Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are ?

[ronpes]

Been very warm and muggy all day up here in NE Scotland. Our son is back up north staying with us for the week and it looks as if he will escape the very warm weather forecast down south.

 

I also paid off the final balance for our transpacific cruise in September so that made a bit of a dent in the credit card, so I had to have a lie down to recover. 

Edited July 8, 2022 by ronpes

[techteach]

@Host Hattie Are you avoiding London due to Covid? Will there be chaos with B.J. resignation? Train issues?

[Host Hattie]

A combination of Covid and it's a very busy time for me at work. I'll save on the travelling time and I might be able to multitask in the boring bits !

I've got a meeting the following week in North Wales but I can drive to that and it's in the countryside so it feels safer.

There are no further train strikes planned for the moment.

[techteach]

@Host Hattie I think of you often as I watch the Antiques Road Show! The countryside is beautiful. Glad to hear there aren’t more planned rail strikes. 

[Host Hattie]

I'm not quite an antique 🤣

[Tonopah]

It is 95 degrees F here with 70% humidity. We are dreaming of Northern Europe. We went out today and bought new luggage for our big holiday. It was expensive but necessary. Our cases were so old the plastic handles were breaking down into sticky goo. It will be easy now to pack for Luggage Forward and just take carry ons for our few days in England. Can you tell I’m ready to go even though our trip is 3 months away?

[techteach]

@Tonopah I guess you must like living in Florida, but I could never stand the heat or humidity. New luggage! Always exciting because it means you get to go some place and have fun. We are also using Luggage Forward in December. 3 months - well that means you better start hanging items on the rack and making sure you have the perfect shoes.

[Host Hattie]

My Cunard tells me we're sailing in 76 days, time to start breaking the shoes in !

[techteach]

@Host Hattie Shoes! Shoes! Shoes! Nordstrom is having their anniversary sale and I decided I needed a pair of silver sandals for the cruise. They should arrive any day, but not sure where I’ll wear them to get them broken in. I may have to plan a trip to Vegas!

[Camgirl]

I cant remember if I mentioned before my March cruise - I don't think so. I treated myself to a new pair of sparkly dancing shoes before we went. When I started to get everything together for packing, I discovered I had treated myself to a pair of exactly the same shoes two years earlier for a covid cancelled cruise!!! Now I have two identical pairs! 

 

Another shoe related memory is of the time we returned to our cabin after a whole night dancing in the Queens room to discover I had one black shoe on and one navy (the shoes were identical apart from the colour)!! I was mortified!

[navybankerteacher]

Feeling really fortunate in New England this year - windows open since yesterday morning - probably get warm and a bit muggy this afternoon, but it has been a great Spring and Summer so far, escaping the intense heat/humidity hitting much of the country.  Just finalized plans for March 2023 escape to Gulf coast of Florida - slams winter to a sudden end, and getting back to CT as Spring sets in.  Now looking at TA repositionings to get back from October trip to NW Europe. QM2 is always easiest, but too quick.

[ronpes]

My wife’s new passport finally arrived yesterday. That has taken exactly 8 weeks to process.
Still no sign of my one but I’m sure it won’t be long. 
 

I believe  it will be a tad cooler with us today thankfully as it has been very hot the last few days even up here in the NE coast, so my thoughts go out to those in the south coast of England and Wales where I believe it is the warmest.

[ronpes]

Aaand the fun begins. Just told today that our next flight to London has been cancelled. The only alternative they offered us for that same day leaves at 06:45 AM. Oh well,…….it’s that or nothing. 

[navybankerteacher]

2 hours ago, ronpes said:

Aaand the fun begins. Just told today that our next flight to London has been cancelled. The only alternative they offered us for that same day leaves at 06:45 AM. Oh well,…….it’s that or nothing. 

Reports on bans on sales of flights from Heathrow until September may be overstating the reality -- but regardless, FIXING what is wrong with a system seems to make a lot more sense than closing the system down.

 

I am wondering how my daughter and granddaughter will fare on their scheduled flight from Heathrow to JFK today, returning from a visit with my sister.

