TheOldBear

For 'in transit' passengers, the port is not their disembarkation port. For example in 2019 I embarked in Brooklyn [onto a zeroed out ship], sailed to Southampton and we were 'in transit' passengers until the ship returned to Brooklyn. Mrs Bear elected to stay on board, I took the ship's shuttle in to town for some shopping, and returned for lunch. As an in transit passenger returning, I bypassed all the check in activity for newly arriving passengers, and just showed my card and walked on board. We then sailed to Hamburg, and both of us took the ship's shuttle, and later returned. Again we bypassed check in and only needed to show a ship's card. Same again back in Southampton & LeHavre [Excursion to D-Day beaches] [in 2017 there was a need to carry passports and have them stamped for the LeHavre stop - in 2019 no one wanted the passport at the port stops] Southampton and Hamburg had large numbers of passengers disembarking and embarking - 40% or so turnover at each port. LeHavre only a few dozen, but the port was set up to accommodate them. Sailing to Brooklyn, we disembarked - but in transit passengers [embarking in Southampton, Hamburg or LeHavre] did not have the option of remaining on the ship [next cruise was a New England & Canada sailing - a side trip on a Southampton to Southampton round trip]

The 'zeroing' or 'clearing' the ship applies only to embarkation ports in the US - all 'in transit' passengers must disembark before any passengers may embark. There are no similar restrictions that I am aware of for passengers embarking in Southampton, Hamburg or Le Havre. In all three ports, the 'in transit' passengers could stay onboard, or come and go freely as they desired.

Much will depend on the cruise line and cabin category to see if room service beverages are included in the drinks package. You may want to check on the sub forum for the cruise line, or contact them directly.

If you look on the deck plans, some rooms are marked with a cross, circle or square cross = third berth is a single sofa bed - likely what you had in the sheltered balcony circle = third & fourth berths are a double sofa bed - looks like some 'glass front' balcony rooms, and a couple of the Queens Grill suites square = third and fourth berths are two upper beds. Mostly inside cabins. These beds drop down from the ceiling. I would find this beyond claustrophobic. There are a couple of far forward ocean view rooms on deck 6 that might be a smidgen larger than inside rooms

It varies with the ship/cruise line - for example on QM2 the cabins are available when you board, even if your checked baggage arrives later. The only 'must do' activity is following the ship's current emergency muster requirements. Some may have you watch a video, and then check in at your muster location. Others may do a full in person muster drill [everyone goes to their designated muster location, possibly with their life jacket, at a designated time for in person instruction]

Thanks to Cruise Critic geography, you will want to look for previous Gibraltar questions and answers over in the https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/472-mediterranean-eastern-western/ forum - and possibly that forum's Spain and 'Other Mediterranean Ports' sub forums.

We had 5132 across the hall from an atrium view room. It mostly looked like an ocean view room, without the view. Unless you were standing at the window, your view is just the windows across the atrium. I saw this as a short peek as the cabin was being cleaned on a turn around day - did not want to bother the cleaner by walking up to the window.

What arrival time is in your paperwork? Which cruise line? [Cunard? MSC?] Your ship and the baggage hall is likely busy with disembarkation until at least late morning [11 AM] or so. The ship must ['zero out'] with only designated watchstanders on board before any passengers can board. After that [and the luggage hall is cleared] the terminal folks would be ready to received checked baggage, and security screening set up for arrivals. Note that there are minimal creature comforts in the terminal - mostly just hard chairs. The vending machines _may_ have returned, but I didn't see any this past October. When the terminal is ready for checked luggage, you can leave your stuff with them and head out the pedestrian gate with your carry ons in pursuit of lunch, or just start the check in in the terminal.

The consensus is to use a broker, and explore the options that are available. It costs no more to use a broker than to purchase the coverage directly. The folks from the 'Trip Insurance Store' participate on these forums, and occasionally have a dedicated Q&A subsection. The recent subsection with 'insure my trip' was disappointing, with limited useful content.

If you want sun on a westbound crossing, the port side [even numbers] balconies face south. And yes, all the Princess Grill rooms are on deck 10. [along with some of the fancier Queens Grill rooms and a few Britannia inside rooms]

Part of the so called 'expanded room service' menu are soft drink, beer and other 'packages' similar to what was once in the fridge, and you needed to ask your steward to get rid of it.

