bluemarble

In my case, my brokerage statement is a pdf file. For whatever reason, I could not get Stockperks to accept my pdf file, downloaded to my phone, as an attachment to the shareholder benefit request. So what I did instead was take screenshots of the relevant pages and attached the resulting jpeg files to the request. Those jpeg files attached just fine and my request for the Carnival shareholder benefit was accepted in a couple days. I wasn't certain of what they needed, so I submitted screen shots of both the first page of the statement identifying me as the shareholder and the page showing my ownership of Carnival shares. I did not redact any information. I figured they might want the unredacted information since for some brokers they give you the option of linking directly to your brokerage account. Perhaps others may be able to confirm if they accept brokerage statements with redacted information.

Or how about "Dreamboat Annie" perhaps? One of my favorite songs by the rock band Heart.

OK, something appears to be out of sync with My Cunard then. Can't say I'm all that surprised with anything I see with Cunard IT. I hope you'll understand I don't want to forward an upgrade email I've received since it contains a lot of personally-identifiable details. Here are some of the details from an upgrade offer email I received within the past week which I hope will be of some help. • The email came from "upgrades@cunard.com". • It contains a lot of relevant details about my booking including the booking reference number. • The link to "View upgrade options" in the email is to "upgrade.plusgrade.com/offer/...".

To that point, I thought it was interesting the Porto di Venezia website referred to her both ways on their port schedule prior to her departure for Southampton on April 24th. Here's what I had captured from their departure schedule.

@MiguelST, as @exlondoner has advised, log in to your booking in My Cunard. If you are eligible to bid for an upgrade, there should be a section under "My stateroom" called "Upgrade your stateroom" with a link to "View my upgrade options". Edit to add: The link to "View my upgrade options" will take you to "upgrade.plusgrade.com". Plusgrade is the company that handles the upgrade bidding process.

I see Blue Funnel Cruises have updated the schedule for their Queen Anne Arrival event as well. That's now scheduled for 5:15 pm - 7:45 pm.

With 24 hours to go now until QA's scheduled 14:45 arrival at Southampton, I'll offer my further take on the situation. QA has rounded the northwest corner of Spain and is starting across the Bay of Biscay. This morning QA increased her speed back up to 21 knots. And for the past hour she's occasionally managed 22 knots. Even so, the best I'm coming up with for calculating her arrival time is no better than what QA has been reporting via AIS (15:15 local time at the Nab pilot station). I'm actually coming up with an hour or two later than that at the moment but acknowledge my calculations could be off. I do hope I'm looking at this incorrectly, but I'm not seeing any way QA will be able to meet the publicized schedule through the Solent and on to the Mayflower Cruise Terminal. At the moment, I'm figuring she's going to be more like four to five hours behind that schedule. Stay tuned for further developments.

Cunard have not published master lists of the Insights Guest Lecturers since the shutdown of operations in 2020. They do provide a "Guest speakers on board" page on their website but that mostly just lists speakers for special events cruises (such as the Literature Festival at Sea) and a few of the speakers on other voyages such as QE's Alaska cruises they have been promoting well in advance of those sailings. One way to learn who the speakers will be ahead of time is to use the "Email Cunard" form found on their "Contact us" page. Check the box indicating you have a booking to help identify the voyage you are asking about. I have used that method to ask who the speakers will be for the past several voyages we have been on and have received replies with lists of the scheduled speakers within a day or two. Your crossing is sailing soon enough that Cunard should be close to finalizing the list of speakers at this point.

Here's a link to a photo of Taylor the 2024 Cunard Bear as posted by @photosg last month on the "Cunard Teddy Bears" thread. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2804682-cunard-teddy-bears/?do=findComment&comment=67090844

Right. If QA were to increase her speed to 22 knots for the portion sailing on open ocean, she could cut perhaps two hours off her arrival time compared to 21 knots. But as it is now, she's only sailing about 20 knots off the southeast coast of Portugal. I'll be keeping an eye on the situation, but right now the maths aren't working out for me for QA being able to meet that 14:45 arrival time at the Mayflower Cruise Terminal.

