New 6:30pm westbound crossing departure time?

[Book bug]

On 9/20/2019 at 2:12 AM, bluemarble said:

I've noticed most of QM2's westbound crossings for November 2019 through October 2020 are showing 6:30pm departure times from Southampton in the itinerary details listed on the Cunard website. That's instead of 4:30pm or 5:00pm which has been the more usual departure time for westbound crossings. The only exception I'm seeing is for the August 14th 2020 "Journey of Genealogy" crossing which is showing an unusual 9:00pm departure time which we've discussed in another thread. Perhaps this is a real adjustment to the departure times or perhaps this is a glitch.

 

The reason I say this could be a glitch is that the Southampton VTS cruise schedule is still showing 4:30pm departure times for all of QM2's remaining westbound crossings on it's schedule (through the end of this year). Plus the listed departure times on the Cunard website go back to 5:00pm starting with December 2020 westbound crossings. And it seems odd for Cunard to start routinely scheduling sail aways during early sitting in Britannia.

 

Just throwing this out there in case anyone has any insight about this. I wouldn't want to start planning an extended independent excursion for my upcoming day in Southampton on November 19th only to find out Cunard's listed 6:30pm departure time is actually going to be 4:30pm. For what it's worth, I'm not seeing any of Cunard's shore excursions offered in Voyage Personaliser for November 19th scheduled to return back to the ship after 3:30pm.

It is Cowes week and the 14th is the night of the fireworks which usually start about 21.00-21.30 so I assume it's so you see them coming down Southampton water

[david,Mississauga]

13 hours ago, Book bug said:

It is Cowes week and the 14th is the night of the fireworks which usually start about 21.00-21.30 so I assume it's so you see them coming down Southampton water

 

Thank you for the explanation. We are on second sitting so we may leave the dining room before pudding in order to enjoy the fireworks.