bluemarble

QM2 in Ålesund / Norway today. AIDAperla is also in port with us.

That does appear to be the case on the current voyage from our observation as well. We haven't tried turning up without a reservation, but there have been no apparent queues whenever we've arrived for our relatively later reserved times generally around 8:00pm.

The My Voyage site does allow you to make reservations for the first evening. Assuming your desired time is available to reserve when you board, I presume that would work.

You may make dinner reservations for the alternative extra charge dining venues (Steakhouse at the Verandah and Kings Court/Lido Alternative Dining) in advance beginning 14 days prior to departure. You may only make reservations for open dining in the Britannia Restaurant once you are on board. If you have been assigned to open dining for your voyage, there will be a card in your cabin when you board listing a time that has been reserved for you for the first evening.

With open dining, you may make dinner reservations for a specific time (at 15 minute intervals) using the My Voyage site. Currently on board QM2, the evening theatre show times are 8:00pm and 10:15pm. Both shows times are the same offering.

An update on the Welcome Aboard sparkling wine offered in our Britannia Balcony cabin upon embarking QM2 today. We received this "Two Truths" Chardonnay Pinot Noir NV from South Eastern Australia. Not sure the skull on the label provides much of a warm welcome aboard fealing, but maybe that's just me. I"m no expert to offer any sort of informed opinion as to the quality of this offering compared to Pol Acker or the other recent alternatives.

Please double-check the start date. I believe you are asking about the May 16th crossing starting in Hamburg. As with most of the short 2-night segments between Hamburg and Southampton, the evening of the one full sea day (May 17th in this case) prior to arrival the next day in either Hamburg or Southampton is designated "Gala Evening - Optional". The crossing starting in Southampton on May 18th has the usual two Gala Evenings. That one is an 8-night crossing with a call in Le Havre on May 19th. The Gala Evenings for that crossing from Southampton are May 20th (Black & White) and May 24th (Masquerade).

Correct. The port is Kagoshima. That was QE's port of call on April 30th. When @sfred mentioned our "webcam photos were taken recently", they we taken very recently. Mine is a capture from the "Makurazaki - Japan Live cam" of Skyline Webcams. It's showing QE passing Makurazaki at 11:10pm on her way to Busan after departing Kagoshima about four hours earlier. That's only approximately Kagoshima (about 30 miles as the crow flies, something more like 50 NM sailing distance). Makurazaki is within Kagoshima Prefecture and I figured that was better than nothing to help move Kagoshima to our "seen" ports list.

According to the schedule on the website for the Port Authority of New South Wales (www.portauthoritynsw.com.au), QE will be at the Overseas Passenger Terminal on January 22, 2024.

@Colin_Cameron found the call to Stamford. It was a call by QE2 on May 23, 1987.

I'll contribute this webcam capture from the general vicinity of @sfred's last contribution. I doubt this will help any to identify the port, but it does help slightly to keep to our game's parameters because that white blip at the far left is a Cunard ship. I say general vicinity since it's actually about 30 miles away from the cruise terminal as the crow files. This is the best I could come up with for this port to show any semblance of a Cunard ship on a webcam image.

No, they do not. Coach transfers to/from Heathrow, Gatwick, St Pancras or Victoria Coach Station are available add-ons for an additional charge of $90 per person.

Oh yes indeed, they still advertise transatlantic crossings to/from London for the US market. I suppose they figure London resonates better than Southampton for potential customers over here. This is from a recent email.

Oh yes, there was this one as well, originally posted by @Dranuc2016. This was for what was to be Queen Anne's inaugural westbound crossing in January 2024 to Fort Lauderdale via the Azores and Port Canaveral. This photo is even more obviously New York rather than any of the calls on that itinerary.

Before the shutdown, all QM2 crossings had three gala evenings (as @D&N has mentioned). The gala evenings were on days 2, 4 and 6 with the evening of day 4 having no theme. Since the resumption of service, the evening of day 4 is no longer a gala evening. When I examine the dress code schedules for 2019 and what was planned for 2020, it's a bit hit-or-miss concerning the number of gala evenings on 14-night voyages. Some of them did indeed have only three gala evenings while others had four scheduled.

