D&N

Seems like your choice is whether to buy in advance or onboard. Onboard will cost you $192 more assuming there are two of you. You can of course get Illy coffees, soft drinks and bottled water on the package as well. And the 15% is included. Depends what else you would use the $690 OBC for? We've only had/will have $290, but we'll buy a pro photo package at about $600, my wife likes Radley handbags and if there was an offer on one she liked that would be charged as well. Hotel & Dining service charge will take at least $348 of it. You might take internet access over and above any loyalty benefits. The other thing is your taste in wine. Will you be happy with those available by the glass? If we're having a good meat dish at dinner we want a decent Bordeaux with it, or a Burgundy white with fish or white meats. Splitting one between two nights would be enough (of the decent stuff) for us, but that would help use OBC and you do get the 20% discount on those with the package. I think you may be posting from UK, and I don't know when you travel. The other consideration is the GBP:USD exchange rate. It's currently close to it's lowest since November. You would have got the best deal for a while on March 11th.

Since you quote me; perhaps if you're talking about someone else.... In my case what she means is if I'm sorting stuff to put in the communal recycling I flatten cardboard boxes, crush plastic containers and cans, and make sure the correct things go in. Some of our neighbours put in huge empty boxes without breaking them up, which makes the bins fill much quicker. Or if I'm doing some sort of DIY job you can be sure it won't fall down the first or ten thousand and first time the cats jump on it. And I like to keep an eye on a friend who visits and when in the kitchen is liable to let the coffee machines overflow or try and wreck appliances by trying to use them by trial and error when he doesn't know how, rather than asking. She's not talking about dress codes.

I certainly hope I don't come across as being pompous. I just asked my wife. She says, "that in her opinion I'm not, but I like to do things the right way". 😀 When we booked crossings for 2020 there were galas on the middle nights without themes. By the time we travelled in 2022 those had gone and there were only two each week. By then we had planned our outfits, so we just stuck with the plan. I didn't feel overdressed in the ivory tux on those nights. Therefore, I don't think I'll feel out of place wearing a tux every night. There was only one comment; we were having pro photos taken when a lady wearing faded light blue jeans and a red and white striped T-shirt approached me to ask if "she'd missed something" and "was it a gala night?" I wasn't sure if she was genuinely concerned that she might have missed such information, or she wanted to let us know that she didn't approve of us "over dressing" for the evening. As an aside, I think the jeans/t-shirt outfit might have been associated with a sort of jive that her group were doing, possibly hip hop. Nora has so many outfits that didn't fit for years, plus lots of stuff that's been bought since she shrank. She couldn't possibly get through it all going out once a week, and she rarely gets a chance to wear the longest gowns. Two weeks on QM2 is an opportunity to wear as much as possible. I don't get many formal events that I can wear tuxes to, so I might as well get some use from them and complement her outfits. And for us cruises/crossings are not holidays. They are an experience. Holidays are staying at home in our seaside resort.

Hmmm.. I've never tried that. Would be interesting, but I wouldn't fancy trying to get a refund if they accepted the ticket sale.

Think yourself lucky! 😀 When they close the line between Cannes, Nice and Monaco, they don't bother with replacement buses. As that usually includes Sundays or Holidays when buses are only every 30 minutes, virtually all the buses leave Cannes or Nice full and hardly pick up anyone in between. We've learned the hard way that It's best to stay local when it happens.

Exactly. For the next twice I will only wear those three dinner suits on the fourteen nights, plus varied accessories. It may even reduce what I need to pack. It also gives flexibility to send them for cleaning, which I will do at least once each as I'd trust the laundry more than our local dry cleaners and it'll be cheaper. In my case just about the only thing I miss about work is wearing suits and ties when I was in an office or meetings. My base was at home, so I didn't go to those lengths to sit at my kitchen table! And even though I had the tech back then for video calls, none of my colleagues did. But for folk that just want to match the advised dress code, it's not difficult. I admit to feeling slightly perplexed when folk come along trying to find ways of avoiding dressing to that code, but on the ship I'm unlikely to notice much other than my wife. We might comment between ourselves now and again if someone is wearing a particularly stunning outfit, or hopefully less frequently something awful like ripped jeans or sportswear at dinner.

Some pics from a walk along the prom last week. An adult swan in a local river mouth. Some of the pairs have been missing recently. I suspect they may be upstream guarding eggs. The neighbouring town's sailing school. I think this was man overboard training. Elements of that town's fishing fleet. They are usually out fishing very early in the morning.

I should have made clear in post #74; that was not a gala night (at least not a Cunard one). I only wore the black tuxes on official gala nights. While there are only four gala nights in fourteen, I'll keep the ivory tux for smart attire nights. For me it's a wee bit casual for a gala night. If there were more galas I'd possibly wear it for some.

We would walk from the pier to the station. It would depend on your mobility. The cruise terminal is beside where we would catch ferries to the islands. The train service is fairly reliable. I think in the last two weeks I've seen four interruptions to service due to train breakdowns and people getting themselves hit by trains. The timetable is here: https://ter-fiches-horaires.sncf.fr/publish/FH_04_Grasse_Cannes_Nice_Vintimille_du 23 mars 2024 au 14 décembre 2024_V20240328.pdf TLJ is all days, L à V is Mon to Fri, SD is Sat & Sun, F is bank holidays.

