TheOldBear

There are several crossings where the QM2 does a New England / Canada side trip before the eastbound return crossing. [7 day Brooklyn, Boston, Halifax is typical for July; 14 day Brooklyn, Quebec round trip for fall foliage season]

Mrs Bear requested that I inquire if anyone knows what nail services are currently offered by the re-branded 'Mareel' concession on QM2. If you are boarding soon, and no one has answered this thread, please do some detective work and post your findings here when convenient. She wears gel over acrylic nails - these require fill in and reshaping every few weeks as nails grow. The former 'Canyon Ranch' branded salon offered fill in service on their price list. The current 'Mareel' brand brochure / price list does not seem to include fill in service for nails - and that does seem odd for typical cruise durations and passenger mix.

I think you have that exactly reversed

At Brooklyn the ship needs to 'zero out' - have an interval will all passengers off the ship. In transit passengers need to go through immigration check [passport check] before ready to re-board. There will likely be a designated line for tour groups so you will not need to wait for disembarking passengers.

I think you still need to collect your luggage in the baggage hall, and do the arrival customs/immigration paperwork. The difference with luggage forwarding is that the luggage is tagged or boxed inside the terminal, just on the other side of the customs folks.

We have not scheduled our test yet - if the testing requirement is still in place mid September we will schedule some sort of suitable test. You may want to double check your calendar - the eastbound crossing is on 25 October, starting our 26 night round trip.

We've only had a connecting door once [room 4181] but never noticed any noise from next door. The sheltered balcony grades are BU, BV, BY & BZ - graded from midships where there is the least motion to either forward or aft where there can be more motion. On the deck plans, you can see what is above and below - and to some degree what is across the hallway from each room.

I am only familiar with Cunard's policy [as related by the head of Security] - and cannot speak for NCL. You may want to check with their 'special needs' contact and see if an alternate card/name is possible without changes to the government issued ID [passport].

While US Dollars are the official on board currency, we have used all three depending on what cash we had on hand at the end of a cruise segment. [danger tipping thread trigger] We leave the auto tips in place, but budget small cash tips to be presented at the end of each segment - we have noticed that waiters and the sommelier may change with each segment.[/danger]

Will you be doing the 26 night NYC round trip [25 October], or meeting the QM2 in Southampton for just the 12 night Northern Lights [1 November] cruise? There are 'Roll Call' threads for both embarkation points. Even the deck 8 'obstructed' balconies have a view of the sky - it's just the view straight to the horizon that is obstructed by a lifeboat or tender. The deck 13 Britannia Club balconies have glass shower doors - all the rest [BC and regular Britannia ] have shower curtains. I believe the only significant interior difference for balcony rooms is that a small number have connecting doors to the adjacent room. We tend to opt for a 'sheltered balcony' on a lower deck. The formal / "Gala" nights are jacket & tie nights [I bring a tux]. My understanding is that the casual / "smart attire" nights recently have been relaxed to just a collared shirt, and any kind of slacks except blue jeans or shorts. Most of the public spaces will follow the evening dress code, but this is not absolute - for example the G32 night club is always casual, but is accessible only via the Queens Room. For the Norway stops on the sailing you will need clothing that's a bit warmer than shorts and polo shirts - see https://www.visittromso.no/travel/how-to-dress for some recommendations.

Some cruise lines _may_ have a shuttle bus. Cunard was [2019] running theirs from the terminal to near 'Bargate' and the West Quay shopping center. Mrs Bear was a bit mobility challenged [new knee] so we also used the white radio cabs & Uber for some short trips.

Its not unusual - for example lots of Cunard sailings are multiple segments. The segments are sold separately or in combination. Our 2019 cruise was booked as a NY to Hamburg round trip, but passengers embarked and disembarked at NY, Southampton, Hamberg or LeHavre [this sailing had no stops that were just plain 'port visit' stops]

Mrs Bear and I were wondering if the Britannia late seating has returned to fixed table assignments?

Looks like the site is not even barely ready Text blunders like unicode in the rendered text, or calling a clothing store a 'Closing Store' in Bergen Norway Clicking on 'directions' goes to Google Maps - but does not offer the port's cruise terminal as a starting point. A am not really interested in directions to a coffee shop in Tromso from my home address 😉 Perhaps it is no surprise there is no online feedback/contact. A fundamental miss is not making the site available as an adjunct to the onboard 'my voyage' site - should be simple to use a 'reverse proxy' to cache the internet content locally on the ship. Instead the repeated 'About this guide' section includes To use this guide onboard, internet access will be required. Please make sure to save the guide as a PDF on your device before you travel or purchase an internet package onboard.

One difference between the steamship days and the QM2 to note is that today's QM2 turnaround is only about 12 hours - not the breakneck pace 48 hours quoted for the QE in 1959. This partially explains some of the QM2 superficial rust - there is just no time [even if manpower and funds were available] on a turnaround half day.

