D&N

I must stress that this is my personal opinion and others are more than entitled to theirs, and Cunard can accept or enforce whatsoever they choose. I own many polo shirts. To me the key is in the name 'polo', therefore I consider them to be sports wear and only wear them in casual settings and wouldn't consider wearing one to a restaurant for lunch or dinner. They're not much use for sport either not being made of sweat wicking fabrics. I wouldn't consider a shirt to be collared unless it's designed to be worn with a tie. I break shirts into: White, winged collar, double cuffed for formal nights. Long sleeved, no pocket, are dress shirts, not for business as there's nowhere for a pen. Long or short sleeved with pocket, business shirts. I wore some of the latter at breakfast and lunch on QM2 and do so for dinner on hot summer nights at Riviera restaurants.

We found that too. If they are still on board; we preferred dancing to 'Exxile', normally in G32 but played one night in Queens Room. We found much of their music suited most latin and ballroom dances as well as disco. There seemed to be more feeling and soul to their performances. I quite enjoy figuring out how to get in and out of odd shaped corners and avoiding pillars.

Now I didn't actually suggest a Tux ..... But we picked first & last night dresses for Nora made of fabrics that can be thrown in a bag and emerge crease free, to avoid any need for pressing. I have a dark lightweight wool suit that doesn't crease much, and in fact I carried it from home and wore it briefly in the cooler climes of Southampton. But I suppose on the basis that a creased Tux could be pressed on return home, there's no reason why not!

I know that (first & last) is accepted practice, but it isn't that difficult to dress up every night if one wants. Our carry-ons would have given us enough for the first week. If we'd only catered for the first night we could have got away with a very small bag.

Others advised us to buy onboard rather than in advance just in case there was a special promotion on board. There wasn't but it didn't make any difference to us as funds were coming from same account anyway. On a 2 week crossing we discovered that the vendor we went to (they set up tables with staff selling packages) was only selling for the first week. His paperwork wasn't submitted quickly enough and we were charged separately for our first few purchases, and we had to get them refunded. 2nd week we went to our most frequently used lounge to buy it and didn't have any problems. That means that where your trip is considered in some way as more than one cruise you could take the package for one part and not the other. As others have said all must take same package.

@bluemarble Very odd. That webcam appears to operate in real time. I saw Nora on my phone screen when she went to stand at left of barrier. However the playback seems to be an hour adrift so it looks like we were there from 11:31 to 11:36 rather than an hour earlier. I've taken screenshots of all our bits and made a short video. We approached from inside the marina and exited through the barrier and continued on to the next point on our mission high above QM2. @Host Hattie Once Bluemarble and anyone that finds it mildly entertaining that we would pose for a webcam has had a look it's probably best to delete the thread as it's not exactly related to Cunard or cruising in general.

I see where that is now. Too difficult to look it up on phone, could hardly see screen much of today in sunlight. We could have taken a portrait if you'd posed on one of the rear terraces! We'll take less interest for the rest of the cruise. It was nice that Queen Mary 2 came to visit us for a change, we haven't seen her down this way for ages. Enjoy the rest of your trip. P.S. We heard the horn this morning as all the windows were wide open to circulate as much air at 26C before it got warmer, and we're only about 9.5 miles from the anchorage.

Another stern shot from the viewpoint to west of anchorage at Villefranche sur Mer, taken with an optical zoom. It was too difficult to transfer and check those photos while travelling around today. And a nice shot of all the day-trippers arriving on Tender 13 at the Gare Maritime.

Many people think Monaco is expensive. It is, but doesn't need to be. There is a Casino Group supermarket facing Port Hercule. There's 2 street facing counters, one is fresh filled rolls and snacks, the other is a multi oven fresh pizza takeaway. There's a fresh pâtisserie just inside. There are 2 large fridges filled with white and rosé wines. There's also the locked cabinet, which didn't have any Petrus in it today, the most expensive bottle there was about €860. Total spend on lunch today was €34, half being the sancerre, which had much more depth and flavour to it than the one Cunard serves by the glass. More than we usually pay in a shop, but today should be compared to a restaurant wine. We then get a bus to Monaco Ville. Most people continue towards the Palace and may end up in the gardens overlooking Fontvieille. We walk back down the hill to the gardens that overlook the cruise ship berth, which are much quieter and have that view. I really shouldn't be telling other folk about it; it might not be as quiet in future! There are restaurants in Monaco that are in a price range we would pay for lunch but we don't know of any that can match the view and general ambience of our spot.

