bluemarble

That's a tool I use from time to time if I can't figure it out otherwise. But if it provides more than just a general hint at the location, requiring no further research to verify, I'll take a pass on identifying that image. Lately I've mostly been using it to determine how challenging my own contributions of ports we've already seen are likely to be.

Well done, @Yaldi. Those are both webcam captures from the Puerto de Santander website showing QV's maiden call there on October 27, 2022. That website has multiple webcams with three of them providing views of QV's departure that day. I posted a capture from one of them at the time on the "Queen Victoria current location" thread and have been saving the other two for later use here. Here are the uncropped images for reference.

Oh, sorry, I see now you are from Melbourne and your posting history indicates you are booked on a 2-night cruise in January. So you are posting about the Melbourne-Sydney cruise January 5-7, 2023 (and of course aren't using US date order). As you no doubt noticed, I previously had January 6, 2023 for QE marked down as a Smart Attire evening. I don't recall where I got that information or how old it might be. I will go ahead and switch that date to Gala Evening now per your report here. Cunard do often schedule a Gala Evening for the sea day between Melbourne and Sydney to accommodate those on the short 2-night itineraries. But they also tend to schedule those Gala Evenings without themes. Case in point is the cruise from Sydney to Melbourne departing later today. There is a Gala Evening scheduled tomorrow, the sea day before Melbourne, but it also doesn't have a theme listed.

Here's a follow-up image for today. This is a different webcam capture from the same afternoon showing a partial view of the Cunard ship as it was just getting underway from the same port. Again I have cropped some of the full webcam image to prevent google image search from recognizing it immediately. Mostly what I've cropped out are a few more cranes off to the right and more of the bridge structure similar to what's shown in this view.

Lower berth capacity is essentially not counting the extra capacity of cabins with third and fourth berths (where those are often configured as upper berths). I don't know for sure if it counts extra berths such as sofa beds that aren't physically "upper" berths, but I suspect it does not. In general it seems to be a pretty good way to measure how full a ship is since it's difficult for a ship to sail with all its extra berths occupied. Cruise lines strive to sail at greater than 100% capacity, meaning more than the lower berth capacity. As an aside, it's interesting to note QM2's lower berth capacity increased from 2,620 to 2,695 after the 2016 remastering. But I don't think her maximum passenger capacity changed by much. The remastering added quite a few new double occupancy cabins on deck 13 but quite a few of the previous four berth cabins were also reclassified to only allow double occupancy after the remastering.

Gala evenings don't always have themes. It sounds like your voyage might have a non-themed gala evening scheduled for June 1, 2023. Are you on the QE voyage from Yokohama to Vancouver from May 24 to June 8, 2023? Please let me know which other evenings are scheduled as gala evenings on your voyage and what the themes are going to be on those evenings. Thanks.for your help to fill in the schedule.

Not sure what's typical for this time of year. It's certainly better than last year around this time when I was reporting less than 60% of capacity for QM2 and QE with QV not yet back in service. I suppose there are still some cabins being held back for possible isolation use on QV although I don't know that for sure. If so, that 87% figure for QV today does sound pretty good to me.

Here are the numbers for QV's departure today on her Atlantic Coast Adventure cruise to Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal. QV - December 11, 2022: 1820 pax; 963 crew; pax/crew: 1.89 That's ≈87% of her 2081 lower berth passenger capacity.

Let's try this one. This is a webcam capture showing a distant view of a Cunard ship departing a port we've already seen. I've cropped the webcam banner for obvious reasons, but I've also cropped a portion of the remaining image so that it's not instantly recognizable to a google image search.

On recent QM2 voyages (including our Caribbean cruise in November), the starboard side of deck 5 forward of the B lifts was closed off for possible isolation purposes. I figure that section would account for a reduction of about 100 in the available lower berth capacity.

Still probably not quite waving distance, but I calculate QM2 and QV got within 6NM of each other this time.

For those who might still be interested in this topic, I'm back on the job with a Southampton VTS radio feed that's functioning once again after a long hiatus. Here are the counts for QM2's departure today on her Dutch Christmas Markets cruise. QM2 - December 10, 2022: 2457 pax; 1286 crew; pax/crew: 1.91 That's ≈91% of her 2695 lower berth passenger capacity.

Here is the recent history for the announcement of the world/exotic voyages (or winter/spring schedules). World/Exotic voyage schedule announcement dates 2024: Announced May 4, 2022; On Sale May 17/18, 2022 (QA), May 24/25, 2022 (QM2,QV,QE) 2023: Announced Mar 9, 2021; On Sale March 16/17, 2021 2022: Announced Dec 12, 2019; On Sale December 18/19, 2019 2021: Announced Mar 4, 2019; On Sale March 12/13, 2019 2020: Announced Mar 2, 2018; On Sale March 19/20, 2018 2019: Announced Mar 13, 2017; On Sale March 28/29, 2017 These are the initial announcement dates. I've omitted the subsequent dates when replacement voyages were announced for voyages that were impacted the past couple years.

