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Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are ?

Host Hattie

By Host Hattie,
in Cunard Line

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bluemarble

bluemarble

Posted
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5 hours ago, Kynance said:

This ship was seen from a distance whilst we were at Kynance Cove yesterday. We tried to identify it when we got to our cottage (there is no Wi-fi or mobile signal at the Cove) but have been unable to do so.  It looks like a smaller, older vessel.  Any guesses from anyone??
 

I think we also saw Regal Princess crossing Coverack Bay last night, illuminated against the night sky.

 

1033B321-A05E-4CF0-A614-210E7DF8A245.jpeg

 

My guess is this is MS Visby of the Destination Gotland ferry line. She operates on the Dunkirk-Rosslare route. She would have been sailing westward past Lizard Point/Kynance Cove yesterday morning (I estimate about 10:30am) on her way to Rosslare. She sailed past eastward this morning at about 7:30am on her way back to Dunkirk.

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Lanky Lad

Lanky Lad

Posted
Posted

A quick hello from Queen Elizabeth in the Bay of Biscay. Fog this morning so the fog horn was sounding. What bliss. So far I am having a great time.  We arrived at the test centre just before 1pm. No queue and we were done and on our way to the ship in about 10 minutes. Whole process from arriving at test centre to boarding took about an hour.

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Lanky Lad

Lanky Lad

Posted
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Today started with moderate seas. But by lunch time it was warm and sunny. Travelling along the north coast of Spain. 

 

Church service this morning with some good old fashioned hymns. Had dinner in the steakhouse which was excellent.  Stephen Payne is one of the speakers. Plenty of familiar faces amongst the crew which is good to see. 

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bluemarble

bluemarble

Posted
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2 minutes ago, Lanky Lad said:

... Stephen Payne is one of the speakers. ...

 

OK, now I'm truly envious (as if I weren't already)! I've never had the opportunity to hear Stephen Payne on any of our QM2 voyages. He's one speaker that might influence my choice of voyages if I knew he were a scheduled lecturer.

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bluemarble

bluemarble

Posted
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29 minutes ago, techteach said:

@bluemarble Is Stephen Payne often scheduled on the QM2 lecturer. My husband would be thrilled. There are many shelves of books about ships and naval history.

 

I would say Stephen Payne is an occasional Cunard lecturer. I have archived Insights Guest Lecturers schedules starting with 2013. There are some gaps in what I have, but here is when Stephen Payne was scheduled to be a speaker in the schedules I do have.

 

July 2013 = QM2 Eastbound Crossing (QM2’s 200th crossing)

Oct-Nov 2013 = QM2 Westbound Crossing

Dec 2013-Jan 2014 = QE 2013 Christmas Cruise

May 2014 = QM2 Roundtrip Crossing from Southampton

Dec 2014-Jan 2015 = QE 2014 Christmas Cruise

May 2015 = QM2 British Isles Cruise

Sept 2019 = QM2 Southampton-Hamburg

April 2020 - QM2 Cape Town-Southampton (Canceled)

 

Now we can add Sept 2021 = QE Sun Voyage

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techteach

techteach

Posted
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13 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

I would say Stephen Payne is an occasional Cunard lecturer. I have archived Insights Guest Lecturers schedules starting with 2013. There are some gaps in what I have, but here is when Stephen Payne was scheduled to be a speaker in the schedules I do have.

 

July 2013 = QM2 Eastbound Crossing (QM2’s 200th crossing)

Oct-Nov 2013 = QM2 Westbound Crossing

Dec 2013-Jan 2014 = QE 2013 Christmas Cruise

May 2014 = QM2 Roundtrip Crossing from Southampton

Dec 2014-Jan 2015 = QE 2014 Christmas Cruise

May 2015 = QM2 British Isles Cruise

Sept 2019 = QM2 Southampton-Hamburg

April 2020 - QM2 Cape Town-Southampton (Canceled)

 

Now we can add Sept 2021 = QE Sun Voyage

@bluemarbleYou are amazing! I hope you didn’t spend too much time doing this for me. I will remain hopeful he will add 2022 QM2 Westbound Crossing. Thank you very much.

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bluemarble

bluemarble

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48 minutes ago, techteach said:

Interesting - seems like he was very active 2013 - 2015.

 

There are gaps in my archives from mid-2015 to mid-2017, so there may have been more appearances by Stephen Payne as an Insights lecturer during that time period I don't have documented.

