D&N

This evening we tested our projection Christmas Tree, newly mounted on ceiling, and the vertically mounted television version. Along with a mix of traditional and electronic table candles. 2 of the real candle holders sit in sparkly LED mountings. I installed some new shelving with LED ribbon cove lighting to display Christmas Cards. We've got 6 already from folk in UK who are concerned about postal strikes. We left all our cards with my sister in London last weekend as the postage from there is much cheaper than sending from France. They were posted yesterday. I'll post a photo version of our bespoke card here soon. I've more shelving and lighting to install in next few weeks and decorations to put up, partly for ourselves and partly for visitors we are hoping to host from 27th for the New Year period. As long as our President doesn't find some reason to stop Brits travelling here again! Carmel is still eating well and has actually put on some more weight. She's still not happy about her daily medications but once those few minutes are past she's happy to cuddle into us, her personal heater, or picking a sun spot on the glass protected balcony.

I don't understand that argument (I know it's not you making it!). There will be a very few passengers who are restricted to travelling on airlines that charge extra for all but the very minimum of luggage and perhaps are taking a sailing as part of a much longer trip where they require to pack clothing to suit various climates. But most are likely to travel directly to and from the ship. We used the Nice to Heathrow route and our modest fare included; 23 kg each hold luggage with size limits much greater than the medium cases we took; 23 kg each in cabin bags in the overhead lockers; and 23 kg each in smaller bags to fit under the seat in front of us. I'm not sure what one would actually pack in the various cabin bags to reach anything like those maximum weights! In practice our total luggage weight/volume heading for 14 nights on QM2 was 58 kg/290 litres out of the 138 kg/740 litres we could have taken. That included 3 tux suits and 3 dark lounge suits for me, enough gowns, dresses, skirts, suits, tops, smart shorts and shoes for my wife to wear 14 different evening outfits and 12 lunch outfits, and everything else we required. With a little planning it wasn't difficult to pack all we needed in.

It is nice to have a large dance floor, but we can dance in much smaller areas. We danced from around 8.30pm to 11pm on all 14 nights of our round trip TA in May/June. Over half that time was spent in G32 because the music was better there than in the Queens Room. We did: Waltz, Foxtrot, Social Foxtrot, Quickstep, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Cha-Cha, Rhumba, Samba, Jive and Disco; either to the band Exile or recorded music. Some of our earliest public dancing was in a local hotel restaurant that held dinner dances. The floor was no bigger than 4m x 4m and the keyboard/singer duo took up about 20% of that, so we got used to small spaces at an early stage. And we've been on competition sized floors with several hundred folk up dancing in between the competition rounds and had less space than on a small floor. We have very little opportunity to dance locally so we just make the best of anything that's offered.

An update on our cat; Carmel... A few months on from the loss of her sister, she's doing reasonably well. She's in a routine where she gets a half tablet thrown down her throat each morning to help her heart and kidney function and a mind bending drug applied as an ointment to the inside of alternate ears each day to encourage her to eat. Her weight has stabilised with the medication and the vet seems satisfied with her condition. Not having a sister to cuddle, she spends much more time than she used to sitting on our knees. As it's becoming colder her mum has started to wear leggings more and we've cut a couple of old heavy lined skirts into large aprons to stop her needle sharp claws piercing the stretchy fabric. I'm slightly concerned about what the ear ointment might be doing to her brain, but the vet has been dismissive of my comments, and we're not having the problems getting her to eat that we had previously. Not sure how long she will last, but for now she seems quite happy.

Certainly. Not been on here for a while, too much going on here. @JoshuaLifter Most equipment is Technogym. Set of free weights from 4kg to 30kg. Wall-bars, foam floor mats, 2 or 3 benches. Cardio: 2 or 3 types of cross-trainer, treadmills, cycles, recumbent-cycles. Muscle exercise: various leg exercise apparatus but not leg-curl. Think there were upper body apparatus as well. Not the biggest gym at sea, but it was adequate to do a decent workout. Don't think I saw any bars for weights. Possibly due to risk of huge weight rolling about in rough seas.

Generally where you have one of these within sight on the ceiling. Most public areas including lounges and restaurants have them. I think that one was over the bandstand at Pavilion pool. Of course there is the complication of whether the ship's satellite link has a good signal, which you can't control no matter where you connect.

On QM2, Premium Package; I tried running Speedtest.net on a 'Motorola Moto G 5G Plus' several times. The test failed to run each time. However in 14 days 890 photos and 7 videos totalling about 5GB backed up to my OneDrive folders without any problems. I compressed photos being posted to CC, Facebook and WhatsApp to make upload times faster. Signal in cabin wasn't great, but I had no problems in public areas accessing websites, email and banking apps. The system did log you out due to inactivity or loss of signal moving around ship. This wasn't a problem if you understood the stages required to re-connect, taking 10 to 15 seconds each time.

I only asked for copies of menus in 2nd week of our crossings, having wrongly assumed they would automatically be presented on final night of trip as we had experienced on other lines. I've scanned the following as PDFs: QM2 Platinum Jubilee Gala Dinner Menu June 3 2022 QM2 Britannia & Club Dinner Menus June 6 to 11 2022 QM2 Britannia & Club Lunch Menus June 6 to 11 2022 I think they are in the order served. Red & Gold has that colour of border. We didn't get a copy of Britannia Club A la Carte, but had Duck, Lamb & Sole once each and Flambé Du Jour a few times (Suzette, Cherries, Pineapple). QM2 Platinum Jubilee Gala Dinner Menu June 3 2022.pdf QM2 Britannia & Club Dinner Menus June 6 to 11 2022.pdf QM2 Britannia & Club Lunch Menus June 6 to 11 2022.pdf

I photographed the wine list on a recent crossing. Unfortunately page 26 containing Central European Reds is blurred and unreadable. Also on page 31 part of the price of 2 Washington State Rieslings has been cut out. You can see the first digit of each and I would guess that these are 2 digit prices. If I'd had scanning facilities I'm sure the pages would have been clearer but I think most of the rest of it is readable. 1528880388_QM2WineListat11June2022.pdf