lindylooellalouise

1 hour ago, juicyjuju said:

Does the Queen Victoria have "open seating" for late seating too?

No open seating on QV now only early or late seating with same table every evening.

We’ve not had a sniff of an upgrade with any of our 30+ cruises with various cruise lines just got what we paid for!

1 hour ago, frankp01 said:

See, that's the issue. With the conclusion of our last voyage we would have jumped to Platinum. But we want to book an MSC trip before our next Cunard voyage. And, for that matter, I wanted to verify our status before our 28 day Cunard trip.

 

It's nice to know what the MSC process is, however!

Oh I see, not sure how to get round that one,

18 hours ago, frankp01 said:

Is there a way to see what our World Club status is, without having booked a voyage? We're thinking of booking a trip on MSC. MSC will match the affinity level of any other cruise line. But I don't know how to show what our Cunard level is (other than on our eTicket from the last trip, and that trip bounced us up a level, so it's not accurate). We're also doing a relatively long Cunard trip in January, and I'd like to make certain our tier is what I think it is before that trip.  Is the status on the US Cunard website somewhere and I'm just missing it?

Hi MSC status matched our Cunard Diamond status when I emailed copies of our last voyage key card which states the date and status on also adding our Cunard World club member number.

11 hours ago, ClefsDor said:

Whilst we're on the subject of menus does anyone know if kippers are available in the Britannia Restaurant at breakfast?

Yes kippers we’re available last week on QV, but the (always available ) was unfortunately not available!

59 minutes ago, Cdogg said:

This isn't a happy development.

In my work, that involves some teaching, we have cases in the COVID era where a "closed notes" exam that would normally be done in a classroom (i.e. easily enforced) is done at home. Basically, you are asking the most honest people to have faith in the least honest. The most honest will do what they are told. The least honest? - less likely. How many less than honest people are we talking about? Choose a number. 10%? That's about 200 people getting on the boat either no test or not being honest about their test result. Cunard should be testing at the terminal - end of story.

Absolutely agree on our last two Cunard   Cruises in February and April this year Cunard testing was done at the port and I found it to be fast and very efficient and felt some degree of safety our next cruise on QV  is on Saturday and I’m feeling quite nervous for the reasons you have stated we have our tests at the ready and are really hoping everyone will be as honest as us fingers crossed 🤞🏻But if they are  not there’s not a thing we can do about it.

12 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

Got this in an e-mail today for my Sept. cruise (emphasis added):

 

For your embarkation port, all guests aged five years and over must still take a Covid‑19 antigen test and receive a negative result within two days of departure. You will no longer need to provide a test certificate, however, you will be asked to confirm the test has been taken, with a negative result, for you and each member of your party as part of your pre‑boarding health declaration at the cruise terminal. Adequate tests include over the counter tests, providing they fall within our list of accepted Covid-19 antigen tests. 

Yes we’ve got the same email for our next 2 Cunard cruise’s and our P &O cruise looks like all other cruise companies will follow.

6 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

 That menu might depend on what your Itinerary is  ?  if I remember, on my recent cruise down the Med the Themed menu was sort of Spanish ? 

It's a clever concept from the F&B department, a 'Route Specific' menu', which occasionally  appears on World Cruises in the main restaurants .  

Mmm think your right looks like we could be having a Spanish, Portuguese themed menu then for the B2B four day scenic voyage a Scottish menu, all sounds good to me.👍

44 minutes ago, stephenSJ said:

Looks a very nice menu can’t wait to try it out in two weeks  time really hoping the restaurant will still be open.👍

20 minutes ago, castlebaycruisers said:

Thank you, will give that a go

Have you managed to print them off yet?

17 hours ago, castlebaycruisers said:

Apologies if this has been asked and answered before.  We are sailing QV on 31 July and completed our online check in, however we were not able to print off e-ticket and labels.  We managed to print off our boarding pass no problem, thought we would have been directed to a page of print off  

tickets/labels but nothing.  We have tried other browsers , pop ups on and off but to no avail

We are obviously doing something wrong, but cannot think what

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

 

 

 

 

 

Hi I’ve had the same problem, I’ve managed to access my voyage on my smart phone open up luggage label then email to myself so I can print off from iPad. 

