Fairgarth

You will find a card in your cabin with your table number on it.  Take that on your first trip for dinner since it speeds the process of getting everybody in.  Britannia is on two levels so Murphy says you'll be at the  wrong one.  Relax, easy to fix.  If you don't like your table mates, speak to the Maitre d' afterwards and he will find you a new spot.  If eating in Britannia, get there on time.  You can't just wander in very late and foul up the system.  Other than that, eat anywhere you like, when you like.

Ship's currency is USD.  However, I found that your on-board charges are billed from Southampton - in USD - and my US bank slapped another 3% on my VISA charges since it was billed from out-of-country.  Currency exchange.  What exchange, exactly?

Have a great time, it's a memorable experience and you'll get stories to bore your grandchilden with.

I got excited when I saw treacle pudding on the menu.  It isn't.  It's syrup pudding, they don't know the difference.  Good though, you can just hear your teeth rot.

We enjoyed #133, Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre at $34.00 (Pays d'Oc) .  It was better than some of the more expensive wines we tried and therefore good value.

29 minutes ago, Jeffrey1950 said:

• As it happens my sister who lives in Airdrie just mentioned to me how Glasgow Airport has changed.

Sorry, that didn't come out right.  It's Edinburgh airport that I detest.  As do all those folks posting reviews on Skytrax, so it's not just one of my foibles.  Edinburgh airport may be OK if you are making a connection although I imagine their connecting traffic is near zero.  But if you arrive by air and leave by ground or arrive by ground and leave by air, it's a nightmare.  It's a classic case of something the Brits are good at:  "Why be difficult when, with a little more effort, you can be bloody impossible?"

1 hour ago, fabnfortysomething said:

Glasgow airport is bigger than Edinburgh and may have more choice

Aye, it used to be but not any more.  Edinburgh has more passengers and more destinations now.  Awful place, expansion has been most unkind.  It's now my most unfavourite airport.  Whoever is the airport manager should be taken out and ....oh, never mind.

Afternoon tea in the Queen's Room is always a bit of an 'occasion', especially if they have a live band and dancing too.  I just discovered on our last crossing that the sandwiches, cakes and scones with clotted cream are also available in the King's Court. Go help yourself.

We prefer early dining.  I don't like the idea of finishing dinner at 10:30pm.  Your choice.

21 hours ago, Jeffrey1950 said:

 Also, Can someone tell me of an Airline that has direct flights to or from Edinburgh. 

Direct or non-stop?  From where, exactly?  East-bound or west-bound?  I believe United does a non-stop out of Newark and Delta does a non-stop out of JFK.  Aer Lingus has been mentioned and you might also take a look at Air Canada with a connection in Toronto.  Then there's Emirates out of Dubai, QATAR out of Doha, Turkish out of Istanbul, Delta from Boston, easyJet and Ryanair from everywhere......  Avoid Norwegian, they will go bust and take your money with them.

Here's a suggestion on seat selection:  you can check-in online 24 hours before departure.  Part of the check-in process allows you to see what seats are available and you can move to a different seat.  Done it many times.  There's a big advantage in your case - because of your connection to, you are checking in for the long-haul flight hours before the local boardings can so you will get a better selection of seats than they do.

You must be quite unlucky.  I have been flying Air Canada for the last 30 years and all my booked flights operated as planned.  I think they - and others - have a real problem with the grounding of the 737 MAX.  They have 24 of those, each with 169 seats.  If each aircraft does three flights a day on average (I have no idea what the real number is) then that's over 12,000 passengers a day on 737 MAX.  Which means 120,000 passengers over the next ten days have to be re-routed.  Clearly, that is going to take some time and manpower.  In fact, passengers are booked 40, 60 or 90 days in advance so it could have meant that a million had to be re-routed following the grounding.  What a mess!

Heathrow?  Gatwick?  City?  Stansted?  Luton?  Southend?

On 2/3/2019 at 2:16 PM, Jack E Dawson said:

One more recommendation, in addition to the bag tag that Cunard sends you to attach to the outside of your bag, make a copy in place it in your bag on top of everything. This way if your outside tag is accidentally torn off, the first thing that the luggage handler will see when he opens your bag is your name and cabin number.

Now that's brilliant!!  Thanks for the suggestion.  Cunard has kindly provided me with four bag tags but I only have two bags.  Now I can usefully employ all four.

