bluemarble

The kennels are located at the far end of the mid-aft section and the beginning of the aft section on deck 12. A portion of the kennels is located directly above two of the mid-aft Queens Grill suites (11151 and 11153). I doubt there is an issue with noise from barking dogs in those suites or I imagine we would have heard about that on this forum (at least I don't recall seeing anything about that here). But in any event, there won't be an issue with a midships cabin on deck 11.

There are indeed discrepancies between the published QA deck plans and how some of the cabins are classified on the Cunard website. In particular, I've noticed the discrepancy with these cabins mid-aft on decks 6 and 7 which as @buchanan101 has indicated are located at the split between A2 and BB cabins in those sections. 6173 6175 6177 7150 7197 These cabins are all classified as BB on the deck plans, but they are being sold as Britannia Club (and thus are being classified as A2) by the Cunard booking engine. I suspect this is an issue with the deck plans rather than with the Cunard booking engine. That is, I suspect those cabins are actually considered to be A2 cabins despite what the deck plans say. But only Cunard can answer that question for sure.

QM2 is doing an eight night crossing this time to arrive on Jan 11th. That's a bit out of the ordinary but not unprecedented. She has occasionally done eight night crossings in the past (even without stops in Halifax or Le Havre that add an extra night}.

Sadly there is no such master list of guest speakers anymore that I know of. There is the "Guest speakers" page on the Cunard website found here. https://www.cunard.com/en-us/the-cunard-experience/guestspeakers.guestSpeakers About all you'll find on that page at the moment are the speakers for next year's Literature Festival at Sea, the Beatles and Beyond cruise, and one of the Alaska cruises. There is also this "Events cruises" page where you can find out about some of the speakers for those particular voyages. https://www.cunard.com/en-us/cruise-types/event-cruises There is also this separate "Alaska guest speakers" page. https://www.cunard.com/en-us/cruise-destinations/alaska/alaska-guest-speakers Occasionally it's possible to learn about notable guest speakers through Cunard press releases. But in general there is nowhere to find a master list of the speakers for most voyages anymore that I've been able to find.

@Ricardo_S, if you selected a specific BB cabin at the time of booking, I would expect your booking confirmation to show that you are in that cabin. Since the confirmation from your travel agent indicates you are in category A2, then something doesn't jive there. If you are in a BB cabin, you will be eating in the main Britannia dining room, not the Britannia Club dining room. On the other hand, if you are in an A2 cabin, you will be eating in the Britannia Club dining room. I concur with the advice you have been given. Get in touch with your travel agent to confirm if you have booked an A2 category cabin or BB category cabin.

The other ship in @sogne's photo is Norwegian Epic. By cross-referencing itineraries for QM2 and Norwegian Epic, there are two possibilities for a recent QM2 cruise @sogne was on where Norwegian Epic was also in port: Grenada and St Kitts. By concentrating on those ports I had started coming to the conclusion the photo is indeed Basseterre, St Kitts. You beat me to this one, @sfred. Well done.

Glad to hear you managed to get your room changed through your TA. Concerning your question about why so many cabins are shown as 'on hold', are you seeing this message when you try to pick a specific cabin on the Cunard website? "This stateroom is already on hold for another guest." If so, that message does not literally mean the cabin is 'on hold'. That's a generic message for any cabin that isn't available. It usually means another guest is booked into that cabin.

Here is the original itinerary I have for the current voyage listing the departure from Madeira as 1:00am on January 1st. 23/12/22 Southampton: Depart 18:00 24/12/22 At Sea 25/12/22 At Sea 26/12/22 At Sea 27/12/22 Lanzarote: 08:00 - 17:00 28/12/22 Fuerteventura: 08:00 - 18:00 29/12/22 La Palma: 08:00 - 21:00 30/12/22 Tenerife: 08:00 - 17:00 31/12/22 Madeira: Arrive 09:00 01/01/23 Madeira: Depart 01:00 02/01/23 At Sea 03/01/23 Cadiz: 08:00 - 18:00 04/01/23 Lisbon: 09:00 - 18:00 05/01/23 At Sea 06/01/23 At Sea 07/01/23 Southampton: Arrive 06:30