You can step out onto a sheltered balcony when there is a 'force 11' wind closing promenade deck access. Likely that would not be pleasant on any of the Britannia glass fronted balconies. [There are a couple of aft facing Queens Grill balconies that might be useable when a stiff wind is over the bow.

Back this November [QM2 M234A sailing] there were two seatings [early and late] From 25 Oct to 31Oct - the early seating was 100% assigned tables, and the late seating was 'open' [we put up a fuss and had table 355 for the week on the late seating] The folks doing 'open' dining needed to queue each night, and then be shown to a table. On 1 November [first Southampton turn around day] the late seating was changed to assigned tables on deck 2 and 'open' on deck 3. The early seating remained assigned tables. That continued until we disembarked on 20 November. The start times for shows in the RC were adjusted a couple of times during November. I don't know what other changes have been made, or what is planned for post world cruise sailings. I would just think that the voyage personalizer may may not reflect the actual implementation. I assume that things will continue to shake out and reach some final status before our planned 2024 sailing.

We had no trouble using a card for the white 'radio taxi' cabs at the terminal taxi stand. We later used Uber of the ride back to the Mayflower terminal

On QM2 this past November first, there was a transition of the late seating from open dining to assigned tables on deck 2, and open dining on deck 3. The early seating was all assigned tables. Open dining [as observed before the transition on the eastbound crossing] meant that you never knew where you would be sitting, who your wait staff would be - or how long you would wait between reception and being seated. There was a long line down the hallway from the Golden Lion to the Britannia podium area. Our party had a couple of special diet needs folks, so we were able to wrangle a fixed seating assignment [table 355] for the entire sailing

On a recent 26 night sailing, we ended up splitting breakfast 50-50 between the buffet and room service. We did not use the dining room for breakfast at all. On QM2 the 'Kings Court' buffet has several 'bay window' areas that are enclosed, but let you sit on the promenade deck. That's as close to outside as I would like to get when there is a 60 knot cold wind on the other side of the glass.

The word is 'endemic' At the risk of the return of the red banner warning, an endemic result is the best you can hope for when a novel respiratory virus is encountered.

Contact the 'special needs' folks at the lines you are considering. I took a behind the scenes tour a few years back - and the QM2 Britannia restaurant galley devoted one of its five prep lines to special diet requests. I would assume that most dining rooms have similar accommodations - and most buffets less accommodating [e.g. 'gluten free' labeling ]

It's still Sir Samual's and his bust is still there. The major signage visible from the passage is for Godiva. Oddly enough, despite being on board for a 26 night sailing, we did not indulge there even once.

Timing will vary with the ship & previous ports. For example Queen Mary 2 arrives at the end of an eastbound crossing with all passengers passports cleared. As an in transit passenger, I’ve never disembarked with luggage, but I would expect an early self disembarkation to proceed with minimal delays.

Never do? Sailing to a *warm* place to go lie on a beach [with the exception of a ferry ride to Fire Island]

We have done several transatlantic round trips [round trip == only unpack _once_] with different numbers of days [2, 4 and 12 so far] between Southampton turn around days as the QM2 makes a 'local' side trip [to Norway, or Hamburg, or the Med...] Since you are not really looking at a round trip - just sailings there and back again, with some sort of land vacation in between - you just need to check the schedule and pick a pair suitable of eastbound and west bound crossings.

The whole point of a reservation is that you are picking a convenient time. Mrs Bear and I tend to eat late on cruises, so back on board time is rarely a consideration for dinner plans.

While desired / overdue - that is not the sort of update that requires expensive yard & dry dock time. I am surprised that Cunard has not been swapping out table lamps for USB reworked versions [say a dozen rooms per turn around port visit] for the past couple of years [pre and post covid lockdown]. They should at least have a prototype Britannia stateroom lamp with usb [and any needed safety features] available for input on planning.

I would buy the old specialty hot drinks card [from 2010 or so] Not unlimited, just a modest discount to pre-purchase 10 or a dozen specialty coffees without any tracking of who was receiving each coffee or what days the card was used. I think our total bar tab [wine by the bottle, corkage, beer, bar drinks, coffees and sodas] for our recent 26 night sailing was under $500 - much less than the $3588 for the unlimited drinks option for the entire sailing.