TheOldBear

There are websites like visittromso.no run by the local tourist agencies - its a start for locating northern lights 'chases' and other options. For Tromso, I enjoyed a visit to the 'Wilderness Center' [husky puppies] as one of the stops on a ship's excursion - they also offer dog sledding experience.

I received several surveys after our Northern Lights sailing last year - I think 2 in December, one in January and the last in March. The survey ghods may work in the same mysterious fashion as the upgrade fairy 🙂

In Brooklyn, the drop off is quick and rather impersonal - the bags are gone while I am assisting Mrs Bear from the vehicle. When arriving, we tip generously for porter assistance [get through the customs line quicker]

Kings Court usually has dinner items available right after afternoon tea ends - and room service is always an option. We normally dine late seating Britannia, but used Kings Court before both night's evening excursions [Arctic Cathedral, Northern Lights].

Mrs Bear and I were on the 2022 version of the voyage - with some modifications Boarding in Brooklyn was almost uneventful - in theory vaccination proof was required, in practice it was 'don't ask, don't tell'. We were in room 5194, right by the 'D' staircase. The Eastbound crossing featured Anthony Inglis and the English National Symphony - We joined the passenger chorus and were on stage for the 'Last Night of the Proms' [There also was an American night concert, and an afternoon concert where the Cunard musicians joined the Orchestra. There were also folks from the Royal Shakespeare Company conducting acting workshops - during the eastbound crossing, and the Norway cruise sea days. For our first Southampton visit, Mrs Bear had a lazy day on the ship, while I did some shopping and visited the 'Sea City' museum. Our first Norway port of call was Bergen - unsurprisingly it was rainy. We had the 'Sights and Sounds of Bergen' excursion, featuring a piano concert at Edvard Greig's house. Next up was Tromso - in 2022 this was not quite 2 days, arriving late morning on the 6th and leaving just after the Northern Lights tours returned on the 8th We did the Arctic Cathedral concert on the evening of the sixth. During the short day on the 7th, I did the Polaria and Huskies tour. I do regret not returning to the ship muddier after playing with the puppies at the Wilderness Center. Check the phase of moon before you decide on a northern lights excursion. I did the ship's bus excursion on the 7th - I would only book an independent 'chase' for the first evening. As mentioned, QM2 departed shortly after the shore excursion busses returned - about 0230 local time. Next stop was Trondheim - we elected to take the ship's shuttle into town. We toured the Cathedral and had lunch at one of the shops on the square. Mrs Bear elected to head back to the ship via the shuttle bus - I decided to walk. In retrospect, I should have taken a longer walk back to the pier as that turned out to be our last Norway port. Our scheduled visits to Alesund and Stavanger were canceled due to inclement weather forecasts [sleet]. Instead we diverted to Zeebruge Belgium. Cunard quickly arranged some tours - we selected one that stopped at the canal side village of Damme, a chocolate factory on the outskirts of Brugge [2 kilos of chocolate] and a great house 'castle' museum. The second Southampton stop was Sunday - we went to church at St Michael followed by 'Sunday Roast' at the Duke of Wellington. W hadn't checked the theme for the Westbound crossing, and were surprised to find it was the 'Greatest Generation' cruise featuring WWII, korea and Vietnam veterans. This included one 104 year old D Day veteran swing dancing in the Queen's Room with the young ladies.

We had a port side room on QM2 last year - but I don't think it really matters. Land is only visible if you are in fjord or passage between islands - and for a fjord, the ship usually turns around to exit the same way it came in. QM2 docked 'starboard side to' in Tromso, and I was able to take some photos featuring the Arctic Cathedral on the opposite shore - but I could have taken these shots from deck 7 or 12 just as easily [and did take some from the upper decks].

The post departure tours - ending at an airport - are only offered on board, not available for pre-purchase via the voyage personalizer. It _may_ be possible to order a departure tour via a phone call - but that option is not mentioned on the website. For me, the personalizer shows a selection of New York tours that apply only to 'in transit' passengers - not for folks embarking or disembarking. This seems to be a persistent bug in their software.

