D&N

We don't eat or drink in our cabin, other than water for hydration purposes. We only drink in lounges and MDR. We both drink much the same things other than one being a coffee hater, so she has tea or hot chocolate. We do drink more on a ship mainly because we have an extra meal each day, and we go to a lounge pre dinner, and we have a nightcap every night. At home we'd have 2 alcoholic drinks most days and up to 5 at weekends.

Yet again I read comments on this thread that suggest you need to drink a great deal for the "Beers, Wines, and Spirits Option" to be of value. What you actually like to drink will of course affect the result. If you only drink low value beers or pricy cocktails then it won't save any money. For us; if we have 2 x hot drinks, 2 x soft drinks, and 5 alcoholic drinks per day we benefit by a small amount. But we take 2 hot, at least 4 soft, and normally 7 or 8 alcoholic and save about 31%. It seems to me that many folk don't do the calculations.

No surprises here; my favourite airport approach is coming into Nice from the west on a clear sunny day.

There may also be a few safety aware people sitting waiting with their outdoor shoes and coat on. I worked most of my life in an industry where failing to follow procedures and ignoring notifications and instructions results in fatalities. Whether anyone is asleep at 6 am should be the last thing the crew consider.

I suspect it's a rigidly enforced protocol. If the extent of the fire is not yet clear it is much safer to notify passengers and crew in case of the potential need to issue a muster station instruction. It may then save valuable minutes. And if the all clear is then issued most people will understand the absolute need for safety.

No. When the queue split for check in we had as much priority as anyone else, which meant we only waited a minute or so for an agent. But they sent grills and the various loyalty levels to security scan before us. We had stood for a few minutes then occupied seats vacated by the first boarders and made a point of telling the lady that was directing folk our status. Nora's hay feverish symptoms have been much better with her healthy weight but we still wouldn't risk having her face that close to feathers for eight hours.

The shortage of two more runways that any self respecting national hub would have.

As long as Nora isn't given feathers, we're fine. Priority check in made a slight difference, but you are at the foot of the priority ladder for embarkation so it's not much earlier than Britannia.

On date of booking my travel agent sent me an email including their own statement, a copy of their terms and conditions and a file named "Guest invoice 06MAR24.pdf", issued by Cunard and containing all the information that I would imagine would be sent to someone that booked direct, with the addition of a note: "Please ensure you check all of the detailed information and should anything be incorrect please call your travel agent, xxxxxxxx on xxxxxxxxxx".

On QM2; A pod coffee machine that we don't use. Still or sparkling 1 litre bottles of water replaced as required (limited use as we wouldn't carry them to a restaurant). A full rather than half bottle of PA. We find the cabin size more than adequate for two weeks transatlantic. The fixed table in the BC restaurant for all meals (other than lunch in New York) is the main difference. Ours were 11.811" apart (30cm). Waiters never attempted to squeeze between, they always walked around our table to get to the other tables.

I would be shocked if you did not get a table for two in Britannia Club on QM2. There is no shortage. The only issue you might have is the distance from the next table. We had a table for two, third table from a window. We loved it. We could see clearly out of the window and could also see what was happening in most parts of the port side restaurant and parts of the main Britannia restaurant. We were well positioned to flag down the sommelier, waiter or maitre'd. However there was about one foot space between each of those three tables. Our table neighbours would arrive at different times to us and we would engage in conversation as suited each couple almost as if we were all on the same table, but without any expectation that we would all dine together. The conversation was completely detached from the timing of the meal, much as it would be if you struck up a conversation with a neighbouring table in a restaurant. There were also some that were not as closely positioned to others.

Nora hasn't read a real book for nearly fourteen years. She started off with a Sony e-reader that was smaller than a Kindle and fitted in a pocket. When the battery started to pack in after about seven years she went for her current Kobo. She reads between two and three per week and normally has at least 150 titles sitting unread either on it or on my PC waiting to be transferred. In two weeks on QM2 she didn't have time to read any, but did read on the flights to and from Heathrow. She'll have a reader with her next time as well, and I wouldn't envisage her running short.

A YouTuber reported an engine room fire on February 12th on QM2, which apparently took about three minutes to resolve, while they were preparing for bingo. Captain Hashmi was in charge at the time, of QM2 rather than the bingo. That one does like to dramatise his postings, but he did make it clear that nobody seemed the least concerned about it and praised the Captain and crew for their professionalism and for keeping everyone informed.

