QM2 Refit? Refresh?

[Victoria2]

26 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

Couldn't have said it better  D&N  

On a previous cruise in 2022 I met a delightful couple who invited me for drinks - the conversation went something like this  Quote;   "We'd like you to join us for drinks in our 'Cabin'- 6204 tomorrow evening"

on arrival it turned out it was the Mauretania suite. 😉

No hairs and graces from this couple 👍 

     

Ah, the cabin we had in July. Folk came to our cabin for a bit of a do too, and our cabin on deck seven and...

 

Nice to know we'd be considered lacking in airs! 😅

Edited December 8, 2023 by Victoria2
oops, decks mixed up

[rog747]

Quote:

I would apply that to rooms on sleeper trains as well.

On a Sleeper, historically (even noted on the most historic Venice Orient Express, or on the London Victoria-Paris 'Night Ferry' train) you have a ''Berth'' in your 'Compartment'.

It's quite nice using these old terms.

Just watched the old 1942 movie 'Now Voyager' where Bette Davis plays the dowdy Miss Charlotte Vale (one of the lesser Vales) travelling as Miss Renee Beauchamp, and embarks on a Liner for a pleasure cruise from New York to Nassau, and on to South America to recover from her Nervous Breakdown...It was where Paul Henreid as Jerry Durrance (Charlotte's lover) lit two cigarettes before handing one to Charlotte, making women everywhere swoon, and Bette spoke the iconic line,

 

“Don’t let’s ask for the moon, Jerry. We’ve got the stars.” 

Now she definitely had a nice Suite LOL

 

 

 

 

 

[Mudhen]

For what it's worth, Now Voyager, is my favorite Bette Davis movie!

Great reference!

[exlondoner]

26 minutes ago, Mudhen said:

For what it's worth, Now Voyager, is my favorite Bette Davis movie!

Great reference!

And didn’t Paul Henreid and Claude Rains both have a very busy time in 1942?

[D&N]

7 hours ago, rog747 said:

On a Sleeper, historically (even noted on the most historic Venice Orient Express, or on the London Victoria-Paris 'Night Ferry' train) you have a ''Berth'' in your 'Compartment'.

I've not come across that, but then I've never looked at travelling on either.

 

GWR seem to use "cabin" for the Night Riviera Sleeper. I think Scotrail's Caledonian Sleeper used "cabin" when I used them now and again for business travel, although in standard class you could reserve a berth in a shared cabin. The current modern Caledonian Sleeper calls them "rooms".

 

I can understand the use of "compartment" as I've travelled in many compartments in the past, but on seated trains. Our family would reserve 7 of 8 seats in a compartment when travelling Glasgow-London. My mother would hope nobody occupied the 8th seat so that she didn't need to worry about us embarrassing her.

[AUH]

On 12/5/2023 at 11:17 AM, transatlantic fan said:

The new rooms are 8116 to 8130.

The steward showed me the rooms that were being used by the workers onboard. 

Very nice they are, we swapped our next four cruises to these while we were onboard.

Hope this helps.

Just FYI, currently on the QM2 and took a stroll up to Deck 8 to have a look - the matte wood doors with the smaller spy hole were between 8116 and 8126, with 28 and 30 still having the gloss wood).

[Bell Boy]

On 12/8/2023 at 6:12 PM, Victoria2 said:

Ah, the cabin we had in July. Folk came to our cabin for a bit of a do too, and our cabin on deck seven and...

 

Nice to know we'd be considered lacking in airs! 😅

  Airs/Hairs Oh that blessed predictive / or was it spell check 😅  these Apple laptop devices they love to have their own way - It had already challenged me twice on Mauretania   .  Often have to smile when some  refer to Corinthia Lounge ( QM2) rather than Carinthia . 😅   

[rog747]

18 hours ago, exlondoner said:

And didn’t Paul Henreid and Claude Rains both have a very busy time in 1942?

These Stars at that time along with Mr Bogart certainly did....Play it again Sam. 

[rog747]

19 hours ago, Mudhen said:

For what it's worth, Now Voyager, is my favorite Bette Davis movie!

Great reference!

Always a great movie to watch on a Sunday Afternoon after a Roast lunch, and/or before your next Cunard Voyage/Cruise to get you in the traditional 'Liner' mood.

[rog747]

16 hours ago, D&N said:

I've not come across that, but then I've never looked at travelling on either.

 

GWR seem to use "cabin" for the Night Riviera Sleeper. I think Scotrail's Caledonian Sleeper used "cabin" when I used them now and again for business travel, although in standard class you could reserve a berth in a shared cabin. The current modern Caledonian Sleeper calls them "rooms".

 

I can understand the use of "compartment" as I've travelled in many compartments in the past, but on seated trains. Our family would reserve 7 of 8 seats in a compartment when travelling Glasgow-London. My mother would hope nobody occupied the 8th seat so that she didn't need to worry about us embarrassing her.

Yes indeed, and today you are quite correct, both GWR and Caledonian Sleepers refer to their night train accommodations as 'Cabins or Rooms', the 'Shared Berth' option is still AFAIK available to book, but I reckon that will go soon as 'Solo' options are the way they are going.

Belmond Orient Express refers to Cabins or Suites.
On my recent trip though to Venice on the Belmond my Attendant (Steward) always said Compartment to me, and asked me if I wanted both Berths made up, or just the lower one - He was a Traditionalist I think LOL.


However, historically, Railway carriages always had 'Compartments', both for Corridor seated, and Sleeper ones.

[rog747]

Apologies, and sorry for going Off Piste down memory lane LOL,

but it was quite enjoyable...

