D&N

I've a good mind to book a QG cabin just to be underneath the kennels. I feel for these cats and dogs, in case there are noisy humans in the cabins below them!

That seems quite reasonable. Otherwise you would taxi to Gare du Nord, Eurostar to St Pancras, taxi or tube to Waterloo, train to Southampton, taxi to hotel. Saves you at least 4 changes, and if you need walkers some of those changes would have been quite difficult! Other than someone wants to check the luggage at Coquelles it doesn't need to leave the trunk for the whole trip.

There's nothing wrong with the Cunard label wines, they're very similar to what we pour from boxes here. We mainly had those on the drinks package as there wasn't much else available. We prefer French and at a stretch will take Italian or Spanish, which limits our choice. They were all fine with a light lunch, and the white and rosé were refreshing enough while we were dancing. But there is little structure to them. The Cabernet Sauvignon has a little bit more bite to it's flavour than the red blend. We had them for most dinners as well, but there were some meals that would have been ruined by a mediocre wine. Next time I calculate we're still better off budgeting on the the drinks package plus 7 decent bottles over 14 dinners. Between tea, coffee and water at dancing and restaurant plus alcohol we'll easily hit the daily charge.

@alc13 We do get plastic corks now and again, and wines with agglomerated cork stoppers. But the only ones I would want to keep for an extended period would have natural corks.

We would normally have an aperitif before dinner. Aim is to share half bottle of something like the Château Tour Pibran, Pauillac (it was lovely) or one of the Burgundy whites, then move on to a small glass of Cunards house wine. When we leave the restaurant we'll be up dancing 90% of at least the next 3 hours so we just get cheap dry refreshing white or rose by the glass along with lots of water to keep us hydrated. Then it's off to Chart Room for Grand Marnier. We'd have wine at lunch too, so if we weren't on drinks package the cheap lunchtime bottle would get finished at end of dinner. We made a mistake one night. Had aperitif, given prosecco at Jubilee Gala Dinner, shared good bottle along with Chateaubriand. By time we started dancing our control was gone and we probably collided with others on a rather full floor more than I would have liked.

I've been using CellarTracker for a number of years https://www.cellartracker.com/default.asp There's Android and iPhone versions.

@alc13 Pivot (left) & Timeless (right, which Cunard use) are the two I'm looking at. They aren't very big and I can't imagine they weigh very much. Pivot cheaper to buy, cork is removed and replaced by a stopper. Only supposed to keep wine up to 2 weeks. Benefit is it uses a little less argon gas than the other version. Timeless is more expensive, uses a bit more argon, but the cork is only removed when you are ready to finish the bottle and will keep the contents for over 2 years. I'm inclined to buy the Timeless, simply for the 2 year plus life of the wine. That would allow me to buy much more expensive wines at home without having to drink them within a short period of opening.

We don't want to drink a bottle of good wine. We want to drink half then move on to wine by the glass. If we decided not to go for the package we'd continue on a cheaper bottle.

I also found a recent blog where "Bryce Sanders" reported on a chat with Vellen Mootoosamy, the Chief Sommelier on QV near start of this years World Cruise. One of the claims was that for wines over $250 Cunard would offer the Coravin system if you didn't want to have the whole bottle with one meal. The dinner wines I'm likely to be interested in are currently in a range from $67 to $76. I'm wondering if you brought your own Coravin whether the sommelier would be prepared to use it to serve half the bottle? That would remove the need to drink the other half the next night and make it easier to select wine based on your meal. One issue might be storage; the sommelier might not have space to keep up to 7 bottles for one 2-top. You might need to keep them in cabin and bring to restaurant at lunchtime for service that evening. Something else "Bryce" noted was the limit of $150 bottles of wine for the 20% discount if you had the drink package. That isn't in the current T&Cs. He doesn't give the source for that comment though.

I've found the QE program again from January 15th 2017. It had been uploaded to a blog "beyondships2".

