts as listed in the chat by the blue spanners. It was lovely to see QM2 lit up with her new lighting, especially the blue/purple aft lighting, as she departed Southampton this evening. I'll post a capture on one of the other threads discussing what's new with QM2 following her drydock.

QM2 is near capacity for her return to service on her short two-night cruise to Zeebrugge following her drydock in Rotterdam. Here are the figures. November 16, 2023 QM2: 2576 pax; 1251 crew (pax/crew: 2.06) That's ≈96% of her 2695 lower berth passenger capacity.

Wouldn't you know, the last QM2 voyage for the US Black Friday Event happens to be M509, the one just before M510A. That one is showing a $150 per person discount on a sheltered balcony for the Black Friday Event compared to the Explore with More fare ($2,249 per person versus $2,399). But then M410A is already showing a lower fare for a sheltered balcony ($2,049 per person) at the Explore with More fare, so go figure. As previously mentioned, the fares shown on the Cunard UK website appear to be more attractive. M509 is showing £1,399 per person for a sheltered balcony at the full Cunard fare while M510A is showing £1,299 per person. Plus those UK fares include taxes, fees and port expenses while the US fares I quoted do not. I don't think those of you in the UK should feel left out.

For today's hint on my unidentified port image, I'll provide some more detail about that dome/hut museum. That happens to be a museum dedicated to an art form unique to the region; one that involves mechanized puppets.

Yes, QE2 called regularly at St. Helena on her Southampton-Cape Town itineraries. Once again @Lanky Lad helped us out with this photo of one of QE2's calls to St. Helena during 2000 on our "Where in the World?" thread. More recently, QM2 called at St. Helena on 30 March 2010 during a segment of her 2010 world voyage from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro. I've mentioned that segment before because Cunard apparently does not count that as one of QM2's transatlantic crossings even though it's technically a crossing, albeit of the South Atlantic. I have to omit that one in order to match the counts Cunard has advertised to mark QM2's various milestone transatlantic crossings over the years, including her upcoming 400th crossing next August. I also have St. Helena listed on QE's 2016 world voyage itinerary for 21 January 2016 and on QV's 2016 world voyage itinerary for 27 April 2016. There's a post on this forum indicating QV's call to St. Helena was just a cruise-by call though. Not sure about QE's call there.

Right. The original login functionality on the UK website was similar as I recall. About all you could do was update your marketing preferences although I believe it did also auto-populate your name, address and Cunard World Club number when making on booking on the Cunard website. Then that functionality went "poof" on the US website with only that bizarre error page indicating it was "undergoing maintenance repairs".

There's a gap in QV's 2024 schedule between 30 October and 15 November 2024. Seems likely that's the timeframe for QV's next drydock. QE underwent a drydock in Singapore earlier this year during a gap in her schedule between 17 March and 3 April 2023.

I think these are our latest seen/not seen lists. Thanks for the reminder since I haven't posted updated lists for quite a while. Where in the World 2023-08-15.txt Cunard ports not seen yet 2023-08-15.txt

Here's today's hint in the form of another view of the unidentified port from the same webcam, this time panned to the right to show more of the port but without a Cunard ship in view this time. That same dome/hut museum is at the far left in this view.

Again, to help clarify the situation with the missing "login" functionality to "My Account" in the US, here's what happens if you attempt to backdoor into that functionality on the Cunard US website. It's clear their teams aren't working particularly hard to get that functionality up and running again in the US since it's been this way for several years now.

@TouchstoneFeste, just to clarify, it has been several years since there has been a "login" link on the Cunard US website. We don't have that functionality here in the US to log in to what's called "My Account" to do things like view our voyage history which is available to those in the UK. There was a fairly recent website redesign which you have noticed where they have introduced a new banner with "My Cunard" now found under an "Account" menu item on the banner. As you say, it now takes a few more steps to actually get to the page to manage your booking on the US website since that link to "My Cunard" takes you to a page where you have to scroll down to find the link to "Visit My Cunard". I don't find that redesign particularly helpful. What I have done is bookmark a link to the "Welcome to My Cunard" page to allow access to that page to manage my booking with one click (without even having to start on the Cunard website in the first place).