The difference is between what the ships report via AIS and what the port authorities report in their port schedules. As @sogne has taught me, the ships usually report ETA (via AIS) as the time to the pilot station. The various ship tracking sites display that ETA reported by the ships. I've seen that bear out with the times QM2 reports for her ETA at New York. That generally works out to be fairly close to her arrival at the Ambrose pilot station rather than her arrival time at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

In my experience, the times listed on the Southampton VTS site are arrival/departure times to/from the berth, not the pilot station. The reference to "Nab" here indicates the direction QA will be taking into Southampton. So, as of know there is a disconnect of several hours compared to what QA started reporting via AIS upon departure from Gibraltar. We'll want to keep an eye on Southampton VTS to see if that schedule is updated.

Oh, I see now, that's from the cruisemapper smartphone app. Looks like they've got a glitch reporting the ETA in their app since it doesn't match other sources, including their own website "cruisemapper.com". Here's what their page is showing on their website. That 14:15 ETA is UTC so that's 15:15 local time. And as mentioned earlier that's usually the ETA to the Nab pilot station.

@buchanan101, I'm not sure which site you've shown us in your first image. When I check the three sites I use for ship tracking (marinetraffic, cruisemapper and vesselfinder), they are all showing Queen Anne is currently reporting an ETA at Southampton of 15:15 local time (14:15 UTC) on April 30 via AIS. As @sogne has mentioned, that ETA usually means the time QA will reach the Nab pilot station. Add about 2 hours, 30 minutes for the time it takes to sail from the Nab to the Mayflower cruise terminal. That would put her arrival time at the Mayflower cruise terminal at approximately 5:45pm local time on April 30. Now considering the sailing distance from Gibraltar to Southampton, @sogne taught me earlier on another thread that "sea-distances.com" is a better site for determining sailing distances. That site lists the sailing distance between Gibraltar and Southampton as 1145 nm. QA departed Gibraltar at 9:00am local time which gave her 2 days, 6 hours, 45 minutes to meet the originally scheduled arrival time of 14:45 shown on the Southampton VTS site. If she were able to average 21 knots for the entire 1145 nm sailing distance, that works out to approximately 2 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes. However, at her current speed of just a bit over 21 knots, she won't be able to average 21 knots over the entire journey since she had to sail considerably slower than that the first two hours after departing Gibraltar and will need to slow again for the final segment from the Nab through the Solent and Southampton Water. But if she were able to increase her speed to 22 knots as she did earlier for portions of the journey from Venice to Gibraltar she might have more of a fighting chance. Anyway, in addition to continuing to track her progress, I think we'll want to keep an eye on the Southampton VTS site. They will update QA's arrival time in due course if her arrival is going to be delayed in line with what she is reporting via AIS. Edit to add: I see QA had increased her speed to 22 knots a few minutes ago.

The oil tanker Hercules Sky is alongside Queen Anne in the Gibraltar West Anchorage to help confirm there's a bunkering (refueling) operation underway.

Here's my first webcam capture of Queen Anne. Not particularly impressive given that it's nighttime but I'll have to make do. This is a view of Queen Anne arriving at Gibraltar a short time ago as seen on the "Webcam Gibraltar Cable Car, Top of the Rock Live Stream".

Here's an article from the Daily Echo dated 22nd April providing timings for Queen Anne's arrival in Southampton on 30th April. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/24270078.time-will-cunards-queen-anne-arrive-southampton/ Here are the highlights for suggested viewing points and times. • Ryde and Gosport: 12.45pm • Lee-on-the-Solent: 1.10pm • Cowes: 1.10pm • Calshot: 1.20pm • Hamble: 1.30pm • Royal Victoria Country Park and Weston Shore: 2pm • Hythe: 2.15pm • Mayflower Park: 2.30pm • Mayflower Cruise Terminal: 2.45pm

Yes, that's just about all there is for the Gala Evening dress code description on the Cunard US website. I'll post the complete wording. I think this is identical to the Cunard UK website expect the "Formal dresses" and "Formal suits" sections no longer appear on the US site. "At least twice on each seven-night voyage we’ll host a Gala Evening, where we do ask that you observe an elevated dress code. Again, it’s your choice whether to participate in these evenings or not. Many of our guests choose to sail with us specifically because they look forward to these events. Gala Evenings follow one of a few themes, with voyages of seven nights or more offering a chance to attend more than one. You’ll find many nods to these themes throughout the ship, so you'll want a wardrobe to match. Click below for our advice; whether you want to put on a show or give the theme a more subtle nod with an embellishment or accessory, the choice is yours. Theme Ideas" The "Theme Ideas" link does offer some suggestions for the themes the same as on the UK site so that is something further at least.

