TheOldBear

Back in 2017 at LeHavre passports were stamped both arriving and before leaving - with only one agent on duty there was quite a backup in the terminal.

I wonder if autocorrupt on some folks computers keeps changing QE to QE2

It may depend on which port is your turn around port. For us, the turn around port has usually been Southampton - New York would have different answers due to the need to 'zero out' the passenger and crew head count. In Southampton we can order room service breakfast - the breakfast door hanger was waiting in the room after dinner. In transit cruisers usually can go to their regular dining room. In addition, the buffet and the Golden Lion will be available. It may be the same card for both segments [for two separate bookings, there may be a World Club level promotion]. The only 'walk of the ship as a group' would be for a US port [New York] turn around day. Passengers not wanting to do a shore excursion can disembark last & wait in a [rather spartan] lounge in the terminal while the 'zero passenger' status is verified for the ship, then be the first to embark for the next sailing [luggage stays in room, just need your passport and ship's card] Use them before embarkation starts 😉 We have only done multi segment bookings - so only a single bottle at initial embarkation.

This is the right forum [Cruse Critic geography puts all of France on the Mediterranean ] Cunard offers tours to Rouen for port visits to LeHavre. You may want to see an earlier thread

I rarely use a pixel level editor like Photoshop [or one of its many competitors ] I do use an image or 'digital asset' manager or photo library program. Some of these [like Lightroom] also allow for image adjustments [color cast, cropping, leveling, resolution enhancement, noise reduction....] and may have myriad other knobs and controls. If you are on a Mac, the built in Photos application is a basic photo library program, that can be extended to offer additional capabilities. Nikon likely has software that complements their image file formats [and may have some photo organization capability]

We mostly book transatlantic round trips. We prefer the sheltered balcony rooms, mid ships where possible to reduce an perceived motion when QM2 encounters heavy weather. It is also nice that the balcony provides an oasis of calm - even when there is a force 11 gale closing access to the Lookout, Observation Deck & deck 7 access to the Promenade.

The raised sides on the table are called 'fiddles' - common on small boat tables.

Recent crossings only have two 'gala' nights, both with a theme [Red & Gold, Roaring 20's ....] Evening gowns are common, but not universal.

See if your policy's fine print includes something similar to "A covered Sickness or Injury involving an Insured, Traveling Companion or Business Partner, or Family Member of an Insured or Traveling Companion which necessitates Medical Treatment at the time of interruption and results in medically imposed restrictions, as certified by a Legally Qualified Physician, which prevents an Insured’s continued participation in the Covered Trip;" Note the "Legally Qualified Physician" requirement - and also the policy's definition of "Family Member"

At best, a good tripod will hold the camera so that parts of the ship [e.g. railings, antenna, bridge wings] will be at the same position relative to the camera. This does nothing for movement [clouds, horizon, people] relative to the ship. As I have said on another thread, my tripod has been languishing at home since moving to image stabilized cameras and lenses. This includes some multi second hand held northern lights images.

How about https://www.charts.noaa.gov/InteractiveCatalog/nrnc.shtml

I recall seeing a proposal [sometime in the 1990's] in the USNI Proceedings magazine about a 'pebble bed' reactor design sized to match a LM2500 gas turbine module. These gas turbine modules are used by Navy warships - and also the QM2 and a few MSC ships. The 'pebble bed' reactor replaces the combustor section with a gas cooled reactor. The 'pebbles' contain the reactive elements [and much of the gamma & beta radiation] while allowing the neutrons to continue the chain reaction.

Well, it needs to be dark - so forget about midnight sun norther lights viewing. See https://www.visittromso.no/northern-lights The page indicates September to April as the time to visit.

Not ideal lighting, but this is a 2 second handheld aurora photo. Note that moonlight was bright enough for some blue sky between the clouds.

I've been using stabilized cameras for years - and long exposures are quite easy to do with static subjects [helped by the wide angle lens, but I have a few long exposure tele shots as well]. My tripod has be languishing in the basement for years - but I may want to give it a try for a couple of 'computational photography' modes. There is a tripod based high res mode in the M1.2 body [uses the IS hardware to jiggle by half pixel increments then merges into on high res image]. Later models do this hand held, using your hands to supply the jiggle. The 'live composite' mode is an enhanced bulb exposure stacking multiple images - with the first image providing the initial exposure, and the rest of the interval recording only new light sources. The developing photo is displayed on the rear screen. On a less moonlight night, I think I would try the 'live composite' and see what a multi second aurora looks like.