Here's what I have for the three current Cunard Queens. There are quite a few instances of two of the ships departing Southampton together to start their world cruises. It looks like 2016 is the only instance where all three of the current ships departed Southampton together to start their world cruises. 2011 Jan 5: QE and QV left Southampton on world cruises; QM2 at sea in Caribbean 2012 Jan 10: QM2 and QE left Southampton on world cruises; QV in Puerto Quetzal 2013 Jan 6: QE left Southampton on world cruise Jan 10: QM2 and QV left Southampton on world cruises 2014 Jan 2: QV left Southampton on world cruise Jan 10: QM2 and QE left Southampton on world cruises 2015 Jan 10: QM2 and QE left Southampton on world cruises Jan 20: QV left Southampton on world cruise 2016 Jan 10: QM2, QV and QE left Southampton on world cruises 2017 Jan 5: QV left Southampton on world cruise Jan 7: QE left Southampton on world cruise Jan 10: QM2 left Southampton on world cruise 2018 Jan 7: QV and QE left Southampton on world cruises Jan 10: QM2 left Southampton on world cruise 2019 Jan 3: QE left Southampton for Australia Jan 10: QM2 and QV left Southampton on world cruises 2020 Jan 10: QM2 and QV left Southampton on world cruises; QE in Hobart 2023 Jan 11: QM2 and QV leave Southampton on world cruises; QE in Dunedin 2024 Jan 11: QM2 and QV leave Southampton on world cruises; QE at sea in Australia

Just saw a video on social media of an onboard announcement confirming that. The quote from that announcement was "... and then we will switch over to our shoreside cooling and freshwater intakes."

Information about the dry dock schedule transcribed from a letter from the captain posted on social media. ==================== Dear Guest(s), We would like to share some important information with you regarding our stay in Cadiz, Spain on Monday, 2 January to Wednesday 4 January and what you can expect. Getting ashore All guests will be required to use the shuttle bus service between the ship and the port gate, no walking through dry dock area is permitted. Guests must stay within the defined foot path between the ship and the shuttle bus pick up. Shore excursions will depart from the port gate, guests will need to use the shuttle service between the ship and the port gate. Monday, 2 January 2023 12.00pm - Queen Victoria will enter stern first into Navantia dry dock in Cadiz, Spain. 3.00pm - Queen Victoria is expected to be sitting on the blocks and the remaining water in the dry dock will be pumped out. 5.00pm - We will expect to have a gangway in position for guests to be able to go ashore, the gangway is located on Deck 1 grand lobby on the port side. 10.00pm - All the water will be pumped out of the dock and work will commence on changing the blade. Complementary shuttle service will run between the Ship and the Port gate from 5.00pm to 10.00pm and a reduced service between 10.00pm and 8.00am (3 January). ADA Shuttle bus will be available between 5.00pm and 10.00pm. Tuesday, 3 January 2023 Queen Victoria will remain on the blocks and work will take place on the blade. Complementary shuttle service will run between the Ship and the Port gate 8.00am to 10.00pm and a reduced service between 10.00pm and 8.00am (4 January). ADA shuttle bus will be available from 8.00pm and 10.00pm Last bus from the port gate to Queen Victoria will be at 8.00am on the 4 January. Wednesday, 4 January 2023 9.00am - All guests are required to be back on board, and the gangway will be removed, shortly after we will start the flood up of the dock. 12.00pm - 2.00pm - Queen Victoria will sail out of the drydock and head out to sea on route to Southampton. We thank you for your understanding as we carry out this essential piece of maintenance, and hope that you thoroughly enjoy this once in a lifetime opportunity for most guests to admire Queen Victoria out of water. Warmest regards, Tomás Connery Captain MV Queen Victoria

QV has been in Madeira the past couple days for the New Year festivities. Here is a capture from one of the webcams found at "www.madeira-web.com" a few minutes ago showing QV at the far right in the Funchal anchorage along with some of the fireworks display.