We had a little bit of pantomime this afternoon as well.... We were joined immediately we sat down for the picnic by a large gull who wanted a share. Some other folk arrived at a nearby bench with a small dog who tried to make a lunge from it's lead at the gull, which got out of it's road quickly. Nora commented "that's good, the little dog has scared the gull away." Until I called out; "He's behind you!" 🤣🤣

Heading home. Last glimpse

Finally made it to our picnic in Monaco after all the hard work of photographing Queen Mary 2. Our preferred spot and the view from there.

And here's a port side view at Villefranche sur Mer. We are on a bus to Monaco for our pizza, wine and cake picnic. After rotating a couple of times to get it right way up.

Something about phone is it keeps repeating quotes. But the main reason for posting is the photo of QM2 at Villefranche sur Mer

But we're moving on

Are you in grills? We're overlooking grills terrace now

@bluemarbleTry between 10:31 and 10:36. Had problems seeing it live on phone but think we got it.

Once we've had a quick look at QM2 (and what she's brought with her 🤣) in the port area, we'll take a bus to a stop called 'Batterie / Princesse Grâce', which should give us photos from about 450 metres to the west of her. If no problems with trains we should be in Villefranche from about 10:15 (CEST or UTC+2).

Wow!!! Didn't expect that. Just heard a very familiar horn blow three times.

This was QM2 a little earlier this morning on approach. The air wasn't clear enough to get a sharper picture, and she is about 8.5 miles away. The land jutting out to left is the South Western tip of the Nice Airport runway, and the spiky lighting gantries in the foreground are on the bridge over the River Loup on the departmental road RD6098. I'll see what we get later.

This morning at 6:30 am as Queen Mary 2 approaches Villefranche-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes. Not as clear as I wanted but can't do much to influence the weather.

We were offered and accepted a package from the pro photographers, of all the photos they took of us in the 2 weeks around the ship on a USB key for $595. That's allowed us to review all 112 and pick those we preferred at leisure. It also meant I could edit out imperfections from those we wanted to print, such as a small but bright light that appears above a particular setting and crop the files to the sizes we need to fit existing frames. When it came to printing I found an online printer that offered posters on photo paper, and it was much cheaper to combine several photos in one, have the poster printed then cut them up. 11, 10"x10" prints plus 7, 5"x7" prints spread over 2 different sized posters cost less than €43.

My problem with the wine packages comes down to personal taste. I wouldn't order at least 60% of the wines listed. But if you like most of them they would be good value. We tried the drinks package recently. There were availability problems with many of our preferred wines by the glass. We did save money as we had coffee, tea and hot chocolate and we drink lots of bottled/canned water as we move around the ship. We probably wouldn't take that drinks package again. Considering the range of wines available on the list I wouldn't want to restrict our choice again. Next time, and we don't plan to take another major trip for several years, we'll order by the bottle. I have a plan (I like plans 😂). We ordered 3 decent wines at $60-$80 in our 2 weeks, one was exceptional. With the first we made the mistake of drinking the whole bottle at our dinner. On top of our aperitifs and what we drank later in the evening, that was too much. The 2nd half of the bottle was probably wasted on our taste buds as well. We had the last small glass of the third bottle on the third night after opening and noticed a slight deterioration in taste. So we'll split the best wines over 2 nights and order a lesser wine at lunch and finish our dinner with the remnants of that, or at lunch the following day if we opt to finish with a glass of desert wine. Aperitifs and refreshments while dancing plus late night digestifs in lounges will be by the glass.

If anyone needs inspiration for some shopping in Monaco tomorrow; how about a nice bottle of wine from the 'Supermarché Casino' at the port? 🤣🤣 No guarantee that the illustrated bottle of Petrus is still available, but the 2011 compares well with the 1996 offered by Cunard and would represent a significant saving. We'll be buying our picnic wine there, but from a fridge without a lock on it! Even though our loyalty card would give us €300 off the displayed price.

On the Riviera we've seen high temperatures with hardly any wind the last two days. By early afternoon it's been a case of closing shutters, windows and curtains and using the aircon. The cats are much happier when we get the temperature down from 32C to 25C or 26C. We made a special trip to the Carrefour to stock up on their Whiskas offer and brought our weekly trip to the local hypermarket forward so part of the morning was spent in air conditioned shops. The biggest issue with heatwaves here is if the overnight temperature doesn't drop. It's been over 27C the last couple of nights, but thankfully that's supposed to come down a little in time for QM2's arrival at Villefranche on Thursday.