LIVE: Queen Victoria: Summer Getaway V015

[northernsailor]

Hello,

Thought I'd try a live thread whilst on this cruise, as long as the Internet is fairly reliable I will try and update it twice a day. Any questions you want answering about QV give me a shout!

 

Currently in the Ocean Terminal, checked in just 10 mins after arriving but now waiting to be called to security to board the ship. They are flying through the letters though!

 

Chris

[transatlantic fan]

Hello,

Thought I'd try a live thread whilst on this cruise, as long as the Internet is fairly reliable I will try and update it twice a day. Any questions you want answering about QV give me a shout!

 

Currently in the Ocean Terminal, checked in just 10 mins after arriving but now waiting to be called to security to board the ship. They are flying through the letters though!

 

Chris

Thanks for posting, Hope your not waiting too long to board.

[Dorchester]

Hi Chris,

 

Will look forward to your daily reports. Meanwhile, have a fantastic time.

 

Regards,

David

[north east girl]

Hello,

Thought I'd try a live thread whilst on this cruise, as long as the Internet is fairly reliable I will try and update it twice a day. Any questions you want answering about QV give me a shout!

 

Currently in the Ocean Terminal, checked in just 10 mins after arriving but now waiting to be called to security to board the ship. They are flying through the letters though!

 

Chris

Hi Chris, yes please keep us updated on your cruise on QV. Never been on QV, will look forward to your posts on what you think of her.

 

Catherine

[Host Hattie]

Hi Chris, I'm looking forward to reading your reports as we're getting on next Wednesday. One question which I guess we'll get the answer to is how reliable is the wi-fi and does it work in cabins ?

 

Thanks

 

Kate

[northernsailor]

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for the quick responses already. I am now in my cabin and sat on my balcony typing this. It's a rather blustery day in Southampton, I've a Port side, Forward cabin which I booked specifically the same as last time I was on here. It's really handy for the Spa, Lido and theatre - but a bit of a hike to the Britannia restaurant each night! However, the long walk let's you soak up the evening atmosphere and have a look at everyones attires :)

 

Currently I'm using my iPad with 3G but will be our purchasing wifi when we set sail. Our cabin steward has introduced himself, tour tickets, obc, free gifts have all arrived and everything is hung up and bags packed away.

 

Probpably going to start exploring shortly - first stop will be a bar then maybe a small bite to eat before our lifeboat drill at 4pm.

 

Chris

[cruiserking]

Thanks for posting your voyage journal, have a great cruise.

 

Jonathan

[JeanBart]

Can you tell us is Maitre D' Patu on board

[northernsailor]

Hello everyone.

 

Well, I took a small trip around her upper deck earlier - popped into the Lido, on the way I noticed a few children already in the midships pool, with parents sipping cocktails surrounding it. The Lido was fairly busy, good to see the staff on the first day dishing out the handgel instead of self-serve; too many people miss it I feel if there isn't staff there. As usual, a good selection for lunch, catering for all needs!

 

Left the Lido and went back via the Spa, had a guide around there and bought a couple spa pass for the entire voyage (5 nights) for $150 in total (oh, 12.5% service on top too) - doesnt seem like too bad value.

 

Went back to the cabin, took a few photos from the balcony and then went to the lifeboat drills - my muster point is A (the Theatre); sat in there for about 30mins and wandered back to the cabin via the stairs as the lifts were packed out. Then we walked to the Spa literally after dropping off our lifevests and it was still closed as the staff hadn't returned from the muster exercise. Walked to the Commodore's Club to just hear the 3rd blow of the ship's whistle and saw her moving from the quayside - very quick departure and unfortunate as I wasnt on the top deck with champagne!! Dashed down to the cabin, picked up a bottle and went to the top deck again, lots of people on there - 300-400 perhaps from midships to the stern and the band were playing outside. Picked up some glasses, got papped by the ship's photographers and then enjoyed a good hour in the hot baking sun; the clouds cleared just for our sailaway it seemed (and Artermis's too) - she followed behind and has just in the last 30mins (it's 1850 now) taken a different route - perhaps to Zeebrugge, whereas we're off to Amsterdam via the North Locks..

 

Anyway, time to get changed and ready for our meal - we're on the late sitting, can't remember if we booked a table of 6,8 or 10 - we shall see!

 

Chris

 

ps. Will look out for Maitre D' Patu for you Jeanbart.

[alibabacruisers]

Hi Chris, I am looking forward to reading your posts and hope you have a wonderful time. We were on QM2 last year and I really liked the fact they "dished out" the hand gel too.

 

Barbara

[Vic The Parrot]

Thanks for checkin in, and great to hear you're enjoying yourself. (Like it's impossible on QV ... ;) )

 

 

Have a good time, and indulge in a plate of brownies for me! :D

[northernsailor]

Hello everyone,

 

Just back from a couple of Mojitos in the Commordore Club, which was rather empty is this a first night thing, people havent found it yet?

 

According to the map channel we're just coming up between Dover and Calais; seems odd as we've been sailing for quite some time! We're doing a steady 20knts and the sea is very calm, hardly any movement felt!

 

Dinner was lovely, though a little rough around the edges. First, (we were on the 2nd seating - 8.30) we made to wait until 8.45pm out of the dining room whilst they seemed to have some sort of 'staff talk', they let us in and led us to a table. We got a table of 10 (I dont remember picking 10, but anyway) and we're sat right next to the spinning globe on Deck 2 of the Britannia Restaurant. Most of the other guests that turned up said they hadn't booked a 10 either and we all hoped we had a hosted table! Unfortunately not, another couple filled up the last two spots. Everyone compared cruises for our first meal with plenty of QM2er's and a few QVers.. The first courses were served without our wine being even poured; not good timing on their part, but it got smoother as the night went on.