[ronpes]

On 7/13/2022 at 1:24 PM, ronpes said:

Aaand the fun begins. Just told today that our next flight to London has been cancelled. The only alternative they offered us for that same day leaves at 06:45 AM. Oh well,…….it’s that or nothing. 

After reviewing again the change to our September flight due to cancellation, we realised it created a number of problems for us over and above having to get up at “silly-o’clock”  to get to the airport. 

 

So, today I decided to give BA a call to see if there was anything they could do to change it again.

 

I have to say that with barely a 5 minute wait, my call was answered by an extremely nice agent who simply could not have been more helpful. 

 

I am pleased to say that we have now got a  revised change to a later time (which wasn’t previously available to us) and this makes our lives so much easier. 

 

The agent was absolutely first class and nothing was too much trouble and all changes were free of charge due to the cancellation which was not our fault. 

[turnip eater]

2 minutes ago, ronpes said:

After reviewing again the change to our September flight due to cancellation, we realised it created a number of problems for us over and above having to get up at “silly-o’clock”  to get to the airport. 

 

So, today I decided to give BA a call to see if there was anything they could do to change it again.

 

I have to say that with barely a 5 minute wait, my call was answered by an extremely nice agent who simply could not have been more helpful. 

 

I am pleased to say that we have now got a  revised change to a later time (which wasn’t previously available to us) and this makes our lives so much easier. 

 

The agent was absolutely first class and nothing was too much trouble and all changes were free of charge due to the cancellation which was not our fault. 

Good news. Hope there’s no further changes,😄

[Bigmike911]

At long last some rain. We had 1.25 inches in two squalls yesterday. The first in several months. There was no run off as it soaked into the parched soil immediately. Wind with lots of pine needles down. It took me about 15 minutes this morning to clean them out of the pool. A chore I gladly undertook. Possibly more today and tomorrow, and we will take all we can get. It is slightly cooler with only 85f at noon vs 104f earlier in the week. 

[Host Hattie]

Sorry to hear about your flight difficulties. We've just back from a lovely afternoon at a friend's. It's supposed to be getting very warm on Monday and Tuesday but not as warm as some parts of England.

[Lanky Lad]

I am not looking forward to the next few days. We are forecast to have temperatures in the mid 30s that is unheard of in this part of England. Thankfully, it should be back to normal on Wednesday.

[ronpes]

We enjoyed our transatlantic on the QM2 in April then return trip on Anthem ot Seas so much, that we booked both again for next year. 

 

However, I was recently reminded by BA that we have vouchers that must be used by Sep 23 or we will lose them. 

 

So, we will use the vouchers for a return flight to New York. This will give us a little bit more time in New York and turn one vacation into two. 

 

We will now fly to New York and return in Anthem ot Seas in May.

we will then sail out to New York on QM2 in July and then fly back. 

 

Cunard allowed us to make the change free of charge and we are even in the same cabin. 

[Host Hattie]

Sounds like a great plan 

[ronpes]

 Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are?

 

Right now I am sitting outside a holiday lodge in the middle of nowhere, not a million miles from Loch Lomond with a very nice passion fruit martini which is going down very well. 
We had some thunder and lightning but it soon passed and it’s lovely here now.

I hope all is well with everyone with this terrible heat. 
 

[Host Hattie]

Sounds good, we've just finished a barbecue in the garden. It's much cooler here now.

[ronpes]

1 hour ago, ronpes said:

 Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are?

 

Right now I am sitting outside a holiday lodge in the middle of nowhere, not a million miles from Loch Lomond with a very nice passion fruit martini which is going down very well. 
We had some thunder and lightning but it soon passed and it’s lovely here now.

I hope all is well with everyone with this terrible heat. 
 

Major crisis.

somebody call international rescue 

we've run out of martini 🤦‍♂️

[Lanky Lad]

An update from East Lancshire. We have had two very hot days but thankfully it's cooling down now.

 

The bad news was that on the hottest day on record, the air con at work decided to stop working this afternoon. We did all get a free ice cream though.