TheOldBear

I've read posts about how long the boarding process takes at each of the ports prior to departure. If you get off at Southampton (I'm on a TA crossing which continues on to Hamburg), will I need to get back in line with those joining the ship in Southampton? Or is there a "special" line for passengers who've already been on the ship for the crossing from NY?

If it’s similar to last year, all the passport formalities are dealt with during the crossing (took about 10 minutes) so there were no additional for passport checks in port (before or after the shore excursion).

There was a wait at our next port (Le Havre) and passport stamps before and after the excursion. That will likely be the case at Hamburg - hopefully not repeated back in Southampton

You can also download maps for offline access and have them stored locally on your phone. See these directions over on Google/Android support https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en

I just booked a round trip crossing for my husband and myself. I would love to stay in the UK for a few days but found the trip planning part extremely stressful. It seemed crazy to spend so much money to go to a port for a few hours and then I read some of the comments. Does anyone know if any excursions are available?

Our next crossing has two days in Southampton, Hamburg and LeHarve for the round trip. It would have been possible to omit the Hamburg segment and just book a pair of crossings with a few days in between.

The QM2 has classrooms forward on deck 2, and some additional meeting rooms on deck 1 that do not show on most published deck plans [e.g. the 'knightsbridge room' near the 'd' lifts and staircase has a piano guests may use for practice].

I've been keeping my Nikon in Auto. Tonight I tried to take a picture of the moon and it didn't come out at all. It wanted to flash and it just came out blurry with no moon. Without flash it wouldn't take a picture. I'm used to my P&S where I can just go out and take a picture. Any tips on what to do?

On automatic, the camera wants every picture to average out to an 18% neutral grey - with the moon as a spot of brightness on a dark background that results in an overexposed moon.

One solution is to use a long lens [600mm and up] so the moon fills more of the frame, so there is less dark in the frame.

The other solution is manual override - the basic setting is aperture f/11 and a shutter speed of 1/iso

[Historical note - the ASA/ISO 'film speed' is the shutter speed that yields an 18% grey image of a standard grey card in noontime daylight, with a f/16 aperture.

The moon is in full daylight, but is darker than a standard grey card, so f/11 lets in 'one stop' more light. Visit a museum like Smithsonian Air & Space where moon rocks are on display to see how dark the moon actually is.]

Hi, do you bring your passport with you on shore excursions or leave in your room? Thanks!

This is a frequently asked question - perhaps a 'sticky' thread would be appropriate.

The common / best advice is to leave the passports in the cabin safe.

There are times when you will need to take it with you - for example, last September in LeHarve you needed to show a passport both leaving the ship and again re-boarding after the excursion. [and in between there was no secure storage].

Some ports of call expect / require visitors to have a passport. [not a common occurrence].

You should know what is required based on announcements or publications [or ask at the tour office or front desk] before the tour.

I noticed that Cunard is showing a lot of Roundtrip crossings on the QM2. I wonder why someone would book that? Now we are real cruisers and that might appeal to us.

We did our first [and second] crossings this past September - and enjoyed both crossings and both port days. As you can see from the sig, we have another round trip planned for our next cruise. We did not plan on having the National Symphony for the last cruise - but enjoyed it enough to make the Symphony a tier breaker when selecting the next round trip pair.

You may want to look over on the France forum [by Cruise Critic geography, France is only on the Mediterranean] at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=593

We left the full bottle of Pol Acker sparkling wine (its French but not Champagne) that Cunard graced us with.

Hi Hank, we will be coming in from the U.S. Do you have any idea how long it usually takes to get off the ship if your from the U.S.? So it may be hard to get a cab to Paris, would it be equally as hard to get back to the ship from the train station? Thanks for any info you can share.

I think the answer is going to be 'it varies'.

There is a reply in this thread mentioning if the ship is 'cleared' then all the passport formalities have already been done, and you just walk off [and try to grab a taxi or other transport]

What I observed last September, arriving from Southhampton, was all passengers needed to have their passport examined / stamped - but only one official was on site for the early tours [0700]. This meant about 45 minutes from leaving the ship to getting on the tour bus. No taxis were in evidence - presumably the drivers know the ships usual schedule and start arriving when non tour passengers are allowed to exit.

