D&N

It must vary on different sailings. In programmes posted here for Sept 22nd to 28th 2023 it was 6am to 8pm every day. On our June 2022 sailing it was 8am to 8pm.

@Joe33472, @BellaAnna, Note that the Main Bar Menu may be current. The Deck Bar Menu is not. The key is in the measures. The main bar menu shows spirits in 25ml and 50ml servings, sparkling wine in 125ml, and still wine in 175ml and 250ml. The old deck menu shows sparkling in 150ml and still in 150ml and 250ml. It doesn't show spirits but they used to come in 1oz (30ml) and 2oz (60ml). You'll see in the file names that one is from May23 and the other Aug 2022.

You've already been assured that you are not under the gym. It does seem to open at 6 am every day. We're discussing going before breakfast rather than after, to make sure we don't miss any dance sessions and to prolong our fast from dinner the previous night. We've found that's a key to keeping weight off. But it's not really a gym where you would expect folk to drop weights. I don't think there are any barbell style weights that a few guys load up heavily, struggle to lift then let drop to ground. All the free weights are dumbbells and they don't usually get dropped. Otherwise it's mainly cardio or resistance machines and they shouldn't bang the floor.

Never thought about that. They only use them to extinguish fires, so I suppose the choice is to potentially lose it all to fire against any salt water damage. The training is in the paths taken across the bays rather than the dropping. Anything they pick up is dropped over the sea. I've never heard of them scooping up a jet-skier or swimmer yet. I don't know if we've ever rambled through a bombed area. We have been through some areas where trees and bushes have been really blackened and remarkably many were showing green shoots. They also have some Dash 8s and helicopters that refill at land bases. They drop a retardant mixture.

The water bombers were out training earlier this week. Quite late for them. They usually start around a month earlier. And they only did two passes of the bay, scooping up and dropping their load.

We ended up sailing in Britannia Club and found it suited us perfectly. However we originally made our first two bookings that were cancelled due to the pandemic in obstructed view Britannia cabins, but when the third was made the least obstructed views were not available and we had so much future cruise credit it more than covered the higher grade. We were only really aware that the folk we saw around us in the restaurant had also booked Britannia Club, and that a few others that we saw in or going to sittings at main Britannia Restaurant must have booked Britannia. I wasn't aware of anyone we spoke to, sat beside in other venues, or danced beside, that was travelling in Grills, but some of them must have been. They can't all have quarantined themselves in Grills restaurants or lounges. We also used grills cabin corridors a few times to move around the ship. I understand that isn't permitted in the premium sections of some cruise lines. In fact we've travelled on a car ferry where entry to the corridor our cabin was in was restricted to card holders from that section. Bottom line; other than priority boarding by grade (which happens on budget airlines), we did not experience any sense of them and us on board. We're not bothered what packages are offered. If they are available and they suit us, we'll buy them. Otherwise we'll pay for things as we use them.

Perhaps Sir Steve Redgrave or Sir Matthew Pinsent? 🙂 On second thoughts, more likely to be Grills.

There are short videos available from a company that carried out some stainless steel renovations on QM2 last November:

I doubt if this will be terribly helpful. Cunard's official French site links to an insurance that does not show a £2 million minimum or equivalent in other currency: https://www.cunard-france.fr/informations-generales/assurances It's in French. Click on the link [Télécharger l'intégralité des garanties Assurever pour toute souscription faite aprés le 01/01/2023]. It will download a pdf in French. If you don't read French there are online tools that will be able to translate. The maximum sum shown is €150,000 per person for medical fees, which I don't imagine would last very long if hospitalised in New York with a serious condition. Transport/Repatriation is shown as "Real Costs". We are British Ex-Pats living in France. We booked through Cunard UK via a UK Travel Agent. Luckily for us there is a company, Staysure, who cover Brits living in France, Portugal and Spain and their partners of any nationality with UK style levels of guarantee. I don't think they cover any other nationalities or countries of residence. I originally researched established French/European insurers but like you couldn't find anything with a £2 million guarantee or better. As exlondoner stated, we were not asked to present the detail of our insurance at any point. Only the name and contact details in My Cunard. Perhaps some of the frequent German Cunard passengers could comment on what cover they take? Edit to add: I did find a few companies online that I'd never heard of that claimed to offer cover but all the feedback from anyone who had been unlucky enough to try and claim from them was frightening!

As someone that needs to be careful of their posture due to various back injuries when I was younger, I'd rather have a nice supportive backrest than be lounging. I also find it easier to drink my coffee/drinks and eat nibbles without getting crumbs all over the place if chairs and tables are matched in height for that.