Did you book directly with Cunard or via an Agent? You may want to check your booking confirmation documents - there may be the assumption that the same card used for the deposit will be charged for the balance. [possibly at 90 days - the USA and UK payment dates may be different] With my $UNNAMED_TRAVEL_AGENCY I had the option of selecting a different card, but it defaulted to the same one used for the deposit. I would not count on mobile phone service unless in a harbor. Your table will be waiting for you for all meals - even on port days.

You are mostly in the right place 🙂 Visit the Ports of Call / Europe section, and poke around there for port information. You may also want to look at some independent sources [e.g. Rick Steves] as those do not conflict with CC's restrictions on promoting travel agents. That being said - take a look at the 'Deals' and 'Find a Cruise' dropdowns at the top of the page and browse around - then visit reviews for selected ships and the forums for the cruise line for more information. What have you thought about so far in planning? Budget? Number / age in party? Season of the year? Trip duration? [and lots of other questions....]

There are some options for extended, multiple segment cruises on the same ship [only unpack once] As an example, my upcoming QM2 sailing is 26 nights - eastbound TA crossing, 12 night Southampton round trip, and a westbound TA crossing.

Since you are local - and they kindly provided an actual address, perhaps you can provide them with some in person feedback? I did notice what seemed an over emphasis on bars and coffee stops - should highlight more cultural / historic places.

No electronic contact information - but I did find this: Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of this guide, some of the information included is subject to change. Opening times, admission details and prices were correct at time of publication, however they should only be used as an indication. If you find any information to be incorrect, or have any suggestions for what else we could include in this guide, then we would like to hear from you. Write to: The Editors, Cunard Line Port Guides, Cunard Line, Floor 3, Shore Operations, Carnival House, 100 Harbour Parade, Southampton, SO15 1ST

I was checking the voyage personalizer today [see if my guarantee cabin had been assigned] and noticed a new link to cunardguides.com For my pending M234A sailing the link is https://www.cunardguides.com/M234A/Southampton Note that you do not need to have a booked voyage to visit the site, and it does offer shore excursion choices not currently available in the personalizer. [and tries and fails to link back to the VP when selected] Apparently you can visit the guides home page and search there by voyage number or browse an alphabetical list of ports. There are more than a few teething problems with the cruise / port listings. I had no idea that Singapore was on a Norwegian Fjord cruise itinerary 🙂 There does not seem to be any links or contact information for reporting similar flubs.

On our 2017 westbound crossing, QM2 was sailing through a tropical storm remnant - outer deck access was restricted (no deck 7 direct access to promenade deck; doors to the observation deck and the 'Lookout' were secured) but some hardy folks were enjoying the 80 knot sea breeze 🙂 Ship's motion was very well controlled, due to the hull shape, stabilizers and the speed reserve allowing routing to minimize movement [e.g. wind on the bow] while still maintaining the scheduled arrival time [just loafing along at 25 knots] The typical sea day is 'nothing to do, and not enough time to do it' - there are no go carts or bowling alleys on board, but there is a full roster of 'enrichment' lectures and other activities [ballroom dance lessons, fencing instruction, watercolor lessons...]. For a 'splash of formality' the number of 'gala' nights has been reduced to 2 nights per crossing so more of cripple than a splash. You may want to visit the Cunard section here for some more info - but posters on these forums are often more dress code obsessed than the actual experience on board [which is reminder to me to start practicing hand tying my bow tie for October]

A few years back [2018?], it was suggested to purchase an off the rack tux at [for example] Marks and Spencer at the West Quay mall in Southampton. Looking at their web site it shows 99 pounds for a "Black Regular Fit Tuxedo Suit". Add a shirt and tie and you get to keep the Tux for your next formal event. This old thread indicated rental prices started at $90 for one night [the thread has a dead link into the old Cunard FAQ page for the price list]. Pasting in part of the Cunard FAQ [2018 prices], pasted into the old thread... Black Tuxedo Packages** Includes Dinner Jacket, trousers, shirt, bow tie & handkerchief. Number of Nights - Cost (USD) 1 - $90 2 - $125 3 - $170 4 - $210 5 - $250 Shoes are not part of the rental - I would think almost any black shoes would be suitable - even sneakers 😉 The bow ties available on board were the pre-tied variety. On our 2019 crossing a passenger presented a hands on seminar on bow tie tying - standing room only in one of the tender lounges.

The VP page was stating that reservations for my 25 October sailing would be accepted starting 11 October - perhaps there will be some updates available before then.

I was poking around the voyage personalizer today, checking if there were any shore excursions posted for our 1 November Southampton stop [nope, no new ones] and decided to check out the dining tab. I noticed a new "Dinner at Kings Court" link, with no reference to the rotating cuisine / menu choices. [and apparently casual attire like the rest of Kings Court] I thought that was odd, and looked on cunard.com where the Kings Court 'find out more' link now goes to a 'not found error 404' page, instead of the old page describing the choices. Has anyone else noticed this? How about recent/current QM2 folks? Were the rotating menu choices available?