1 hour ago, TTEllis said:

 Darkwood, Valley Church, Beach Limerz and Turner's, all the exact same bay and on the same road. I think in that order too.

Not quite.  Beach Limerz is north of St. John's, north of the port, right next to Fort James.  The others are all south of Jolly Beach with Turner's furthest south.

I have made many visits to Antigua and have driven all over the island, it's perfectly safe and I now know my way around.  However.....for one day?  You'll get lost.  Maps are useless and there are no road signs.  Speeds are low - I doubt if you'll ever see 50mph - and there are plenty of road hazards such as wandering dogs, kids, chickens, cows, donkeys and potholes, oh my! the potholes.  I slammed into one at night - never saw it - and got instant deflation and a big vee-dent in the rim.  I think you would need a local licence which the car rental place will issue on the spot for $20 but that adds to your cost.  So I'm inclined to think you could hire a minivan driver for the day for about the same price and he will take you wherever you want to go and make sure you get back to the ship in time for sailing.

Bear in mind that the port of Civitavecchia is a long way from FCO.

Oh dear, oh dear, will they never learn?  "Caveat emptor".  Goodbye WOW.  Next?

You have two options, basically either end of Sandals.  I would suggest the Antigua Village parking lot as being the easiest.  That is where Ana's is too.  The other access is up by Sneaky Pete's.

Bear in mind that the cruise port of Civitavecchia is a long way from FCO.

Short answer:  no.  But Beach Limerz has Fort James right next door.  Free entry, come and go as you please.

A couple of years ago, a captain with Celebrity wrote a blistering letter to the port authority in Antigua.  He had been told the depth of water but in the event he had only two feet under the keel, much less than advertised.  So yes, methinks draft is the factor here.  Cruise ships are wide and shallow.  QM2 goes deep.

There are three airports to choose from:  JFK, Newark and La Guardia.  We got a Cunard bus to Newark and were there by 9:15am.  I think they also offered a tour ending with airport drop-off but not enough people signed up so it was cancelled.  I imagine JFK would also be served.  We took the commuter train from Newark into Penn Station for the day.  Your only potential problem is that there is no left luggage at Newark except for United passengers.

Bear in mind too, if you are already at Beach Limerz then Fort James itself is right next door.  If you have the time, just browse around - no entrance fee, just come and go as you please.  You can soak in a bit of Antigua/Royal Navy history.

Celebrity will be in St. John's.  The cruise port is right in the middle of town.  Falmouth has no dock so it's a tender port which is very seldom used, maybe five small ships a month in season, as opposed to four a day in St. John's.

Ah, well now, Falmouth is an awful lot further than the cruise port in St. John's.  Still, I wonder if the $80 is actually EC.  If you go on to a website "Antigua Nice" you will find taxi fares - regulated - for various trips.  The highest price I could see was $31 from one end of the island to the other.

1 hour ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

 I assume that higher end British Food is delicious as well.

 

You are too kind.  I had a cab driver in Montreal many years ago who loved London but said you had to go to Paris for a decent meal.  I believe British standards may have improved somewhat since then.

I should add to my earlier post that QM2 has 400,000 bottles of wine on board and by far the longest wine list of any ship that I have seen.  And a huge selection of port.  And Fever Tree tonic.

Well, I think they are very different.  Cunard celebrates its history, tradition and Britishness.  There's a Golden Lion pub with fish'n'chips.  They have English beer on tap.  Breakfast in the Britannia can include Cumberland sausage, English bacon and Bury black pudding.  (Good luck with that on Celebrity)  Food and service in the MDR is better on Cunard.  Guest speakers are way superior.  Formal means formal: 95% in a tux.  More than half the passengers are Brits (at least on a crossing).  You never see or hear the cruise director except to introduce a guest performer.  There is no loud music to spoil your cocktail.  The only announcement is the captain at noon.

We wanted a quiet drink in the Martini bar on Celebrity Constellation while there were very few people there.  We asked the barman to turn down the loud music but he would not.  We filled in a comment card and then the phone in our cabin rang.  It was the cruise director.  "Sorry we can't turn it down.  Miami makes us do it."  Dear God!  Seriously?  It was the same in the Italian specialty - loud music which was not even Italian.  Other than that, we did like Celebrity and will certainly go back.  So yes, they are different.