bluemarble

This may be well known to some/many of you, but I was not aware QM2 had been carrying an eternal flame from Paris and destined for Arlington as part of QM2's westbound crossing completed earlier today in New York. Here's a link to the Cunard press release. https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/queen-mary-2-arrives-new-york-city-eternal-flame-honoring-80th

I don't have direct knowledge of the QA alternative restaurant pricing since I haven't been on board QA yet, but here is what I've found. Sir Samuel’s Steakhouse Lunch: $31.50 in advance ($35.00 on board) Dinner: $58.50 in advance ($65.00 on board) Aji Wa Omakase menu: $58.50 in advance ($65.00 on board) a La Carte: $20.00 deposit subtracted from cost of meal ordered Aranya $31.50 in advance ($35.00 on board) Tramonto $18.00 in advance ($20.00 on board) These prices reflect the recent policy of offering a 10% discount for booking alternative dining in advance on the other ships. I will note one discrepancy though in that others on this forum have reported the price to book Tramonto in advance has been $18.10 rather than $18.00.

I wonder if this might have something to do with the first Le Gavroche at Sea residency with Michel Roux which is scheduled for the June 2nd Norwegian Fjords cruise. That will be taking place in the Verandah. I don't know why they'd necessarily have to close the Verandah to prepare during the 3-night May 30th cruise immediately preceding that first Le Gavroche at Sea cruise. I don't recall reading anything about the Verandah having to close prior to the recent Festival of Food and Wine crossing which also featured dinners by Michel Roux in the Verandah. But that's one possible theory that comes to mind anyway.

Ah, yes. Those are some good additional hints I hadn't picked up on for QM2's 2027 schedule. Queen Mary 2 15-Jan-2027: Funchal (from Southampton, to Basseterre) 26/27-Feb-2027: Funchal (from Ferrol, to Dakar) 23-Mar-2027: Bergen (from Andalsnes, to Southampton) Those are a couple intriguing ports (Ferrol and Dakar) before and after QM2's Feb 2027 call at Funchal (which I see now is indeed a two day call there). So, this looks like it might be the Caribbean for QM2 in January, Spain and Senegal in February, and Norway in March. Maybe not a full world voyage for QM2 in 2027, but cruises to several different regions which could be turned into an exotic voyage. Naturally these port reservations aren't conclusive as to what's going to be announced for 2027. But they do offer some good clues for what we might look forward to for early 2027.

Yes indeed, there are some interesting tidbits to be found on some of the port authority websites offering a preview of possible future itineraries. @sogne's post got me doing some digging. QV is on the Funchal schedule for a total of four additional dates into early 2027. Queen Victoria 15-Nov-2026: Funchal 08-Dec-2026: Funchal 21-Dec-2026: Funchal 09-Feb-2027: Funchal So, I think it's fair to say we can anticipate QV will be doing several cruises to Madeira following her return from the Mediterranean in October 2026. QM2 can be found on a couple port authority websites which may shed some light on her plans for early 2027. Queen Mary 2 15-Jan-2027: Funchal 26-Feb-2027: Funchal 23-Mar-2027: Bergen This schedule hints at QM2 not doing a world voyage in 2027. Finally, there's one 2027 date I've been able to find for QA so far. That's on the Gibraltar port authority website, although they have her listed as "Queen Ann" for this 2027 date. Queen Anne 17-Apr-2027: Gibraltar

To complete the set of webcam images for the ports of call on this itinerary, here's a capture showing QA's departure from A Coruña this afternoon. This is from the "A Coruña (móbil)" webcam on the CRTVG "g24.gal" website.

Do you mean the QV winter 26/27 schedules? QV's schedules have been announced up to 16 October 2026. The past few years QV's schedules have only been announced into October corresponding with the end of her Mediterranean season. Similarly, QE's schedules have only been announced into Spring for the cruises leading up to her Alaska season. I don't have any specific insight into when the next batch of Cunard itineraries will be announced. I will observe though that for the first time this year Cunard announced what was essentially a full year's worth of itineraries back in February. That would be my best guess as to when we can expect the next batch of itineraries (for 2027) to be announced. Alternatively, if Cunard were to revert to past practices, they might only announce the World/Grand/Winter/Spring 2027 schedules next February/March and then announce the Summer/Autumn 2027 schedules around September. But I suspect they'll repeat what they did this year and announce most of the 2027 schedules next February/March. Edit to add: The announcements of QE's Alaska schedules have mostly been made around the December timeframe. That's my best guess for when we will learn QE's 2026 Alaska season.

@Jim_P, I won't pretend to be knowledgeable about proper etiquette concerning which side to walk along passageways on Cunard ships. I will say as an American, I tend to walk on the right-hand side, in line with the side of the road we drive on, which no doubt adds to some of the confusion. I will offer this transcription of a portion of the Captain's Emergency Procedure Broadcast made prior to departure which may be of some further help to inform the matter from a purely procedural standpoint. This goes along with the crew keeping to the right. The Captain's instructions for proceeding to your assembly station in case of an emergency state "Walk quickly and quietly keeping to the right-hand side."

