D&N

@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!

I see no ships. Rather disappointing, but maybe next time Queen Mary 2 visits Villefranche I might get her in this shot: Mont Boron and Fort Alban were quite good. Some of the stairs on the way up might be a bit steep for some folk but for able bodied with suitable footwear the ramble would make a decent activity for a Villefranche port call. We descended towards Nice so can't comment on other routes back to Villefranche that might have been easier than the one we chose to ascend. Fort Alban itself is locked up. You can walk around it and climb on some of the exterior bits as we did.

Yesterday at Cannes EOTS seemed to be using Trans Cote d'Azur/Riviera Lines for tendering duties. It would have been interesting if EOTS had turned up at Nice today and I could have confirmed that first hand. Trans Cote d'Azur/Riviera Lines fleet includes several ferry/sight seeing boats similar to Mediterranee XII pictured this morning at 1142 am returning from Villefranche to Nice. It didn't seem troubled by the swell but I'm sure QM2's tenders would have been a different matter.

Around 10am this morning I took a pic of the bay between Cap d'Antibes and Nice Airport, where the waves looked to be well under 1 metre with a fresh wind. Ideal sailing weather. There were lots of 7'9" Optimist dinghies and 16' Hobie Cats, plus sail and paddle boards in the bay. At about 1130 am, on our walk round the coastal path between Nice and Villefranche the wind had sprung up and it was a bit choppier.

But when she left Cannes at 1830 2nd August, Marine Traffic (using AIS) showed destination Nice ETA 1100 3rd. It remained as such until at least 0300 UTC today. I didn't take a screen shot of it because I didn't really expect anyone to challenge the fact. She has indeed continued to sail a circular route about 50 miles off shore before heading for Genoa.

We know about the tenders. I'm regularly amused by them being left behind. That's a recent change to Genoa, it was Nice at 11:00 local time only a few hours ago. If it does turn up off Nice we should see it from Mont Boron later. I have a theory that they use part of Trans Cote d'Azur/Riviera Lines fleet for tendering because you rarely see their tenders deployed in Cannes. Even if seas were a bit rough for tenders, the local boats are better designed for it and of course use local mariners. If entry to the Rade (where waves of 0.6 metres are forecast) is restricted due the unstable cliff face, tenders might struggle from open sea. I'll report after our day trip and picnic.

If we get there tomorrow we can report on that. Be interesting to see if Enchantment tenders off Nice. Although I think they use the local island ferry/sightseeing company rather than their own tenders. It's an odd situation because Celebrity seem to use their own. Edge left a few of hers in the Cannes Anchorage today! 🤣 But Enchantment didn't seem to have deployed any.

Provided Carmel is ok, we'll do our planned ramble to Fort Alban. Local weather site shows wind at less than 20 mph with gusts up to 34 mph and hottest day of week. That's not particularly strong for here, and the Rade is well sheltered. I think Enchantment OTS should have called there too. It's showing Nice as it's destination. It would need to tender there. Think the quays can only take about 45,000 tonnes. It was at Cannes today. They would have been as well to swim to Nice. I might have photos of a cliff face rather than ships!

I've not found any reference locally to cruise ship calls being cancelled. There has been a rock fall near Chemin du Lido in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, which overlooks the Rade, and there are works in progress to secure the cliff. Not sure if they think there could be such a major cliff collapse that could put shipping at risk or they think vibration or wake from large ships could affect the cliff while they are working on it.

Oh well, I won't be clambering up on the breakwater early tomorrow morning then. I haven't found the topic yet but Marine Traffic are reporting Alghero as the destination. Was any reason given?

Sadly now closed. The Willowbank Hotel/Restaurant in Largs had a decent sized dance floor and used to have live music suitable for ballroom, latin and sequence every Saturday night. Edit: Correction; We were recently told that it had reopened but without the dancing. Apparently the coach tour companies that provided the bulk of it's clientele wanted other types of entertainment.

