IB2

There's no shortage of opportunities to tip on Cunard! First, a wodge of tip money to be shared amongst many staff will be auto-charged to your onboard bill, unless you go to the trouble of having it deducted. Second, when you order things from drinks to treatments, the bill will come with a service charge already added. Third, these bill slips, and others you get such as from the photo shop, will have a space for you to write in a further tip. Finally you'll have the chance to hand out some money to individual crew members at the end of the cruise.

The Deck 2 single cabins are apparently at a higher price band than the Deck 3 single ones, such that moving 2 to 3 is considered a downgrade whereas you could get 3 to 2 in an upgrade. How can this make sense, when everyone says the Deck 3 ones are better? Even the Cunard person I spoke to today on the booking line admitted that the Deck 3 ones are much more popular.

Worse than that, when I transferred the funds to make the final payment, it went through yesterday morning, but turned out to be yet another pre-authorisation as this morning Cunard went and deducted the same amount again, hence I am back in the same waiting game until I get my money back. Cunard is idiotic in making pre-authorisations from debit cards - why can't they just deduct the actual payment as we go along?

The requirement for a donor card should cover off the screening. Blood was taken from three people to get the amount required quickly.

I'm just off that crossing myself. I heard that there was also a death during, but don't have any details. The classical concerts had a good atmosphere and it was interesting to hear a full orchestra perform on the ship, but the accoustics in the Royal Court were very poor for a classical performance, and I expect the experience varied considerably depending on where you were sitting. It didn't bother me, but I did hear that - since the two main concerts were organised on the gala nights - the exodus of people leading up to 10pm to go see the later concert of the evening pretty much killed off the atmosphere and attendance in the Queens Room. Cunard would probably do better not to bill the gala nights as 'balls' and simply allow people to dress up and then go to the concert, retaining the QR as it is on any other night for the hard core dancing fans.

I’ve just been up on deck and it’s setting pretty much off the back of the ship. As you’d expect near the equinox.

Err, no. The sun’s rising and setting position on the horizon changes dramatically with the seasons. It’s actually (roughly) in the same direction at the same time of day, throughout the year, but of course sets very much earlier in the winter and hence is at that time further south in relation to the viewer than it is in the late evening when it sets in summer. An alternative way to think about it is to note that the sun moves diagonally down toward the horizon when it sets, and in winter the horizon is much higher in relation to the sun as the earth is tilted away from it.

The north side in summer and the south side in winter.

It took almost a whole month before I was free of the debit card authorisations after my TA in August

Lots of dogs.

True, except for the weekly photoshoot, until the captain recently allowed dogs to use the boardwalk deck of an evening. Now, passengers can go interact with the dogs up there every evening, during a TA.

Of course not. It’s an opportunity for passengers in the know to meet the dogs, and usually quickly out come the cameras. Of an evening that deck would otherwise be deserted. And the kennels are also using it as a chance to give the cats a bit of freedom inside the kennel room.

I saw it open on one day on one of my two TAs in 2019, but never since. And that large open, completely unused, deck was irksome to kennel passengers who could sit and look at it through the kennel window but never use it to exercise their dogs - until this year, when the new captain has allowed the dogs to be exercised there for an hour every evening. Which is great for the more active dogs, which can get a runabout every evening before bedtime. And also for those non-kennel passengers that want to see the dogs or meet the owners during their crossing.

Will pink suffice as red for the luggage tag?

Someone should post a guide to the Cunard luggage label colours and where they refer to?