Ynox

Sky Princess has Starlink. Working very well and a game changer for me.

I'm on Sky tomorrow. Interested to see given it's just out of dry dock whether it's got Starlink now or if it's still using SES (and probably SES geo, yay for 700ms ping knowing my luck). A few people on this thread seem to know what they're talking about (kudos to Mercruiser and Vibeguy). I'll have a laptop with me so I'll see if I can grab a speed test if it's Starlink - will be off the coast of France and Spain.

Tried going to https://www.cunard.com/en-gb ? I work for a German company so spend a lot of my time on a VPN where it looks like I'm connecting from Germany so the website defaults to German and EUR for currency. I manually go to the UK site and it works for me.

Back from the QM2 today (I was on the 5 night trip around the English Channel). Again we drove to Southampton, parking using CPS. This was good, a little busy at Mayflower but overall good. Zero complaints. I had an ocean view booked, but ended up getting upgraded to a sheltered balcony. Probably my best upgrade in 12 trips - we were in an aft starboard deck 5 cabin on stairwell D (although the wifi didn't work from my cabin - I used my loyalty benefits to get premium wifi for the voyage so this was pretty disappointing). Again we found this had ample room for our travel cot and stroller, although the stroller again didn't fit through the stateroom door. We requested a baby bath from the room steward and also had biohazard bags provided for storing nappies (diapers). A baby bath can fit inside the shower on the QM2 for storage, this is something a little better than on the Vista class ships where I had to store this under the bed when not in use. Again for meals we ate breakfast and lunch in the Kings Court. The staff here were fantastic and we were easily able to find food suitable for my daughter. Dinner was in Britannia, we had a table on deck 3 near the door and the staff were great. A couple of nights we didn't quite finish dinner (my daughter was tired so we had to leave) but overall this worked well once again - my daughter ate chicken and vegetables for dinner each day (whilst watching cartoons on an iPad on silent to entertain herself). Our daily routine was pretty similar to what we did on the QV, although we chose the Carinthia Lounge for morning coffee. This has a great layout for creating a small area to allow a child to play simply by rotating the table around if sat at a window. Worked well. We used the kids club again on this trip. On the QM2 under 2s have their own room (although again you need to stay). This had similar toys too on the QV, but also a couple of Cosy Coupe cars and a space hopper. The night nursery was offered but we decided not to use it this time (apparently none of the babies did, there were 8 on the ship this time). In terms of ports, we visited Rotterdam and Le Havre, choosing to remain on board in Zeebrugge (we've been to Bruges a number of times and it's a hassle getting here from the ship involving 2 buses and a train). Our experience in Le Havre wasn't great - it took around 30 minutes to actually get off the ship at 1230 as we required an accessible gangway which was being used for people embarking the ship (we were asked to use deck 3, but this was a set of stairs - not possible to take a stroller down them!). I've raised this complaint with Cunard as I felt that this would also be a poor situation for a disabled person. Overall even with the non working wifi (not great at 4am when you want to look at stuff on the internet whilst settling a baby!) and the hassle disembarking at Le Havre it was still a great trip. The QM2 is showing its age in parts now but I do still enjoy it (even with its idiosyncrasies such as half decks!). Next Cunard trip now for me is the QV next year up to Norway. Before then though I'm 'cheating' on Cunard with Princess! It'll be interesting to see how it stacks up in comparison.

It's a personal opinion, but I'd agree that I think the quality of the food had improved on my last trip. Over the years on Cunard I'd found the quality has gone up and down.

Thanks. I spoke with some fellow passengers on the QV trip who had taken their child on the QE2 back in the day. Their experience was somewhat different to what it is now! Nappies are available for purchase these days although we took our own supply. Children are however free under the age of 2 and there were ample high chairs on board. After a couple of weeks at home to think back in retrospect on this, I still think the trip went pretty well and am looking forward to boarding the QM2 in a couple of weeks. If nothing else it'll be another break from work for me (and I can try to catch up on some sleep). Unfortunately whilst I can pretty much work from anywhere these days, I require a pretty solid internet connection. So working from a cruise ship isn't possible for me!

Correct, 12 months for TA (and any trips with over 3 consecutive sea days from memory) Fortunately I’m not on a TA this time!

