sfred

Port A

The following three posts contain photos of three new unseen ports! All maiden calls. Two are on our unseen list, and one is not. I'll call them port A B and C. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for your kind words and additions to the Mauretania trip report. Since the original post I've noticed lots more Mauretania photos on QE. They are hanging in the port and starboard passageways on deck 1 on either side of the theatre. I've also remembered that I tried to find a launderette on Mauretania. No luck. 🙂 I tried to have a drink in the Chart Room. Mauretania's was near the bridge and had a huge selection of rolled up charts but no drinks. There was a junior officer there plotting our position. He politely asked me to leave.

Thanks @exlondoner. I'm sure the London ticket office would've used pounds. But a google search found a website that listed prices in $ so I used those numbers. And Mrs sfred was calling to me to get ready to go to dinner so I didn't have time to search further. 🙂 I did confirm that in 1907 the Mauretania had significantly less lifeboat capacity than passengers plus crew. Cunard greatly expanded her lifeboat capacity only after the Titanic sinking in 1912. I forgot about (lack of) stabilisers - good catch!

I'm aboard QE at the moment, and earlier today I was doing my usual dawn roam around the ship. While walking up QE’s Staircase A, I noticed the photographs of RMS Mauretania which were given to Cunard by the Swan Hunter shipyard. My photos of the photos are pasted below. I’ve seen these photos many times before in passing, but this morning after getting a coffee and going outside to watch the sunrise, I got to thinking. What would our Cunard Cruise Critic community think of the experience of doing a 1907 transatlantic on Mauretania? What would we think was much better than a similar QM2 crossing of today? What was much worse than today? Without having the benefit of a time machine to travel back to 1907, I’ll obviously never be able to enjoy a first-hand experience. But I can speculate what it might have been like. So here is my fantasy Cruise Critic trip report of a westbound TA to New York, February 1907 on RMS Mauretania. Has anyone else done a 1907 transatlantic in their imagination? What was your experience? Pros: Buying a ticket for my voyage was a little challenging. Perhaps it was just the usual Cunard IT issues, but whatever the cause I wasn’t able to book online. I had to go to the Cunard office in London to buy my ticket in person. Cash only. I guess the IT issues also caused them to be unable to accept my credit card. That said, the price was incredibly inexpensive. Cunard must have been having a sale. Britannia (they called it third class) was only $17. Wow – what a deal! QG (they called it first class) was only $185 and PG (second) was somewhere in between. At these prices, I decided to splurge on QG/first. I was about to make my way to Waterloo station to catch a train to Southampton when the Cunard agent said that actually I would need to go to Liverpool. OK. Conveniently, Cunard arranged a dedicated boat train that took me straight from Euston station to Mauretania. Embarkation was so easy. My bags were transferred from the boat train to the ship. I showed my passport and ticket, and was able to go straight aboard. No queues or security checks at all. A steward guided me to my cabin. I didn’t have or need a key. The steward would lock or unlock the door as needed or as requested. The MDR dedicated to first class was outstanding. Multi-course breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Every night was formal gala night. Everyone else in first class, without exception, adhered to the gala dress code. A ship’s band provided live music each night, playing in the various public rooms. Outside decks were all teak, and wooden furnishings were everywhere (panels, staircases, fittings, furniture, etc.) Very attractive, although I imagine a bit of a fire risk. The crossing was fast! Mauretania averaged over 26 knots and completed the trip in about five days. Cons: I’m fairly certain there was not enough lifeboat space for everyone aboard. Although I can’t imagine there could be any real need. It’s not like the ship could ever collide with an iceberg, after all, right? Mauretania is small. Only 31,938 gross registered tons (GRT) and a length of 235 meters. (QM2 is 149,215 GRT and a length of 345 meters.) There are no alternative dining restaurants or king’s court buffet. Although the first class main dining room was outstanding, that’s really the only place to eat. Neither my phone or laptop could connect to Mauretania’s wifi and internet, so unfortunately I was offline the entire crossing. I could go to the purser’s office and arrange for a SMS text message to be sent using something called the Marconi wireless, but the charge was extortionate. 12 shillings 6 pence for the first 10 words, and 7 pence for each additional word. There wasn’t a single insight lecture, Cunard singer/dancer show, comedy show, movie, or entertainment program. The ship’s band did play live music, but you had to be in the right place to listen. There were some deck games, and you could organise your own card games, but you had to be wary of card cheats out to swindle you. Smoking was allowed everywhere. They even had a dedicated public room identified for smoking – the “smoking room”. Cigars and cigarettes were available for purchase. My first class cabin did not have an ensuite. Toilets and baths were down the hallway. This was rather inconvenient in the middle of the night. My cabin has a smallish porthole to look outside. No balcony. Although I had an electric heater, there was no air conditioning. I imagine it might have gotten rather warm during the summertime or on a world cruise in the tropics. There were no retail shops anywhere on the ship. There was no swimming pool or spa facilities. I was told that some ships like the new White Star liner Olympic would have a pool and Turkish bath, but these were not yet available on Cunard. Although the crossing was fast, the vibration from the ship’s four turbine engines was very noticeable, and there was a considerable amount of roll and pitch in the rough seas. We burned coal for the entire crossing. In New York, we docked at the Cunard piers in Chelsea. It was very convenient to Manhattan, but when I asked about transfers to JFK or LaGuardia airports nobody had the faintest idea of what I was talking about. I think it will be a very long trip back home to Australia.

