TheOldBear

Bag drop for arriving passengers should be available well before noon.

 

Opening the doors to security / checkin may be delayed, if there was a delay clearing the previous passengers from the ship & terminal. [we experienced waits last September both waiting for the terminal doors to open, and waiting in the Queens room to disembark. We had arrived at the terminal early after allowing for traffic delays, and there were no delays]

 

Getting there after lunch sounds like a good idea. You may want do do the bag drop on arrival, and if the terminal line is too long, walk [with carry on bags] to get a drink/snack/second lunch outside the gate. Google Maps shows a coffee shop and a couple of pubs two blocks outside the gate on Van Brunt street - or perhaps a round trip on the ferry that docks next to the terminal.

You may want to look for suggestions in the Ports of Call forum for the British Isles https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=233

There should be several posts by 'John Bull' describing some of the DIY tour options around Southampton

 

We took the ships excursion to Winchester, but I seem to recall that there was an option of an escorted tour offered on board - listed in the newsletter the day before arriving at Southampton.

I’m a huge sparkling water fan. Is this something available TA crossing on QMII in October?..

We had the steward empty our fridge, and purchased a sparkling water package (six one liter bottles). They kept our magnum of white wine company.

Some lines have a soft drink package, usually covers fizzy stuff from a bartender, not cans or bottles

I intend to fill out the survey tonight...

I want to book a cruise on the Harmony this year. Anyone knows a good agency that can offer good prices or perks?

Thank you

Look up at the top of the page where it says 'find a cruise' :)

 

Since this site is sponsored in part by Travel Agents, you cannot discuss them here.

Adding illustration to your words, Justin.

 

 

The Panasonic GH is one of the more popular 4/3 cameras. The Olympus models are somewhat smaller.

 

Dave

To be fair - the GH5 / GH5S are quite large [lots of space for controls, big body for large batteries and heat sinks] actually larger than Fuji XT or the Sony A7/A9 bodies.

My ***** 10.2 body is small enough that some folks complain it is too small for comfortable handling.

Putting on my Black Shoes & wash kaki's ....

 

As a long obsolete Surface Warfare Officer, I have been following discussions in US Naval Institute's Proceedings, and other open publications.

 

It appears that today's SWO's [Ensign] entering the fleet have dramatically less training and even simulated hands on experience than back in the cold war days [Reagan Administration]. Dedicated school and classroom time has been replaced with self study, DVD based correspondence courses.

 

Apparently training time both for officers and other bridge watch standers [OS, QM, BN ratings] has been slighted. Reading between the lines, a principal failing is not that the watch standers lost the picture - it is that they did not have a mental model of the relative motions, and depended on misreading the information displayed by the available instrumentation.

 

On one of the ships [Fitzgerald ?] this was compounded my not recognizing that the control station the helmsman was trying to use was not the one with rudder control.

 

I'm glad that I am not one of the folks targeted to fix this, the only guarantee is that there is no simple solution.

There is a strip of parkland near Fort Hamilton - on the Brooklyn side of the Verazzano Narrows, just north of the bridge.

 

This shows on Google maps as 'John Paul Jones' park right next to the bridge & 'Shore Road Park' adjacent to the Belt / Shore parkway. Getting there in the morning, then to Red Hook terminal when encumbered by luggage might be an issue.

Thanks, I didn't realise that the US citizens and the rest of us would all be in the same queue, I'd assumed you'd go straight through and we'd queue for hours lol. We're on deck 6 so it sounds as though we'll be amongst the last off as well - it's probably best not to book the 12.00 train from Penn Station! As this is just the start of our adventure we'll definitely need a porter's help with our luggage, if you don't mind me asking - how much would you normally tip them?

 

Thanks again for your help.

 

Gill

 

We massively overpack [use family car for transport] so we have lots of stuff. We tip a minimum of $40 for our haul of baggage. Say $10 / per normal size bag.

Gill, about what time did you get off?

Got outside just before 11. New passengers were arriving (and waiting)

A disorder that can ruin fortunes and marriages!

 

My relatively mild symptoms of G.A.S. mysteriously disappeared recently and I sold all of my A-mount cameras and lenses. I only have a handful of commonly used lenses now and am only lacking a good telephoto...which I am still waffling on based on uncertain projected use.