My wife and I will be docking at Le Havre on Norwegian Breakaway in late April and would like to get to Paris as quickly as we can. I'd love to hear from others who have done Paris from Le Havre. I'm looking at Eurorailways, the high speed train. Looks like 2 hours, 15 minutes each way. Was thinking of leaving on the 7:56 am train (to arrive around 10:15am at Gare St. Lazar train station). Then return on the 15:50 train...to arrive in Le Havre around 6:15. That gives us nearly 6 hours in Paris. Pretty tight, but time to hit a couple of places. I assume we can grab a cab to and from the port to the train station, as googlemaps estimates that walk at 50 minutes. If all that went according to plan, we'd actually have an hour or so to kick around LeHavre.

 

Anyone think this DOESN'T sound doable? I readily admit that it's been 12 year since I've used public transport in France, so please shoot holes in the plan above! Thanks!!

It may take longer than you expect to leave the ship. This September there were 8 busloads [4 paris & 4 normandy] off the QM2 first thing in the AM. The terminal had one official on site checking and stamping passports. About 45 minutes from stepping onto the gangway to sitting on the bus. [This would be faster if the ship had all passengers 'cleared' before arriving at the port].

There was a matching delay at the end of the day, going through security and passport stamps - and another delay was caused by a tour bus breakdown [extra hour or so] after all other passengers had boarded. This did not impact anyone making their own travel arrangements, but the ship likely would not wait for them if they encountered any trouble. I would not like to miss the ship when the next port is New York.

I never said a mile was a thousand feet - I said it was a thousand legionnaire's paces - their "pace" involved what both feet, first the right then the left, covered.

 

Not only should you work on reading comprehension, you might learn about the system you don't like: a mile is 5,280 feet, not 5,720. And 5,280 was not "random" - when you knew how long the mile was and you knew the accepted length of the kng's foot, it was a simple calculation.

Caution - the bridge is sounding the 'off topic' alarm :D

The statute mile is not an isolated unit - it is part of a unified system, beginning with the standard 'link' on a surveyors 'chain'.

The nautical mile is a useful unit for navigation on Earth, as it is defined as equal to the length of an arc for one minute of latitude [assuming the Earth is round].

Curiously enough, on Mars the Kilometer is also the length of a one minute of latitude arc [assuming Mars is round]

I was also initially intimidated by DPReview.com, being a complete newbie, but you'd be surprised by how many helpful people are on there, plus it's nice to see side-by-side comparisons of photos, too. The reviews are comprehensive, there are plenty of buying guides and many people on there are budget-minded. For example, there are numerous people on the forums who swear by the Casio digital zooms.

For compact cameras, I would include Casio as one of the majors [along with Panasonic, Sony, Canon, Fuji].

A few times they were the technology leader - I recall that Casio introduced a 'burst' capture [takes a bunch of full res photos quickly] years before similar 'pro capture' features were added to mirrorless cameras or other brands of compact cameras.

That page makes me feel pretty dumb about cameras. I get a lot of results and don't know what to put in to narrow the search after setting the weight maximum and max focal length for some zoom.

There is a lot of information there - and an active community full of nit picking gear heads [more focused on the equipment than actually using it] :p

I also provided a link to the Panasonic 'travel zoom' camera as that is typical camera of the type. Includes features like

• Built in lens cap [protected when off]
  
• Large screen [fills back of the camera]
  
• Wide zoom range [means a long lens]
  
• Pocket sized when off [may take a large pocket ]
  
• Some sort of 'intelligent auto mode' [scene or subject recognition]
  

If you have a camera store somewhat nearby, visit them and try/buy the camera there [sort of like the advice for a new cruiser to visit a local Travel Agent]. If all you have is a 'big box' retailer - most of the time they will not be knowledgeable enough to even know *when* they are lying. If that is the case, dealing with an online retailer with a good return policy is likely a better option.

You may want to head over to DPreview, and try their camera feature search page https://www.dpreview.com/products/search/cameras#!

Without a 'waterproof' requirement you likely will end up looking at so called 'travel zoom' cameras [compact, long zoom range, big screen on the back, some have an electronic viewfinder] Something like this Panasonic camera https://www.dpreview.com/products/panasonic/compacts/panasonic_dmczs60

We have La Harve as a port stop on our 2019 QM2 Transatlantic.

I see postings about the long all day trip in a bus.

 

But I don't see what the appox Vruise Ship Shore Excursion cost would be ?

Imagine it is expensive.

