TheOldBear

Finally posting - bad internet connection at best Well, apparently Mrs Bear and I made it on board, and have WiFi at least partially resolved. We will report if the World Club WiFi is renewed segment by segment - or is awarded once for the entire 26 night booking. In the room, my computer is showing full signal strength, but the internet.cunard.com page does not load - posting this will be delayed a bit. Tuesday 25 October Boarding in Brooklyn was both quick and confusing - baggage drop off and security screening were repositioned. Mrs Bear was pushing her ‘rollator’ so we were shown to the expedited boarding line. The only paperwork that was examined were passports and the printed out boarding pass. A printout is preferred as the pass acquires stickers and stamps before its final scan at the ship’s entrance portal. We made our way to our room [5194 for those folks seeing score at home] and it was a sauna. Mrs Bear started the day with a lovely perky hairdo - that flattened and uncurled into a “wilted sweaty mess” by dinner time. We are booked for late seating dinner, and Cunard shoreside was contacted months ago linking our bookings to another couple (with special diet requirements). The folks on the ship has no record of the linkage, or the other couple’s special requirements. There is no polite term to describe the open seating fiasco (is ‘cattle call’ a polite term?). For our party, Mrs Bear was able to apply some pressure for at least a partial resolution. Dining staff _must_ be _cheerful_ about open seating as an ‘improvement’ no matter how may passengers in a row express a desire for a late seating reserved table. With the linked booking and invocation of ‘special needs’ we currently have a reserved table for the late seating. Put the room service door hanger out about midnight, and set the alarm for half an hour earlier than expected delivery. Wednesday 26 October The ball ‘formerly known as the Royal Cunard’ ball was scheduled for our first formal^H^H^H^HGala evening. Anthony Inglas filled the Royal Court theatre for his presentation on music and ocean liners - including details of the 8 players on RMS Titanic playing to the end. A spot of good news is Friday at 0945 guests interested in the passenger chorus should go to the Royal Court for auditions. This cheered up Mrs Bear no end. Mrs Bear and I decided to book spa ‘thermal suite’ passes - 7 visits each over the full length of the cruise. At dinner time, we had the same table *and* our wine found us - a nice dinner. There was a glass of some bubbly ‘from Captain Hall’ in lieu of a formal night reception. We decided to turn in early - but not set a pre-breakfast alarm. Thursday 27 October One of the short - 23 hour - days a reasonable excuse for a previous early night. Slept a bit late, but still in time for breakfast. We previously had located where american style bacon was available - but the Chiefs Gallery section of KC only had some rather liquid looking scrambled eggs to go with them. Better eggs in the main area. Went to an enrichment lecture on ‘400 years of observational astronomy’. Afterwards realized things will soon be an hour later, and went back to the cabin to ditch hearing aids and grab swim suits. This was followed by a light lunch in Carthinia. The spa thermal suite looked quite familiar despite the ‘Mareel’ rebranding. A number of lockers on the gents side were non functional, but my usual locker was fine. I noticed that the spa no longer provides combs, twin blade razors or shaving cream. One of the shower stalls was marked as out of order (same as 2019). Mrs Bear reports a similar state of affairs on the Ladies side. The pool area was missing one feature - the ‘waterfall’ that normally is between the two vigorous jets. We had a relaxing time, then rested up from our spa in the Kings Court for self service afternoon tea. When we checked in on Tuesday, both the ‘welcome aboard’ bubbly and the Champagne purchased with the celebration package were sitting warm on the table - no ice bucket in sight. A minor surprise as there was no ‘Pol Acker’ - instead it was ‘DUC De Valmer Brut’. We have not sampled it yet. Its a ‘Smart Attire’ night - I’ll exceed minimums with jacket and QM2 necktie.

Masks are 'encouraged' on the Queen's Room dance floor - but not required for passengers or crew.

Well, I'm still composing my first 'live' post - will paste it somewhere down thread. Apparently there were both flight and post arrival delays for folks on Cunard arranged flights - including the English National Symphony Orchestra players and instruments.

Google Maps says almost two hours for 79 miles. We are out in central Suffolk county, so local just means no need to fly, and no bridges or tunnels between the house ant the terminal. Looks like about an hour to go....

Mrs Bear and I are all packed - with considerably 'too much stuff' (a hazard go being fairly local to the terminal) waiting for the proper time to leave for our 2:15 suggested boarding time. I'll need to see how far the World Club 'gold' wifi benefit stretches - is it renewed on each segment like to old minute by minute benefit? For that and other reasons [too busy enjoying the ship] my updates may be sporadic. That should not stop other folks from contributing or commenting 🙂

Berth 106 does appear to be the 'mayflower' terminal see the 'port plan' at https://www.abports.co.uk/media/n2qpmrlo/southampton-port-plan-2022.pdf There is a linked parking page https://www.abparking.co.uk - there may be other parking providers. I've only been an 'in transit' passenger with QM2 at the Ocean Terminal - so I have not direct experience with either the terminal or parking.

I bring a laptop - use it to organize / edit photos [and may even try a 'live blog' update if Cunard's wifi cooperates]. Mrs Bear uses it for email and faceplant updates.