14 hours ago, cook68 said:

Also back home now. We had a good trip, weather not too good but that is no one's fault. I do feel things went down hill a little after a couple of days. I really don't want to be on any ship holding a convention ever again. The convention group I believe around 250 moved around the ship in large groups and when they arrived in dozens to any bar it felt very over whelming. They had no concept of anything around them, and chatter would fill a room to the point you could not hear yourself talking.
The dress code went to rack and ruin. Did they even know what they should have been wearing or even care, I have no idea? Every evening so very many of them walked in to the dining room wearing what ever they fancied. This included jeans tracksuits baseball caps [including on backwards] mini skirts, midway tops and  fat trainers. Just about anything went. Gala night was exactly the same. I even asked  if I should go back and put my jeans on!! 8.30 dining and one evening our main course was delivered at 9.50pm, getting to the 10pm show was never going to happen. It appeared alot of the conference group were ordering 2 and 3 main courses EACH and over whelming the kitchen and getting what they were asking for. They also table hoped all evening used mobile phones face timing family or chatting away. Nothing was said to any of them that I could see curbing any of this. I would never knowingly choose to go on any cruise if a conference was going on every again, no matter who it was or what country they were from. It simply changed the dynamics  of the entire ship, and in no way on a positive side. We and others I had spoken to on occasion had walked out of the Queens room and the chart room due to no being served. I believe the conference group were on some sort of all exclusive drinks deal.
The staff on board were all very polite and as helpful as they could be, but their attention was often being drawn away, mainly while dining in the evening. There did seem to be a shortage of staff [no mention of covid] Less sommelier and waiters. Talking to some of them, I think Cunard are really struggling to recruit. I now think the culling of passengers from our cruise a few week's prier was not because of visa issues, but because they just can not get the staff any more. 
The Veranda was closed. A couple told us they had prebooked a meal in there for a birthday, turned up to go in and told it was closed. They had not been told it had been cancelled beforehand! As said before, no meals in the Golden Lion. We also never saw any officers of any ranking. This I do understand. Masking wearing was an option throughout the seven days and very few wore them. I never once heard anyone being called for or back to their rooms, so hopefully if covid was on board it was in low numbers. We tested our selves this morning to be on the safe side and were all ok. 
I love Cunard very much but this experience has left us wanting to look at other companies. The powers that be prioritised a convention over passengers that would and do return time and time again over people on a free knees-up. I will add no one should have been prioritised, we should all have been treated the same no matter how or why we were on board. 
Setting this aside, it was lovey to be back on board and the Queen Victoria did look lovely. I am sure the people on board today will have a totally different experience and a more positive say. 

How disappointing for you and fully understand your comments on the large group I too would have been unhappy in that situation but how on earth would you be able to find out if a large conference group were going to be onboard, we had a similar experience onboard QM on the literary festival at sea they took over the whole ship gathered in noisy groups and to be honest they thought they were superior to other passengers I will be boarding QV in three weeks so hopefully all will be well and staffing issues solved.

11 minutes ago, BlueRiband said:

I guess we all have our own tolerances of what is necessary and safe.  The high potential for a "roll back" to more onerous covid restrictions keeps me from booking.   Cunard's earlier "Healthy Gateways" protocols explicitly stated that only passengers traveling together would be permitted to dine together.  As a solo, a roll back to that would be a deal breaker.   After paying that much money it would be no pleasure to dine alone or in my cabin.  

 

If that's what is necessary to keep the ship safe, and I'm not happy to comply, then my staying away is the better choice for all.

Hopefully when this dreadful covid goes away we will get back to  the normal cruising we all love, we met with some lovely solo passengers on our QE cruise in April and had some wonderful dining experiences with them.

1 hour ago, Alslc said:

You’re welcome. Unfortunately the mandate is not back for every cruise, but either if the CDC threshold is reached on ships in US territories or if the Cunard threshold is reached, this is my understanding. I would say also Captain’s discretion, I remember a post on this forum mentioning that.

Fingers crossed it will be mandatory, just to keep everyone as safe as possible.

12 hours ago, Alslc said:

Hi all, I would like to share with you my recent experience on board QV during her Baltic Voyage. 

This voyage had the mandatory masks reintroduced after approximately 10 days. 

 

I'd start saying the ship was at approximately 50% capacity, this is down to the COVID cap and the staff reductions cap. So around 1000 passengers were onboard. 

All facilities were open, but after the mask mandate was introduced the launderettes were closed. I was trying to ask a few staff members about covid cases onboard, most of them seemed reluctant to speak about the topic, but a couple of them told me they had to reintroduce the mask mandate as a certain threshold of covid cases was reached (I'm not sharing that percentage, but it's above the CDC one). There were many stateroom decks closed to the public, I can't remember if it was next to stairs A or C, but the stateroom area on 4 decks on the port side (next to lifts A or C - I can't remember) was shut with a blue badge on the door that said "Do not enter - Sail with confidence", now I don't now if that means that area is a designated isolation area, but it was quite a big area, it might just be the doors were shut for another reason. I could only see just one small door that said "Isolation Area do not enter".

 

You can clearly notice the lack of staff in some areas, there were glasses and rubbish left on the deck 3 for days with no one clearing them. I asked for extra toiletries in the room such as a toothbrush and they told they don't provide them anymore due to COVID.