Here are the dates when Cunard has announced their summer/autumn schedules and when they have gone on sale the last few years. Those are the schedules for the remainder of the year after the world voyages (or winter/spring schedules) which are announced earlier. Summer/Autumn voyage schedule announcement dates 2024: Announced Nov 29, 2022; On Sale Dec 6/7, 2022 (except QE) 2023: Announced Jan 18, 2022; On Sale Feb 1/2, 2022 2022: Announced Nov 5, 2020; On Sale Nov 17, 2020 2021: Announced Sep 17, 2019; On Sale Sep 24/25, 2019 (except QE Alaska) 2020: Announced Sep 13, 2018; On Sale Sep 24/25, 2018 (except QE Alaska) 2019: Announced Sep 5, 2017; On Sale Sep 14/15, 2017 (except QE Alaska) 2018: Announced Sep 6, 2016; On Sale Sep 20/21, 2016 As you can see, pre-Covid, Cunard was consistently announcing those schedules during September two years prior. There was indeed discussion that Cunard might try to get back closer to that schedule this year with an October announcement. But that didn't happen. Plus nothing at all has been announced yet for QE beyond her previously announced Japan season in spring 2024, not just a delay in announcing her Alaska season. That's different this year. So make of this what you will. As @david,Mississauga has pointed out, this history hasn't proven all that helpful for predicting announcement dates in recent years.

I have little doubt you will be happy on any QM2 voyage. But a transatlantic crossing is the quintessential QM2 experience in my view. The British Isles cruise does offer 12 nights instead of only 7 nights for a crossing so that's an advantage (unless you do a 14-night roundtrip crossing). There is one 14-night QM2 roundtrip crossing out of New York on the 2024 schedule.

No special insight on my part other than the assumption QM2 has a drydock/refit scheduled for October 22-November 15, 2023 because of that gap in her published 2023 schedule. I'm also figuring it's likely the work will be done at Blohm+Voss in Hamburg since QM2's schedule has her arriving in Hamburg in October 22. She is scheduled to resume service from Southampton on November 16. I do not know what is being planned for the refit, but that 25-day gap offers some promise it might include more than just the minimum routine inspections and maintenance activities.

I'm mostly finding what looks like quayside and/or container terminal for the left foreground on port maps. By honing in on ports @Lanky Lad has visited recently, I'm getting a pretty good match to Santa Cruz de La Palma.

Very good. Once again I do hope Cunard will be counting voyage M422 as QM2's 400th crossing. That does depend on a detail I mentioned in another thread as to whether Cunard has counted voyage M204P earlier this year from Southampton to the Caribbean and back (without a stop in New York or Florida) as two transatlantic crossings. I'm counting that voyage as such but Cunard may not agree with me. In any event, do enjoy your crossing however it's counted.

Well done, @Colin_Cameron! That view of QV is from the "Molde Live" YouTube stream. It looks like I'm going to have to retract my statement that this is a cruise-by we haven't seen before though. I was going to say that webcam image is showing a new cruise-by location of Moldefjord, Norway. But upon further review, it looks like Moldefjord is an arm of the longer Romsdalsfjord we recently saw in a photo from @photosg which @sfred contributed. I think it's more accurate to say QV is sailing in Romsdalsfjord in that webcam view from Molde. Sorry, @sfred, if I sent you down a rabbit hole by diverting your search away from Romsdalsfjord.

In the spirit of several cruise-by calls not officially listed on Cunard itineraries which we've recently seen on this thread, here is a webcam capture showing a distant view of a Cunard ship at another such location.

I do hope that July 21st westbound crossing turns out to be counted as QM2's 400th crossing. I can tell you my counts match up to Cunard's through her 300th crossing which was the June 3-10, 2018 westbound crossing as noted on their facebook page. I never saw QM2's 350th crossing noted anywhere. I figure that was the February 15-22, 2022 westbound crossing earlier this year. One item I mentioned in another thread is that I think Cunard's counts are actually off by one since they apparently don't count a segment of QM2's 2010 world voyage from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro. In my view that should be considered a transatlantic crossing, albeit a crossing of the South Atlantic. But enough of that minutia. Enjoy your crossing however it's counted!

Thanks. Yes, we had an enjoyable cruise on QM2. I'll post the webcam image I mentioned earlier that I have saved around this time tomorrow. That's a capture showing a Cunard ship at a cruise-by location we haven't seen yet and isn't on our unseen ports list.

Correct on all points. That photo is from our recent November 26th call to Bridgetown during our Caribbean cruise on QM2. Of course the other ship in the photo, SeaDream I, isn't currently a Cunard ship but she was as Sea Goddess I.

Here's a port we've already seen. This time name the port and both of the Cunard ships in the photo.

Now that the full 2024 schedules have been formally announced (and are on sale as of today), I think it's time to update this thread to include the number of crossings scheduled for 2024. 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 = 18 2024 = 20 Total QM2 crossings through 2024 = 410. If Cunard's counts agree with mine, the westbound crossing departing Southampton on July 21, 2024 should be QM2's 400th transatlantic crossing.