alc13

The 2 hr spa pass costs $49 once on board. The $35 price is only if you book in advance.

I have another photo but it posts upside down. Any advice?

Apparently QE passed under the bridge with only 4 meters to spare!

Easy one if you’ve been here -

Oh, whoops, nothing from yesterday. I’ll do the remaining ones, though. My pleasure.

Where is this? If you were there today, you can’t play.

Seems all good to me, but we’re in the Grills. I’ll ask around. The live music has been wonderful. Service in the bars has been good so far, too.

Masks are required except when eating, drinking, or in the gym. Mostly complied with, too.

I will! And yes, so great to finally be here!

Well, here we are on QE, and I can report that our carefully executed and beautifully documented pre-boarding Covid tests were not reviewed at embarkation. The explanation was that the test results weren’t needed because we’d been vaccinated - which makes no sense, because of course we still could have been infected and contagious. Japan is in the process of relaxing their guidelines for managing Covid, so maybe that’s part of the reason for Cunard’s policy change.

That is staggeringly high, especially compared to the US currently (where I live) and Japan (where we're going). Apparently our exposure risk will be higher on board than off. Frustrating.

We’ve done the Dec 15 TA a couple of times. Great time to be on the Atlantic. Recalls for me the time when that was the only way to cross. As for other times of year, RADA performs frequently on the QM2 but wasn’t present on our Dec TAs.

What they all said. Just bizarre. If I were one of their customer service people I'd be tired of requests for help with it, but apparently fixing it isn't a priority.

Are embarkation and disembarkation days both counted? Ie., will we be charged for 10 days of internet access on a 9-night itinerary?

Interesting, I assumed they used a bigger model. We have the Timeless, and it's okay with a few drawbacks. The cartridges only last for 8-10 uses, as I recall, and get used up faster as the bottle gets emptier. It pours really slowly and you have to repressurize the bottle sometimes to get a full glass. And Coravin advises against using it with plastic corks, which are so common nowadays. (I guess the plastic doesn't heal as well as cork? - although on the other hand I can't imagine such a tiny hole would allow much air to pass, so maybe this isn't a big concern.) Those caveats aside, it does seem like a great solution for open bottles that will be stored for long periods.

Oh, I will be so sad if the cheeseboard isn't good. It's a real pleasure when I'm traveling. Still, I'll have to give it several attempts on our upcoming cruise to be sure it's really declined.

You mean that small Coravin? Seems they could manage that for you if you brought one along. I think the $250 minimum for Coravin is steep, by the way. A $100 wine is a splurge, in my opinion, and worth the extra bit of care in storage.

I wasn't concerned until I got to cheese AND pud!

We had a good experience with Twelve Transfers last year. Heathrow to Southampton.

Very sensible. We have these small paper cards of the sort commonly used in the previous century.

I talked to a Cunard representative today, who told me the language about a vaccination record card was meant for UK passengers. (Does that make sense to those of you in the UK?) It was not meant for US passengers, though, and the CDC card will be fine.

I put a call into Cunard just now, too. I do believe this is just bad wording somehow, but it would be good to get more clarification.

What?!? We haven’t received that email. Bizarre. As you say, the CDC card is all we have. Have you called Cunard?

And safe travels to you, as well!

I know, no boarding times yet, and 24 hours is a narrow window anyway when you're en route to the port! We arrive the day before and will get to Yokohama that afternoon. We'll take the tests that evening or the next morning. We are being more careful than usual to avoid covid risk for the next 2 weeks. It's almost as bad as quarantine.😷