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frankp01

frankp01

Posted
Posted (edited)

We heard Dr. Payne on an eastbound crossing in December, 2017. It was a real treat. In our travelling group we still discuss how lucky we were to have heard him. He did two talks: one on his theory of how the Titanic might have avoided its fate and one on designing the QM2.

 

18 December, 2017 / M746 / Southampton-NYC

 

P.S. Are your archives physical or electronic? I'd be happy to scan the program guides from the two December 2017 crossings we did, if you're happy with PDFs.

Edited by frankp01
to add PS
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bluemarble

bluemarble

Posted
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16 minutes ago, frankp01 said:

We heard Dr. Payne on an eastbound crossing in December, 2017. It was a real treat. In our travelling group we still discuss how lucky we were to have heard him. He did two talks: one on his theory of how the Titanic might have avoided its fate and one on designing the QM2.

 

18 December, 2017 / M746 / Southampton-NYC

 

P.S. Are your archives physical or electronic? I'd be happy to scan the program guides from the two December 2017 crossings we did, if you're happy with PDFs.

 

The archives I have are PDF files containing master lists of the Insights Guest Lecturers schedules which used to be posted on the Cunard website. Here's an example I attached to another thread showing QM2's speaker schedule for the 2019 season after the world voyage.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=472785

 

I'd love to see scans of your December 2017 crossings. I imagine others on here would be interested in seeing them as well.

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frankp01

frankp01

Posted
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For those speakers that have been confirmed in advance, there is normally a document on the Cunard website listing the voyages and the speakers on each. In the case of Dr. Payne, he was not on the advance list. He just "showed up" in our Daily Programme.

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Host Hattie

Host Hattie

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13 minutes ago, Lanky Lad said:

Another lovely day onvoard QE.  There have been changes to the menu in Britannia.  For the better in my view. 

 

Captain has just announced there is going to be a medivac.  We are heading closer to land to meet the helicopter. 

Sad News about the medivac but good to hear that you are having a lovely day.

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bluemarble

bluemarble

Posted
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25 minutes ago, Lanky Lad said:

Another lovely day onvoard QE.  There have been changes to the menu in Britannia.  For the better in my view. 

 

Captain has just announced there is going to be a medivac.  We are heading closer to land to meet the helicopter. 

 

Sorry to hear about the medivac. That helps explain the circling maneuvers QE is doing near La Rochelle. Of course there's never a "good" time for a medivac, but with no ports of call on your "Sun Voyage", at least this one won't disrupt your schedule.

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bluemarble

bluemarble

Posted
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31 minutes ago, techteach said:

When do you know the schedule? Is it posted prior to sailing?

 

The "Insights Guest Lecturers" schedule documents used to be posted on this page.

https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/the-cunard-experience/guestspeakers

 

There haven't been any documents with speaker schedules posted there since the pause in operations.

 

I've deliberately used a link to the UK website ("/en-gb/") even though you are in the US because the link to "View all speakers" at the bottom of that page works on the UK website but not on the US website.

 

There still isn't much to work with there though. It's mostly a list of speakers for some of the special event cruises, especially the "Literature Festival at Sea", where the speakers can be found on the voyage details pages for those voyages.

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techteach

techteach

Posted
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3 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

The "Insights Guest Lecturers" schedule documents used to be posted on this page.

https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/the-cunard-experience/guestspeakers

 

There haven't been any documents with speaker schedules posted there since the pause in operations.

 

I've deliberately used a link to the UK website ("/en-gb/") even though you are in the US because the link to "View all speakers" at the bottom of that page works on the UK website but not on the US website.

 

There still isn't much to work with there though. It's mostly a list of speakers for some of the special event cruises, especially the "Literature Festival at Sea", where the speakers can be found on the voyage details pages for those voyages.

@bluemarble Thanks for the link. You wonder if they know the link doesn’t work. It isn’t rocket science.

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bluemarble

bluemarble

Posted
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1 hour ago, techteach said:

@bluemarble Thanks for the link. You wonder if they know the link doesn’t work. It isn’t rocket science.

 

There's an interesting detail about that non-functioning link to "View all speakers" on the US website. It's not a typical broken link that would take you to the "There appears to be a problem." page. Instead it takes you to the page that says "Maintenance Page - Our website is currently undergoing maintenance." instead. That gives me the impression they have intentionally disabled that link on the US site by sending it to the site maintenance page.

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