Probably. The ticket office is only staffed on Tuesdays 8h00 - 13h00 / 14h05 - 16h00. There is a ticket machine, but there could be a queue/line to use it. There is an app called SNCF Connect, which you can install. You can buy and display tickets on that. It's not the easiest thing to use, it will want to know the names and birth dates of all the travellers that tickets are being bought for. However at least if the language of the phone is English it should default to that rather than French.

I believe that's for UK residents. Many UK companies will provide similar. This thread has been about Europeans (Swedish in this case) that have booked through the UK. It's unusual to find that level of guarantee in European policies.

I think strikes are less likely on Sundays, but services may be slightly less frequent than a weekday. Roads may be better, particularly travelling early as there won't be an early morning peak period.

I get the impression the OP has established that their current insurance supplier is probably suitable. But to go back to an earlier point I made about European insurers not offering high medical cover guarantees; when I last looked for cover in 2019 the maximum I saw was €150,000. I note that AXA are now offering up to €1,000,000 and Allianz €300,000. They seem to be the main travel insurance providers in Europe amongst the household names.

I think you're plucking numbers out of mid air. 😀 If you had said; so a 6ft (72") man should have a 35.99" or less waist, I'd agree. Ideally folk should have a BMI towards the mid range for their height, and a waist measurement of less than half their height. I don't think I've ever met anyone who exceeds one but not the other. Perhaps a professional weightlifter? Generally someone who is not clinically overweight will look better in any outfit. If jackets are not required, and you don't like wearing them, simply leave them at home. Are you suggesting I should have taken the jacket off while having my aperitif?

I too would take a taxi to the station if using the train, but would change at Clapham Junction going to Kensington, which adds complication of multiple changes and making sure you had the right tickets. If you did self disembark and booked your own taxi/limo you might save an hour or two on the coach time, mainly by leaving earlier. Unless that is crucial to your itinerary it seems a waste of effort.

Nothing. But there are folk that don't like jackets, or don't like ties, and probably other garments as well. I'm just as comfortable wearing my jackets as not. I'm probably more comfortable with a jacket if the temperature drops below around 22C. My jackets are not too tight; perhaps that could be an issue? Edit: But then I don't like jumpers/sweaters etc.

Did you read the quotation from Cruise Industry News? I didn't see any mention of the word "nave". “Constructing a liner for such a distinguished shipowner not only reconnects us to our origins but propels us towards the future with a determination to blend tradition and innovation. Fincantieri thus confirms its leadership in the cruise shipbuilding sector, a fundamental pillar of the company’s business project, as both the Group’s Business Plan and the vitality of the post-pandemic cruise sector clearly show.”

Having said that; if I'd followed in my father's footsteps, I'd probably wear a dog collar. 🙂

As is often the case when we're not going out on Saturday nights, we went out briefly for a drink and a snack tonight. I don't normally pose casually for photos, but thought I'd make an exception. Not a polo shirt in sight! Nora's casual isn't usually about outfits. Ladies might spot how she differentiates between a "night out" and any other time. Fourteen nights on QM2 is a lot of work for her.

I'm afraid we'll just have to disagree. While it may be ok to wear one, and Cunard don't make enforcement easy by requesting, I and many others wouldn't agree that's the intention. Not that I'm likely to notice. I don't pay much attention to what other men wear, although there was a German couple sporting matching slate grey tux suits, and I'd quite like to find one of them. Whether I'd pay the asking price is another matter! You obviously fared better than me in finding a decent definition of what a collar is. Based on a Britannica Dictionary definition of collar, my wife could lead me round the ship wearing a large studded dog collar. 🙂 I'll continue to wear smart short sleeved shirts when temperatures here are 25C+. I wouldn't take one on QM2 again.

I wouldn't wear anything other than a proper shirt in the evenings on any ship. Although I've had a few polos in my wardrobe for about twenty years, I probably wouldn't wear them at any time. I don't consider a polo shirt to be a collared shirt. A few people would argue otherwise. The Cunard QM2 definition of Smart Attire is attached. I don't believe it means a polo shirt, but it is only a request. I did come across reference in an article to a "hoodie collar". I wonder how long it will be before someone argues that one of those would meet the dress code standards?

Just to add to that in various Italian articles about ocean liners, particularly Michelangelo and Raffaello, the term supertransatlantico is used. In reports about cruise ships, such as Costa Concordia, they use Nave da crociera.

Interesting to note that the CEO and managing director of Fincantieri doesn't know the difference between a liner and a cruise ship. 🙂

@PeggyCTB I'm sorry I can't help with this. We briefly stopped in Marseille as we drove here for the first time in June 1997. We only wandered at most 15 minutes from the centre and came to an area we felt uncomfortable in. We've never been back other than passing through on a train.

They aren't very good at keeping the website updated. The measures are the key. You'll also find in the terms and conditions of the paid for drinks package mention of the new measures 25ml/50ml spirits and 175ml small wine. There is a YT video kicking about as well, where the vlogger goes through the Commodore Club menu showing the new measures.