FFP2 masks were provided free of charge in the stateroom and the compliance rate was 99.9999%, as I said on another post I probably saw one person without one on the whole voyage after the mask mandate was reintroduced. On a positive note, most of the staff working on the ship were lovely and happy to help. The restaurants were, as usual, top notch and the staff was doing their utmost best to go above and beyond.  WI-Fi was an absolute disgrace though, I complained to the Pursers Desk and I was told the signal might be weak as we are at sea .... really ?? Not that we are on a cruise ship. The upper level of the Britannia Restaurant seemed not in use. 

 

All in all, I really enjoyed the cruise, the mask wearing made me feel very safe and this was a shared opinion with other fellow travelers. Compliance was extremely high, so I would kindly advise to ignore people moaning on this forum saying they won't be wearing them. Most of your fellow passengers will and I really felt safe. Staff was reminding non-mask-wearers to wear one, but I have only seen doing this in one occasion as everyone was wearing one anyway. In regards to COVID cases you could see some passengers were coming back from isolation, so COVID was there, but I can't give you much details on the numbers of cases as it would be just my assumption. The ship was really quiet and you could clearly see you were at 50% capacity and a few people were isolating, but regardless that made for a very nice experience as you could enjoy the ship without the massive crowds of people around. 

 

One more final shout to the staff, as despite most of them were just recently back on the ship, made the experience even more pleasant. 

 

 

Hi thanks for the review, it’s very reassuring that the mask mandate is back and people are complying with it, I really hope this stays in place when we board on 31st July, 

Just now, grapau27 said:

Oasis class is our favourite Lindy.

The Quantum class Anthem of the seas is sailing from Southampton.

Make sure you join their fantastic loyalty Crown and Anchor society if you decide to give them a go.

We have been on every class of ship they have and happy to give you advice any time.

Graham.

Thank you Graham will definitely be asking for advice. Lindy

22 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

4 P&O and 1 Royal Caribbean for us Lindy since August 2021 and we loved every one.

Graham.

Hi Graham we’ve yet to try Royal Caribbean but definitely on our bucket list.

👍🤗

38 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Yes, so nice to see some positive comments on here. Have done six cruises since last August  and another next month. Carry on enjoying cruising and reporting back. So refreshing.

Absolutely agree, reading positive reviews lifts your spirits and reading only negative comments is just so sad, how lucky are we all, to be fit and well enough and be able   to afford   the luxury of our cruises 🚢 

Hi all it’s so good to read more positive reviews and to hear I’m not the only one enjoying post covid cruises, cruising may never go back to the pre covid days so we should enjoy every minute onboard, we’ve all had the most awful two and a half years so I’m going to stay happy and cruise while I can.

Wowzz, my other cruises were with Cunard QE  my favorite ship that holds special memories for me,and Princess we wanted to do round British isles cruise, all very different ships and different experiences, 🤗

Hi since August 21 we’ve taken 7 cruises  4 with P &O and considering all the changes and challenges with covid we have found P&0 to have been the  best easiest and helpful to have dealt with and I know not everyone has had the same experience as us but we would like to thank P&O for trying to make our cruises as near to normal as possible in this awful climate we all find ourselves in, so thank you P & O for our 4 lovely cruises. And so looking forward to our next 4 P& O cruises already booked.

Hi just had email for our Arcadia cruise in October giving us £200 OBC

We will continue to wear masks when recommended and adhere to the recommended restrictions throughout the ship in the hope that it will protect ourselves and other people we all have to live with covid and surly wearing a mask is a very small price to pay so we can enjoy our cruises once again. 

19 hours ago, Poole Boy said:

letter in the state room this morning, so far no other changes all facilities are open.

Thank you Poole Boy for the information I really hope this stays in place for my next voyage on QV in July, I’ve just disembarked from the Emerald Princess and was shocked by the total disregard from other passengers no one apart from us were  wearing masks, the lifts were packed, passengers handling food in the buffet people coughing and sneezing not covering their mouths or noses and we noticed many passengers appeared to have flu like symptoms we were relieved to get off the ship, I agree we have to live with covid but we also need to show respect for other passengers.

9 hours ago, Mark_OH said:

What are the expectations for the roughness of the water around the British Isles?  My wife had a bad experience on one cruise and is wondering if she should wear a motion sickness patch for this cruise.

Hi we’ve done this itinerary a few times and found the Irish Sea can be pretty rough, so definitely would take some kind of motion sickness medication.

For us the Aqua is our favourite, we had a more intimate dining experience and we were extremely lucky enough to get the same waiters and table every evening, we found the Pearl and Coral to be really busy and too noisy it’s all down to personal choice.