bluemarble

Looks like the evacuation is complete now and you are back on your way to Southampton. Here is the track from marinetraffic. I figured you were about 195 NM east of Boston at closest approach. I also hope the passenger is doing ok and this doesn't delay your arrival at Southampton too much. QM2 does have the ability to make up lost time like this early in the crossing.

This is only my interpretation of the QA deck plans, but this is what I figure constitutes the grills terrace on deck 11. Note the entrances/exits indicated at the top and bottom. I figure those are a pretty good indicator for what marks the boundaries of the grills terrace.

The Smart Attire dress code as listed in the daily programmes once on board the ships replaces "dress shirt" with "collared shirt". Here are the dress code descriptions from the daily programmes. 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. Smart Attire. Gentlemen, every night we request you wear trousers with a collared shirt; jacket and tie are optional. Ladies, blouses and skirts or stylish trousers and dresses are welcome. ========== On the subject of the "Red and Gold" theme, you may recall the "Royal Cunard Ball" from previous voyages. I think the Red and Gold theme is simply a name change for the Royal Cunard Ball to make it obvious what the colors are for that theme.

Assuming I'm correctly interpreting this symbol to indicate a laundrette, I also see that symbol on deck 1 (across from cabin 1.093) and on deck 10 (next to cabin 10.043). So, I think there are five laundrettes on the Queen Anne deck plans, on decks 1, 4, 7, 8 and 10.

Just a note to say as of now the wording in Cunard's Passage Contract for North America remains unchanged. Here's a pertinent quote from that document. 'A "Hotel and Dining Service Charge" will be automatically added to Your onboard account, which is discretionary and guests have the freedom to adjust these amounts while onboard...' The date on the document indicates "Updated August 2021" so it hasn't been revised since the date of the resumption of cruising.

@penlady, I would also welcome hearing about your recent experiences on QM2. It is inevitable that you will receive some pushback here concerning negative comments, but I think it's important we hear feedback both good and bad on this forum.

QE is back at Ketchikan today and it's an opportunity to show another of the webcams on the KPU Ketchikan Webcam site at "webcamketchikan.com". This one is their "Mega-View (cam 7)" overlooking downtown Ketchikan. It's a busy day today at Ketchikan for cruise ships. In this view Queen Elizabeth, Westerdam and Grand Princess are docked at berths 2, 3 and 4 while Noordam in the background is approaching to dock at berth 1 to the far left. If you look closely you will also see the small National Geographic expedition ship Sea Bird to the port of Westerdam and aft of Grand Princess. Not seen in this view is Norwegian Encore which is docked a few miles to the west at Ward Cove. Westerdam is scheduled to depart in about two hours with Celebrity Eclipse arriving to replace her two hours after that.

QE has arrived at Icy Strait Point (Hoonah, Alaska) to what looks like a mostly cloudy day today. This is the view from another of the webcams hosted by The Snow Cloud site found at "webcams.thesnowcloud.com". The other ship at the right of this image is Viking Orion which happens to be the ship we cruised on to the Mexican Riviera this past Christmas and New Year.

I'm afraid I'm unable to offer any insight into the situation. All I've been able to find is what you just mentioned from the email. Cunard is citing the typically vague "operational reasons" for canceling the call at Livorno.

It's a rainy day for QM2 in Halifax today. Here's a view from the Westin Nova Scotian Hotel Pier 21 webcam found at "www.novascotiawebcams.com/en/webcams/pier-21/". I'm posting this screenshot per the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License on the site's copyright notice.

QV is in Skjolden, Norway today. She is visible on several of the webcams found on the Skjolden Tourist Information site at "skjolden.com/en/webkamera/". Ordinarily I would not post a webcam image without prior permission. So far my attempt to obtain permission from the site owner last week has gone unanswered. Skjolden is such a rare port call though (and I believe a first for QV) that I'll trust the folks at Skjolden Tourist Information won't mind a little extra publicity for their port. Here is QV as seen on their "Cruisekai" webcam.

The cruise ship schedule for the World Cruise Center in San Pedro lists Queen Elizabeth at berth 93 in San Pedro on July 26th. That's the same berth she called at on May 30th. See https://www.portsamerica.com/operations/cruise-los-angeles-terminal-schedule.

Time to repeat the links to the Dress Code and Theme Schedule documents for easy access since we've started a new browser page. QM2: QM2 2021-22 Dress Code and Theme Schedule QE: QE 2021-22 Dress Code and Theme Schedule QV: QV 2022 Dress Code and Theme Schedule If anyone is seeing dress code and theme schedules in your My Cunard calendars for next year, I'll be glad to start a new set of documents for 2023. I received what I've been told is the schedule for QV's 2023 World Voyage several months ago. I haven't received any contributions yet for 2023 schedules for either QE or QM2.