We managed a sliver of sunrise this morning 23 February through the horizon clouds. It has since cleared to a beautiful sunny midday on QE.

No sunrise this morning unfortunately. But there's still plenty of coffee.

A slightly wet sunrise 21 February on our first QE seaday out of Sydney.

Sunset on QE sailaway from Sydney, 20 February.

We asked today 21 Feb on QE. Only 2023 bear is currently available with no info yet on date or name of the 2024 bear.

What's the better port for an embarkation day beer outside on deck 9? San Francisco? Or Sydney? As an Aussie I have to say Sydney. But actually I'd be happy anywhere on Cunard.

Sorry your adventure was interrupted @daisybel. Hope your better half recovers soon.

Weather has turned a little wet. But it's always sunny on embarkation day.

QE is back in Sydney this morning, Tuesday 20 February. And so will Mrs sfred and me, boarding later on today. It will be so nice to be back on QE again. Looking forward to a beer outside on deck 9 this afternoon. Screenshot is from https://webcamsydney.com/ @Wonky, hope you had a nice voyage.

All of the QE itineraries to New Zealand are gone in the Australia EN-AU Cunard website. Even after applying the sold out filter. There's no announcement (yet) in the banner or in the media section.

It looks like a stunning day in Sydney for QE's day in port. What a perfect blue sky! Best wishes for a great voyage.

I noticed yesterday on marinetraffic.com that QE was doing a cruise-by of Doubtful Sound, NZ after departing Milford Sound. I found a webcam but it did not have a rewind capability and so could not find QE. Well done to find a passenger photographer, @bluemarble, and thanks to Kate Smith! Your hint that the two photos were taken within an hour of the second implies that QE's course track to or from Doubtful Sound passed through one of the other nearby sounds. I tried to bring up the past course track on marinetraffic, but there were no available ground AIS stations in the area to track QE's progress. So I'll make a guess and say the first photo is Thompson Sound? That's one possible way to access Doubtful.

FYI for those in Australia, Cunard has added a final balance online payment functionality to the EN-AU website. I first noticed it a month or so ago, and had the opportunity to try it for the first time this morning. The "Pay my balance" link from the "Account" tab on the main menu is shown below: After entering name, dob, booking reference, and card details, it worked fine, and happily accepted my Australia visa debit card. It correctly did not add the Australia visa credit card surcharge of 1.1%. The updated booking confirmation email arrived within a minute or two of processing the payment. We complain so often, with justification, about Cunard IT. Nice to see they get things right now and again. Of course, it isn't rocket science to have a payment mechanism on a website, but still, thanks Cunard. Not sure if this also now works for our New Zealand mates across the Tasman?

@bluemarble and I seem to have pressed "submit" nearly at the same time. As he indicated, OBC and pricing is not listed in the "My Cunard" online voyage management tool where you book onboard and shore experiences, and checkin to receive your boarding pass and luggage tags for your voyage.

Apologies, I was referring to the email booking confirmation you receive from Cunard if you book directly with them, either online or through the call centre. The email looks like this and then goes on to list your voyage's itinerary If you've booked with a travel agent third party, you might not receive this email from Cunard, and you'll need to contact your TA to see your OBC.

I can't answer your first question, but in reply to the second.. All onboard credit, including the shareholder credit, is aggregated together to a single line item in your Cunard booking confirmation. It is in the "Pricing Details" section, as indicated below: You'll need to remember how much onboard credit, if any, you had before applying for the shareholder credit, and then check if the amount increased by the correct number when the shareholder credit has been processed.

Fort San Diego has a rich history. Built in 1617 to guard the then-Spanish trading port from pirates, it now serves as a museum (and deterrent to UFOs 🙂 👽 ).

Is that Fort San Diego in Acapulco, Mexico?

Thanks @LincolnLegend! Very nice photos. I hope QE's passengers had a nice port day.

If you do decide to go, best wishes for a great voyage. We loved our November 2022 trip on QM2. Wintertime Norway is so different from Brisbane. We had a nice view of the northern lights, visited several ports we had never been to before, and listened to Captain Hall's noon position reports with the sun just barely peeking up over the southern horizon.