Here's what the instructions state at https://www.carnivalcorp.com/static-files/50351a91-4dc0-4f6b-bfec-684647e6129f (emphasis mine). "Please provide by email, fax or by mail your complete legal name, reservation/booking number, ship and sailing date, along with proof of ownership of Carnival Corporation or Carnival plc shares (for example, photocopy of shareholder proxy card, a dividend tax voucher or a current brokerage or nominee statement with your current mailing address and your brokerage account number blacked out) ...". I must say I haven't paid close enough attention in the past since I've only blacked out the brokerage account number on the statements that I've submitted. Edit to add: I think the part about blacking out your current mailing address is relatively new. I don't see that in older versions of the instructions.

After ringing in the new year on Viking Orion at Cabo San Lucas last year, it's going to be a quieter evening at home this year. We will be watching the antics of AC2 (Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen) broadcasting from Times Square, New York for the ball drop again this year. Their show even manages to provide a bit of quirky (faux-)British humor with cameo appearances by their man on the street, Richard Quest.

I'll list some items I've forgotten or almost forgotten to take on various trips. Most of these are "duh" of course, but I've managed to slip up or almost slip up on these on occasion. Power cords for all devices Power adapters for US to UK/Europe plugs Ear buds/headphones for cell phone (especially for inflight entertainment) Rain poncho Copies of passport and credit/debit card information

I haven't been keeping close enough tabs on webcam sightings lately. QE is in Lyttelton today. Here is a capture this afternoon showing QE on the Inner Harbour West webcam found on the Lyttelton Port Company website at "lpc.co.nz/cams/inner_harbour.jpg". I am copying the image here per my understanding of their Terms of Use policy including acknowledgment that the image is the intellectual property of and is owned by the Lyttelton Port Company.

I think I've figured out your itinerary. Several sites show you scheduled for Santa Cruz de La Palma on December 29th.

The original itinerary I have indicates you were scheduled to call at Gran Canaria on December 29th. Apparently that was changed at some point that I missed. What is on your itinerary now for December 29th?

Starting a booking for two passengers on the Cunard website lists the Britannia Single Oceanview category with the message "! Unfortunately this stateroom isn't available for 2 guest(s)." If you pursued the matter with Cunard, I imagine you would not get very far because of likely restrictions on the lifeboat space allocated for those cabins.

The layout of that unnamed bar on the deck plan does align quite well with this image from the email and a similar image posted on the Bright Lights Society page of the Cunard website found at https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/inspiration/queen-anne/bright-lights-society.

Yes, that's it. The Christmas tree was along the Malecón in Puerto Vallarta and the church interior is indeed from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church there. Sorry, @sfred, those photos weren't from our recent QM2 cruise to the Caribbean where you had been concentrating your investigation. Rather they were taken during our cruise to the Mexican Riviera on Viking Orion over last Christmas and New Year.

It would have been interesting if we had been able to visit this church a few weeks earlier for the festivities leading up to December 12th.

Feliz Navidad is the appropriate clue. I suppose it would have been more correct if I had punctuated it as "¡Feliz Navidad!"

Feliz Navidad! Here's another photo with a Christmas theme taken in a prominent church at the same location as that Christmas tree.

I don't know how it works in the UK, but in the US I'm not sure you necessarily even have to be a past passenger to get the Cunard ecard via email. I used to get them at the regular email address I use for all my Cunard bookings. Then a few years ago I stopped getting any Cunard marketing material at that email address including the Christmas card. I don't think I did anything to opt out. I tried several attempts to sign back up via the "Sign up for special offers" link on the Cunard website to no avail. Only when I signed up for special offers using a different email address (which I never use for anything else with Cunard) did I start receiving marketing emails and the Christmas ecard at that new email address. So now I have one email address I use for all my bookings with Cunard and a separate email address where I receive marketing email and the Christmas ecard. Since all I ever gave them was my name when I signed up using the new email address, it seems a bit of a stretch that they've associated that new email address with my past voyage history (but then who knows).