ballroom-cruisers

All the information that I heard about Cunard from crew suggests that Cunard care a great deal about their employees. It sounds like they have made considerable efforts to look after the unlucky crew member who had the medical issue. After all both crew members as well as passengers could have a medical emergency at any time. Just unlucky it was in foggy conditions, but would have been a lot worse if half way across the Atlantic.

Yes, the professional dancers run beginner group lessons in basic ballroom and Latin dances each sea day, and they will do private lessons by arrangement any day any time they are free and the room is available. The evening dancing was a separate issue.

I have only ever seen such dancing when the professional dancer is paid by a lady to have an hour's social dancing 'practice' in the evening, but not as a 'lesson'. There would appear to be no good reason to prohibit that, but no doubt others will post whether they see this as continuing on other voyages. It would be a shame if this can't continue as any reasonable minded person could not really find a reason to ban it. It gives ladies (and in principle men too) the chance to dance for an extended period with a real expert partner.

Yes it is true that dress standard have slipped - but those who dress with no smart shirts, no evening dresses, and without jackets, are still a minority - all the voyages we have done, including those this year, the majority of men, and women, have made even normal Smart Attire evenings in the dining room, ballroom, and Commodore Club, elegant and a nice atmosphere. Sure a few choose not to dress for the occasion, but it does not seem to change the way that most of us like to keep to the traditions of a classy evening atmosphere in convivial surroundings, where most of the others around us do the same.

Are you asking about the policy on whether there will be dance hosts on a particular voyage or something different? At the moment it seems that dance hosts are on some voyages on QM2, but not all voyages, and it will depend both on whether Cunard wants hosts, and how many, as well as whether any of the registered dance hosts wish to accept a voyage to be official hosts. Many dance hosts will be choosing which voyages they are free to attend, as most have other commitments, including teaching in their home town at their own dance school. So some voyages may not have any hosts who are free to be away for a few weeks. But you can always call Cunard on their general contact number, and ask about a specific voyage, even though Cunard may not know for sure until near the departure date whether they will have any dance hosts. Or you can email customer services, and when they have an answer they will reply.

Walking on water is a skill that is limited to only a select few!!

You walked from the ship in Calvi - most of the rest of us took the tender in!!

QM2 has around 2500 passengers whereas QE and QV about 2000 so it is not double the number of passengers on QM2.

The majority have a lovely time on Cunard cruises. I will be interested to see HH's overview when she has had time to recover back home. We had a wonderful time on this cruise, and despite a few negatives, the positives outshone the negatives. For us the food was occasionally somewhat lacklustre menu choices, and occasionally the meat was indeed tough or not cooked that well - but then again the maitre'd and head waiters do their best to order within the available budget, and sometimes they may have to change suppliers, which may turn out not the same quality as their previous supplier - but once tons of meat is on board they need to use it and move on. However there were other meals that were superb, with top quality meat, and cooked to perfection. The Queen's Room was for us a highlight - with a lovely dancing community, who gelled nicely, and couples as well as singles got to know each other as the voyage progressed. The Queens Room orchestra played well most of the time, even if they got some songs not at the right tempo or not at the right phrasing for the dance they were intending to play for. The deck life was nice - with pretty good weather, even if a bit windy at times, and having the ship hardly have the slightest movement with slight swell at most, was fabulous. The ports were nice, with Calvi and Cadiz a real highlight, and even the city of Vigo is actually a lovely place to walk around as the first port of call after leaving Southampton. We met quite a few American passengers who were doing the full 35 night round trip from New York to include the four separate voyages, many saying it was a wonderful way to avoid having to go to any airports. A few people did have Covid on board, but unless you actually knew about it from someone directly involved, passengers would not have been aware that a few were isolating in their own cabins. There were some coughs, and we were told a few cases of norovirus too, but an enhanced hygiene protocol came in and no significant transmission then occurred, with protocols coming back down quietly when it was clear there was no large problem. So overall a lovely cruise, and a lot of happy smiling passengers.

Yes at least the vast majority on the Gala theme evenings dress in style and don't try to go in fancy dress. It is thankfully regarded by most as an elegant evening of classy atmosphere, with a small minority overdoing it, with an occasional man carrying an inflatable plastic machine gun on a Roaring Twenties evening, or an occasional couple dressed as if they are farmers out to tend their cattle, but it is clear the overwhelming majority just dressed elegantly in nice evening formal clothes.

Yes, the general 'open' invitation to all passengers to one of two general cocktail parties (at 5,15pm and another ahead of second dinner sitting thje same evening), have not yet been re-introduced on any of the voyages we have been on the past year.

There are several different cocktail parties - the one with the largest numbers attending is the one for Gold level, and above, World Club members, so most of the passengers will be invited since it only requires a few Cunard voyages to reach Gold. Then there is the Senior Officers' party for Platinum level members and above, and that of course has fewer people, and also there are the separate cocktail parties for those in the Grills, irrespective of World Club level. These have been gradually brought back post-pandemic, with the latter two only re-introduced to voyages the past few months, and at different dates on the different ships. Although some people clearly use the occasion to down as many drinks as possible, they are actually a nice opportunity to have a social chat with both officers and other passengers, so not everyone feels they have to grab as many glasses of drink as they can get.