 

Moving completely to the Sony mirrorless system has spawned my new favorite equipment quote,"I now have a travel kit that weighs as much as a small dog instead of a fat child."

 

Selling stuff I don't use and buying stuff I will feels pretty responsible!

 

:)

 

Dave

 

We are looking at Alaska for 2020 - so I have some time to plan & acquire or rent some hardware. I have Micro 4/3 gear, so for Alaska I will be looking at a modest expansion [weather sealed body & zoom lens, like an Olympus EM5.2 and the 12-100 + the Panasonic 100-400. This setup [plus my current entry level body & lenses] should be compact and versatile - a pity batteries and chargers tend to be different for different bodies, I tend to bring three batteries per body

We will be taking our first Westbound TA from Southampton to New York in April next year, can anybody (non-US resident) tell me how long it normally takes to get through Customs/Immigration/Security etc? We need to make on-going travel arrangements so any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Gill

 

Well, I'm a NY resident - but I was also one of the last folks off the ship this past September. Cunard disembarks in stages, starting with self disembark (while we were having breakfast). Cunard scheduled transfers, Grills passengers & I believe high tier world club members come before the rest of the folks, announced from the top decks down. We were on deck 5, so there was a substantial wait in the Queens room.

 

There was no separation for US Citizen in the terminal's customs / immigration desks. I would recommend engaging a porter [their line is toward the left in the call] They will put your bags onto a cart, and then into dedicated porter lines which tend to move a bit faster.

If you are considering the EOS M, be aware that there are only a few native lenses for the mount. Your 50mm and 85mm primes will adapt to it but will negate any size advantage. I have shot with the Sony A6000 and A6300 and recommend the E-Mount Sonys with no reservations. I just sold my old DSLR and lenses to KEH to subsidize anew purchase and found that dumping a system for a new one isn't as hard as people think.

 

Click on the link in my signature and look at the galleries under Travel > Cruising. Anything after 2014 was shot with the Sony APS-C compact mirrorless cameras.

 

Dave

If you take the drastic step of starting fresh [Over on DP Review this is a symptom of 'Gear Acquisition Syndrome'] either a long zoom fixed lens camera [sony or Panasonic] or a mirrorless interchangeable lens system [Fuji, Panasonic, Olympus, Sony...] would be worth considering.

 

All the systems have partisans, but today the good news is that for the vast majority of photographers, subjects and locations the photo hardware is not the limiting factor in getting pictures that are 'keepers'.

 

The interchangeable lens advantage [sLR or Mirrorless] over fixed lens superzoom only seems to start after acquiring / renting multiple lenses.

A few options

 

• Rent a long zoom EF mount lens [about 400mm at the long end, with image stabilization] The Sigma 'bigma' 150 - 600 rents for $65 / 7 days
  
• Buy/rent a long zoom range bridge camera - large sensor like a Panasonic FZ2500, or small sensor like a Nikon P900, and use the SLR for inside and people centric shots. [FZ2500 rents for $79 / 7 days]
  
• Get a new kit - Canon EF mount would be preferred as you have some nice lenses - This could be smaller/mirrorless [EOS M series, with a EF adapter]
  

Bring extra batteries - and you may want a [rented] second camera body as well

Any special advice? My main worry is how trans friendly the ships and ports are.

 

My very small sample indicates no issues for the QM2 or several other ships friends have sailed on.

 

Things will vary port to port - there likely will be some where a DIY excursion is not advisable, at least not without extensive research.

 

For traveling while trans issues - if you are full time / post transition / RLE do all of your paperwork bits align? This is principally your passport + photo ID of some sort.

Depending on where you are located, you may want to also consider Holland America from Boston. They tend to use smaller ships, able to dock 'downtown' in Hamilton.

is it warm enough to be in a swim suit on Queen Mary transatlantic, on June 10 cruise

 

There are always one of the two indoor pools - The Pavilion pool on deck 12 [with retractable roof] or the Spa pool on deck 7 [extra charge].

