D&N

At 8:25pm on December 20th 2023; I could book Q6 suite 10005 on M515 June 13th 2025 NYC to SOU on 2 sharing basis. For £7,398 with triple onboard spend from UK. Gratuities of $231 would be additional. For $11,398 with "Explore with More offer" from USA. That equates to £9,001 at the 8:25pm exchange rate. £1,603 cheaper from the UK. I don't know how much the onboard spend for a Q6 on M515 is. Perhaps someone could add that information (that I can then triple) to help the comparison? I don't know what the "Explore with More offer" includes for a Q6 on M515. Can anyone provide that information?

Can you quote like for like packages available for purchase today from the US in USD and from the UK in GBP that illustrate that claim? I did a comparison recently between our 2025 booking and buying the same from a US agent and I think US travellers were being asked to pay about 20% more. It looks to me as if they actually pay for their so called free packages in the overall price.

We don't wear masks in most settings now, but still put them on in medical environments where we think we could be close to vulnerable people and feel we should try and protect health workers. Some places ask for them to be worn. We usually wear them on crowded public transport as well. We always have them with us just in case. We had quite bad colds/coughs in mid November and tried to stay in as much as possible but wore masks when we had to visit shops. We would never have thought of doing so before but now we have stocks of the things, we think it makes sense to try and contain our germs. I also discovered during the pandemic that the soft cotton masks that weren't allowed by most airlines are very good for shopping on a cold day in London. I wear one to keep my nose warm when outdoors and take it off when in shops. I think some of the security staff at the doors were a bit puzzled!

And here are recent portraits of Coco-Canel and Ursel.

Our Christmas card this year was printed in September before Carmel died. It's not really practical to leave it any later. I titled it "Daredevil Kitten". I need to think up a theme for next year now. I should have plenty of photos of Coco and Ursel to choose from.

Following on from the comment: "Just shows how opinions can vary on the same subject eg food..." I've never been keen on potatoes and wouldn't have chips if they were "proper chips" rather than French Fries. I hate them being peeled as well. Why remove the part with the most flavour and nutrients? I only eat fillet steak and would order rare if in UK and keep medium for France. I do like dauphinoise now and again but Cunard's were dry and not very tasty. We cook ours swimming in UHT Cream (a recommendation from a French lady) on the odd occasion we treat ourselves.

@Host Hattie is first. I think you were all going there. Brother in law had got a promotion and unexpected early reposting from Cyprus to Europe and wanted to do an Israel and Egypt trip with 3 kids under 6. So we made the trip at same time in May 1992 so there would be plenty of adults for supervision. I'd imagined that we would be travelling on a ferry with a self service cafeteria. I was quite surprised that although the ship was originally built as a ferry the levels of service were quite impressive. The trip included full day guided tours so it was breakfast and dinner in the restaurant and the staff were really attentive particularly regarding the children, keeping them occupied while we got to eat our meals. It was three nights from Limassol with calls at Ashdod for Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and Port Said for Cairo. Quite a marked difference in class to Cunard, Princess and others but it was what gave us an appetite to try cruising.

Probably giving it away, not Alexandria but it is Egypt.

I know my reply is not very sympathetic, but trying to be practical; at today's exchange rate that's about £83 more than you expected. What else can you do with it? Can you take it with you? Would you have luggage fees if you did and would they exceed £83/$105? I'd be inclined to be annoyed and pay up.

@bluemarble @sfred I suspect she only really visited 3 ports.

😀That's the vendor's model, unless you're referring to her photos in other threads. But she'd certainly consider the red tasselled one without 20s accessories going out here.

It was 1992. 2021 was the scan date and a reference. Here's the rest of the sequence.

In BC we always shared a portion of toast. We don't buy sliced bread, and nothing that would be classified as refined. It can be handy for cleaning one's plate though if you are not permitted to use more environmentally friendly methods. We wouldn't really care how thick it was.

Not sure if this will be difficult or not. I just love the concept. Not sure if such access arrangements are permitted these days! I think I've checked previously that it is a Cunard port, probably seen before. I can't see how it wouldn't be.

As others have said the important thing is to dress for a Gala Evening. Last time my wife wore an ankle length beaded dress from a UK supplier "Chesca" that specialises in wedding guest dresses. It wasn't promoted as being "20s". It was going to a wedding last April as well but she decided it wasn't glitzy enough for that. She's since acquired these three. Ranging from €20 to €30. They'll probably be used on crossings in 2025, 2026 & 2027. She wouldn't hesitate to wear these to local restaurants/events. From a practical point of view the gown length one might not be suitable for walking to a restaurant if it was raining. I'd describe our local restaurants as being mainstream, all independent but in no way upmarket.

Living in Europe I'm aware of Verizon but don't follow what they offer. Their website shows a: "50MB $20 International Monthly Plan for select cruises and flights" If that is what you are proposing to take, their website does list Cunard as a cruise line with coverage. However I would suggest you might be best to ask Verizon to confirm that where you will be on QM2 is covered. You might also want to think about usage. 50MB in a month is not much. On a recent 52 hour visit to London I used 286MB of data, although I was connected to WiFi in some places where the mobile signal was poor. But I have 35GB/month to use in most of the world outside the EU. 50MB will not last very long.

We found most people, including us, returned from Queens Room or G32 via Britannia Restaurant deck 3. Meal service is long finished by then so not disturbing anyone. I suppose some people might use the cabin corridor.

Not really the extreme left of the shot. We took quite a few photos that day and it's remarkable just how many QM2 manages to get herself into. She dominates so many of the ports she visits!

@Solent Richard Correct that's where it is. I've seen a photo on this thread (possibly posted by HH) with many of the coloured buildings that I think included the berth at the extreme left of the shot. That was from January 8th 2006. I think yours is probably newer. The flag in mine could be The Netherlands, but it's not possible to see. We were having a much tastier lunch than the fare offered onboard P&O Arcadia at The King Grill restaurant. They have a deck where those photos were taken from.

It would be difficult to identify the flag zooming in on the original before CC compress the file. It was only a 1600x1200 image when taken. It's possible the flag has changed. It's a bit blurry but I think the gangway lettering is just Queen Mary 2. There might be a large A at each end of the wording.

It is in the Caribbean, and is a "small island" in both area and population according to a definition I found online.

I've been wondering about posting this one for a while. I think the berth is quite distinctive. I have an almost identical zoomed out a bit if it's too difficult. It is a port that I've seen posted here previously.

Although I've never seen that photo of the runway before I instinctively knew I had been there when I saw the photo. A quick reverse lookup confirmed. We took the water taxi to Froggy Jack's for lunch just after my picture of the plane. Froggy Jack's appears to have become Waterfront Gardens Restaurant since then. I initially thought the photo was from after lunch going by the time stamp, but the sequence of photos indicates that the camera was set to UK time.

Currently on the UK site: https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/activity-types/bars-and-lounges/a-world-of-drinks It shows options where the price drops from 15 nights and then again from 85 nights. $49.50/day for someone sailing 85 nights or more seems very good value. Providing they don't plan too many dry days!

No. It's only a single prop. Reverse lookups suggest it might be a Cessna 208 or 400. DHL seem to have operated both in the region. Edit: We were looking forward to a very nice lunch.