Irrespective of discussions on the forums on all the voyages we have been on, including the QM2 voyage that returned from the Mediterranean yesterday, the majority of passengers dress in traditional evening wear on Smart Attire evenings, and dress to the nines on Gala nights, even if the theme is not something that has a lot of adherence. The masquerade Gala evenings have almost everyone in Formal dress/tux/suits and lovely evening dresses, even if only a smattering wear masks. However for Black and White nights almost everyone follows the dress code, but then that is easier than the Masquerade theme. Quite a few have tassels or flapper dresses, and ladies wearing headbands and pearls for the Roaring 20s evenings, but almost everyone else is in formal wear for that evening, even if not in 20s style. It is very apparent that dinner looks pretty formal on Gala nights, and clear that very few aren't dressed for the occasion, including passengers new to Cunard. So the traditional dress code is largely being adhered to and that has been the case on all three ships on the voyages we have been on.

It looks like the number of solo ladies who needed a partner was about balanced with the two dance hosts, who were a couple. Mind you they did have to dance all evening pretty much non-stop, which was pretty hard for the two of them. However, some other solo ladies paired up with solo gentlemen, and that seemed to work out quite well, and several formed a stable dance couple for the rest of the cruise. It did not look like the previous custom of having six dance hosts would be returning any time soon, and it is not clear whether QV and QE will also have dance hosts, or whether that would be mostly QM2 now, and even then not on every voyage. Still the Queen's Room was pretty well utilised with 12 of the 14 nights ballroom and Latin dancing all evening from dinner time onward. Some evenings there was live music until towards midnight, though it was thinning a bit by that time of night! The other two nights were party nights - but there were as many staff disco dancers as passengers on those nights! I guess they didn't want the floor to appear empty! The ballroom dancers mostly went elsewhere on those two evenings.

It's highly likely quite a few people did not stick to their allotted times, but also there were some streams of people with various mobility issues being sent though officially to bypass the queue, and who were slower than others in getting scanned out and going along the air stair and corridors. So the queue built up quite a bit early on.

Yes a bit tedious shuffling along the' snake' to get scannrd out to leave. But pretty efficient luggage collection and out of the terminal.

Lots of variation in what people were wearing with quite a few wearing feather headbands and similar, some with tassel dresses, but plenty with normal lovely evening dresses. Men almost all in various suits, some white, some black, some tuxedos. But a lovely atmosphere all evening including in the Carinthia Lounge late evening and in the Conmmodore Club towards midnight

The 4-Ds were not singing the kind of music that suited us, so with no ballroom dancing after 9pm we had a quiet cocktail in the Commodore Club with Steve playing the piano. But at least it is Roaring Twenties Gala this evening to look forward to.

Cadiz is a delight to visit.

Cadiz is always a lovely place to just amble, and having the coloured lines for the standard tourist routes both on the real pavements as well as on the tourist map, makes it very easy to get around for first timers to the town. I don't even want to think about the next two sea days leading to the disembarkation at the end of the week. So far it's been a glorious voyage and fabulous weather so who could ask for more.

It is not great to hear the story of the radial abuse. However in general the atmosphere on board is convivial, friendly, and sociable for the mix of nationalities who are enjoying the voyage. Although we have seen a small number of obnoxious people everyone else we've met have been lovely. The atmosphere on the Queens Room has been fabulous for 10 consecutive days, though it was a bit dead with the party night last night.

And in Marseille today a group of fire fighting aircrrft flew past the neighbouring ship presumably to fill up with water for a fire fighting exercise.

Quick answer about dance hosts on this voyage. There is a couple who are official dance hosts, and they do indeed have badges, and have been dancing with anyone who needs a partner. Dancing has been fabulous and the Orchestra are superb musicians in the Queens Room, playing great music for dancing, including a wonderful Big Band night last night. It's a glorious pleasant day today with lots of people relaxng on deck as we sail towards Barcelona. Great on the blog and pics, HH.

The way all travel insurers work is that they work out the risk of a particular medical condition and calculate the chance of needing help that costs various amounts. In the case of Saga the insurance is included in the cost of the fare so not really 'free'. If you already have a travel policy with a different insurer (or a Saga annual travel policy) then you don't need to pay for the included insurance. But whichever your insurer is, they will always require you to declare your medical conditions - and they will have had their actuaries calculate whether the likely cost of needing to help a policy holder is a high enough risk that they need to require additional premium. They will do that for each medical condition. Also every insurer will say your policy is invalid if you haven't declared all medical conditions so you have to declare them. They will then tell you whether the particular conditions you have would be included at the standard premium, or if they require you to pay extra to be covered. In general Saga are pretty good and their insurance policies are well thought out. If you have a condition that is low risk of leading to a problem during the period of your voyage then it is likely they will cover you with no additional premium. Clearly some conditions have a significant chance of becoming unwell at the level of needing hospital emergency treatment and possible helicopter evacuation during a few weeks of a voyage, and in that situation there is a strong chance that an insurance company would require an elevated premium, and for some conditions the risk is so high that insurers would not cover them at any cost. Anyone with such a condition would then be subject to major costs if they needed expensive medical care whilst on holiday. Either way the only way to answer the question is to talk to the insurer directly and ask them if they will cover the conditions you have, and at what cost, in the circumstances they are stable and under control with whatever medication is being taken. Usually if you are awaiting test results that complicates the insurance situation, and often the outcome would be needed before the insurer would cover you. It would be much the same whichever insurance company is approached.

It is nice you have gathered the data and made it into a neat spreadsheet for the community to refer to. I have used it already to check if we will be likely to get a half decent signal!