Anyone know ???????????

This past September, the all day trips [Paris, D Day Beaches] were about $130 / person. The excursions and prices should be showing up in the 'voyage personalizer' shortly before the 'final payment' date.

The LeHarve departure was delayed due to mechanical problems with one of the Paris busses. Needless to say, the ship waited for the tour bus. [We were on a D Day excursion, I think the last Paris bus was an hour late]

In the terminal, there were delays / long lines getting passport stamps, both leaving for the tour and returning after the tour.

Semi-related question...

When do the time changes happen on westbound TA journeys?

At night - I believe half way through the midwatch [0200 ships time twice for five nights]. This might be different for crossings stopping at Iceland.

I have a question about interchangeability of lenses, but using lenses from different cameras. I have an old Rollie with some terrific lenses. I would like to use them with my Sony Alpha. I know there are adapters, has anyone on this forum used adapters and are there tips you might share?

I hope this isn't too off topic?

Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

You may want to check over at the 'Adapted Lens' forum over on dpreview https://www.dpreview.com/forums/1065

I know. Strange question. But a friend is scheduled to cruise with someone she doesn't know and has doubts that this person will even board the ship. What happens in a case like that? RCI, if it makes a difference.

The no show will lose their fare, unless they have insurance and a covered reason for missing the ship. In general, the cruise line will not care about the no show - they _may_ refund some taxes and port fees, depending on their contract terms.

One benefit of smaller sensor cameras, like micro 4/3, is that 'superzoom' lenses are more reasonably sized, and have more than decent aberration control [smaller image circle].

When 'Gear Acquisition Syndrome' hits, I am looking at adding an Olympus 12-100 f4 lens to my kit. [equivalent to 'full frame' 24-200]. Reviews say that the lens is well corrected, even wide open, over the zoom range. For the second lens, I would have a faster 'normal' lens [17 or 25 f1.8] and for fun the 'body cap' fisheye lens

m43 also has a 14-140 lens [28-280 equivalent], but that is a stop or two slower. A faster, more compact, prime lens is less of an option than a necessity [the Olympus 'travel lens kit' pairs this with a 17 f1.8 prime]

I happened across some old steamship items on Ebay today. This got me thinking about a theme cruise in the 19th or very early 20th century steamship style.

 

This would involve theme nights to dress in vintage clothes, Special dinners based on old steamship menus.(Think last dinner on the Titanic.) Ball room dance, music etc etc.

 

Am I crazy? Or does anyone else think this would be fun?? :)

You can get a large percentage of this on a normal Cunard voyage [dinner, dancing, music, formal attire...]

On the other hand, I would not be surprised to find groups hosting events in that style abroad the old Queen Mary in Long Beach - you may want to check there.

That's really good to know -thank you!

Also, take a look at the deck plans - some adjoining rooms have connecting doors. Our first cruise we had (I think) 4181 that connected to the next room aft.

My thing is, for instance, that we will not use housekeeping services, so I would prefer to tip (truly) generously to others whose services we do require.

It is a safe bet to assume that no experienced cruisers will state this is a good idea. The auto tips work, and are painless provided you have allowed for them in your budgeting / planning.

This is one of the recurrent subjects (Walkie Talkies is the other one (aren't we due for that this week?)) where the experienced folks are the 'voice of experience'.

I’m not familiar with Cunard’s policy on corkage. If you don’t finish the bottle will they store it for the next night? Is another corkage fee charged? Thanks

Yes the partial bottle is stored, no there is no additional fee. The partial bottle was waiting for us at out next dinner. Sometimes we finished that bottle, sometimes we selected one from a "Captain's collection" package.

As indicated in other replies, you should bring

• Ship's ID card [essential for re-boarding]
  
• Government issue photo ID [for some ports, you will need a photo ID to get to a place where the ship's ID is scanned - for example to access the tender pier in Newport RI]
  
• Contact information for the ship's 'port agent' [often in the ship's daily paper]
  
• Contact info or tickets for third party excursions
  
• Normal shore stuff [credit card/atm card; cash; cell phone; umbrella; beach gear.....]
  

There are very few ports where it is normal to carry a passport - but there are times when you need to present a passport to leave the port, and again before re-boarding the ship. In between there was no secure place to store the passport. We needed to do this for a shore excursion at LeHarve visiting the Normandy D Day beaches [got two stamps that day]