I don't think we would. We were in Britannia Club, as our future bookings are. We ate 39 meals at the same table over 14 days, we missed 1 of 12 lunches. I have 8 of the 14 dinner menus. Of the 8, I can see between 2 and 5 main courses I would have been happy to select each night without any repeats. On top of that there were 3 mains from the A La Carte that one or both of us tried once over the 2 weeks. Deserts were usually tempting enough, but I think we opted for flambées on 4 nights. Given that the QG menu is likely to be more varied and richer than BC, and the ability to order off menu, I can't imagine we'd be tempted. We're not keen on steakhouse menus anyway. Another minus is most feedback I've read or seen from Verandah on QM2 suggests the atmosphere wouldn't be better than our experience of the MDR. It might be more attractive if you are impressed by the menu or you aren't totally satisfied with the ambience of your table in QG.

Out Friday evening and unexpectedly met this new family of ducks in a storm drain we were passing. And we had Nora at the beach as well, which the lens was more suited to.

@jp2001 Not sure that aircon works differently indoors on a ship in Alaska from anywhere else. We certainly didn't notice. Seems like you'll be fine. You plan something for gala nights; otherwise anything that isn't ripped jeans or sportswear that fits in your packing should be suitable. My wife wouldn't feel that way, but she wouldn't go on a cruise and pack light!

Dancing time for us. We'd give the fireworks a miss! 🙂

And the difference between sitting on OUR HOUSE BALCONY and anywhere else is all the din in the world. (whatever that means), We were totally underwhelmed by 100% in a German supermarket car park in 1999. The food and wine is much more important! Sorry, forgot to say; if I found myself at Disneyworld or Eurodisney I would make a swift U turn!

For the French Riviera; we've not come across anywhere not accepting cards in the last eight years we've lived here. Maybe more than fifteen years ago there was a pizza restaurant a few miles away that was cash only but it wasn't memorable and we haven't checked it out in a while. I suspect with the pandemic they were probably forced into doing contactless!

We've never travelled from Cannes to Monaco by train. We live halfway between the two, so we might go to Monaco if my wife wants a pair of Kates or Cannes for dinner and a firework display. But we leave lots of food out for our cats and don't have a ship to catch. In theory trains run every 30 minutes and take 68 mins to Monaco and 65 mins to Cannes. But that doesn't allow for the odd illegal immigrant that has no idea about electric trains and climbs on the roof in Italy and gets grilled en-route to Monaco, or rockfalls in tunnels, landslides out of tunnels and all sorts of other things. This is the most recent timetable: https://ter-fiches-horaires.sncf.fr/publish/FH_04_Grasse_Cannes_Nice_Vintimille_du 23 mars 2024 au 14 décembre 2024_V20240328.pdf But look out for strikes on the day you visit. In emergencies there are express buses from Monaco to Nice Airport and Nice Airport to Cannes, lines 80 and 81. Combination of those would take a bit over 2 hours. Otherwise call an UBER!

Difficult to find a website that gives direct comparisons of all dimensions. Was trying to find scale drawings of both. But it was the case with QE and QV that the Cunard ships were bigger than standard Vistas as well.

Wikipedia claims she is over 22 metres longer.

I don't know. Which is why I would make sure that administrative detail was recorded in advance. Unless you are suggesting you won't know until check in if the other booked passenger can't travel. In that case I suppose it wouldn't be possible.

It might be best to make sure Cunard modify the booking in advance in case you plan to buy any of the drink packages. If their system thinks there are two guests in the cabin it would insist on buying for both. And they might charge the Hotel and Dining service charge for both if the records weren't updated.

Not sure why that is, but for their expat policies that they sell to residents of France, Portugal or Spain they offer the cheapest Europe price excluding: Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco & Tunisia. We've no plans to go to any of them in next 12 months. We'll change it to worldwide with cruise next April. And thanks for reminding me, I'd forgotten renewal was due although we do have CEAM cards for medical cover on visits to Italy and UK.

Unless it's something connected to Cruise Critic, we're not allowed to post links of that sort. Besides I can't think why anyone would cross the Atlantic on anything other than QM2! 🙂

QM2 doesn't normally do repositioning cruises. She does Transatlantic Crossings. You need to go to the Cunard US website and use the trip filters to select the ship QM2, the months of 2025 that you are interested in, and the type of cruise: Transatlantic. If you want an Eastbound only you can also filter the departure port as New York. This link might get you to the site: https://www.cunard.com/en-us It defaults to UK for me without using a VPN

Nora preferred the hot chocolate she was served in the Chart Room to the one pot of hot chocolate she got in Carinthia. However we think the Chart Room version may have been Godiva based, and with Godiva gone perhaps she'll not like it as much.