I am gratified to be the one who's reply has allowed this amazing thread to reach the milestone of 5000 posts! I'd like to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone who has contributed to keep this thread going for so long. What an excellent idea started by @Host Hattie over three years ago! It has certainly turned into something of a hobby for me both to collect images to contribute and to identify those contributed by others. For the unidentified port image at hand, I'll follow our practice of providing one hint per day, from more to less obscure, until someone is able to identify it. For today's hint I'll start by confirming the port is not in Turkey (or New Mexico). I didn't realize what that domed structure is at the time, but it could very well prove to be a useful feature to identify this port. It seems out of place around other the port facilities in the image since it happens to be a museum.

I'm reviving this thread which is over a year old since I just noticed Queen Mary 2 photos are available on this site once again. They can be found via the Reviews section or directly at https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruise/cunard/queen-mary-2-qm2/photos. I haven't been keeping close tabs on this issue although I've been checking occasionally, perhaps about once every month or two.

I don't recall any Cunard promotions which have included anything to do with spa services or internet packages. Sometimes promotions include on board credit, pre-payment of the Hotel and Dining Service charge (aka auto-gratuities), drinks packages, vouchers for the alternative dining venues, or what they call free upgrades (where for example they price the lowest category of balcony the same as an oceanview). This Black Friday sale is offering on board credit which I suppose might temper the amount of the fare reductions being offered. It's been more typical in the past for limited-time promotions such as the Black Friday sale to simply cut the fare with no other perks being offered.

The wording in the publicly-available terms and conditions this year is different from last year's Black Friday promotion. What I have from last year states "may not be combined with other public, exclusive, group, and past guest promotions." I think what I have from the 2018 Black Friday promotion might be wording meant for travel agents. That states "may not be combinable with cruise night sale, group amenities, and do not count toward tour conductor. Also it is not combinable with any other public, group or past passenger discounts." By the way, the publicly-available Terms and Conditions for the current "Explore with More" promotion also state "may not be combined with other offers or promotions (aside from those listed herein)." It does not mention if that promotion is combinable with Onboard Sales programs although I suspect it should be. The publicly-available Terms and Conditions for the long-standing "Sailing Soon Savings" promotion state "may not combine with any other public, exclusive, or past guest offers."

Let's try this one. It's a webcam capture showing a Cunard ship arriving at a port we've seen before. I'm figuring this one might be a challenge but let's see if you can prove me wrong about that.

I believe this is a misunderstanding caused by some verbiage in the Carnival Corporation & PLC Shareholder Benefit document which states "This benefit is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash and, cannot be used for casino credits/charges and gratuities charged to your onboard account." This was mentioned on another thread as possibly being new verbiage restricting the shareholder benefit from being used to pay gratuities. But similar verbiage has always been in the shareholder benefit document (or at least as far back as the oldest shareholder benefit document I have in my archives from 2013). In practice, the shareholder benefit can be used to pay the onboard Hotel and Dining Service Charge which used to be referred to as "gratuities".

Understood. That's what I meant by "complete" the registration process. In order to activate the functionality to view your voyage history, you do need to perform the step where you provide your Cunard World Club number for your Cunard account login. And that only works if you are in the UK. Sorry, I could have been more clear on that point.

Right. The Terms and Conditions for the offer on the customer facing US website simply state "may not be combined with other offers or promotions (aside from those listed herein)." Then there aren't any other offers or promotions specifically listed herein that I'm seeing.

The sale prices won't be visible until November 16th. At that time there should be a link to view all the voyages for this offer. You should also see another fare option to choose from then (presumably "Black Friday Offer") in addition to the "Explore with More" fare when viewing the specific voyage you are interested in.