Unfortunately there are other examples like this. First of all, here is the full Lofoten Islands photo for voyage M325 to the Norwegian Fjords. The URL for that photo contains "Olden.jpg". Now Olden is on the itinerary for M325, but of course this isn't a photo of Olden. Take a look at voyage M315, Norwegian Fjords. It uses this photo. The URL for this photo contains "Stavanger.jpg". Stavanger is on the itinerary for voyage M315. However this is actually a photo of Alesund which is not on the itinerary. So Cunard is being sloppy with how they identify some of their photos. Apparently someone thought that photo for M325 was Olden and that photo for M315 was Stavanger. The example I believe @Host Hattie may be remembering was for a transatlantic crossing on Queen Anne from Fort Lauderdale to Southampton in February 2024. That voyage has been canceled, but it had been using this photo of Central Park in New York.

That has been the new normal since the restart of operations in 2021. That corresponds to when Cunard cut back on the number of Gala Evenings from three to two per crossing on QM2. Cunard does state the following on their "What to pack" page. "At least twice on each seven-night voyage we’ll host a Gala Evening" However, that does not necessarily mean they will host four Gala Evenings on a voyage of fourteen nights. They will host two Gala Evenings each week of a fourteen-night voyage if it is also sold as individual seven-night voyages. But if it is only sold as a fourteen night voyage, they typically only schedule three Gala Evenings now. There was one case shortly after QM2 resumed operations where a 28-night Caribbean cruise in Jan-Feb 2022 had only four Gala Evenings scheduled during that entire cruise. Quoting from my "Dress Code and Theme Schedules for 2021-22" thread: "Now here's a final update on the number of gala evenings per week for each ship for 2021-22. QM2: 1.87 Gala Evenings per week QE: 1.68 Gala Evenings per week QV: 1.75 Gala Evenings per week"

OK, I'll officially identify this one as Fukuoka, Japan. One more port we can now move from the "unseen" to "seen" ports list. Thanks for posting @alc13!

I have read elsewhere they will indeed be having the Black and White theme as advertised instead of the Roaring Twenties theme and the calendar in the cruise personaliser (My Cunard) has now been corrected accordingly.

I figured this one would have been identified by now. I imagine @sfred knows. For those who would like some hints, the light blue sign at the far left says "Hakata". And the wording on the top of the roof ends in "uoka". Combine that with the apparent ethnicity of the drummers and I think you'll be able to identify this one.

The comped dinner in the steakhouse from your travel agent won't show up anywhere within your booking in My Cunard. If you'd like confirmation of that, ask your travel agent to provide you with a "Booking Confirmation (Guest Copy)" from Cunard that lists it.

I don't have clarification, but I have a theory. That Roaring Twenties theme (on May 5th) is probably just a hold-over from the schedule for the eastbound crossing originally scheduled during the dates of this new Coronation Celebration cruise. May 5th would have been the second gala evening for that crossing and the second gala evenings of eastbound crossings are always Roaring Twenties. I suspect no one has updated the dress code and theme schedule from that eastbound crossing to what will actually happen on this new Coronation Celebration cruise. My hunch is May 3rd might be the mentioned Black & White gala since it's typical for Cunard to schedule a Black & White gala on the first sea day after departing Southampton. I'm not sure if they would plan May 6th, coronation day itself, as a gala evening since that's the evening prior to disembarkation. Of course they certainly might make an exception given the importance of the day.

OK, I'll take this one now. This is a view of the cruise terminal at Kanazawa, Japan. Another port we can now move from the "unseen" to the "seen" ports list.

Time to amend these counts to take into account the two crossings recently canceled. The 2023 crossings count drops from 18 to 16. QM2 Crossings Per Year 2004 = 15 2005 = 26 2006 = 20 2007 = 23 2008 = 24 2009 = 23 2010 = 21 2011 = 21 2012 = 20 2013 = 18 2014 = 18 2015 = 22 2016 = 21 2017 = 24 2018 = 24 2019 = 24 2020 = 1 2021 = 1 2022 = 26 2023 = 16 2024 = 20 Total QM2 crossings through 2024 = 408. If Cunard's counts agree with mine, the westbound crossing departing Southampton on August 16, 2024 now should be QM2's 400th transatlantic crossing. Sorry to those who were anticipating the July 21, 2024 crossing might be the one for that milestone.

Plus, I'd be concerned if we in the US booked this through the UK office we might end up booking under the UK terms and conditions. Among other things that would require £2 million of medical insurance cover. At least that's something to clarify for anyone from the US who might want to try to book that Coronation Celebration Voyage.