366 - 2024 is a leap year 🙂

Leica bridge camera? VLux 3? You may want to check over in dpreview 'panasonic compact camera' forum for anyone using a FZ1000 and aurora photography. My backup camera [FZ50/VLux 1] stayed back on the ship - these days useful only for daylight or flash photos [no useful ISO over 400]

There was a thread about this over in the photo section https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/72-photo-camera-discussions/ - need to find it I was using an Olympus EM1 mark 2 body, with a 12-200 travel zoom lens. Photos were taken at 12mm [full frame 24mm] wide, f/3.5 [wide open] and 2 second exposure. [Effective IBIS allows for insanely long exposures if your hand held technique is good]. ISO value was automatic - the camera selected high values [will need to check the exif info]. A few folks had tripods, most were just using cell phone cameras. I think many of the independent tours will include a tripod on request. For me, I think a tripod would only have been of use if I wanted star trails, or was planning on the live composite long exposure feature.

Last November - QM2 did an overnight in Tromso [6 to 7 November, close to 40 hours in port] with two evenings for Northern Lights excursions. I took the ship's tour on the 7th, and was a bit overdressed [winter boots, long underwear, ski pants, ski hat] and mostly had my parka unzipped & gloves in pockets while outside. Low temps for the evening [about 1 AM] were below freezing - puddles were icing over, so I was happy to have my winter boots on. A disappointment was the phase of moon - nearly full so too bright to allow for dark adaptation. Cameras could see colors in the aurora, but eyes could not distinguish easily between moonlight clouds and the lights. The guide sometimes asked me to take a photo - and then we would review to see if it was cloud or aurora. The ship cast off shortly after our tour returned, and started heading south to Trondheim.

Cunard even does the occasional 2 night sailing - between Southampton and Hamburg, Zeebruge, or LeHavre. And apparently these 'taster' sayings are as close as the QM2 comes to a 'booze cruise'.

See https://nycruise.com/brooklyn-terminal/directions/

The Amtrak station in New York City is 'NYP' [New York Penn Station] on Manhattan Island

It's likely that rail and subways will still have problems, but surface transportation should be sorted out by then. The terminals at LGA may be a problem area - some were closed earlier today due to flooded interiors.

In general, places midships, on lower decks will experience less movement than spaces on higher decks or at the bow or stern.

We usually do both - with the wake up on the phone a few minutes before the room service time on the door hanger [room service _usually_ arrives just before the selected time]

The wine collections brochure link is https://www.cunard.com/content/dam/cunard/marketing-assets/pdf/life-on-board/drinks-packages/wine-collections-brochure.pdf The 'wine collections' page does not seem to be in the USA site - and the UK version does not have prices, instead referring you to the personalizer [and likely a phone call to order]

QM2 routinely does a leisurely 7 day transatlantic crossing.

Our basic sailing is a QM2 round trip - with some included Southampton based side trip.

See

Subways are not particularly close to the Brooklyn cruise port - I think the 'Carroll Street' station is about a mile away. The terminal web site directions page https://nycruise.com/brooklyn-terminal/directions/ includes subway + bus suggestions, and a link to the NYC Ferry web site [Ferry stop is just outside the terminal gate]

We had three formal [Cunard calls them 'Gala'] nights scheduled for the 12 night Norway sailing November 2022 [Southampton round trip]. This was Cunard, so the vast majority followed a 'black tie' dress code.

This past November we missed two scheduled ports [Alesund, Stavanger ] due to an inclement weather forecast [never did check how bad the weather actually was]. QM2 diverted to Zeebruge instead where it was warm and sunny, but only a single port day.

ON1 has tools to assist in tasks like this [has lots of other stuff so it is not 'small scale'] you can download a time limited copy and play with it.