Today I returned from a trip down to the Canaries on the Queen Victoria. As there's limited information out there on travelling with babies on Cunard, I figured I'd write up a post (I can also add to this next month as I'm on the QM2). Taking a baby on a cruise ship is a somewhat contentious topic. However, my wife and I have enjoyed travelling on Cunard since our honeymoon back in 2015 (a once in a lifetime TA followed by a trip up to Boston - I'm now sat at 99 nights on board and we have 3 Cunard trips currently booked, including the Queen Anne maiden. Suffice to say we're addicted...). So, we like the product, and they allow babies? Great! The trip started a little differently for us. Normally I'd get a car service to take us from our house in West London to Southampton. Due to requiring a car seat etc we decided this time to drive ourselves and park at the port. We had 4 suit cases and 1 suit carrier, plus the stroller and travel cot. Add to this nappies also and you realise that it's impossible to travel light with a baby. CPS provided a very slick service at a pretty reasonable price. One 'issue' with travelling with a baby is that you need to have a stateroom that can have > 2 pax. This limits your options a little. I booked this trip on board whilst on the QE last year so was able to spend some time with voyage sales in order to find one which worked for our requirements. We took 6198, an aft Britannia Balcony. This had ample room to store our huge (Baby Jogger City Elite 2) pram and we brought our own travel cot (a Graco Foldlite - I seriously recommend this. Great bit of kit). A baby bath was provided by our room steward (on request) and nappies were put into a provided biohazard bag in our bathroom. For meals we tended to eat breakfast and lunch in the Lido (my daughter gets particularly hangry). This worked fairly well - allergens etc are well labelled and it meant we could easily grab suitable food quickly. Dinner was in Britannia - most nights we ordered my daughter either chicken and vegetables, or steak and vegetables. Baby food is available, but my daughter is doing baby led weaning so we didn't use this. In Britannia we had early (boo, but my daughter needs to eat earlier than I'd like to for dinner) dining on a fixed table - fortunately close to the door for the times we had to take her out of the restaurant due to making too much noise. The high chairs on board are OK, although we took an inflatable high chair pillow to help support my daughter. In the days we got into a fairly happy routine whereby we would be up for breakfast at about 7am, eat, then grab a coffee in the Chart Room (rearranging the furniture a little (we made sure to move it back after however!) to allow for my daughter to play). After this it was her nap time so we'd either both nap, or one of us would go to the gym. After this, it was time for the kids club (on sea days it's open from 1000, although it's not open until 1400 on a port day). Under 2s can use the facilities, but parents must remain with them at all times. My daughter was the only < 2 on the trip so she had plenty of attention from the excellent staff - they formed a great bond with her and she really enjoyed being there. Kids club closed between 1200 - 1400 for a break so we'd go to lunch, nap (I'd grab an hour in the Golden Lion) before heading back to the kids club for an hour or 2 in the afternoon (Kids club closes at 1700). Then time for dinner (great fun getting ready in the dark!). The night nursery was available on this trip (it can sometimes be unavailable due to staffing levels). On the Queen Victoria this is a room off the side of the kids club which has a couple of travel cots in it. This is available from 6pm - 11pm for children between 6 months and 2 years in age and the staff will provide you with a pager in case your child awakes (we were paged a couple of times). Your child must be asleep or very nearly asleep before taking them up there normally, but as we were the only under 2 they did allow us to settle our daughter there. The kids club staff were *very* keen for us to use it and we were able to go for our first child free 'night out' since my daughter was born 9 months ago. The kids club staff really were fantastic and I'd recommend this service to any parents. Finally, as I commented earlier - taking a baby on a cruise ship could be thought to be somewhat contentious. On the whole we found other passengers to be pretty positive towards us. A lot of friendly comments and if people did feel negatively towards it (I'd not blame them, my daughter hated having her hands cleaned after eating and would scream!) they didn't tell me to my face. We were very, very, very apprehensive before going - we briefly discussed cancelling the trip. But between this and the awesome kids club staff, we actually booked another trip whilst on board for next year. Hopefully my QM2 trip next month goes as well. I'll try to update this post with some comments about life on the QM2 with a baby in 2022 after it.

Thanks - hopefully she will. She's got a few trips booked (including the Queen Anne maiden)!

There was definitely covid on board. I saw some staff with FFP3 masks and aprons delivering food etc to rooms with positive people in them on my deck (6). Fortunately my wife, daughter and I have all recently had covid so I wasn't too fussed about being too near them. I imagine crew will be in/out of masks as covid numbers fluctuate over time. As for the fire, the burning electrical smell did hang around. A guess is maybe a water leak resulted in some electrical connectors arcing and then this ignited something else (or the water leak is a misnomer and it just went up without the leak). Definitely a fair bit of damage done by the amount of work that the required to fix this - it felt like they were working on it all day every day until it reopened yesterday. I was walking around the ship at the time of the announcements and didn't notice much in the way of panic (we headed back to our stateroom, but that was mainly as it was my daughter's nap time!). Definitely agree that using 'civilian' language to describe a fire is a bad idea though (and that we were lucky to be docked at the time). Overall it was a good, if different trip for me. First one with my daughter (I'm the guy who brought his 9 month old on board - you probably saw me walking around looking half asleep). We were very impressed with the facilities on board for my daughter and the reassurance from the youth staff - we booked a QV trip for next year to Norway whilst on board. Off on the QM2 next month so it'll be interesting to see how the kids facilities compare.

It's a shame that there is a covid outbreak on board although thinking about it, there's no good way to prevent this really other than masks (pre-boarding testing would help, but what about at ports? Would every pax need to be tested multiple times)? Do you know if the Lido is self service too with these new rules or is it back to people being served (to be honest, I don't mind that having seen people touch bread rolls etc with their hands...)? I'm on the trip leaving on the 30th. Hopefully things will have improved by then but if not, it'll still be a good trip and it's part of the risk of booking right now (although I was able to fly to Australia and back last month without wearing a mask - that said, I did catch covid on my return). It will be my first trip with my daughter so I'll be pretty obvious to spot (find the couple who look knackered with an 8 month old in a stroller).

Booked the maiden today. We received one of the marketing packs (the card ones in a box) the other day which converted me from not wanting to do it, to booking it. Good investment from Cunard if it had the same effect on others! Fortunately my daughter will just be under 2 when we sail, so she was free. Unfortunately the only balcony cabin I could get was forward, but I was happy to take whatever (you’re limited in choice if you need one for 3 pax). Will be on early dining (due to wrangling a very nearly 2 year old) but hoping to try the Indian restaurant on board. Never done a maiden voyage and I suspect it will be a while until the next one as other posters have said, so I’m happy I booked it, even if it’s the Bay of Biscay in January!