BobBranst

Our long time TA called yesterday to wish us Bon Voyage. During our conversation, we mentioned the lack of details that have been forthcoming to passengers regarding the movie premier. He called his contact at Cunard and got some answers. It appears that Cunard's lack of information is primarily because the event was negociated by Carnival corporate rather than by Cunard and many at Cunard were not kept in the loop of information. According to the information I received, the QR will only be closed to passengers during the time of reception and the attendees will be escorted by security to the RC theater for the closed event. The Chart Room, Golden Lion, and most other public areas on decks 2 & 3 should be open for passengers to use during the event. Hopefully this information is accurate.

Sorry to hear that someone criticized your dancing - good, bad or indifferent everyone is entitled to hit the floor and have fun, it's not a competition.

No, it is not competition. However, everyone should be aware of and practice basic ballroom etiquette/rules, particularly with regard to floorcraft, so that your dancing (good, bad or indifferent) does not prevent others on the floor from enjoying their dancing experience. For inexperienced ballroom dancers, where you locate on the floor is more important than how well you dance.

I just did mine last week. Both HAL and Cunard sent confirmations within a few days. And of interesting note, both cruises were for next summer. Wasn’t sure it would be accepted so far in advance.

That is interesting. I first applied for Carnival shareholder OBC about 5 years ago. I sent in the application with my latest stock ownership statement about 6 months before embarkation and received a message back from Carnival saying that the stock ownership statement could be not dated more than 90 days prior to embarkation. Perhaps that has changed since then.

Have you noticed that Homer is looking a bit worn from all the people touching him?

I guess old Homer didn't make the remastering list ;).

In addition to most of the previous -

Very few children on board (at least on the QM2) and those are usually well behaved. I remember once seeing a very young boy wearing an immaculate tuxedo (complete with patent leather shoes ) walking along with his parents on formal nights.

there is a very special contemporary art museum in the suburb of Hollywood in Montevideo; well there is so much to that great continent. Enjoy!

Slightly off topic, but If you are referring to the wonderful Museo Rallii, I certainly agree. It is one of the best modern art museums I've ever visited. However, it is acually located in Punta del Este rather than Montevideo, Uruguay.

When we did the QM2 South American segments in 2016, most of the time we used ATMs to get small amounts of local currency. There were good lectures on board about each country prior to getting there and the speakers provided lots of helpful advice about the local currency and where you could find reasonable exchange rates.

But what is the problem exactly? You are on the ship, which is wonderful, the bars and restaurant will be open, as will most of the amenities of the ship.

I've not seen anything from Cunard that states that all of the bars will be open for passenger use, particularly those on decks 2 & 3. With the Queens Room and both theaters being used for the premier, the amenities actually available for all of the 2500 or so passengers are somewhat limited.

I’d wear the baseball cap with my tux. [emoji41]

Would that be with your fluorescent red or the glow-in-the-dark green tuxedo?;p

Cue for my own "horror story" again. On a TA last year, in QM2's theatre for the evening show, there was a [gentle]man in jeans, a T shirt and a "Vote Trump" baseball cap.

I believe the odds are quite high that anyone who has been on more than one TA has seen someone dressed similarly in the Royal Court Theater (usually in the 1st row of seats). Unfortunately, there is always a a few who want to flaunt the rules and want eveyone to watch them doing it. I have observed people being turned away after 6pm in the bars for not being properly dressed. Why this is not done in the theater is perplexing.

I always remember those photos of the QM2 on January 3, 2014. You never really know what kind of weather to expect in winter in NYC, Southampton or on the North Atlantic. Chances are that outside decks will be open at least part of the time.

I hadn't seen that the Queens Room also was going to be used for the movie premier. Maybe they do expect us to stay in our cabins :(.

Assuming that everything forward of midship on decks 2 & 3 will be off limits, I would hope that Cunard will hold something special in the Queens Room for us mere passengers. Perhaps they could have a (combined QR band and RC band) Big Band dance night since the theater show band probably wouldn't be working the movie premier. It's a safe bet that all of the ship's bars will be packed solid with the theaters unavailable and they can't expect everyone to stay in their cabins.

Received the following from Cunard this morning. Can't say that I'm too thrilled about it considering that it apprears that parts of the ship other than the theater may be off limits to paying passengers.