 

I have seen folks in the deck 8 'Terrace' pool & hot tubs even when the ship was sailing through a tropical storm remnant - with force 11 winds on the bow. The shape of the superstructure offers quite a bit of protection from the wind while the ship is underway.

Is this a new Cruise Critic record?

 

A smoking thread that got past Page 1 before the information started to dry-up and got replaced by vitreol !! :rolleyes:

 

JB :D

 

One comment I recall from an onboard lecture comparing the original Queen Mary with QM2 "Today on QM2 there are only two spaces where smoking is permitted, on the original Queen Mary there were only two spaces where smoking was forbidden - and one of them was the operating room in the ship's hospital"

 

I would say things have improved immensely

Hello, My husband and I will be taking our first crossing on QM2, Sept. 9 to Sept 16. We are experienced cruisers and have been on many cruise lines. I do understand the Britannia and the Grills. On this first voyage we will be in Britannia as all the higher categories were booked.

On our last round trip crossing, we shared a table with a couple sailing in Queen's Grill who preferred to have dinner in Britannia - they apparently saw no problems with having dinner there.

In looking at our itinerary I see that we have two formal evenings, one a gala ball and the other a roaring twenties ball. We do love to dress up but if someone could explain these balls it would be helpful.

I thought that three formals was typical from crossings (a recent change?) so you may want to double check in the VP. We has two 'theme' formal nights, and one without a declared theme.

My other concerns right now is can we preorder bottles of alcohol to drink onboard? I see where I can buy wine packages if we want and some other goodies prior to boarding.

You can bring aboard almost any quantity for in room consumption - bringing a bottle of wine to the dining room incurs a $20 corkage charge. We did a mix - some wine with corkage, and a few 'captains collection' pre-purchased bottles.

Do you have to make reservations for the planetarium? Is there a fee?

 

Being in Britannia where are we not allowed to go besides the grills restaurants?

Just their dedicated lounge and the grills terrace deck.

I know I will have more questions in the next few months and I certainly would appreciate knowing as much as I can before boarding.

 

I already have learned a lot from these boards( what a godsend) and look forward to learning even more.

 

Thank you all.

Cunard's QM2 interior is non smoking - except for the cigar lounge, and the crew's pub. I think during the last refit they may have increased the 'negative pressure' on Churchill's - and least I do not smell anything next door in the Commodore Club. [Apparently there were problems/complaints before the refit] There is an outside smoking area to avoid near the 'Terrace Pool' aft on deck 8.

Confused here :confused: ....You had labels attached to your luggage indicating your 'assigned stateroom' (Well before you placed them onto the baggage belt )

 

How did you find out they were originally delivered to your old stateroom.

 

Back in 2010 the upgrade fairy diverted us from deck 4 to deck 8 [next door to the library] - and the luggage was delayed. After the muster drill, I went looking for it, and it was on the service stair landing across the corridor from our original stateroom.

You may want to search for "Veranda" on the Cunard forum, and see what folks have written about the restaurant. We took a look at the posted lunch and dinner menus - and decided that the cover charge was not worth it.

We had a gap of eight years between second and third cruise - and ended up with the same waiters as on the second cruise.

We are about to embark on our roundtrip TA cruise aboard the QM2. How close to the Verrazano bridge does the smokestack pass?

I think at a 'higher high tide' [full or new moon] the stack clears the bridge by about 10 feet or so. It looks more like inches than feet.

We have the early seating for dinner, and are planning to skip the dinner to observe everything there is to see as we leave NYC. (We figure we have another 13 nights for dinner!) What have others done? With a group of 7, I feel badly that we're missing the first dinner, but don't want to miss the views. I am thinking I will stop by the dining room to let them know, so no one is waiting for us. What recommendations/suggestions do you have? Thanks!

 

You will want to tell the folks in Britannia [ Maitre'd desk is just inside the deck 2 center doors] that you likely will not be dining there that night (also use the opportunity to see just where your table is located). You may be able to get a reservation at the (extra cost) specialty restaurant, instead of just the regular Kings Court buffet.

 

We usually select late dining so this is not an issue - but if the ship is underway at 5, you probably will be leaving lower New York Bay by 6:30 or so [Coney Island 'Parachute Drop' tower visible to port] so you might be able to get back to your table.