bluemarble

I'm afraid I've never found a way to print or download a detailed master list of Cunard shore excursions such as you can do with some other lines. I've been known to spend a lot of time copying/pasting/reformatting the details for each individual shore excursion into a Word document in order to have just such a master list available to peruse offline. I can suggest the "Explore my destination guides" link that can be found on the "Booking Summary" page in My Cunard underneath the itinerary map. I see @NE John has beaten to that suggestion. That allows you to create a PDF file for the entire cruise with all the detail found in that guide. That destination guide does list some of the shore excursions offered. Unfortunately, I've found the list isn't necessarily in agreement with the complete list of excursions offered at each port in My Cunard. Also, it doesn't provide anything beyond a one sentence description of each excursion. And the destination guide for our upcoming Norway cruise hasn't kept up with an itinerary change made months ago (it still thinks we are calling at Flam). Finally, there is a lot of information in the destination guide beyond shore excursions so it's not really conducive to obtaining a printout of just shore excursions.

It depends on the direction of the crossing. For eastbound crossings, where the clock moves ahead, the time change occurs at noon. The clock is advanced from noon to 1:00pm on five of the days during an eastbound crossing. For westbound crossings, where the clock moves back, the time change occurs during the night. The clock is moved back from 2:00am to 1:00am on five of the nights during a westbound crossing. One bit of clock change trivia. If you happen to be on a crossing that sails between the dates the US and the UK adjust their clocks on/off Daylight Saving Time/British Summer Time, you could find your crossing only has to adjust the clock four times rather than five. We've been on one such crossing that sailed from New York in late October before the US changed back from Daylight Saving Time but the UK had changed back from British Summer Time before we arrived in Southampton in early November. The same phenomenon can happen in Spring if you sail after the US has moved forward to Daylight Saving Time but before the UK has moved forward to British Summer Time.

I fear you may be disappointed about the merchandise sales situation on Cunard. QM2 is not immune from having sales tables set up outside the shops and sometimes along the corridor between the shops and Sir Samuels/Chart Room. One day on each voyage is likely to be a sale of Cunard logo merchandise at those tables including tee shirts.

Here's an earlier thread with photos discussing how the third and fourth berths drop down from the ceiling in the QM2 inside cabins that accommodate four passengers.

I have a follow-up question for those who have been on Mediterranean or Norwegian cruises since Cunard introduced the Riviera and Nordlys menus. Were those themes added to the mix along with the other themes (Coriander, La Piazza and Bamboo)? Or were the Riviera or Nordlys themes the only ones offered during your time in the Mediterranean or Norway?

Depending on your itinerary, you probably won't actually be offered all three of Riviera, Frontier and Nordlys. My understanding is Riviera is for Mediterranean cruises, Nordlys for cruises to Norway, and Frontier is something new they will be introducing on QE's Alaska itineraries.

A few more details in case the OP or anyone else might be interested in doing some ship spotting on April 23rd. According to available itineraries, QV and QM2 are both scheduled to arrive in Southampton at 6:00am. Now we can't rely on that as precise timing, but perhaps we'll be able to see both ships sailing up the Solent in the same view (in my case in the same webcam view). It's happened before. Available itineraries show QV scheduled to depart at 4:30pm and QM2 at 5:00pm. QM2 is scheduled to be at the Ocean Terminal and QV will be at the Mayflower Terminal. This is the last time we will see QM2 at the Ocean Terminal this year. All of her other calls for the remainder of 2023 are currently scheduled to be at the Mayflower Terminal. April 23rd is indeed likely to be a busy day in Southampton with the megaship AIDANova (5,000+ passenger capacity) also in port that day.

The Southern Daily Echo claims to have coined the terms "Soton" and "Sotonian" as abbreviations for Southampton and Southamptonian. Quoting from https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/heritage/8797767.the-origin-of-the-names-soton-and-sotonian-for-southampton-and-southamptonian/ "... both were coined to describe the city and its residents by journalists at the Daily Echo, who found Southampton and Southamptonian far too long to fit easily into the newspaper’s headlines."

Looks like that's where she's headed now. Yesterday when I posted that detail about QE, she was alongside a pier just outside the drydock. Since then she stopped over at the Singapore cruise terminal for about 12 hours. Now she's headed out to sea, presumably for some trails before heading back to the terminal to pick up passengers tomorrow.

@Victoria2, do you automatically receive itineraries from the grills concierge listing the upcoming speakers prior to your cruises? Just wondering if that's a routine procedure or something provided on request. If it is a routine procedure, how far ahead of the cruise do you receive that information? Rest assured I won't be pursuing that as an avenue to compile master lists of speakers. It wouldn't be a viable mechanism notwithstanding the privacy concerns. Just curious how that works.

Unfortunately Cunard no longer publishes those master lists of Insights Guest Lecturers as they used to prior to the shutdown. Unlike the master lists of Dress Code and Theme schedules which are also no longer published, the information about the speakers isn't made available in My Cunard. About all Cunard publishes on their website is a "Guest speakers on board" page which provides only a very limited list of speakers. That list is mostly the speakers for special event cruises such as the Literature Festival at Sea and some of the QE Alaska voyages. A few other speakers can be discerned from the Event Cruises page and Cunard press releases. But for most voyages, I'm afraid we are now left in the dark about who the speakers will be. I have seen lists of speakers for specific voyages which were obtained ahead of time from the Grills Concierge by guests who booked grills suites. If you have booked a grills suite, it sounds like that's a resource to learn who the scheduled speakers are prior to your voyage. I wouldn't know for sure how that works though since I'm strictly a rower. I would love to start a project to create lists of Insights Guest Lecturers similar to the Dress Code and Theme schedules, but I'm afraid I haven't found that information to be generally available anywhere in order to make that a viable project.