I do think Cunard have chosen to be deliberately vague on the "What to pack" page of the US website when it comes to describing the Gala Evening dress code (emphasis mine). "At least twice on each seven-night voyage we’ll host a Gala Evening, where we do ask that you observe an elevated dress code." There isn't much more than that available on the main Cunard US website about the Gala Evening dress code other than a link to "Theme ideas". At least those of you in the UK have the "Formal dresses" and "Formal suits" sections (with the "James Bond" reference) I mentioned earlier to provide some further guidance. Once you've booked, My Cunard still provides this earlier description of the Gala Evening dress code. "At least twice on each seven-night voyage we’ll host a Gala Evening, where we do ask that you observe a black-tie dress code."

And once on board, the dress code for Smart Attire reads "collared shirt and trousers". The term "dress shirt" does not appear in the Smart Attire dress code description found in the daily programmes once on board. That's were some the muddle with the dress code we've been discussing here comes from.

Given a 12:00 departure tomorrow, that gives QA 6 days, 3 hours, 45 minutes to make her scheduled arrival at 14:45 on 30 April (she gains one hour time zone change). Using 2805 NM sailing distance between Venice and Southampton (thanks, @sogne), she can make that schedule averaging 19 knots.

The James Bond reference is still there on the Cunard UK website. The UK site has "Formal dresses" and "Formal suits" sections on the "What to pack" page which are not found on the US site. The "Formal suits" section includes this wording. "Most of our guests ... relish the opportunity to put on a Tuxedo for one night and channel their James Bond alter-ego."

Right. That was the original plan to have QA arrive in Southampton on 27 April accompanied by a flotilla escort. I think it's equally interesting to note that Cunard's press release makes no mention of QA's arrival date in Southampton. "Queen Anne, the 249th ship to sail under the Cunard flag – and the third built by Fincantieri – will now set sail for Southampton ahead of her seven-night maiden voyage to Lisbon on May 3." I think it's fair to conclude Cunard have been aware of the delay in QA's departure from Venice which is probably what prompted the cancelation of the test cruise on April 29th. I'll also note this quote from their recent email. "We'll be posting the latest updates throughout her journey home, as well as sneak peeks of what is in store for guests across our social channels, so be sure to follow us." So far they've been providing plenty of the promised "sneak peeks" but no updates about the journey home. Fair enough I suppose since that journey hasn't started yet, but confirmation from Cunard about the delay and the scheduled departure date from Venice would be welcome.

In my self-appointed role as documenter of the Cunard dress code and theme schedules, may I ask if they have updated the dress code and theme schedules in your My Cunard calendar for the altered itinerary? The previous schedule I was given has a gala evening scheduled on 13 April 2025 which is now going to be a port day in Walvis Bay so that will almost certainly be changed at some point if it hasn't already. I suspect there might be some fine-tuning to the dates of the other gala evenings as well. Here is what I have now for the gala evening and theme schedule. If you (or anyone else on this voyage) could let me know of any changes to this schedule, I'd appreciate it. Thanks. 29 March: Roaring Twenties (sea day) 4 April: Gala Evening, no theme (sea day after Port Louis) 8 April: Black and White (sea day after Durban) 13 April: Gala Evening, no theme (port day in Walvis Bay) 19 April: Masquerade (sea day before Dakar) 25 April: Gala Evening, no theme (sea day)

Here are the coach transfer details I have from the past several crossings we've made on QM2 from New York the Southampton. Cunard operate coach transfers to Heathrow and Gatwick airports as well as to Victoria Coach Station and St Pancras International Station. There are separate coaches to each of those destinations and possibly multiple coaches to each destination depending on demand. The coaches to the airports were scheduled for an approximate call off time of 8:30am. The coaches to Victoria and St Pancras were scheduled for an approximate call off time of 8:45am. You will be given luggage tags specific to the transfer you have booked. Most guests on the coach transfers will leave their luggage out for collection and then collect them in the luggage hall before proceeding to the coach. There wouldn't be much advantage to doing self-help disembarkation with a coach transfer other than to possibly assure yourself a place on the first coach to your destination if there are multiple coaches. It won't depart until it is full and most of the other guests on the transfer probably will not have used self-help disembarkation. As you might expect, the time the coaches depart for London depends a lot on how prompt the process is for disembarking the ship, collecting luggage and proceeding to the coaches, as well as how prompt everyone is in disembarking the ship when called off for their transfers. Sorry, I can't recall the actual departure time the last time we booked the coach transfer to Victoria Coach Station several years ago.