sfred

There's some buildings which might be the buildings in Alexandria Egypt.  I'm far from certain, but I'll throw that out as my guess for the day.

20 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

I went for the Goat Cheese Tart, the Bulgur Wheat Salad, then the Beef Wellington, medium rare, and finally the mercifully small Prune and Armagnac Sticky Toffee pudding. I saw the Baked Alaska and it was pretty large. Probably one of the best Cunard meals that I have had.

 Yum!  Our last QE voyage had the goats cheese tart a few times.  I found it very tasty.  The Wellington also looks nicely done.  I'm envious. 

4 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

Those two towers at the far right might be a useful feature, but I'm not getting anywhere with that approach either.

I had tried looking for the buildings also.  No luck.  I suppose it's possible that they no longer exist.

1 hour ago, Pushpit said:

He also went through the weather for the next few days, explaining it was "complex". By that he means tomorrow Saturday sounds fine and unremarkable, however we face a storm on Sunday afternoon, gale force 8, maybe severe gale force 9, before returning to something more sensible on Monday. The routing has been adjusted for this, with a Rhumb line route to the south of the norm, then Great Circle to get northwards towards Nova Scotia and Nantucket. We shall see.

The North Atlantic does look a bit bumpy.  Numbers are wave heights in meters.  Thanks for your reports, @Pushpit.

I see this morning that an option has been added to the en-au Australia/NZ site under Support to Log In / register to My Account.  I tried to register, but get an red colour text error message at Step 2 (where you enter name, address, DOB, and world club number)  "Bad request.  Mandatory parameters not passed".  Same result in both Firefox and MS Edge.

Has anyone else in Aus/NZ been successful?

On 10/28/2023 at 1:45 AM, Host Hattie said:

Happy Black Cat Day from Biggles

I'm just catching up on the past few months of postings from this thread.  Sympathies @Colin_Cameron on your dad's health and travel changes.  Also @D&N on your loss of one of your companions.  .

And apologies to Biggles for missing "Black Cat Day".  After the Barcelona finish of our recent QE adventure in September, we went by train to Madrid for a bit of business before returning to Australia.  It wasn't all work, though, and we managed to fit in a day trip to Toledo.  We had a very nice day, and lunch was delicious Iberian ham sandwiches from a local shop.  While eating our lunch outside and enjoying the views out to the river, a local stray black kitten came by, hoping for us to share.  It looked like it hadn't had anything to eat in several days, and we were happy to provide a few small pieces of ham and cheese for which it (couldn't tell he vs. she) seemed very grateful.  I hope it found a home.

Cunard knows our birthdays when we enter it during the booking process, and also when logging into mycunard, so I guess the info would be passed along to the ship.

The one time I was aboard on my birthday I received a card (not personalised) with pre-printed signatures from the captain, entertainment director, and hotel GM.  There was nothing else, which was fine as I'm not a big birthday person.  Although I wouldn't have said no to a free drink.

Interesting...   I haven't heard that term "closed loop" before. Thanks @NE John and @Underwatr. To qualify as closed loop, do you know if it has to be the same port (eg, NY to NY) or can it be any two ports both in the US?

When we did the QE SF to Barcelona tip in Aug/Sep, the only embarkation port between SF and Ft Lauderdale was LA.  In LA we did not have to get off the ship (although we did) and the ship did not have to be zeroed out.  In Ft Lauderdale, after calls in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Aruba (none of which was an embarkation port), we had to exit the ship in Ft Lauderdale (we planned to anyway), clear US immigration, and the ship had to be zeroed out. 

7 hours ago, D&N said:

I've been wondering about posting this one for a while.

I think the berth is quite distinctive. I have an almost identical zoomed out a bit if it's too difficult.

It is a port that I've seen posted here previously.

No luck for me.  I've tried to examine QM2's flags, and also the lettering on the sides of the two gangways, but the resolution isn't sufficient to make anything out. 

13 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

Thanks sfred!  I also was healthy for the cruise but husband had a little bit of cough towards the end, but was ok. That is interesting about the anti-malarial precautions vs insect repellent.  Still have never tried G&T, but maybe next cruise.

 

We have booked QV for 2025 South America and also QM2 2025 Fjords, both for my hopefully impending retirement 😉  How about you?  What is coming up for you?

Because of our Panama transit on our voyage, we were especially concerned about malaria.  So much so that we took a preventative dose of G&T almost every day.  It seemed the least we could do to maintain health. 🙂

Your future voyages sound wonderful.  Best wishes!  We loved our QV trip from Rio to Santiago in February 2020.  We got home to Brisbane just a week or so before Australia's borders closed for the duration of covid.

We're back on QE in February for a Sydney to South Pacific trip, and also a short QM2 trip in May Southampton-Hamburg-Southampton, conveniently adjacent to a work trip to London.  Counting the days to February!

4 hours ago, Underwatr said:

One final plus - I understand that these are new coffee machines. The ones in Kings Court are to dispense either coffee of hot water (and were frequently out of order, btw), but the machine down outside of Connexions on Deck 2 could also dispense lattes (with real milk) and cappuccinos, either with regular or decaf coffee. I didn't discover it until the trip back north to New York but after that I'd find a reason to walk past that area mid-morning.

Excellent! - I'm so glad the Deck 2 Connexions coffee is back.  It was a long walk from insight lectures to deck 7 to get coffee refills.

QE had new coffee machines also when we were last aboard in August/September.  QE's look similar but different.  They seemed fairly reliable.

36 minutes ago, Flickit said:

Tauranga - Mount Maunganui today.

Thanks much for your photo updates, @Flickit.  Appreciate you sharing your adventures.  It looks like your weather has been a bit hazy/stormy.  Or is it just my eyesight getting fuzzier with age?

