bluemarble

Yes, indeed. Managed to tick the boxes on both Miniatur Wunderland last week during our first call to Hamburg during this cruise and then the Internationales Maritimes Museum today. In addition to Lego Queen Mary 2, the Internationales Maritimes Museum also has a more typically sized display model of QM2 in its section on cruise ships and a miniture model within the Cunard section of its massive collection called "The big world of little ships".

I'll offer the guess that photo was taken from the High Line in Manhattan. I see rail tracks in the photo, and the sign that reads "PROTECT THE PLANTS - STAY ON THE PATH" is identical to signs found along the High Line.

Here are some additional closer views I took of the Lego Queen Mary 2, @techteach. The overall scene is of Queen Mary 2 in drydock at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg.

Yes, that's the Lego Queen Mary 2 on display at the Internationales Maritimes Museum in Hamburg. Finally got to see it in person today during the real QM2's call here today. It's made of approximately 780,000 Lego bricks. Length: 690 cm. Beam: 82 cm. Height: 144 cm. Weight: about 870 kg. Construction time: approximately 1,200 hours (January-June 2008). Builders: René Hoffmeister and Klaas H. Meyaard.

Queen Mary 2 in Hamburg today! 😀

Yes, that was somewhat remarkable, wasn't it? During this morning's arrival announcement, the officer mentioned it rains in Bergen 315 days per year but we had managed to arrive on one of the 50 days when it doesn't.

The cover charge for Steakhouse at the Verandah is $25 per person for lunch and $45 per person for dinner if booked in advance. If you wait to book on board, the charge becomes $30 per person for lunch and $50 per person for dinner. That entitles you to one item from each course except for those items (such as the Wagyu beef) which incur an additional charge. If you wish to order multiple items for any given course, the $7.50/$12.50 additional charge would apply for each additional item per course. Pre-booking opens 14 days prior to your departure date. You should have no difficulty finding availability if you wait to book on board. But as indicated, Cunard now offers the incentive of a $5 per person discount if you book Steakhouse at the Verandah in advance.

This wording from the daily programme may help inform the discussion of "optional" gala evenings. This is for the "Gala Evening - Optional" scheduled on our recent sea day between Southampton and Hamburg. This is the only wording that differs from what is stated on regular gala evenings. I found it interesting that the word "optional" does not actually appear anywhere in the daily programme's discussion of the evening's dress code. "(Smart Attire is acceptable for guests who are finally disembarking tomorrow if preferred)"

QM2 in Bergen today. Not quite as picturesque a scene as the previous fjord photos. The weather was glorious for us to explore the city on our own. Flowers and trees are in bloom throughout the city parks.

QM2 in Skjolden, Norway today. Another lovely scenic fjord excursion for us today.

Here's my contribution showing QM2 at Olden today. We took a wonderful Geirangerfjord Cruise excursion from Olden. It brought back some fond memories of our previous visit to Geiranger 15 years ago on QE2.

Today's sunrise approaching Olden, Norway on QM2.

On QM2 it's actually the opposite. The fixed sittings are on the lower level of Britannia (deck 2) and open dining is on the upper level (deck 3) on QM2.

We are having a great time on board QM2. Thanks for asking. It was supposed to be a 26-night round trip voyage from New York, but the cancellation of the April crossings called for a change of plans. Instead of a flight to New York prior to the voyage starting there on April 30, I was able to rebook us on a flight to London to join the voyage starting in Southampton on May 7. It will now be a 19-night voyage ending in New York. We stayed at the Rubens at the Palace Hotel in London for a couple nights which meant we were there to take in some of the festivities for the coronation. We had planned to join the crowd watching the events on the big screen TV in St. James Park, but the rain on the day meant we watched at the hotel bar instead. We did get to see in person the empty royal carriages and some of the mounted units coming and going from the Royal Mews as well as the Red Arrows flyover. Embarkation in Southampton was easy. With priority embarkation, we were on board about 1:00pm. For our first stop in Hamburg, we took the excursion to Miniature Wonderland. That lived up to all our expectations and then some. Today in Alesund, we did the Hjorundfjord Cruise excursion. The scenery was absolutely stunning.

QM2 in Ålesund / Norway today. AIDAperla is also in port with us.

That does appear to be the case on the current voyage from our observation as well. We haven't tried turning up without a reservation, but there have been no apparent queues whenever we've arrived for our relatively later reserved times generally around 8:00pm.

The My Voyage site does allow you to make reservations for the first evening. Assuming your desired time is available to reserve when you board, I presume that would work.

You may make dinner reservations for the alternative extra charge dining venues (Steakhouse at the Verandah and Kings Court/Lido Alternative Dining) in advance beginning 14 days prior to departure. You may only make reservations for open dining in the Britannia Restaurant once you are on board. If you have been assigned to open dining for your voyage, there will be a card in your cabin when you board listing a time that has been reserved for you for the first evening.

With open dining, you may make dinner reservations for a specific time (at 15 minute intervals) using the My Voyage site. Currently on board QM2, the evening theatre show times are 8:00pm and 10:15pm. Both shows times are the same offering.

An update on the Welcome Aboard sparkling wine offered in our Britannia Balcony cabin upon embarking QM2 today. We received this "Two Truths" Chardonnay Pinot Noir NV from South Eastern Australia. Not sure the skull on the label provides much of a warm welcome aboard fealing, but maybe that's just me. I"m no expert to offer any sort of informed opinion as to the quality of this offering compared to Pol Acker or the other recent alternatives.

Please double-check the start date. I believe you are asking about the May 16th crossing starting in Hamburg. As with most of the short 2-night segments between Hamburg and Southampton, the evening of the one full sea day (May 17th in this case) prior to arrival the next day in either Hamburg or Southampton is designated "Gala Evening - Optional". The crossing starting in Southampton on May 18th has the usual two Gala Evenings. That one is an 8-night crossing with a call in Le Havre on May 19th. The Gala Evenings for that crossing from Southampton are May 20th (Black & White) and May 24th (Masquerade).

Correct. The port is Kagoshima. That was QE's port of call on April 30th. When @sfred mentioned our "webcam photos were taken recently", they we taken very recently. Mine is a capture from the "Makurazaki - Japan Live cam" of Skyline Webcams. It's showing QE passing Makurazaki at 11:10pm on her way to Busan after departing Kagoshima about four hours earlier. That's only approximately Kagoshima (about 30 miles as the crow flies, something more like 50 NM sailing distance). Makurazaki is within Kagoshima Prefecture and I figured that was better than nothing to help move Kagoshima to our "seen" ports list.

According to the schedule on the website for the Port Authority of New South Wales (www.portauthoritynsw.com.au), QE will be at the Overseas Passenger Terminal on January 22, 2024.

@Colin_Cameron found the call to Stamford. It was a call by QE2 on May 23, 1987.

I'll contribute this webcam capture from the general vicinity of @sfred's last contribution. I doubt this will help any to identify the port, but it does help slightly to keep to our game's parameters because that white blip at the far left is a Cunard ship. I say general vicinity since it's actually about 30 miles away from the cruise terminal as the crow files. This is the best I could come up with for this port to show any semblance of a Cunard ship on a webcam image.