"as our valued guest travelling through New York on 8 December, we wanted you to be the first to know that Cunard and 20th Century Fox have partnered to roll out the red carpet when flagship ocean liner Queen Mary 2 hosts the world premiere of 20th Century Fox’s "The Greatest Showman" on 8 December, 2017."The reatest Showman" is a bold and original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and the sense of wonder we feel when dreams come to life. Inspired by the ambition and imagination of P.T. Barnum, "The Greatest Showman" tells the story of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a mesmerizing spectacle that became a worldwide sensation. "The Greatest Showman" is directed by exciting new filmmaker, Michael Gracey, with songs by Academy Award® winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul ("La La Land") and starring Academy Award® nominee Hugh Jackman. Jackman is joined by Academy Award® nominee Michelle Williams, Zendaya, Zac Efron and Rebecca Ferguson.Due to this special premiere on board, Queen Mary 2’s original departure from Brooklyn Cruise Terminal will be delayed until midnight on 8 December. Due to the event, there may be some restricted areas during the evening, however regular dining options will be open for dinner.There will be exciting opportunities for you to enjoy on board activities during the evening, in association with the premiere event. These are currently being finalised with FOX and we will be sharing details of these with you over the coming days and weeks. The premiere itself is a private event and tickets will not be available to guests travelling on Queen Mary 2. For those of you who would like to capitalise on the extra hours in New York, we have organised a number of special opportunities to further experience New York City prior to departure, if you so choose.:"

We have used the Cunard/White Star luggage storage in Southampton for storing our formal clothes suitcase(s) between crossings. Very convenient. Leave your bags outside your cabin just like you normally would do at debarkation but with the special tags from the purser. Your bags will be returned to your cabin for the return crossing. There are some cheaper ways to do it, but I've not found another that is as convenient.

That's a big reason why we'll probably never do a westbound TA. Being able to walk straight off the ship at Southampton was a treat.

As most who have done both direction will tell you, the immigration delays at Brooklyn are more than offset by the 25 hour days you get traveling westbound (in addition to no jet lag). Try it and you will like it.

I keep hearing from other posters that the dry cleaning costs on QM2 rival those of their local dry cleaners and my condolences go to you. I don't find the costs to be unreasonable at all, especially given that the alternative on board is to wear dirty clothing, but the costs are 2-3 times what I'd pay at home, and I can get my clothing back the same day at no additional charge.

 

One one alternative is to bring more clean clothes. If you fly on Southwest in the US, you get 2 (50 lb) suitcases plus carry-on free. You can aways wash underwear in the cabin sink and hang them to dry on the shower clothes line

 

I consider those non-sleeping hours of the day to have real value when I am on the ship. Rather than spending that valuable time on DIY laundry, I would rather spend those hours doing and seeing things I would not normally do during the daytime at home like classes, lectures, dancing. Thanks to the Daily Programme, I very seldom have "free" time on the QM2.

Nonsense, I drank the ship’s tap water at meals.

 

And clearly it wasn’t salty, which means CruiseCritic is infested with dirty liars.

 

I guess I don't understand why you would state earlier in this thread that you "didn't want to fill my bottle from the tap in the stateroom's bathroom and had read that the tap water on board was saltier than tap water at home" after you had been drinking that very same water with your meals." Seems a bit contradictory regardless of what someone else may have posted on CC.

I didn't want to fill my bottle from the tap in the stateroom's bathroom and had read that the tap water on board was saltier than tap water at home.

According to Wikipedia, the water from the ships 3 desalination plants contains only 5 parts salt per million.

The bottled water was mostly for my trips to the gym - I didn't want to fill my bottle from the tap in the stateroom's bathroom and had read that the tap water on board was saltier than tap water at home. $15 for 6 1.5-liter bottles of water was a worthwhile purchase for me.

So I assume that means you didn't actually try the ship's tap water.

Of course, water "taste" is a personal thing. We find the water on the QM2 to be much better than the municipal water in many US cities. We do buy water when we visit Los Angeles and several other coastal cities, but never found the need here in the MIdWest.

I carried six 1.5 liter bottles of still water on QM2 last month. The other passengers thought I was nuts, but I saved a fortune vs. buying it on board.

The other passengers were probably like us and just drink the ship's tap water, saving themselves even more money. :D

As to how much it's 'worth' well that's up to you. We usually book an obstructed view balcony cabin on deck 8 for our transatlantics (we've done 10). There is nothing to see out in the ocean really but we like the sunlight coming in from the balcony. Also, some of them do have views in between the life boats. Good luck.

We also tend to book an obstructed balcony cabin for TA crossings. In addition to saving a little money, the location of those cabins is mid-ship which saves some walking and seems to help reduce motion in rough seas.

We are fortunate that our TA takes care of this for us. Once we have made the final payment 90 days prior to embarkation, we send a pdf copy of our stock statement (with account info blacked out) to our TA via email. We get an email with Cunard confirmation attached from our TA as soon as Carnival approves the OBC. It usually takes two weeks or less.

 

It's great having good TA both for saving some money and for reducing travel related headaches.

I had a similar experience trying to find the QM2 December 8th B2B crossings roll call. In case you overlooked it, there is another link right below the regular search parameter boxes titled "If you don't find your Roll Call here, click here". I was able to find our roll call there. Hope this helps.