I'd be surprised if your TA knew anything about this particular offer. I suspect she probably thought you were asking about one of the group tastings that are sometimes in daily programs. I don't think they use Coravin Timeless for them. The Timeless system doesn't involve opening the bottle. A fine hollow needle offset from centre to avoid piercing the same spot twice feeds argon gas at pressure into the bottle replacing the displaced wine. It's claimed that the wine will remain in perfect condition for at least 2 years. They use it for the 75ml servings of these wines as well, so it's something that must be available in their restaurants. That's another thought... The saving on The Wine Flight pro-rata to the cost per ml of individual 75ml glasses is only $13. If the 20% saving from the drinks package was not available on the Flight but was on the 75ml glasses, then sharing a glass per night would be better value. Just means you'd need to remember from day to day how each tasted, by taking notes I suppose.

Today's strike/demo numbers are down from last time. Again they plan another on April 13th. it is suggested that today might be a bit of a lull over the pension issue, whereas next week will be the eve of the Constitutional Council's judgement on the legislation. That's a body of 9, which reviews the legality of legislation in terms of whether it complies with The French Constitution. The press don't seem to be trying to guess the outcome. The demos will be trying to influence the decision, which is unlikely. I would expect a legally based decision rather than something based on opinions of a section of the population. It remains to be seen what reaction there will be if they find no reason to block progress of the legislation. I doubt it will become any clearer for a few more weeks.

Apologies to the OP and HH for being off topic... Quite an interesting company that do those courses: https://www.inspiringperformance.com/ Our weekend was mainly on what had been "Ocean Rover" in the BT Global Challenge 1996/7. A 67 footer purpose built for a round the world race. We were restricted to The Firth of Clyde around Largs Marina.

The group got on remarkably well, and it was one of the best exercises of that sort I encountered. My boss' ability was generally respected but he was often hated. He was a manager in the true sense of the word. When he tasked his team to achieve something he would ensure success. Many people would have called him a bully. If someone underperformed he let them know, in private of course but not everyone takes kindly to being held accountable for their errors. Who knows, some of them may have hated me too!

I imagine so, but why not at Westminster? Provided Jubilee is running normally. I should say that I like to have alternatives planned in case something goes wrong, so I would work out the taxi, train and bus options. I believe the bus is the 211 (showing an 11 minute delay on the 15:04 departure).

We've made many 14 hour plus North Sea ferry crossings in 2 berth cabins with bunks that were effectively half of what is shown in the thread from 2021. We found them all quite comfortable, albeit neither of us suffers from claustrophobia. What was a tight fit was a "cabin" on a racing yacht. It was a team building weekend; my boss was the divisional manager and I was assistant. We had 8 of our supervisory team with us. The 2 professional crew had the best cabins at stern. We had one of the next best cabins midships. My boss was quite rotund and snored terribly, he was in the lower berth. Each time he turned in his sleep my hammock was nudged upwards. On the second night I gave up trying to sleep and decamped to the sail locker in the bow with my quilt, much to the amusement of the other team members.

@Jack E Dawson When you stayed at The Conrad last year I recall that you were quite keen to use the tube. If you prefer to do that and are happy that you have baggage you can move easily, the trip from St James' Park to Waterloo should be quite easy. You must be familiar with St James' Park. It's about 9 years since I last used it and I don't recall the facilities, but it's not one of the deep lines so you don't have far to descend even if the escalators weren't working. You change from Circle/District Eastbound to Jubilee Eastbound at Westminster, which was rebuilt about 24 years ago. There are escalators and a lift/elevator to make that connection. Waterloo is also relatively new and will have good access to the mainline station. As retired public transport professionals, well my wife isn't retired she simply stopped working about 7 years ago, we would probably give it a go assuming we didn't have an abnormal amount of baggage. And of course you can always claim you are doing it to save the planet. Pricewise the tube would be about £6 for two and taxi probably £13 including tip, so I don't imagine that's a prime consideration. Timewise both are probably about the same unless the taxi got stuck in traffic or the tube got delayed for some reason.

@Jack E Dawson If we were making that trip we would take a taxi (black cab) to Waterloo and a taxi or the Cunard bus you have previously used at Southampton, provided of course that there was no disruption expected on the trains. You could take underground or a bus to Waterloo, but all options involve walking or changing trains. With luggage a cab is much easier. As Exlondoner says; Waterloo-Southampton Central is quite fast. That plus taxis will probably beat a car service although that would save you moving luggage between taxi and train twice.