 

After our meal we headed for a walk to the ballroom to find it and the surrounding bars pretty empty, only 4 couples on the dancefloor. Probably because of the younger crowd on here I guess, there were 5 sets of 'Happy Birthday' sung in the restaurant during our meal! Hemispheres was pretty busy (no seating, all full) when I wandered up there about 10.45pm, so went and sat in the Commodore Club and had a few drinks, there was only about 20 people in there and from the starboard side in the distance you could see Artemis (I assume) in the distance following the same track as us.

 

We're due to go through the North Sea Locks probably around 10-11am I guess, maybe a little later and head through to Amsterdam. Interestingly they have changed the nights; our one formal night was due tomorrow night and now it's due on Monday night to a lot of people's surprise and annoyingly to some people they've got tours on nights they'd rather be on the ship for.

 

One nice touch was one of the waiters from my last cruise in Dec 2009 remembered me tonight in the restaurant and came over to say hello to me; a nice touch considering he'd done a World Cruise and maybe 10 other cruises since the one I was on!

 

Catch you all in the morning.

 

Chris

 

ps. Have now bought the wifi package. Simply turned on my laptop in the cabin, connected - logged in with name/stateroom/picked a password and then picked the number of minutes I wanted (240 for $89.95) and that was it. The internet is pretty fast as we speak and absolutely no problem picking up a signal here..

[Vic The Parrot]

Thanks dude!

 

 

Sleep well, and don't forget ...

 

 

 

BROWNIES! :D ;)

[northernsailor]

Good morning,

 

Woke up at around 0730 (lost an hours sleep last night as the ships clocks went forwards) *and found a wonderful, very calm sea whilst w were doing 20kts (can't report the official sea state or sea temp as the data is coming up as ????'s on the ships information channel!) - we've travelled 252 nm from Southampton and due to the IJmuiden North Sea Locks in about an hour. Had breakfast at the Lido at 0830 and it was nearly empty; has everyone slept in on this cruise or are they all in the Britannia for breakfast? No one in the pools or spa. Returned to cabin and watched us sail past about 15 anchored oil tankers. we've a DFDS 'ferry' following us and as we slow down to enter the locks it's only about three ships lengths behind us now, unfortunately the bad weather has caught up with us too making the balcony totally unusable as it's pouring down with thunder and lightning, hopefully it'll blow past us. 11am now and we're tied up in the lock waiting for it to fill, the weather has blown ahead of us and we've some blue skies, another 3hrs until we're due to dock at the Amsterdam Passenger Terminal.

 

I've an excursion (by Cunard) booked for 1430 so hope the weather keeps off. Undecided whether to see a show tonight (billed as 'a mad welsh comedian') or go out in Amsterdam after our evening meal. *I shall search for the brownies whatever happens tonight!

 

Chris

[Host Hattie]

Hi Chris, I'm really enjoying your posts.

Hope the weather stays fine your trip, many thanks for the wifi information.

 

Kate

[Calliope]

Chris,

 

Would you kindly explain what and where the "locks" are. I've been thrugh locks on the Mississippi River System and Panama Canal, et al., but have never heard of the North Locks.

 

Thanks

[USNUZULOOSE]

Love reading the posts, if possible could you add pics? I would love to see some of the inside of her. Enjoy your cruise, hope it quits raining. Jo

[Vic The Parrot]

Chris,

 

Would you kindly explain what and where the "locks" are. I've been thrugh locks on the Mississippi River System and Panama Canal, et al., but have never heard of the North Locks.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Hey Mr C

 

 

Check out portofamsterdam dot com :cool:

[JeanBart]

Chris we appreciate reading your blog, but could I ask you about the Christmas Markets cruise you did last year? Were Did Cunard provide shuttles into Bruges from Zeebrugge, and how far away from Amsterdam was the ship docked.

[Ray66]

Chris we appreciate reading your blog, but could I ask you about the Christmas Markets cruise you did last year? Were Did Cunard provide shuttles into Bruges from Zeebrugge, and how far away from Amsterdam was the ship docked.

 

We did the QV cruise to those places in April this year. The shuttle bus from Zeebrugge goes to Blankenberge. If you want to get to Bruges you either have to take the train from Blankenberge or take the ship's tour which cost $59.

[capnpugwash]

Nice posts, keep them coming please

[northernsailor]

Hello everyone,

 

Just a quick message as the ship's satellite connection for the internet has been down since yesterday afternoon so writing this on my blackberry!, I've written an update and hopefully will get it posted when we've left Amstersdam (which is about 30mins from now) - I guess that's why the bridge webcam on the cunard site isn't working either.

 

Cheers

 

Chris

[Calliope]

Hey Mr C

 

 

Check out portofamsterdam dot com :cool:

 

Bye, George, I've got it! I never knew that about Amsterdam.:cool:

 

Thanks,

Mr. C.

[Ray66]

Chris,

 

Would you kindly explain what and where the "locks" are. I've been thrugh locks on the Mississippi River System and Panama Canal, et al., but have never heard of the North Locks.

 

Thanks

 

IJmuiden as mentioned in this thread with a photo:

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1209668&highlight=ijmuden&page=2

 

and

 

http://marinas.com/view/lock/334_Ijmuiden_Lock_Amsterdam

[Vic The Parrot]

Dead cam ... again?? :D

 

 

 

That explains why it said you were still on the way to Amsterdam at 1pm ... :eek:

 

 

Got me thinking .. Just HOW LONG is that canal?? ;)

 

 

Enjoy Brugge!