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I've never completely skipped it, but on my latest solo TA, I only ate in Brittannia twice - once on the first night, and once on the last or second last night. Otherwise I went to King's Court or skipped dinner entirely. I didn't let the maitre d' know, but I was solo at a table for 2. If you're planning to do this, I would suggest requesting a table for 2, or letting the maitre d' know, so that your table mates aren't stuck waiting for you. Do note that the majority of the rest of the ship also observes the dress code, so you'll be limited in where you can go if you're not dressed accordingly.

I'm 9 months out from my next cruise (+ 1 day), and I'm already looking at hotels for pre-cruise, and flights, and thinking about packing. Can you tell I need a vacation?

I can't imagine that a shuttle to the port from any of the downtown hotels would be faster than walking.

I stayed in the Auberge last spring the night before my Alaska cruise, and it was lovely. A couple of blocks from the cruise port, so no need for transport.

I'm planning to take a paperback for beach days on my cruise next winter. I'll have my Kobo ereader for sea days/on board, but between sun, sand and the potential for theft, I think I'm going to leave the ereader on board for those days.

Bug stuff is on my list now! Sunscreen (reef safe) in multiple formats is already on the list, and the swimsuits & swim coverups are there as well (although I still need to find one. I may end up just getting a pullover jersey sundress from Old Navy or something.)

I had some rather serious mal de mer on my last crossing (November 2022) - I was in an oceanview forward on deck 4 (third or fourth cabin back, I believe), and we had a lot of movement. It caused me to lose about a day and a half. Bring seasickness tablets, and take them BEFORE you/your partner start feeling ill.

Adding my name to the no-nap brigade. Try to move your sleep time up by at least a few hours before you leave SLC so that you're able to fall asleep as quickly as possible on the flight. Also let the flight attendant know that you're going to be sleeping, so that they don't wake you up for beverages/meals. Since you'll be arriving so early, it's doubtful that your hotel room will be ready. I've had good luck with a package of body wipes and a package of face wipes and doing a "pits and privates" wipedown in an airport bathroom (significantly more spacious than the airplane WC) and changing some undergarments. Since you'll have been travelling for so long, you might find that you feel better for changing completely after landing, but that's more of a personal choice. I've found that keeping moving helps the most - once I sit down (especially in the afternoon, when it's getting close to my home time-zone bedtime), I start to flag. Caffeinate moderately in the morning, if you normally caffeinate, but don't consume past when you would normally consume (so if you only drink coffee in the morning at home, stop drinking coffee by noon in AMS.) Eat at time-zone appropriate times, and then head to bed early that evening. Definitely stay hydrated (including on the plane.)

It all depends on what I'm up to. I've not been on QV/QE yet (QV next January!), so all of my comments refer to QM2 only. For daytime, my favourite location is actually the Carinthia Lounge. Comfy couches and chairs, decently quick service, and it's good for people watching, as it's a main pass-through between the spa/front of the ship and the buffet. The Commodore Club is great for daytime watching the world go by, if you can get one of the chairs by the windows. They close the curtains at night, so it can feel rather closed-in later in the evening. They do have a lovely cocktail menu, and although I'm not generally a drinker, I have started all of my TAs with a cocktail up there (which is usually my only drink for the week). The Chart Room has never felt as comfortable to me as Carinthia, despite having similar conversational groupings of seating - I'm not sure why. The Champagne Bar is mostly a space to walk through to get to the end of the Chart Room - the only time I've ever seen people sitting there (or have sat there myself) is during the champagne tea.

Stops are Aruba, Guatemala, and Mexico. Yes, it's the AC flight, and being able to walk off on Wednesday morning will make everything MUCH easier!

I'm going to be disembarking in San Francisco from a Panama Canal transit cruise next February (departs Fort Lauderdale, San Francisco is first US stop.) We've got an overnight in SF before disembarking (arrive AM Tuesday, cruise ends Wednesday.) The only cruises that I've done have been Transatlantics, where everyone has to go through the absolutely horrendous Brooklyn cruise terminal customs and immigration system, so I have no idea what to expect at SF, especially given that we'll presumably(?) have gone through customs/immigration the day before for excursions, etc. I'm going to be flying back to Toronto, and the only reasonably-timed flight is at 11.50AM on that Wednesday (otherwise, I'd be stuck waiting until 11PM that night to fly out, and not arriving back home until the next morning.) How is the customs/immigration process at San Francisco for disembarkation, and if I do self-disembarkation early, am I likely to arrive with enough time to catch the flight? (I will have checked bags, so will need to arrive with enough time for that.)

I also have a bunch of pennies, and keep meaning to either take them to the bank and deposit them (they're rolled) or take them to the grocery store and use one of those CoinStar machines (but their fee % is ridiculously high, so I'm leaning to the bank.) I just have to actually DO it.

Looking forward to hearing how it works! I'm doing my first warm-weather cruise next winter (Jan 2024 FLL-SFO through the Panama Canal) and have a lot of thinking to do about packing. All of my other cruises have been transatlantic (so mostly indoors + more formal) or Alaska (so mostly indoors or on excursions + less formal.)