I can comment about the 2019 Literature Festival at Sea I attended. My archives show I received an email from Cunard with a link to the festival's programme pdf file on October 29, 2019. The departure date for that voyage was November 10, 2019. So that was 12 days prior to the departure date back in 2019. I also have a hard copy of the programme which I might have received through the mail prior to the voyage but I have no recollection about the timing for that.

Yes, there has been a recent price increase for alternative dining. It applies across the fleet. The prices used to be as follows. Kings Court/Lido Alternative Dining: $20pp in advance; $25pp on board Verandah Lunch: $25pp in advance; $30pp on board Verandah Dinner: $45pp in advance; $50pp on board Here are the prices for QM2, QV and QE listed on their FAQ for travel agents. This represents a 10% discount for booking in advance, consistent with how they discount their drinks packages when purchased in advance. Kings Court/Lido Alternative Dining: $31.50pp in advance; $35pp on board Verandah Lunch: $31.50pp in advance; $35pp on board Verandah Dinner: $58.50pp in advance; $65pp on board That said, I'm still seeing Verandah Lunch bookable on QM2 in My Cunard for $25pp, so perhaps the price increase for Verandah Lunch to $31.50pp is still in the works. Edit to add: I'm seeing a note stating the new prices for QM2 and QV are effective now but for QE they are effective July 2024.

That sounds to me like you have a refundable deposit. When the deposit is refundable, I don't think you'll find any phrasing in your booking confirmation specifically stating that the deposit is refundable. But if there is no cancellation penalty listed prior to the final payment date, then that ought to mean you'll get your deposit back if you cancel prior to that date. You'll want to get confirmation of that from your travel agent though.

To keep the webcam images coming, here's what QA's departure from Tenerife looked like this afternoon. This is from the Skyline Webcams "Santa Cruz de Tenerife - Plaza de España Live cam".

Assuming you have booked a fare with a refundable deposit on a US booking, then you may cancel and get a full refund up until the final payment date (120 days prior to departure for voyages of 30 nights or less, 150 days prior to departure for voyages of more than 30 nights). Most US fares have a refundable deposit but some do not. The fare they call "Our Lowest Fare" on their website is an example of a fare with a non-refundable deposit. My travel insurance company allows me to cancel my travel insurance but they only issue the refund as a credit voucher for use on a future purchase from them. You will need to check with your specific travel insurance company to see what their cancellation policies are.

That's correct. That webcam capture is showing QE's recent arrival at Seogwipo on May 17th. The image was less than 24 hours old when I posted it. By my count, we've now reached 660 locations on our seen ports list.

I'm still looking for the identification of the specific port for this image. @babs135 has narrowed down the general location to Jeju Island. This is the only port on our unseen ports list on Jeju Island. Last call, since I'm confident @sfred will able to identify it later today. 😉

I was on the first Literature Festival at Sea during the 10-17 November 2019 eastbound crossing. Here is the programme we were provided showing the schedule of events pertaining to the festival during that crossing. cc5279_literature_festival_at_sea_final.pdf

There was special coverage of QA's arrival at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria this morning on the live stream of the WingCam YouTube channel. Here is a capture from the stream.

You are definitely on the right track. We just need to narrow it down a bit further to a specific port on that island which is mentioned on a very recent Cunard itinerary.

No fireboat send-off from Arrecife this afternoon (that I saw anyway), but it was still a good show watching your departure on the "Lanzarote Cruise Ship Dock" live stream from the LanzaroteWebcam YouTube channel. Here's a capture from that stream.

Here's a webcam capture showing a Cunard ship arriving at a port we haven't seen yet. The port city itself is just a few miles off to the left while the cruise terminal is only about a mile out of view to the right.

QE2 called at Dalian in March 1979. It took me a bit to find it since it's recorded on QE2's itineraries under the former name Dairen.

Yes, I think the language in this latest photo is Chinese. That helps quite a bit to narrow down the possibilities from both our seen and unseen ports lists. There's a match on Tripadvisor to one of their top 10 most popular landmarks in one of the Chinese cities on our seen ports list. I think this is a view of the Russian Street (aka Russian Style/Folk/Folklore/Culture Street) in Dalian, China. I believe we've only seen Dalian once before on this thread. The earlier image of Dalian was a public domain photo submitted by @sfred back in post #3598 and identified by @ExArkie. Now we have someone's own photo taken while visiting there on a cruise. Thanks for that contribution, @babs135.

That's a subject of discussion which comes up on this forum occasionally. Here's a thread I remembered from several years ago which partly turned into a discussion about the usage of the term "Cunarder".

Excellent synopsis @jam19872016. Just to set expectations about your upcoming 18-day round trip crossing, I assume that's on QM2 (round trip from New York to Hamburg or Rotterdam). The Golden Lion does not serve dinner on QM2, only lunch, unless there's been a very recent change. But one dinner venue on QM2 that's not well advertised is the Chef's Galley. That's a casual dining venue with table service in the evening with a pizza and pasta menu. That might be a good option for you instead of the buffet on one of your gala evenings.

"Paddle Tennis Tournament" is listed in the daily programmes for two of the days on both of the QM2 crossings we took last September. No mention of pickleball that I see listed there.