Colin_Cameron

We've had probably the heaviest rain of the winter today and it feels like we're back in the depths of winter again. It's so dark we've had lights on in the house all day.

My feeling is that this is likely to be an error.

BUT... I wonder if it could be a way to allow the staff to space people out during the current social distancing restrictions? Rather than having groups seated close together while other areas of the restaurant are empty.

I suppose it’s possible it’s been removed. It’s been a couple of years since I was on QV.

3 hours ago, sfred said:

QV's Yacht club roof doesn't have a chess board.

39 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

I found it humorous that when I did a Goggle Maps search including the name of the port shown in @sfred's latest photo, the first hit it returned was the location of our local Walmart Supercenter store. After puzzling over that for a bit, I figured out that was because of a certain brand of automobile tires sold there.

OK. Now I got it.

The Bay Bridge in downtown Michelin.

Don’t wait for me.😄 You’ll be there a long time.

Lots and lots of cable stay bridges like that in China (and elsewhere), but fairly certain I’ve never seen that one. It looks quite squat?

On 2/11/2021 at 2:29 AM, Bigmike911 said:

Well, at least in my neck of the woods an occasional 3/4 ton Ford F250 which have bred and are plentiful in this part of Texas will take out one of the little beasts, and it will be Turkey Buzzard Buffet time. It brings a smile to my face every time I see one. 

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Unfortunately I did it in a Subaru.

This huge beast leapt off an embankment right in front of me. There was a terrible crunch as the front of the car folded in half and went from 50 to 0 in about three feet. I sat looking out the windscreen wondering where on earth he had gone. Then nearly wet myself when there was an almighty WHUMP and the car roof caved in. So the car was a write-off, but we called it a draw.

What really ****ed me off was that I was only a couple of hundred miles short of 250,000 and would probably have passed that milestone the following day.

or c) believe that the chance of even those being able to go ahead is so slim that it's not worth the planning effort. Or d) maybe they've done the planning but are waiting for greater certainty before putting them on sale. Or e) ...

On 2/11/2021 at 3:39 AM, DWhit said:

We are booked on the June 24th out of Southampton.  If we both get our vaccine shots by then, and the UK lets us in without quarantine, and the ship is sailing, then its a go for us.   We have friends we want to see in Scotland and North Ireland.  Fingers crossed.

The quarantine rules in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not all the same.

The recent headlines that international arrivals, from 33 countries, to the UK will have to quarantine is inaccurate in that it only applies to England. In Scotland all international arrivals will have quarantine. I don't know about NI.

The rules may have changed by the time you get here (if you get here🤞), just be aware that they may vary across the UK.

3 hours ago, bluemarble said:

I'm also seeing two calls to Ensenada by QM2, both during 2006. One was on the Hawaii voyage which would have included @Colin_Cameron's photo of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

Ours was just a technical call. We dropped the anchor, some official came aboard and stamped some paperwork, we weighed anchor and sailed for LA. Most people aboard weren't even aware.

Back to the chilly weather again. Had to close the bedroom window last night.

-18C here last night but a few miles up the road it got to -23C. (I know that’s nothing for some of you.)

16 minutes ago, picsa said:

 ... Sags have applied a restriction which is related to age. 

That describes Saga's entire business model.

It is indeed.

I was trying to think what clues would be needed.

It is on a “Big Island”.  

It’s probably not unique but it’s certainly unusual. A clue to the date, and therefor the location, would be that we sailed with both a Captain and a Commodore on board.

There's not much to go on here but it is a new port for this thread.

OK. So the first one is Busselton. I had guessed Fremantle so I wasn't too far out.

You can tell it’s getting warmer (0C today). Our postman is back into his shorts again🥶.

The weather here has been miserable the last couple of days. Snow, followed by rain, which turns it to slush, followed by freezing and more snow, then more rain,. You get the picture. So it’s family tree time again.

I know families tended to be larger in the past than nowadays but it looks like my great-great-great-great-grandfather was one to take things to extremes. 22 children and 112 grandchildren!

