LittleFish1976

Thank you for warning us. These situations with companies aren't a one-off and it's good to know which companies are a bit too keen to take advantage and frankly, to do the wrong thing. I currently have a difficult situation I'm trying to resolve with Cunard; got the staff on board the ship to agree to a resolution but then was told that it was up to me when I disembarked to contact both the Australian and UK offices myself to go through the whole story again and again to get them to implement a resolution. That situation currently is - if there's a way to stuff it up they are going to. And it does involve a cruise cancelled at the last minute by Cunard and thousands of dollars so I'm pretty agitated about it. Puts you off dealing with any of these cruise lines.

Only allowed one communication to them? That has 'Dodgy Brothers' written all over it.

Sinbad's word 'this' is an active link. I just read the article - absolutely appalled by the behaviour of NCL. Worth noting that this is the case. A quote from the author of the article. 'Unfortunately, many travel advisors have contacted me in the past week to say that this "Auto-cancel"policy is a thing (a written policy) at NCL-- when a traveler puts something in their cart and doesn't pay for it immediately the cruise line allows itself to auto cancel the cruise and keep the fare.'

The rioja was the wine I drank most nights with dinner. I found it a very nice wine. The Sancerre is also included in the package and is a very pleasant wine with lunch. There was also a Chilean Sauvignan blanc dessert wine that was absolutely delicious. Apart from the lack of a decent sparkling under the package (the English sparkling was out of stock and they did not offer a decent replacement - I found the prosecco not to my liking) the choices offerred were more than adequate and in fact very enjoyable. Having the package stopped me from indulging in the more expensive wines by the glass but it was also pleasurable being able to take a chance on ordering something and not liking it enough to finish it. The cost per day of either of those options is similar; one very nice glass of wine or a plethora of wines and other drinks scattered throughout the day.

I had the same experience in February. $13 is the new limit. And the sommelier in the QG dining room always brought me large bottles of sparkling water despite the package 'rules' stipulating that only small bottles of water are included (!).

To answer your question, yes, I have had several individual glasses over the course of a voyage of one of the wines from the 'Legendary Wines of the World' list, specifically the Vega Sicilia 'Unico', 2004, from Spain. Very discreetly, there's not a price on the wine list I've just looked up but from memory it was in the region of US$70 per glass. I can confirm, or reassure, that the wine was in perfect condition. I don't know what storage method they use for an opened bottle. Possibly the sommelier opened it for me and the wine I drank over the course of the voyage was from that bottle (and the next one!). They must have a superior system for storing the opened bottles - they're far too expensive to be allowing them to spoil.

I'm quite happy with liquid soap in a pump container thanks, or even a cake of soap - not fussy. As long as there's something to wash the hands with! Was just saying that I sometimes travel with a large cake of soap if I'm staying somewhere for any length of time but wouldn't expect to have to provide my own soap on a ship!

I do travel with soap sometimes depending where I'm going and what sort of travelling I'm doing. I wouldn't expect to have to take soap with me on a mainstream cruise line though.

Oh well that's fine. The mini cakes of soap are a bit useless anyway - a waste of packaging.

No hand soap - that's not good. Let's hope there's no outbreak of norovirus on board...

What next? toilet paper?!?

Rarely are slang words for indigenous peoples complimentary and this one is no exception. I had to look it up as it seems I don't mix with people who use that term. I'd advise you not to use it (and a quick google search would tell you that).

Sounds Indian. The only durry/dhurrie I know of is a rug...

Is 'durry' (for cigarette) a South Australian thing? Never heard it in over 6 decades of being Australian. And to the OP - I don't think anyone says 'rack off' any more but if they do, it's a bit stronger than 'go away'! More like eff off.

I see. Thanks for your answer. Makes sense.

What makes the difference to the insurance price? Is it the itinerary or the point of origin?

Well, I can only assure you it was the case that it opened at 1.30pm on my embarkation day. My butler very politely came to inform me of that fact as soon as I arrived at my cabin.

What will be interesting is the massive job that staffing of the Queen Anne will entail. I was told recently by a member of staff that Cunard are taking 50% of the crew of each of the existing ships to staff Anne. They are initially being given the opportunity to offer to move but the company will also just be moving staff whether they like it or not to the new ship. So it seems to me that the staffing of Anne is going too upend the entire fleet and may alter the experience of cruising with Cunard, irretrievably - and I don't believe that's an exaggeration as the culture of the company exists in its staff and its practices which are its traditions. In light of the comments above regarding the stated intention to bolster the percentage or proportion of passengers from the US, this would be a perfect opportunity for Cunard to alter the company culture, to the consternation of those of us who like the old Cunard and sail with them based on our presuming we will find that culture intact. Given labour markets are so tight post-covid, they should have already started recruitment from external sources (whether as new staff for Anne or as replacements for those taken from the other three ships) and be training and shaping them in roles already on the existing ships. There did not seem to be an oversupply of staff when I was recently on QE.

As I was writing it I was wryly thinking that my dear daughters probably would have jumped at the chance of a drinks package like that but not all are so keen!

I recently had a boarding time of 12.45pm for a Q3 cabin. On boarding day the QG dining room opened at 1.30pm so there was no rush to get to lunch.

You're correct. That was the information I found prior to boarding mid-February and I believe the price difference was introduced at that time (around the same time as the increase from $69 to $70 and limit of $12 to $13). When I saw the difference I took the bait and booked the package before boarding. The information was probably found in my voyage personaliser/My Cunard area of the website. I did post about it on this board at the time. I agree it's pretty rich for them to expect your 18 year old daughter to take an expensive alcoholic drinks package just so you can. Good luck if you're trying to negotiate anything with the purser's office!

I took the drinks package for the first time recently on QE. I was on board for 11 nights. I'm not normally a big drinker but found it quite easy to get through 3 cocktails in a day as well as a mocktail or two, a glass of wine with dinner as well as a dessert wine. Add to that the bottled water with meals and the odd coffee or soft drink or juice in one of the bars or lounges and it is not terribly difficult to reach the threshold of $60 drinks cost in a day. I use the figure of $60 as that is the net amount of the breakeven point (roughly). When you add on the gratuity of 15% it takes you up to the daily cost of the package (as I said, roughly). I'm very fussy about what I drink and found the choice of wines by the glass to be adequate - even enjoyable. I was very disapointed that they were out of stock of the English sparkling which I had been looking forward to trying as none of the French champages fall within the package. I don't drink prosecco. I enjoyed having the package and would probably do so again as long as my voyage wasn't longer than a week due to the fact that I don't normally drink much at all and I wouldn't want to do that for longer than a week or so!

Is that South America? I assumed at first you meant South Africa then the penny dropped. That should be wonderful! Well done.

That's great, thanks so much.

That's welcome advice not to go into the city centre. I'll be staying in SF for a couple of nights prior to joining a cruise - what area would be best to stay in for a solo female who is not looking for night life?