I'll add to this thread from the computer with the images on it later. I was using an image stabilized camera [Olympus OMS EM1 mark 2] with a 'travel zoom' lens set to the widest angle and fastest aperture [Oly 12-220 f/3.6-6.3 at 12mm f/3.5] with a one second exposure. Distant lights and objects silhouetted against the moonlit clouds have sharp edges so the image duration was handled nicely hand held. The photos show a bright green aurora & dark blue sky between the clouds.

The ship's northern lights tour was bus based [4 busses total] with a local guide [grad student from the university ] guiding the bus to viewing areas [away from artificial light, finding holes in the cloud cover]. At our first stop, a good ways west of Tromso, the aurora was bright enough to be noticed through the bus' windshield. We stopped there for almost an hour - until clouds rolled back in. A problem with the timing of the cruse was an almost full moon, so even with minimal artificial light, you never got a chance to be dark adapted. That meant taking a picture of what might be aurora - and then reviewing it to see if it was that, or just moonlit clouds. The second stop was a rendezvous with the other busses where they reported clear sky. Stayed there for about an hour an a half. The show seemed to be over [the aurora app of ny phone indicated dropping intensity and viewing probability]. Unlike some of the local 'northern lights chase' operators, the ship's tour did not include warm clothing, you needed to bring & wear your own. Evening temps were in the mid 20s, and you could feel some muddy patches icing over. I was overdressed - wearing winter boots, ski pants, ski parka, sweater, wool hat & gloves. I took the insulation out of the parka and that was much better. [layers are your friend ].

In Tromso, the ship's shuttles ran all day, both days we were in port [mid morning on Sunday 6 November through 1 AM on Tuesday 8 November]. That gave us two evenings possibilities - with sunset before 3PM. I think the last shuttle left downtown about 11pm on Monday the 7th. It was about a quarter mile walk from the gangway through the port fencing to the shuttle and tour bus stop. [Tromso city bus route 42 also connects downtown and the cruise port] My northern lights bus tour arrived back at the ship about 12:30, and lines were already 'singled up' ready for departure. Hot chocolate, coffee and warm towels greeted us after we checked in with security.

You should be able to spread them out. For our 26 night 'Norway and Northern Lights' sailing, we used six day passes, as three days on the eastbound crossing, one day on the Norway trip & the last two on the westbound crossing. During the Norway cruise, there was a transition from the '2 hour window' back to anytime for the day, with multiple entries if you wanted.

Have you checked the 'roll call' for your sailing?

From Deck 11, you also have the 'scenic lifts' from deck 11 to 7. [not secret, but scenic 🙂 ] The lifts are just a smidgen forward of the 'A' staircase and lifts - outboard of the entrances to the 'observation deck' Commodore Club is deck 9, Library is deck 8 [starboard side] and deck 7 is the promenade deck, spa, Carinthia lounge - and Kings Court.

Cunard has not been announcing a full list of planned enrichment speakers - but you may luck out and have a speaker from the Royal Astronomical Society. No onboard spending is required - for more Cunard specific questions and answers, you probably will want to visit the Cunard section of the forums. Oh - I forgot to mention, seeing that was your first post, welcome to the Cruise Critic forums!

We have noticed, on the few times we tried Britannia for breakfast, that service was 'not rushed' - even when we wanted it to be. On recent trips, we tended to split breakfasts about 50/50 between room service and Kings Court. KC has a nice omelet station, and waiters filling coffee cups 🙂

The discussion was about passport alternatives - the EDL is similar to the passport card in its utility [land border crossings - indicates residence & citizenship]. The drivers license [state id] + birth certificate option is only available to citizens [of WHTI countries ?] Real ID compliant licenses can be issued to green card and other visa holders, so they are not passport card equivalent. [but do indicate residence]. In New York, the standard driver license is less authoritative as it may be issued to anyone - including undocumented / illegal aliens. [no longer proof of residence]

In New York, the paperwork for the 'Real Id' and 'Enhanced Drivers License' are the same, except for the increased fee for the EDL. Both require either a current passport [DMV photocopies a page] or the same documents you would use to obtain a passport. Both are useful, as the standard NY license may longer be used to indicate citizenship or residency status.