D&N

@bluemarble Vivino rates it at 3,4 against Pol Acker at 3,3. Although there's far fewer folk commenting on it. BTW; Can you take the welcome aboard wine to a bar/lounge to have it served? I know you can do so with a bottle that someone has gifted through Cunard. Apparently some versions have this label, which is even worse:

Stargazy Pie looks very tasty.

I only just noticed. The sister ship of the ferry that claims to be under sail is named Seven Sisters. The overview photo (from June 25, 2007) on MarineTraffic just happens to include another ship with a very distinctive profile: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/photos/of/ships/shipid:842/shipname:SEVEN SISTERS?order=date_uploaded You need to look at the small photo at top left or go to the first photo published.

We missed most of it. We'd planned to have our first Saturday night in Nice for over 3 years. Public transport home to a small town about 8 miles from Nice can be problematic at night. We left booking until Tuesday lunchtime to make sure the weather forecast was reasonable (in case we had to walk home). Geppetto in Nice is a small restaurant and by that time no tables were available before 9:30 pm. We like to have choice of bus, train or UBER/taxi. By that time it would have been UBER/taxi or walk, so we opted for lunch instead. We caught up with it all this evening. Probably better as it let us condense the day into a couple of hours, and flick to the ladies tennis final in Madrid in amongst it all. And it was a lovely day here. I thought about a tie, but thought it might just be a bit much for lunchtime here!

Unless there is some other practical reason, like a ship in distress? Or maybe they wanted a closer look at the sailing ship, Tres Hombres.

In the absence of the cod/gnocchi dish (they only had it yesterday) I decided on this threatening chap here: Which was promptly put to the sword! (a knife really, but what's wrong with a bit of exaggeration!)

Being British, I would never have considered tipping a musician. I might be wrong but would imagine artists are paid fairly well for a season on a cruise ship. I would also be scared in case, being professionals, they found it insulting. I'm more than happy to pay an entertainment surcharge when dining at a restaurant that doesn't normally have music but perhaps has a pianist or string quartet playing on an odd occasion. When dancing to live music, at end of dance we make a point of turning towards the musicians and applauding, unless they have been absolutely awful and almost impossible to dance to. Sometimes I forget and even applaud a CD!

Désolé! No cod and gnocchi.

I've been looking at where QM2 (and others) are on Marine Traffic from time to time.... I've found one of the ferries on the Newhaven<->Dieppe route quite intriguing. When at sea it always shows: "Navigational Status: Underway by Sail" Here it is: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:181201/mmsi:228233600/imo:9320128/vessel:COTE_D_ALBATRE I'm not sure where the sails are hidden.

I'm hoping this will be available for lunch tomorrow. It will be very tasty without any breadcrumbs or batter.

We were at Heathrow T5 on 12th April. It took us 20 minutes from our aircraft door to the gate for our connecting flight including passing through passport e-gates and security. Unfortunately BA had decided that our checked bag couldn't move as fast as us and switched us to a later flight!

I found one of those a few nights ago that shows about 10 seconds of us dancing quickstep. I asked if they had any more footage that had been edited out but they claimed not. I don't think they have any travel agent connections, so will name them: "TravelTouristVideos". The young lady in their videos eats food quite pleasantly. She seems to consume an awful lot though. I hope she is just tasting her companions' dishes much of the time.

News outlets are forever doing similar. Reporting on bus/train incidents and showing a photo of a different type of vehicle and a often a different operator that wasn't involved. On a similar vein; one of my favourites, and admittedly it is fiction so they can twist reality to their storyline; is from the US crime drama "Ransom", episode "Girl on a Train". Actors seemingly board a train at Menton and travel directly to Entrevaux. To do so would require major conversion works on the train and a crane to lift it the 500 metres between the two different networks. I think I have the direction correct, but it's possible they went the other way. I wasn't watching but my ears pricked up when I realised what they claimed was happening.

Is that the 4th night by any chance? When we booked in September 2018 for sailing in 2020 the 4th night in each direction was shown as Gala Night with no theme specified. By the time we actually travelled in 2022 there were only the themed nights on day 2 and 6. We treated night 4 both ways as an optional Gala Night. Should have noted that the photographers set up for formal pics on both those nights even though not advertised as Gala. Perhaps they realised the photography franchise was doing less business.

Can't beat that. But we were impressed renewing from France a few years ago. Did them a few weeks apart so at least one of us always had one in our possession. Less than 10 days each including posting old versions to UK.

Never tried them or the Islander. Think smallest was a Twin Otter tourist flight at Ketchikan. We had headsets to listen to the captain so didn't hear the noise that much. Smallest commercial was a Dornier 328, which was quite pleasant. Although landing at Norwich at tail end of a hurricane style episode was quite good fun. Bit like a rollercoaster but they made it first time.

It's a while since I was on an ATR-72, but don't think they are too loud. Can't remember if they were louder or quieter than a Dash-8. There was something I flew Manchester-Glasgow on a few times in 1990s that was louder; either Fokker, ATP or Dash-7. It shook quite violently! The overhead lockers are smaller so make sure you know what the luggage rules are. Particularly cabin bag size and weight.

Nice coincidence. I think MAK61462 has accidentally opened the thread at post #1 and replied to that.

Sorry @Jack E Dawson you are correct. I made the quick calculation on a calculator app and it seems I deducted 15% rather than 20%. Always pleased to be corrected when it benefits me!

No. They still charge the 15% on anything over the package limit before they give the discount. The prices on our statement for the 3 bottles of wine that we bought confirm it. It would be nice though.

I think this is the most recent: https://www.cunard.com/content/dam/cunard/my-voyage/pdfs/qm/qm_wine_list_aug_2022a.pdf It doesn't change that much. Sometimes prices go up, or even down! With the package you get 20% off most bottles. A bottle listed at $60 would cost $69 including 15% service charge. On package you would pay $58.65. There may be an upper limit on price of bottles that discount is given on. It doesn't seem to be in current UK T&Cs so don't know what they are enforcing. At one time it was wines up to $150.

The brochure can be found here: https://www.cunard.com/content/dam/cunard/marketing-assets/pdf/life-on-board/drinks-packages/wine-collections-brochure.pdf It looks fairly up to date but could be a remnant they forgot to remove. I'm sure these are reasonable value if you have a wide taste in wines. For us there are only a few that fall within the type of wine we prefer to buy. The main list is extensive enough that we could buy different wines that we know we'll enjoy for around the package prices.

We've had some welcome rain here the last couple of days. Question is whether the ground has been too dry to absorb much of it? We do prefer it dry and sunny but realise we need some moisture now and again, and we've not had much for a while. The sun briefly broke through this evening resulting in a very nice rainbow.

Day of week that you arrive could make a difference. On a Sunday last June we left Mayflower Terminal by taxi at 08:09 and arrived at Heathrow T5 at 09:17. We had self disembarked and been at Mayflower from 07:18. Taxi was booked for 08:30 and company sent it as soon as possible after we phoned. It's unlikely that time could be achieved on a weekday.

Does anyone know if QM2 has ever achieved 35 knots? Anything I've read about sea trials suggests between 29.6 knots and just over 30. At that she supposedly exceeded the contractual design speed. I wonder if some of the confusion is that 30 knots is often approximated to 35 mph. Although she is fast by modern standards I don't think she was designed to achieve the speeds of liners racing each other across the Atlantic.