I’m fairly sure I’ve found all the children, at least the ones that survived infancy, but equally sure there are still several grandchildren to be tracked down. How on earth do you keep track of over a hundred grandchildren? 

Wife number three produced child twenty two a month before he died at the age of eighty four. There was 63 years between the oldest and youngest children. 41 years between the oldest grandchild and youngest child. The oldest great-grandchild was 21 years older than the last child and (I haven’t found exact dates but it looks like) the first great-great grandchild was born the same month!

I wonder how many of his descendants were alive at the same time as himself?

With some more bad weather I may be able to unearth some more details.

I’ve been thinking for months now that “changeover day” will become “disembarkation day”, then a deep clean of the ship, followed by “embarkation day”.

Of course in the short, and  maybe medium term, we may all be dining at tables for two.

4 hours ago, carlmm said:

How sad. 

He appeared to be a fun-loving, approachable man.

He was indeed.

We first met him on Crown Dynasty and we were assigned to his table in the dinning room. In those days if you were at an officer’s table that was your table for the cruise. It was just like any other table, except that during the day one of you had work to do.

We were warned by the maitre d’ beforehand that towards the end of the meal his pager would probably go off and he would leave early. But in the event we were the last table out of the restaurant, just in time for all of us to make it to the show, then on to the Kit-Kat club (the equivalent of G32 or the Yacht Club). By the next day word had spread among the staff and crew. Apparently this was unheard of. 

We we subsequently met up on four other ships and cocktails in his cabin became quite common. We met Lucy and Lawrence several times (must have been during school holidays).

At cocktail parties he always said he only knew one joke - He caught a fish that weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces, someone in the front row was primed to ask how he knew the weight, to which he replied “because it had it’s own scales.” - but this was far from the truth. Some of them definitely only suitable for broad-minded company.🤬

This news comes as quite a shock.

44 minutes ago, CGTNORMANDIE said:

 (Someone here please post the URL.). 

https://www.*****.info/index.php

1 minute ago, Essiesmom said:

I don't believe he was the last captain of QE2.  That honour went to Captain McNaught.  EM

Captain McNaught was appointed Master of QE2 on 17th April 2003. Captain Perkins was appointed on 19th May 2006. The article correctly says last appointed captain.

There were four captains appointed after Ian McNaught.

9 hours ago, lissie said:

I must admit  Iwas assuming at least part refund for the cruise as well as the flights 

And you may well be right.🙂

From what I remember all refunds, cruise, shore excursions, etc. and reimbursements, flights, hotels, taxis, luggage shipping, etc.  were dealt with separately so it's possible (but we don't know) that the OP has already had their cruise refund while not having received their travel reimbursement. (I also made an assumption when I said flights, but the OP just said 'return trip home'.)

Sorry folks, but what does this have to do with the TA?

The OP arranged their own flights, agreed with Cunard that they would be reimbursed, and submitted the supporting documentation to Cunard.

The TA had zero involvement.

@camhavenIt is of absolutely no help to you at all but we were also in Fremantle waiting to board QM2 last March. We were fortunate to be the first (that we were aware of, at the Pan Pacific) to get our flights organised, at about 11pm on the Sunday night. But were the last to leave, about 5pm on the Thursday.

I know things were quite chaotic it the following months and Cunard ‘mislaid’ our cruise refund claim, before paying it twice! I suspect they had filed it with our shore excursion refund claims, which they had already paid.

You say you have heard nothing, and this might be a daft question, but have you chased it with Cunard?

I don’t think it’s your TAs responsibility but if they’re willing to make some calls as well, so much the better. And I do mean as well, not instead of you calling. They’ll probably talk to different people from you and that increases the chance of finding someone that can sort this out.

I think that the chance that your TA has received the refund and is “sitting on it” is very slim. All refunds that we heard about on this board (at least in the UK and US, not sure about Australia) were sent direct to the passengers, not through TAs.

Good luck, and please let us know how you get on.

13 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

@Colin_Cameron it sounds as if your wife's car had a lucky escape, 

As did I, when she found out😄