Only sheltered in the bow area where it wraps around under the breakwater. Most of the time both the doors through the breakwater are open, and there is access to an open deck area, featuring 'The Commodore's Cufflinks' - spare propeller blades for the propulsion pods. The smaller ships (QV and QE) have some narrow bits in their promenade - but apparently it wraps around. The new 'Queen Anne' apparently will not have a promenade deck at all - similar to the HAL Konigsdam (lead ship for the class).

I don't know if shelter is a requirement - the QM2 has a splendid full promenade deck [deck 7]. Even during a force 11 wind day [2017 westbound crossing], there were some hardy souls walking the promenade. Direct access from deck 7 was closed, but there was access from the 'terrace' deck at the stern, and the Captain's course had the wind on the bow for the worst of the storm.

We will also be in Tromso on a Sunday - in our case 6 November [leaving in early morning on 8 November] There are links to bus maps and schedules at https://www.visittromso.no/travel/getting-around you may find them useful.

There are two Southampton 'turn around' days for the M234A sailing - Tuesday 1 November & Sunday 13 November. The VP shows a choice of _one_ scheduled tour to Stonehenge on the first, and nothing for the 13th. We'll be taking some of John Bull's advice from the 'Sunday in Southampton' thread and visiting a local museum or two.

Mrs Bear is a bit phobic about independent tours & missing the ship - she insisted on a Cunard tour. On the Sunday night, we are attending a concert in the Arctic Cathedral - perhaps there will be some lights visible after the concert.

I think you want to discuss this with a broker - there are many variables to consider, beginning with your country (and state/province) of residence, how you will be getting to and from the ship, state of health for you and your mom.... Too many to provide an answer on this forum.

I think Viking Ocean has a similar arrangement to Oceania - multiple dining options included in the fare. I thin there are 'first pick' options available to folks in the more expensive suites. I would not be surprised to find this a common arrangement in that market segment.

It looks like the QM2 northern lights trip will have two evenings in Tromso - arriving mid day on Sunday, and leaving early morning [0130 ?] on Tuesday. We have the ship's Northern Lights tour booked for Monday evening - likely does not include the same stuff [e.g. the coverall] as the smaller tours, but it will get us back to the ship on time.

See the 'Cunard website is a total embarrassment' thread - and you will see the web site has bios for a few speakers, but does not have any linkage between the speaker and voyages. For example, I clicked on the related voyages link for Anthony Inglis - and it took me to the regular find a cruise listing showing all cruises for all ships. [Oddly - likely due to a sell out - the list did not contain the next sailing he will be on (M234) departing Brooklyn on 25 October]

I would advise checking with an agent [e.g. the trip insurance store] about options [live conversation, not just the web site]. You can purchase insurance where the 'cost of the trip' is very low - but that may impact trip interruption coverage for example that is pinned to a percentage of the trip's overall price.

I was exercising some futility yesterday be seeing what information was available about enrichment speakers for our upcoming cruise. Cunard's developers have made the willful [not accidental ] choice to present the information exactly backwards from the way a Customer would find it useful. The current site for 'Onboard Guest Speakers' has five pages of speakers, with links to bios and supposedly the voyages they will be featured. These listings are deeply broken - for example Anthony Inglis (Conducting the National Symphony Orchestra) 'view voyages' link does not contain the upcoming 25 October M234A sailing [as listed previously on Cunard's web site, and currently listed on the conductor's web site. It does contain many voyages [seems to be Cunard's full 'find a cruise listing] including impossibilities - such as featuring him on simultaneous sailings on the Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth departing from Southampton and Singapore. This exhibited failure on the Cunard website renders the 'On board guest speakers' page useless to Customers. What would be useful to Customers would be the reversion to an earlier format. A simple table of date, ship, cruise number (with link) and presenter name with bio link. Allow HTML5 style sorting by desired column or filters similar to other e-commerce sites.

On the QM2 all the balcony cabins in the main hull [decks 4, 5 & 6] below the promenade deck are 'sheltered'. There is an aperture in the ships hull, and the rest of the frontage is the ship's steel hull. The disadvantage is that when you sit on one of the provided chairs, you cannot see the horizon - but you have splendid view of the sky. I think another name for this style is the 'cove balcony'

Two comments First, Mrs Bear _always_ wants a balcony, so we _need_ a balcony wherever possible. Second, remember that travel agents [even $BIG_BOX_STORE agents] are not discussed by name on these forums. Our upcoming Norway and Northern Lights sailing is booked for a QM2 'sheltered' balcony - and these do give you an area of calm on the balcony, even when the winds outside of the aperture are a brisk force 11

With travel insurance I've purchased via the Tripinsurance store, I was able to apply the premium [for a canceled due to COVID trip] to a policy [with the same insurance company] for a later sailing. Check both directly with the insurance company and the agent for your available options.

The M234A sailing has the eastbound crossing at least indicating 'open' seating. We will try to duplicate some previous reported successes in arranging for the same table for the crossing - and hopefully continuing for the rest of the cruise.

A passport lets you travel to places the WHTI alternate documents are not sufficient for - like Transatlantic sailings

The passport is valid for 10 years - and I am unaware of any need for an appointment. Things may have changed (2007 for first passport) , but I just had the local postmaster check the form - and she took the photo.

Sounds like a good reason to get a passport - and if you have these, you have all the paperwork required.