buchanan101

Fall 2016 was fantastic in New York - Central Park was beautiful with the autumn colours and I was wearing shorts in November Then it started raining the day Trump was elected. This below was October 29th last year after our crossing and my day in ER (which was fine actually - all i wanted was some blood thinners until I got home but they gave me the full check up) Those buildings (at least 2 or them) were not there in 2016!

QA also looks more crowded in terms of passengers per ton! Anyway, have booked June 24 in PG - the Grills seem to have a good amount of deck space. QM2 grills deck space very poor

They are easy to set up! They have two levels of location - one is where they pick up nearby Apple products and the location is then fed back to you if you check (so within a few minutes of landing at Salzburg I knew all my luggage was somewhere at the airport) Then when you are close (not sure how close - about 5 metres I think) your phone in the "Find My" app shows you range and direction for the tag

I think we were dropping off luggage at a Times Square hotel by 9:30 after disembarking at 8:15 Timed disembarkation is prioritised for Grills so time may depend on how you are travelling, and we managed to get at the front of the queue by judicial hanging about in the right spot... Apple tags* in our luggage helped find our cases in the Brooklyn warehouse. Next time will self disembark (*brilliant invention - just back from skiing in Austria and I knew my bags/boots/skis had arrived at both Salzburg and Gatwick shortly after landing - my skis were temporarily lost last year, so the Apple Tags this year saved any worry)

The underground is always warm... ...so warm in one spot under Times Square that the sudden wall of heat (a tiny area with a bank of ticket machines) triggered my Atrial Fibrillation and I spent the next day at Mount Sinai ER... I'll be sending in the OH as reconnaissance next time You've gone all that way - you should stay in NY for a few days! It's great (though have only ever been in spring or autumn)

We docked at about 5am...unable to see anything because of the fog. You should be able to self disembark from 7am. Timed disembarkation is from 8am. I assume Cunard airport buses run from the ferry terminal

Looks a bit like that unless you are in Grills which seems to have a decent sized area; much better than QM2 grills There are a number of people on here who don't like its Promenade Deck (as much of it is inboard of lifeboat support structure)

We were front of the timed disembarkation which ran a bit late (8:15). Self disembark started at 7. You are supposed to book slots for that. There were cabs (mostly green ones) waiting when we got off, so you should be fine getting a cab - as someone else said, why lug luggage any other way (and the ferry from Red Hook gets you to Wall Street or change and get to 34th Street on the east side, so either way still metro or a cab whilst in Manhattan https://www.ferry.nyc/routes-and-schedules/ I'd get a cab - a lot cheaper than Cunard arranged cars

Well there's rough seas and rough seas. I wouldn't quite claim "so steady" On our crossing in October one day was fairly uncomfortable in Illuminations (though that's right in the bow) and chairs in the Queens Room were sliding a bit during an Art lecture. That was North Atlantic in October though, not North Sea in July

North Sea in summer shouldn't be too bad but the lowest movement position is 2/3rds of the way back - so forward would be worst. Definitely get a balcony! They'll be metal fronted below deck 7 but be much better than having a porthole or no window at all. Does your budget stretch to high up - be a better view

This indeed was the dress rule last October when I went on QM2 but it seems to have been tightened up again - i.e. "dress shirt", not "collared shirt" I wore a smart polo shirt and chinos a couple of times on non formal nights. I thought it was plenty smart enough.. Jackets are indeed still optional, again I wore one some nights, with the polo shirt, sometimes without with a dress shirt. Such fun!!

The ESTA website is not very clear, but this FAQ refers to "all applications" in the group. So a group Application is just a slightly more convenient way of doing 2 or more individual ones When I submit the payment for a group of applications, will I receive the ESTA status for all of the applications at the same time? Yes. The payment amount will appear once all applications have a status of "Authorization Approved" or "Travel Not Authorized". If any application in the group returns a status of "Authorization Pending", the payment amount will be withheld until all the applications in the group have been approved or denied.

Pretty sure a Group application still gives you individual ESTAs; I think that's what i did last time - apply for me and OH as a group. They call it a "GROUP OF APPLICATIONS", not a "GROUP APPLICATION"

The weird thing on a calm sunny day on October crossing sitting on the balcony I couldn't get it out of my head that the ship was stationary and the sea was moving past. It was a little discombobulating (great word...)

I’ve seen someone say it’s a good idea to ring Cunard a couple of weeks before the cruise and see if there are any deals on upgrades?

The sweet spot for least movement is actually 2/3rds of the way back. (Seen the ship’s designer say this in a YouTube video). In August I’d get yourself some sort of balcony. And one side will obviously be hot if you like the sun…)

I have atrial fibrillation… well I don’t have it at the moment as recently had a cardioversion. But I’ve taken out insurance for it as an underlying condition. I was discussing with my OH whether having the potential for recurrence of atrial fib was an underlying condition (if not my Amex Platinum card insurance would be fine)… only for atrial fibrillation to reappear in October in NY the day we arrived on QM2. So I’ve bought insurance going forward to cover atrial fib as inderlying condition (I’ve used Staysure who paid out to cover my $1500 ER costs in NY - and atrial fib was listed as underlying condition) The new insurance asked how many unplanned hospital visits in last 12 months (=1) but insurance still came in at £90 for me (Europe only, excluding Spain, but including skiing). Two of us together for worldwide/cruise/my underlying condition with Staysure had been £330 for a year. Very reasonable.

If you have one of the middle ones you effectively have a table of 6 with the added bonus that you don’t HAVE to talk to them (though that works both ways) (on our crossing we had s Swiss couple on the next table. First night in NYC we went to Katz Diner (THE one from When Harry Met Sally) when in walked the Swiss guy - he had seen us through the window. In the whole of NYC what are the chances of that?)

Interesting one about insurance as the advice is to get insurance when you book to cover having to cancel on medical grounds..but if the trip is more than a year out this is not possible. We’ve booked summer 24 but that’s beyond my current annual insurance - if I was to be uninsurable in the last few months I’d have the same issue. shame they don’t let you use the deposit as funding for another cruise but I was amazed to learn that US cruise deposits ARE refundable for which seems rather strange. I thought the whole point of deposits was that they were showing the purchaser’s commitment.

The tables for two in QG on QM2 are so close together that we ended up chatting to the table either side of us as if they were the same table…

Agreed - it's really not hard to register with the purser, or if in Grills even easier with the Concierge

All (women's) frocks are dresses, not all dresses are frocks All gentlemen are men, not all men are gentlemen All labradors are dogs, not all dogs are labradors The analogy is simply a long way of saying that frocks are a subset of dresses (I guess that that was the original intent of the analogy, but there again, what do I know - I am a man!) Wikipedia suggests that indeed not all dresses are frocks - only smart dresses, or coat-like dresses, but it seems to be mostly interpretation: "Frock has been used since Middle English as the name for an article of clothing, typically coat-like, for men and women. In British and in Commonwealth countries the word may be used as an alternative term for a girl's or woman's dress, in particular for a dress suitable for a smart occasion"

I think it’s “all gentlemen are men but not all men are gentlemen” type analogy.

No no.. he was giving art talks in the gallery (early afternoon) which meant people couldn't go through it and he directed them to walk through Britannia (not to use the opposite corridor)

They could throw you off the ship... What I really meant is they don't know that you walking round the ship at 9am or whenever asked for self disembarkation. Next time we will opt for it, but have a proper breakfast etc. The only reason we went for timed is that we thought we'd have to get off at 7:15...