It looks like you can buy gift cards, which should function like onboard credit. It's not nearly as easy as on some other lines - it looks like you have to phone to make the purchase. I purchased OBC before sailing HAL last spring, and it was incredibly easy to purchase online. I've never done the process with Cunard.

Despite my love for Google Sheets for organizing trips, I always have at least one fountain pen on hand, and usually more (I can see 4 on my desk right now.)

One caution for those of us who aren't as tech savvy, and particularly for people who use Apple devices - if you take a picture of your passport ID page, make sure that it's not saved to the cloud, or if it is, check the security settings. I was at my parents' house last month with a friend, who noticed a photo of a passport ID page go by on their internet-enabled photo frame - one of my parents had taken a picture of their passport, saved it to the cloud, forgetting that their photo frame pulls all of the photos from the cloud.

There is both a 'Premium Soft Drinks' package, as well as separate Hot Beverages and Soft Drinks packages. The Premium Soft Drinks package, which is more than the combined other two, also includes non-alcoholic cocktails, small bottled waters, and more soft drink options (the soft drinks package only includes draught soft drinks, but they do also have bottled soft drinks, which may be included in the premium package?) You could do both the Hot Beverages and Soft Drinks packages for a combined $22.50/day per person, or the Premium Soft Drinks package for $30/day/person, both of which would be significantly more cost effective than the $70/day/person alcoholic option.(Prices and details sourced here: https://www.cunard.com/en-us/activity-types/bars-and-lounges/a-world-of-drinks)

As long as you're not travelling during rush hour/peak, you'll be fine. I've done both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning trains Waterloo to Soton, and in both cases, there were enough empty seats that I didn't feel guilty about having my big case, small case (carry-on size), carry on bag (under-seat size) and purse on/in front of the seat next to me.

I have a Google Sheets document for each cruise. I'm an inveterate list maker, so it's got a number of sheets within it, but it includes a page with travel details (cruise dates, reservation ID, flights & reservation IDs, insurance policy, hotel reservations...) then pages for lists of things to take (clothes & non-clothes), things to do before the trip, items that I need to purchase (if any), and a calendar with details by day (days to include pre-cruise and post-cruise as well.) There's also a sheet with costs so that I can keep track of how much this is costing me. After the trip, it lives in my Google Drive, and I copy and update for the next trip.

I've been on four cruises, 3 of them TAs on QM2, and my cabin was always ready when I boarded, so I can't speak to the lugging around your carryon until the room is ready. I had a lovely lunch in the MDR on embarcation day on HAL last spring, and in the pub on QM2 last fall. The MDR was very quiet, and while the pub was busy, it's always busy at lunch, regardless of what day it is. The buffet is frequently a zoo. I'd recommend doing a wander of the ship, and as mentioned above, if you're physically able, to start at the top of the ship and walk down, to avoid the elevators, which are usually packed, with a number out of service for luggage transport. Visit the MDR and find out where your table is (if you're doing fixed dining), figure out where you might like to spend some time (lounges, bars, nooks and crannies), then sit back and relax and enjoy the start of your vacation!

The last time I flew overnight, I wore a jersey dress (bracelet-length sleeves, just below knee length skirt), with wool tights (from Snag - not at all like the scratchy itchy ones you might remember from childhood), cotton bike-style shorts over the tights to avoid the dreaded chub-rub, and my slip-on Blundstones. I pulled on a pair of knee-high compression socks just before I got on board, and took them off after we deplaned. I think I had a cardigan on as well. (I don't wear pants, so it's dresses and skirts for me.)

I believe that you can get cappuccinos and lattes at the Carinthia Lounge as well - I know they have the TeaForte items, and I seem to recall seeing people drinking what looked like Fancy Coffee Drinks (tm) while I was sitting in there back in November.

I can definitely recommend getting in at least a day beforehand, especially if travelling solo. My last cruise in the beforetimes, and my first cruise in the current era, both involved flying in the day before departure. The first was to London - the cruise departed on Sunday, and I flew in overnight on Friday night, arriving at ~6AM on Saturday morning. I had a wonderful day running around London like a madwoman, then hopped the train to Soton to the hotel there. The second was an Alaska cruise out of Vancouver. The cruise departed Wednesday, so I flew in Tuesday morning, arriving early afternoon. I did some running around (visiting those oh-so-important yarn shops), got takeaway Vietnamese to eat in my hotel room, then boarded the next morning. In both cases there were significant time differences (5 hours for London, 3 hours for Vancouver), and having the day beforehand to acclimate made the cruise much more pleasant. Just don't get off your plane in the morning and go to bed - try to stay awake until a 'reasonable' bedtime in your new time zone to avoid jetlag as much as possible. In both situations I was travelling solo, and perhaps because I'm a public transit user at home, I felt perfectly comfortable riding public transit in both London and Vancouver.

Definitely not small, but still retains quite a bit of its 'small town' character.

Does anyone have the link? Somehow I managed to take myself off of the Cunard advertising list, so I didn't receive the sale option (and I'm not seeing it on their website, either, so it may be an email-only offering?)