Back OT:
How is everyone's opinion on their cruises on the newly refitted ship this past 3 weeks from SOU-NYC-to the Caribbean and back to NYC?

I kicked myself for not booking this 19 nighter trip 😑☹️
(I had a super Last Minute Deal on a Inside Single Occ)

TIA

 

[Mudhen]

5 hours ago, rog747 said:

Always a great movie to watch on a Sunday Afternoon after a Roast lunch, and/or before your next Cunard Voyage/Cruise to get you in the traditional 'Liner' mood.

I like the way you think!

Ship of Fools is another favorite "boaty" flick!

[Underwatr]

7 hours ago, rog747 said:

Back OT:
How is everyone's opinion on their cruises on the newly refitted ship this past 3 weeks from SOU-NYC-to the Caribbean and back to NYC?

I mentioned my issues with it in another thread but the ventilation systems in by room/cabin/stateroom seemed incapable of switching between heating and cooling on its own. After a couple of nights in which the room temperature climbed as high as 82 F a technician did some adjusting of the valves outside the room in the hallway and the temperature dropped to the low 70s for the rest of the trip. The issue arose again on our trip north when I disovered that it was no longer possible to get the system to provide warmed air to the stateroom. Since we were only a couple of days away from New York at the time and I could get comfortable under the duvet (slept like a baby, even overslept one morning) I chose not to visit the purser's desk again. I figure it's due to systems onboard going on to 20 years old and maybe it's optimistic for everything to work like new.
 

Not sure I've mentioned it here but the planetarium has new seats! The ones that recline, anyway. Firm upholstery and a different reclining mechanism that maybe won't break as easily (press an indented area under the left armrest rather than slide a protruding lever). I can confirm that it's as easy to nod off during the shows as it ever was. Two possible downsides - the new seats no longer have the little table that swings up from under the right armrest (still present on the old gold-upholstered seats that don't recline), and - not sure whether this is a new issue, a worse issue, or just the way it's always been - twice when people in the row ahead of me reclined their seats they came down on my knee in a way that sort of trapped my lower leg (came down on top of my knee, forcing my heel down on the floor). I wonder whether the new seatbacks are thicker than the old ones since I don't remember getting caught like that before.

 

The WiFi is fast and ubiquitous (in the rooms as well as public spaces).  I bought the faster package since I thought my GF would want to make a video call or two to her kids but she didn't do that. No issue streaming videos in the room. I miss the old days when (a) your CWC benefit could fully pay for a package that you could nurse over the length of the voyage, which also meant that you'd choose one or two times during the day to grab your email and be offline the rest of the time. My phone can share its WiFi connection via a hotspot so we were able to connect both of our devices simultaneously as long as we were fairly close to each other.

Also mentioned in another thread here, and not a product of the refurbishment, but the evening entertainment schedule seems no longer to mesh well with the fixed dining times. I last cruised in late 2019 and at that time the shows were at 8:45 and 10:30. Now the showtimes are 8:00 and 10:15. I'd have no problems going from dinner to a show, perhaps stopping for a drink in the Golden Lion on the way (Note - historically I've eaten at 6:00 first seating and we were at 8:30 second seating this time). On this trip (large table, like I always enjoy) we always seemed to run out of time and had to choose between skipping or rushing dessert or missing the Royal Court show. We've opted for first seating and a smaller table for a 2014 Mediterranean cruise on QV but I suspect we'd best be able to make the schedule by switching to anytime dining assuming we could also dine at a table for two. The problem with a large table is that if others decide to have appetizer, salad, soup, mains and dessert you're there for the duration of a five-course dinner as well. It didn't ever seem to be a problem before though.

One final plus - I understand that these are new coffee machines. The ones in Kings Court are to dispense either coffee of hot water (and were frequently out of order, btw), but the machine down outside of Connexions on Deck 2 could also dispense lattes (with real milk) and cappuccinos, either with regular or decaf coffee. I didn't discover it until the trip back north to New York but after that I'd find a reason to walk past that area mid-morning.
   

[sfred]

4 hours ago, Underwatr said:

One final plus - I understand that these are new coffee machines. The ones in Kings Court are to dispense either coffee of hot water (and were frequently out of order, btw), but the machine down outside of Connexions on Deck 2 could also dispense lattes (with real milk) and cappuccinos, either with regular or decaf coffee. I didn't discover it until the trip back north to New York but after that I'd find a reason to walk past that area mid-morning.

 

Excellent! - I'm so glad the Deck 2 Connexions coffee is back.  It was a long walk from insight lectures to deck 7 to get coffee refills.

 

QE had new coffee machines also when we were last aboard in August/September.  QE's look similar but different.  They seemed fairly reliable.

 

 

 

[Underwatr]

That may be the model that's in King's Court, actually.

[TouchstoneFeste]

On 12/10/2023 at 5:39 PM, Underwatr said:

That may be the model that's in King's Court, actually.

Yes. Not the best coffee ever, but perfectly acceptable morning fuel.

[JT1101]

They changed the coffee in Kings Court from the big silver units? I always liked the coffee in King's Court when I would come in after doing laps on deck and just sit and relax in one of those side window spaces, sip coffee and look out at the Promenade. 

[Pushpit]

3 hours ago, JT1101 said:

They changed the coffee in Kings Court from the big silver units? I always liked the coffee in King's Court when I would come in after doing laps on deck and just sit and relax in one of those side window spaces, sip coffee and look out at the Promenade. 

As far as I can tell, the coffee tastes the same from the new machines, and so your post lap relaxation need not change. The Connexions machines, on the other hand, are a serious upgrade, and second only to the charged-for Illy coffee in the main venues.