TheOldBear

I think it varies by deck - even with the 'wait in cabin' method, they still stage disembarking passenger's luggage deck by deck. We were on deck 5, with a scheduled 'out of the room' time of 09:40. There was a backup in the Brooklyn terminal so we had almost an hour's wait before disembarking. For self disembarkation you need to bring everything in a single trip - so I don't think you need to wait for the schedule for staterooms on your deck to leave, but you should be out of your room promptly so it can be readied for the next sailing.

No restrictions that I am aware of.

I did replenish a few bottles at port visits, and purchased some onboard. It would have been impractical to bring sufficient wine onboard for a 26 night sailing [even if there were no socks in the carryon 🙂 ]

On an eastbound crossing, the starboard side of the ship generally faces south - so the port side would generally have more shade.

We considered bringing a double magnum [3 liter or so] bottle - only need to pay corkage once 😉 We thought better of that - did not know about serving and storing the large bottle [and a bit tall for my carry on]. Instead the big bottle was a fundraising prize for Mrs Bear's chorus. My carryon was filled with its usual wine bottles and socks [2 magnums of red & white, 2 bubblies & port]

We choose traditional dining arrangements - same table, waiters and other guests every night. On the first night we do not want to just be empty chairs without informing at least the other passengers at the table.

Theme nights [e.g. Masquerade ] are observed mostly in the Queens Room. Suit and tie are fine for Gala / Formal nights

You may want to look in the cruise/travel insurance forum https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/ There is also a Question and Answer subforum currently active

Got email for server #3 today - this one was focused on transatlantic sailings. Proposals were for a multi stop [southampton, liverpool, iceland, corner brook, halifax, brooklyn] cruise vs a shorter eastbound cruise [omit iceland] vs a crossing. I included responses indicating a preference to pair eastbound and westbound sailings - with at least one being a crossing. No formal nights were included in any of the questions.

An ominous number - 666 days 'till departure 🙂

The original [steam powered] QM and QE did five day crossings - but the turnaround between crossings was much longer than required for the QM2. There is [somewhere on YouTube] a Cunard film describing the breakneck pace of a NYC turnaround for the QE - about 48 hours.

There are a few more deck 2 windows that need attention - likely including welding not just gasket work. The spa 'thermal suite' needs some work as well, basically unchanged since commissioning except for wear [slow drains, missing tiles, rust]. I recall that the spa was originally targeted for a makeover in a dry dock /availability period [2020?] the COVID lockdown forced rescheduling.

Back in 2017 Mrs Bear and I considered a transatlantic sailing, but after pricing out airfare and a minimal UK hotel stay before meeting the ship in Southampton we decided on a round trip from NY. This year marks our third transatlantic round trip, with the fourth booked for October 2024.

Time for a dry dock / refit speculation thread?

On QM2 they are 10.001 (Queen Victoria Suite) and 10.002 (Queen Anne Suite)

Both of our recent crossings [M234 eastbound , M236 westbound] QM2 diverted from the typical great circle routing to avoid weather systems. Despite the diversion, the westbound experienced sufficient movement to prompt closure and draining of the deck 12 Pavilion pool and hot tubs. [The spa pool remained open on deck 7 with lots of sloshing; I think the outdoor pools were closed but not drained]

A rhumb line follows a constant compass heading - they appear as straight lines on a Mercator map projection [the projection where all lines of longitude are parallel, straight up and down]

The time changes as you travel east and west are much more significant - its not quite one time zone per day, but you have 5 23 hour days eastbound, and 5 25 hour days westbound.

Booked for October 2024 [M432B] and got the midships sheltered balcony room we wanted. I checked the personalizer, and noticed that our 'world club' status was not shown - the WC numbers are shown on the $UNNAMED_TRAVEL_AGENCY confirmation, so they should have been provided to Cunard along with the passport and other information.

Its usually a good idea to wear or bring everything needed for your first night. Embarkation days are not 'gala' or formal nights so mostly I wear suitable casual night attire to board the ship [necktie in my carryon]. I am only personally familiar with embarkation in Brooklyn [New York] but you can often check your luggage well in advance of your scheduled embarkation time - most of the time its waiting for you in your room by the time you check in at your muster station..

The survey I received was all multiple choice - 'pick up to 5' for some categories. There should be an additional survey - the email contained : "During the next few days you'll receive an email invitation to take part in another survey about future Cunard voyages and destinations."

On QM2 for the 'Norway and Northern Lights' sailing Cunard red and white umbrellas were available to take ashore - just needed to ask when your card was scanned.

Mrs Bear and I received a survey email in November, time stamped about disembarkation time from our last sailing. Today's email had links to a survey [with a prize drawing for completion] and a note of another survey to come. We will sit down after dinner to review and answer the current survey.

We have been on the QM2 for two crossings with force 10 winds and some big waves. For 2017 waves would occasionally wash over deck 2 windows, but ship’s motion was well controlled. This past fall the waves were a bit lower but seas were confused. The deck 12 pool was not only closed, but drained. Some folks seemed to enjoy walking the promenade deck despite the high winds.

This sort of thing may be a 'one off' for the Caribbean sailings - if all the ports visited are WHTI compliant, and there were no manifest changes [nobody embarked or disembarked] then all in transit passengers [and crew] were known at the previous departure from Brooklyn. Any discrepancies between in transit passengers and newly embarking passengers for the eastbound crossing are UK Border Force's problem - not US Homeland Security.