D&N

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! 🍷

Had a look at the Heythrop Park website and lots of photos. Wine list is quite sparse. Menus look a bit British for our tastes. Entertainment probably wouldn't be to our taste either, I don't see much evidence of dancing being available. While I can appreciate a good band or singer I much prefer to be active during the evenings rather than sitting watching. The writer seems to be trying a bit too hard to compare the place to a cruise. I wonder if that might have anything to do with Warner's CEO having moved there from Cunard/Carnival?

@MrsPeel55 Not really a continent I've ever had an interest in. Perhaps it would have been nice to cruise round Cape Horn since I've sailed on The Firth of Clyde in a yacht that raced round it. But it comes back to the question of; is it worth the trip? For me it's not. I discovered a long time ago that the only place I really want to be is a small town pop circa 15,000 on the French Riviera. I just didn't realise until last year that I would get homesick for the place, never ever having felt that way about Scotland. It always felt depressing to go back to Scotland and the only attraction was our cats were there.

Other than The Rocky Mountaineer the rest of that would have been by air or transfers. I originally looked at train all the way to Toronto but it would have taken too long. We'd need 10 nights for QE, and at least 2 pre-cruise in Vancouver to make sure we recovered from jet lag before boarding. Then all the cross country stuff. We wouldn't leave our cats for that long even with live-in sitters and I know after last year that I get homesick for the Cote d'Azur. If The Cannery in Vancouver still existed we might have made a different decision. And we'll never get to Niagra either, but I'd rather view a tiny waterfall on a river in Provence as a couple than a huge one that I have to share with 20,000 others.

I think it was a promo video for the Gold Leaf service. We thought about doing 2 days Vancouver to Banff with an overnight in Kamloops. I vaguely recollect the price of that was more than 10 nights Britannia on Queen Elizabeth before it. I saw a steward filmed walking through the train offering wine to passengers from what looked like the sort of litre bottles that they serve from in economy on Delta. I just thought for that sort of money and having travelled such a long way I would expect something better. The whole trip was going to be complex anyway. Nice-Montreal-Vancouver-QE-Vancouver-Banff-Calgary-Toronto-Niagra-Toronto-Montreal-Nice. We always said it would be nice to go back to Alaska but I just can't be bothered with all that travel anymore, and I'd have been away from home far longer than I'd have liked. Much easier to take a flight to Heathrow with taxis at each end and have a fortnight on QM2. Besides I can see all that scenery on YouTube videos.

Sorry to intrude; If you would like to have four formal nights there is nothing to stop you. I would suggest it's best to include the two that Cunard specify, but why not just choose another two that suit you? We observed three last year because between booking and travelling one was dropped. Next time we sail we plan to observe seven of seven. There's nothing in the dress code to say you can't.

The one thing we miss here is dancing. A "Diner Dansant" at a restaurant typically involves a rough singing act and a couple of tables space in front of them or perhaps an outdoor dirt space in a car park. The odd time you encounter a real dance event it's a bit different from UK. If quickstep music is played many locals will dance a solo form of charleston. Waltz tends to be somewhere between old-time and Viennese speeds. I can't see us being tempted to fly to the UK for a 3 or 4 night break. Or to Southern Spain for 7 nights. I found the latter, no idea if that was the one @ballroom-cruisers was referencing. We originally thought last years B2B crossing was a one off and had another more complex trip involving the Rocky Mountaineer and QE Alaska planned for 2025. A glimpse of something in a YouTube video killed that trip for me. We enjoyed last year and look forward to reprising it in 2025, and then in subsequent years on basis of booking cabin we want on release date.

We don't want to go on holiday, because we are on holiday all the time. We took almost all our holidays here for about eighteen years because it was the only place we wanted to go on holiday. We have lived here for over seven years and can go to some of the most visited places in the world for day trips any time we want. Why would we want to go anywhere else? Queen Mary 2 presents us with a unique experience. I can wake at 3:30 am and feel the keel flexing as the ship ploughs through a force 9 gale. That flexing is reassuring when compared to feeling the bow crashing into every trough on a North Sea ferry crossing. But to the comparison with land. I've only searched for a few minutes, but I don't see any hotels or promoters offering us 14 consecutive nights of dancing to live music with full board in top quality restaurants and a choice of lounges where we can take elevenses, afternoon tea/coffee and drinks. And of course that's without considering all the other entertainment and activities that we probably don't have time to take an interest in. If anyone knows of such a land offering, please let us know about it. It might be useful if Cunard withdraw QM2 during our lifetime and don't replace her.