The Mouton Cadet is for drinking. But it's good enough for general Sunday dinners or when we have friends staying. I don't think it will deteriorate if it takes us 2 or 3 years to get through it. It's good enough at the price we paid. It took two visits to maximise the three different discounts I was getting. The shop is about 5 mins walk so It's easy to visit frequently. Our apartment will be too hot to store wine soon. It all lives in the cellar. We'll probably need to switch on the chocolate fridge soon as well, which is where open boxes of red wine live in summer. I'm no expert on tasting. For wine of that value I'd simply want some water and perhaps dry bread/rolls to kill off the flavours between different wines. If I ever buy some I would keep it for a good cut of well flavoured red meat or duck breast. And it would be good with a mature Comté cheese (my favourite!).

@techteach Thank you. I'll watch for good offers on it in the late summer wine promos. I don't get too descriptive on wine, but many years ago we started on a red and I needed chocolate with it because it had very strong dark chocolate flavours. I usually just note that it's good and the taste can be savoured for a long time. Our Sunday wine was good but previous bottles have been better. Our hypermarket's own brand is "Club de Sommeliers". In that they have a premium section "Grandes Réserves". A top producer bottles their wine with the supermarket label. They market the stuff at about 50% of the price of the named wine. Most folk aren't fooled and guess that it's probably more like a Chateau's 2nd wines. On promotion we can save 50% on their price, so they are great value. The Saint Emilion was decanted 90 mins before dinner but it didn't open out as well as usual. It's on left of picture. The real stuff, which we've never tried is in the middle. But in comparison last weeks Mouton Cadet on right started with less flavour but was opening well in last glass. The deal on that was a fraction of the price. I'll decant it next time. Of course I went back for more at the price and there's now 12 in the cellar.

@techteach Would be interested in your opinion of it? It frequently appears on lists here. The more recent vintages are quite decent prices.

Just an objective view of how the new rate for Britannia Staterooms compares with what we might do in hotels and restaurants. At sea, we would take breakfast, lunch and dinner in the MDR. If we are in London and visit a cafe serving a filling cooked breakfast we would tip at about 10% usually £1.00-£2.00. If we are out to lunch or dinner at home, although French tradition is that you only leave loose change because most menus quote prices as "service compris" we usually tip at 10% as we would have done in the UK so long as the service was as expected, so that is usually €10-€15. If we were staying in a full service hotel, where the towels were replaced daily and beds turned down etc, we would tip at £2-£5 per night. Of course we never go out for 40 meals in 14 days. And when we visit London we stay in a Premier Inn or Travelodge (they are the nearest to where we need to be) and hang towels up to dry so they last the 2 nights we are there. The cleaning staff do not appear to make the same effort that is normal on a ship and London prices are 5 times what we'll pay in a few weeks time in Scotland. Cunard's "Hotel and Dining Service Charge" would broadly equate to what we would tip on a similar land based trip. Others may of course take a different view.

We decided to miss the gym this morning and walk to Antibes and back after breakfast (about 11 miles). And I tried out the latest lens acquisition; a 50mm f1.8. Although it's the smallest and lightest of it's type, it's still the biggest I've bought other than a long zoom. Gives some very sharp portraits with a blurry background, but here it's set at f8 to get a bit of detail in the background. I was also checking an ftp backup to my phone, which in turn does an automatic cloud backup. That revealed that the IP address changes when I switch from home wifi to 4G/5G data. So I need to adjust that when it goes with us to a wedding in a few weeks.

I've only heard of "The Southern Daily Echo" through this thread. I used to work for a UK wide company with operations in Southampton (plus a significant operation in North America) and it was sometimes referred to as "Soton" and everyone knew what city was being discussed. Unfortunately the business premises were in an industrial estate some distance from the port so I never had the time to look at ships on any of my visits.

As we open the seventh last bottle; Will we cope with the stress of not knowing if our stock will last until the next special offer? 🍸