D&N

It depends. At that time of year, in those parts of the world, it would be far too cold for us! We'd never be outdoors. 😉

Thank you. This is the first I've got round to looking at the forums today. I'd probably prefer the June trip. But if our imported cat sitters are of working age, May might have the advantage of allowing them to use two bank holidays and reduce the days annual leave. I should also look at what sailings normally have special events that we would rather avoid, unless they involve participative ballroom or latin dancing. And we'd try to avoid the vintage folk as well, who I think have sailed in May previously.

Can any hints be given regarding where one could look to find future Southampton and New York departures? I imagine SummmerinKefalonia is doing a fair bit of work to format these lists! Only being interested in QM2 Transatlantic returns from Southampton; if I could access info for the two ports I could make an educated guess at likely crossing dates.

It comes to us! 🙂

In that case; the sooner we get Southampton->New York->Southampton itineraries from late May to mid June 2025 the better. Doesn't matter if they call at Le Havre or other ports in the process. We can then start to plan the import of relatives for cat sitting duties!

The site I'm referring to, does not show any trips to the Med in April 2025. There are even a couple of cruises where they have failed to change 2008 to 2025!

There is a site showing a TA Westbound June 2nd 2025 to June 8th 2025 M821 then Eastbound June 8th 2025 to June 14th 2025 M822. However it also shows an Eastbound April 28th 2025 to May 4th 2025 M815. But Cunard's own site shows a Westbound April 27th to May 4th 2025 M509, therefore not possible for the 3rd party site's M815 to operate. M8xx would suggest they have copied itineraries from 2018 or 2008. I'd suggest it's a ploy to get customers to pre-register with them.

Be careful with that. There is a big US site, using various names, that has had summer 2025 itineraries for a while. Close analysis shows they resemble those from several years ago and some of them from earlier this year are nothing like what actually operated. Seems a very odd marketing ploy to me.

I'm not sure Starlink is in use. The equipment has certainly been installed but I'm not aware of anyone having posted that a Speedtest result has shown Starlink as a source. At least one test from the recent Med cruise referenced the old provider.

Unless there are any folk with veterinary qualifications and currently practicing in the profession contributing on these boards; I suggest that you discuss this with your own vet. You probably won't permit your puppy to make any significant input to the decision, but the decision certainly shouldn't be made on the opinions of strangers!

Our 6.8" phones match or better the resolution of our laptop and PC monitors and my wife's tablet. I only have my 32" monitor set to 1080p. We had no need for anything else. Spreadsheets, Photo editing etc were all easily done on the phones. If we did want to see anything on a bigger screen we could mirror the screen to cabin TV or display photos/videos there from a USB key.

Being Scottish, I've never been tempted that badly. I always find another way to save that $0.99!

When you've sat across the desk from an employee who has not bothered to attend their work for 50% of their scheduled working days in the past month, and they tell you the reason was that their grand parent died for the fifth time this year, you begin to realise that it's unwise to take everyone's statements at face value.

Thank you. I still had time to edit. It's a term I absolutely detest. Relatives sometimes address Nora with it, and I usually react with a loud cluck-cluck.

I found the review in question when exlondoner started the topic. I got to mention of the "buffet" and thought, nothing to interest me here.

France has a reputation for having great train links. The reality can be somewhat different. The rail lines don't go near St Tropez. Scheduled buses from Toulon are likely to take nearly 3 hours each way. By car it's about 1h40m provided the roads aren't saturated. October would probably be ok, unlike now at the height of the holiday season.

Others have already mentioned travel risks in Italy. We were in Sorrento at almost the same time last year with friends. We planned a day trip to Capri, although we hadn't booked in advance. However while queuing for tickets we were told that we could travel to Capri but as the weather was expected to deteriorate in afternoon we would not be able to get back that day. I wouldn't like to risk that sort of excursion knowing I had a ship to catch.

Our town has a population of 15,000 to 16,000 depending on the source of statistics. That supposedly gives us 2,200 m2 each. In winter there are probably only about 9,000 here due to the number of second homes in the town. For a few weeks in August the population swells to around 40,000 as Northern Europe descends on the Med coast. Even then it's not difficult to find a part of the town where you don't see anyone else for several hours. Not the beach of course! 🏖️

@techteach It looks like Samaria 1920, but could also be Laurentic of 1909 rather than 1927. The latter shows 2 funnels. Found this website that lists ships. You then need to search for pictures. The site purpose is passenger lists. https://www.ggarchives.com/OceanTravel/Passengers/Ports/Glasgow-PassengerLists.html

Winds and seas on Cote d'Azur had subsided a bit by 7.45 pm last night. Even brave folk out swimming.

Sunset from last night at a beach restaurant between Antibes and Nice.

That's an excellent point. Perhaps they could slash the headline fares and make gratuities 50% of the total cost but make it much more difficult to opt out, perhaps an obligation to prove service wasn't up to standard. Then everyone could pay later. 🤣 Although with the impact on their cash flow they'd probably go out of business!

I seem to recall that when auto-gratuities were renamed "Hotel and Restaurant Service Charge"?, we were told that instead of the pot of cash being divided between all qualifying staff, Cunard would keep that cash but pay all the staff concerned a higher salary, which guaranteed their earnings. As long as Cunard pay out at least as much as they gather from the charge I don't see any moral problem in that policy. I can confirm from personal experience over 20 years ago that consolidating all sorts of extra and bonus payments into the basic salary solved a major recruitment problem in another transport related industry. If they are now doing the same with the 15% charge on drinks, I don't see the problem provided the increased salaries offered cover at least the value that was previously distributed. There may of course be winners and losers amongst individual staff, depending on how hard they tried to sell more drinks, but from Cunard's point of view it's worthwhile if it makes it easier to recruit staff.

@deck chair Thanks for that update. However I'm not sure Captain Hall was that well informed this morning. You can see from the photos in posts #12, #13 & #14 that up until about 1230 pm conditions weren't really that bad. That's immaterial of course, as in the afternoon they would have had problems getting folk back on board. So they did make the right decision.

Back to the weather. Our local council's information service sent this alert around 1 pm today, so even if the sea conditions had been ok this morning, there could have been problems this afternoon: A phenomenon of strong swell and dangerous waves is expected today between 12:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. The waves could reach 1m80 due to a South-West wind between 60 and 70 km/h. Swimming is therefore strongly discouraged!