QE is in Juneau, Alaska for her third call this season. As usual there are good views on PTZtv's "Juneau Harbor Webcam". For something a bit different today though, let's take a look at another Juneau webcam. This is a capture from one of the webcams hosted by a site called The Snow Cloud found at "webcams.thesnowcloud.com". This is the view from their Tram North webcam showing QE's arrival at Juneau a few hours ago. I am posting this with the kind permission of The Snow Cloud.

Here's a webcam capture of QV in Bergen today showing the iconic view from Mount Fløyen. The webcam is found at "www.floyen.no/en/webcam". The other cruise ship at the far right of this image is Viking Jupiter. I'm posting this with the kind permission of Fløibanen AS.

If my webcam capture of QV at Tallinn a few days ago offered a "distant" view, then this capture of QE entering Glacier Bay, Alaska this afternoon might be termed "microscopic". The only webcam I've found showing Glacier Bay with cruise ships is the one at Lower Glacier Bay hosted by the US National Park Service at "www.nps.gov/media/webcam/view.htm?id=81B4672D-1DD8-B71B-0B04336F55ECDD47". That webcam mostly refreshes once a minute. To make things interesting, I turned successive webcam captures into a video showing each image for three seconds. That essentially produces a time lapse running at twenty times normal speed (15 minutes reduced to 45 seconds). Let's see how well this works as a video showing QE far off in the distance arriving at Lower Glacier Bay, Alaska this afternoon. QE sails from left to right across the field of view in this video. Maximize the video for best results. QE Lower Glacier Bay 2022-07-03.mp4

Here is a view of QM2 at Bar Harbor, Maine today. This is a capture from one of the webcams hosted by the Bluenose Inn in Bar Harbor. I am posting this image with the kind permission of the Bluenose Inn.

Yeah, we'll chalk that one up to a poor connection. The previous attempts probably timed out during the upload. The maximum resolution of a Cruise Critic image attachment is 1200 pixels along the longest dimension (this photo ended up 933 x 1200). So, if you happen to have an app that can rescale your photos, that might help with wonky connectivity by reducing the size of the file being uploaded.

I'll try to help. Tell us more about what error you are receiving. Or is the issue that you are having trouble following all the steps to add an image to your post? If it's the latter, I'll list what it takes to add a photo taken on my android phone using the chrome browser to access Cruise Critic. 1) Start to create a reply to this thread. 2) Tap "Add files". 3) Select "Files" as the action. 4) Choose "Images" as the location from the dropdown at the upper left. 5) Select "Camera" from the list of images locations. 6) Select the photo you want to attach. 7) Tap "insert" at the lower right of the "Uploaded Images" frame that appears beneath your post to insert the image into your post. Phew! Hope that helps. But again, if you are receiving an error message, please let us know to help with further troubleshooting the issue.

Here's a view of QV arriving at Southampton shining a bit in this morning's sun to conclude her Baltic cruise. This is a capture from the Netley Cam stream of the Solent Ships YouTube channel.

I'm a bit late to the game today, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to post another image of QM2 gleaming in the morning sun. Here is a capture showing QM2's arrival at New York this morning. In this view she has just about completed the turn to start backing into the berth at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. This capture is from the "New York City Harbor, Waterfront Museum, Brooklyn NY USA" stream on StreamTime Live's YouTube channel.

Thank you, @SeaWatch12. The key word I was looking for here is the offer to "cancel". That tells me this mask mandate is most likely coming from the US CDC. As discussed before, a mask mandate and an offer to cancel are among the steps the CDC requests to mitigate moving a ship from "orange" to "red" status. Edit to add: I notice the word "refund" does not appear in that notification. If the offer is to cancel for FCC instead of a full refund, that would shed new light on the situation.

I trust @schattenfell71 won't mind me rotating his photo. Assuming this photo was taken on a phone, I'm pretty sure the issue is that the way the phone was held when the photo was taken is considered upside down. This is usually not a problem because the phone indicates the photo needs to be rotated 180 degrees within the image's EXIF information. Most software reads that information and automatically rotates the image. Unfortunately when you upload a photo as an attachment to Cruise Critic, that process apparently ignores the request to rotate the image, resulting in an image attachment that is upside down. The work-around is to rotate your phone 180 degrees from the way you have been holding it when taking photos in landscape orientation. P.S. The other ship in the photo is Island Princess. That's a ship we were on many years ago on a Panama Canal itinerary.

Would it be possible for you to post the text of the message you received? I'm especially interested in the options to reschedule and whether those included the option to cancel for a full refund. I've asked this before when we get word here of similar notifications. The only reason I'm asking is that knowing the full details of the wording of the notification can offer clues as to whether the mask requirement is at Cunard's discretion or is being imposed by the CDC in response to the onboard situation on QM2 being reported to the CDC.

QV is in Kiel, Germany today. Here is a webcam view showing Queen Victoria and Mein Schiff 6 at Kiel this morning. This is a capture from the webcam hosted on the Kiel Sailing City website found at "www.kiel-sailing-city.de". I am posting this image here with the kind permission of the site owners, Kiel-Marketing GmbH.