The one venue where we experienced High Tea many times; served a selection of around ten main courses accompanied by toast, tea and coffee. Followed by plate(s) of cakes and scones. It was a cheaper option than dinner as it was all priced within the main course. The other benefit was that it was served and finished earlier, which allowed the group we were with to be up dancing as soon as the band struck up the first tune.

We attended a family wedding in the spring. Everyone was well dressed, but we were particularly impressed by two young men in their early twenties and their girlfriends. They are our cousins (technically first cousins once removed). Both were wearing three piece lounge suits and their ties and pocket squares matched the outfits that their girlfriends were wearing. Apparently the style guru of the group is the younger of the girlfriends who insists that outfits are coordinated if they attend formal events as a group. She boasts that there was an event in her family involving thirty-two couples and every couple wore outfits to coordinate with their partners.

Nothing wrong with it. Opened in a browser and brought up to full size, every word is clear. These forums automatically reduce the size of images as you post them.

Speaking as a couple who have managed to achieve arrival plane door to departure gate via passport control and security at both London Heathrow and London Stansted in under 20 minutes, it might just work. We are extremely mobile though and think nothing of sprinting through an airport with our backpacks. I think the backup hotel booking is very wise, plus of course flexible train tickets that permit you to transfer to later trains.

The perfect serves shouldn't qualify for the package because it only covers single measures. Having said that, the waiters can often find a way to get round that. But I was under the impression that the 10 minutes referred to alcoholic drinks. You should be able to order any 1oz measure of gin from P11 of the bar menu plus a 200ml Fever Tree tonic at same time. Since the tonic is a soft drink I don't think it's subject to a limit anyway. If you don't have a particular brand preference I imagine that simply ordering a gin and tonic will get you a drink within the package. Although the tonic in that case may come out of a tap. https://www.cunard.com/content/dam/cunard/my-voyage/pdfs/qu/qe_main_bar_menu_aug_2022a.pdf I should say that other than wine/prosecco we only ordered single measures of digestives or port. The only mixed drink was Aperol Spritz made with prosecco as it should be.

Bordeaux isn't well positioned on the rail network for a stopover. But the link @exlondoner has given is ideal. The site owner has even got his article updated to include a new service starting this Saturday. Paris-Lyon was the original TGV route and with it's onward links to Marseille and Spain is probably still the best served high speed line.

On June 12th last year "Fast Track disembarkation" was offered at 7:00 am and 7:15 am. We arranged for 7:15 am on evening of June 8th. That suited us, but by the time we phoned 22200 to arrange it I think we were told only 7:15 was available. You would obviously need to be off as early as possible so I would advise making the arrangement soon after boarding. I'm not sure if they actually check that you have made arrangements as nobody appeared to tick our names from a list as we left. We did pass a long queue waiting to get off at 7:00 am as we returned from breakfast, which suggests that on that day they didn't allow disembarkation before 7:00 am. By the time we got back down with our luggage at 7:15 am we walked straight off without a queue. The Paris transfer should be alright provided there are no strikes or engineering works affecting RER line D. It should take 15 to 20 mins including walking. The direct train, which has one intermediate stop is scheduled to take 9 mins and there are about 6 trains per hour on a Sunday. Best to check what events there might be in Paris that could affect the transfer. e.g. Paris Olympics next year. I agree with most other comments that catching the Eurostar you need at St Pancras is very risky. We too disembarked on a Sunday, were picked up at 8:09 and reached Heathrow at 9:17. We had booked a flight at 14:20 and were able to change it to 11:20. Next time we'll book the taxi for 7:15 and the 11:20 flight, but for us the worst case is we have a supplement to pay if we need to change the flight. And our trip is almost all on motorways with no risk of city traffic problems.

We don't really know much about how many calories cause weight gain or loss and probably wouldn't pay attention to them. We stick to mainly low fat foods and avoid things that are processed or contain additives. But the best way to avoid weight gain is not to eat too much. The other thing that has made a big difference to us is limiting the eating period in the day. Our GP always says not to eat in the evenings. We usually follow her advice on weekdays when we eat between 8am and 3pm. Even at weekends we aim for at least 12 hours fast between days. On a cruise every day needs to be a weekend. Liquids are another matter! 🍷