We take all meals in the MD and never use room service, so have no experience of this. But I would have thought the staff involved would come within the scope of the hotel and dining service charge. However if you really wanted to give a tip, I'd be inclined to treat it as you might for a pizza or Uber Eats delivery. Not that we've had many of them either! On the basis that it might be a different member of staff each time, per delivery would seem sensible.

If we weren't in BC we'd be more than happy with that table every night. We use one of the two curved staircases every night, although we emerge at port side rather than centre to avoid walking closely past other diners. We don't notice any of the goldfish below on our descent. My wife is far too busy watching she doesn't trip on the hem of her gown or that her heels don't miss a step, and I'm too busy watching that she doesn't fall and preparing in case I need to catch her.

Probably the best ones are of Coco-Canel and Ursel (linked). There are others on that thread but some are taken with a phone and any Christmas cards are compiled from various sources. There will be lots when we're next on QM2 in June 2025 and September 2026. Hopefully I'll be expert by then. Any from the A7C should be in 6000x4000 format. And would have been posted since February 2023.

I wish. At least ten-fold in my experience!

Hopefully we are merry throughout all our waking hours. Life's too short to be sour faced. 🙂 You may have seen my recent breakdown of our likely spend. I don't expect five alcoholic drinks in a day to affect us much.

You will find the dress code stated on page one of that publication to the right hand side opposite the day and date. You'll probably then see it again in the heading of page four, assuming it's a six page programme. Then on page five in the "For your information" section it will appear again with a full description of what it means.

I can't answer that question, but in my youth there were stories going around Glasgow that many homes in areas around John Brown's sported similar decoration and fittings.🙂 I've no idea if there was any truth in that.

Perhaps you need to be a handyman or female equivalent. One definition in France/French of artisan is a craftsman. The partner of the lady that we sold our holiday studio to described himself as an artisan, and would do any work needed himself before letting it out. I assumed an artisan specialised in something but when I asked he said he did everything. In France you seem to need a certificate to do any sort of work and there are courses to train as a handyman

There isn't really an answer. Tipping cultures vary between USA, Canada, UK & Europe. Most leave auto gratuities (hotel & dining service charge) on, which means several folk in the background supporting the room attendant and waiters get a share. As Brits living in France we leave them on, and may give token amounts to room attendant, waiters, sommelier, drinks waiters etc depending on how much they have contributed to our enjoyment of the trip. Last time we shared around 50% extra of the daily gratuity level along with notes of thanks to those listed. Our table and cabin neighbours for one of the weeks planned to give the room attendant $100 as due to make up not being removed each night, pillow covers had to be changed daily. Some Brits and other Europeans believe there should be no need to tip, and some Americans like to give much more. Some even like to do so in advance to ensure good (preferential?) service, which many of us would consider to be a bribe.

Our agent did that too. I checked online and our cabin was gone. Having secured ours they got on with other business and contacted me a few hours later.

I suppose I must have been in need of such a facility for over 50 years. Everything magnolia would suit me fine.

I briefly used a second hand 35mm SLR over 30 years ago. With cost of film and developing and lack of an internet to teach me, I didn't really get my head round using it properly. I'm very pleased with the A7C but there's lots to learn. I'm getting some great results and lots of rubbish but even saving RAW and X.Fine jpg can get a huge number of shots on a card. I use a WiFi FTP Server to backup the jpg files to phone, which then backs up to cloud and in turn to desktop. Cons: Much bigger/heavier than a phone and doesn't fit in pocket. Needs a much sturdier tripod or selfie stick than a phone. Pros: Supposed to be smallest/lightest full-frame available. Rangemaster viewfinder keeps it as compact as possible, my right eye is fine with that. Battery lasts 700+ shots. I can take it most places in a small camera bag, a tote bag or light back pack. Otherwise I've never had a serious camera to compare it to. It is expensive of course. I've spent close to €4,000 between the A7C with 28-60 kit lens and a variety of others. Spare battery, charger, tripod, flash equipment, SD cards, bags. Some of the kit was second hand saving about €400. Some Sony lenses are very expensive, so the second hand ones have been Samyang. I did have a cheap second hand APS-C 55-210mm, which I removed the baffle from to get max zoom with minor vignetting, but I recently got a new Tamron 70-300mm. I should replace the baffle and get the 55-210mm up for sale.