A little over two months to go for us to be back on QE again.  Counting the days!

2 hours ago, rog747 said:

May I have my first go at WITW please>? 

There is much history surrounding the chap in the statue.
If you look very close you can just see the Cunard ship...an extra point if you can name her.

That would be the statue of Charles I of Austria, in the Monte gardens of Funchal, Madeira.  Both QE and QV have been there this year, QV a bit more recently, so I'll guess QV.  In your photo, the ship seems to be more to the left side of the Funchal pier, whereas QE was further to the right when we were there on 14 September.

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

It looks like La Rochelle

The three towers of La Rochelle (Saint Nicholas, Lantern, and Chain) which guard the port entrance have a rich history, dating from 1384.  A chain extending from Saint Nicolas to Chain was used to stop ships from entering the harbour.  Presumably there were no barriers to @Lanky Lad's QV port call in 2018.

1 hour ago, QM2_SYD said:

I would say Queen Elizabeth at Port Chalmers, Dunedin NZ.

Correct!  Webcam captured during QE's port call today 7 December 2023.

https://www.portotago.co.nz/otago-harbour/webcams/

Here's a webcam for an already-seen port.  I've cropped out the data/time banner.  One of the port vehicles is just covering the ship's name on the stern, so bonus points for guessting the ship between QE/QV.

21 hours ago, bluemarble said:

Queen Mary 2 2026 Itineraries

The first thing that stands out for me is the "Panama Canal Transit" on the 2026 World Voyage itinerary. We know QM2 can fit through the new Panama Canal locks but it's a tight fit for QM2 to get under the Bridge of the Americas.

It will be a very close fit.  The Bridge of the Americas clearance at high tide is 61.3 meters.  QM2 from keel to funnel is 72.0 meters.  At a typical draft of approximately 10.3 meters, that leaves an air draft of approximately 61.7 meters.  I guess they are planning to go through at a lower tide.  And maybe tell everyone out on deck to crouch down.

It felt close even for QE during our August transit earlier this year.

If it occurs, the Bridge of the Americas would replace the Askoy Bridge in Bergen Norway as the lowest bridge in the world that QM2 passes under.  Askoy has a clearance of 62 meters.

4 hours ago, kindofanewbie said:

Will be travelling on QM2 and dining in Britannia. I have a tradition with my 13 year old son that on our last night of any holiday, we only eat desserts for dinner (cakes, puddings, ice cream, whatever he wants!) Would this be any sort of issue in Britannia? Would it cause hassle for the servers in any way? We can stick to King's Court if so, but I think he would enjoy the experience more in the "posh" dining area.

 

Thanks!

Sounds like a very nice tradition.  "Whatever he wants" might not be possible, although your waiters would probably try their best.  A selection of any or all of the items on the dessert menu that day will definitely not be a problem.

We bought two plug adapters (adaptors?  I think you are right @maggielou362) for our last QE voyage at one of the local Australian tech retailers, one for a UK plug and one for a Europe plug.  They have two usb ports and an Australia socket.  These, plus a few standard simple plug adapters for the US, are enough for all our devices.  I've never been questioned about using  these when aboard.

As you say, Cunard (and the world in general) tends not to provide a great deal of support for our somewhat unique Aus/NZ power needs.  Plug adapters are needed.

A typical QM2 Britannia cabin will have two UK plugs and two US plugs at the back of the desk.  There are two more US plugs to the left of the below photo, near the kettle.  QV and QE also offer a European plug, but QM2 does not. 

Power strips, particularly those containing circuit breakers/surge protection are not allowed, so we bring several adapters.  Per the Cunard FAQ:

1 hour ago, alibabacruisers said:

We are happy to be home after 8 days in Barcelona and 34 days on QE.  There was quite a bit of coughing most of the cruise with people still not covering their coughs, not using the hand sanitizer and blaming everyone else.  Early on we almost were not going to be allowed without masks at one port (forgot which one) because of covid cases, but then they changed their minds...hmmm.  Luckily, we did not get sick and are still ok.  

 

I hope you are doing well woorimbeachlady.

Welcome home to Australia, @alibabacruisers!  Glad you had a nice voyage.

Mrs sfred and I were also lucky to get off QE in Barcelona after 36 nights as healthy as when we stepped on.  We didn't notice as many health issues amongst the passengers during our voyage.  We took the usual precautions in ports and on the ship, and also maintained anti-malaria precautions of insect repellent and preventative doses of gin and tonic (🙂).  Perhaps the G&Ts worked on covid too?

Where/when is your next Cunard adventure?  Disembarking and returning to home life seems a little easier when there's a future voyage to look forward to.

Thanks @bluemarble.  Wow.  Well, that will finally resolve the asterisk on Seattle for the "Where in the World" game.

1 hour ago, LadyL1 said:

We have had the most splendid, sunny day in Madeira.

Funchal is a great cruise stop,

Thanks or your report and photos, @LadyL1.  The Madeira holiday decorations look very nice. 

We too had an excellent day in Funchal from QE back in September.  We departed at dusk, and enjoyed sailaway from our balcony.  We have an enduring memory of all the lights on the hills as we went around the island to depart to the northeast.

25 minutes ago, NE John said:

Yea, I thought it was a lame reason too. I’ve always liked the idea of circumnavigating Australia with Cunard. Oh well. 

You still have a chance.  Q431B departing and arriving Sydney 18Oct-17Nov 2024.

10 minutes ago, NE John said:

there is very recent news

Here is a link to a press article

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/cruises-pull-out-of-melbourne-after-tax-hike/news-story/ac6baf3032039c22774376441807a295