Just to add to the confusion, the wording on the UK website was updated recently to read slightly differently (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. 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." My take on the "it's your choice" wording is there are designated casual venues for those who choose not to dress according to the Gala Evening dress code. "Feel free to dress casually as you visit any of the following venues: Kings Court, Lido Buffet, Golden Lion, Casino, Carinthia Lounge, Winter Garden, Garden Lounge, Yacht Club, and G32." It may also help to quote the more specific Gala Evening dress code as it is published in the daily programmes once on board the ship. "Gala Evening. Dinner jacket, tuxedo, or dark suit with regular tie or bow tie for gentlemen. Evening or cocktail dress, smart trouser suit, or formal separates for ladies." As you can see from this definition, a dark suit with tie is a perfectly acceptable alternative to a tuxedo on gala evenings. A sports coat without a tie would not conform to the Gala Evening dress code. You probably wouldn't be turned away since we've had reports that enforcement of the dress code has become lax. But I would like to encourage you to conform to the stated Gala Evening dress code.

I meant to mention earlier @WantedOnVoyage's excellent account of Laconia's 1922-23 world voyage contains further details about the clay pigeon shooting introduced on the Laconia, including a photo. I trust he won't mind my quoting this detail from that article. "... Laconia was equipped with six sporting guns, 50,000 rounds of sporting cartridges and 40,000 clay bird targets."

To provide some additional detail, @Bigmike911, QE is currently at Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore for scheduled maintenance. She has been there since March 17. She just left the drydock there about five hours ago. Her next voyage with passengers departs in a couple more days. That's voyage Q313C, a 16-night cruise, April 3-19, from Singapore to Yokohama with eight port calls in Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan and Okinawa along the way.

Cunard is providing a way to see Geirangerfjord for cruises that call at Olden. Our Norwegian Fjords cruise on QM2 this May offers a "New" shore experience from Olden called "Scenic Geirangerfjord Cruise." That's a coach excursion to Hellesylt, then a cruise by boat through Geirangerfjord. That's not to downplay any of the other options at Olden which by all accounts here and elsewhere are well worth it. Just mentioning that's one strategy for seeing Geirangerfjord that gets around restrictions on cruise ships sailing into Geiranger.

I believe that's a reference to clay pigeon shooting as one of the on-board activities on the Laconia mentioned in the CNN article I posted yesterday. Here's the quote. "Eleanor writes of on-board leisure activities including lectures on the history and language of the Laconia’s destinations, a “camera club” – perfect for the Phelps sisters and their interest in photography – as well as a costume ball and classical concerts. Meanwhile, Claudia details on-board clay pigeon shooting, fencing classes and time spent working out in the on-board gym."

That's correct. That's QV arriving at Honolulu earlier this year on her world cruise. The image is a capture from the Waikiki Aquarium South Shore Surf Cam.

OK, no additional hint from me right away tomorrow morning (my time) in that case.

Here are the latest plain text file attachments of our "seen" and "unseen" ports lists. Where in the World 2023-03-25.txt Cunard ports not seen yet 2023-03-25.txt

I have no concerns about M325. That cruise calls at Stavanger, Olden, Alesund and Bergen. I am not aware of any environmental restrictions that would prevent QM2 from calling at any of those ports. We have not been to either Olden or Alesund yet (although we got to within site of Alesund once on QM2 before having to turn away because of the weather conditions and we are scheduled to call at both of those destinations on QM2 this May). No doubt those are also beautiful destinations.

Sorry, no, that's not Puerto Vallarta, @sfred. As usual, I'll offer an additional hint tomorrow if necessary.

To my mind, the ideal 7-night Norwegian Fjords itinerary on Cunard's current schedule is QV's voyage V321, August 6-13, 2023. I say that because that cruise is scheduled to call at two quintessential Norwegian Fjords destinations, Flaam and Geiranger. The problem with cruising to those two destinations though is environmental restrictions Norway has placed on them as being on or near UNESCO World Heritage fjords. QM2 is apparently no longer allowed to sail to those destinations. Two of QV's previously scheduled calls to Geiranger this June have been changed to other ports. I haven't seen the specific reason for those QV changes, but I think it's a pretty good bet it was because of environmental concerns. Until we have some assurance those calls to Flaam and Geiranger can go ahead, I am reluctant to recommend booking that August Norwegian Fjords cruise on QV.

There's an article on CNN commemorating Laconia's original world voyage which ended 100 years ago today on March 30, 1923. The first round-the-world passenger cruise took place 100 years ago. Here’s what it was like on board

Let's try this webcam capture showing a distant view of a Cunard ship arriving at a port we've already seen. I've cropped the bottom of the image to remove the captions.

I see the updated rates for the hotel and dining service charge can now be found here on the main Cunard website. https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/the-cunard-experience/service-charges