cruiser1955

Cunard have just posted this:

Due to a medical emergency yesterday, Queen Elizabeth will be arriving one hour later than originally planned in to Southampton. If you are travelling on this voyage, please therefore arrive one hour later than your advertised embarkation time. Thank you for your understanding.

Things changed overnight. The SF to Southampton has reappeared on a number of websites but the price range is ridiculous - over £600 pp in one case!! On some websites there is no price just call the firm - not sure what this means - perhaps only a few cabins left/huge price - who knows?!! And on other sites the SF to Southampton is not there but the Los Angeles to Southampton is.

 

Will just have to wait until January and see what happens. If the price does go up then I may well look at other cruises. I have a couple in mind but not sure which so 'watch this space' :)

Not sure what Cunard are up to with the QE cruises. The SF-Soton is almost sold out on the Cunard website, yet plenty of availability on LA-Soton. Just 2 nights difference, yet £1500 difference in price. The UK_USA airfare is also very high at around £800. Maybe some sites are offering the cruise with alternative flights. The 21 night Sf-NY cruise also has flights at almost £1300 - does seem to be very high.

I'm doing the 17 night Japan-Vancouver and the flights from Cunard are "just" £920 which does seem low compared to the flight costs on the June-Aug cruises. My 17 night was shown as almost sold out a few days after release, but there are now some extra cabins available but mainly on a guarantee basis yet still good availability on the 27 night cruise.

Looking at the Japan-Vancouver departures, the difference in price between the 17 night and 27 night voyages is about £2200 in a balcony, so the prices I've seen look as if one night hotel pre-cruise is included in addition to the air fare. The air fare and transfers to Japan and back from Vancouver is £920 with Cunard.

I did look at going with Celebrity and the price then looked to be around £3000 per person for 14 night plus air fares, etc, so I guess the Cunard prices are on a par. As a solo traveller, single sup is less with Cunard.

Interesting though that the 17 night Japan-Vancouver is cheaper than the 20 May departure.

I've had 4003 and, as Hattie says, bigger balcony. No noise from theatre - that was a worry I had as I'm a light sleeper. Didn't notice any extra motion on a Baltic cruise.

For those who haven't seen the itineraries or UK prices, I've attached the details in a PDF file. Prices I believe, include air fares to and from UK where applicable.

QE Alaska 2019.pdf

I haven't had C2 but have stayed in E2 - a standard balcony cabin - two decks down. E2 is a bit further forward than C2 due to the shape of the ship. I found E2 to be very noisy and suffered badly from vibration when docking manoeuvres were being carried out. Personally, I would be reluctant to book a cabin that far forward on Arcadia. Apart from the noise, the cabin is fine, but is at the end of the corridor, so a bit of a trek to get to the dining room. Maybe not as convenient a location as one closer to mid-ships. Didn't notice much movement in the cabin though.

Don't worry. Plenty of solo travellers on board. Each sea day there is a hosted coffee morning where you can meet other solos. Only a rough guess, but from my experience with Cunard, I'd say that about 10% of the passengers are solos. I cruise as a solo and haven't found any line apart from Celebrity to be unfriendly towards a solo traveller.

There seem to be problems with the sites security certificate. Microsoft Edge will not allow connections since Windows 10 upgraded to release 1704 last week and Internet Explorer issues warnings but does allow access. Does not seem to apply to all of the sub-forums though.

Seen this elsewhere, so hope it is correct

Alaska, by Cunard. May June 2019 Coming soon.

Cunard's Queen Elizabeth will be offering a selection of Alaska cruises in May and June 2019.

###### Note: Japan to Alaska in May already available to book........ #####

Dates for your diary. Alaska Cruises 2019

23 October 1pm - cruises and itineraries available to preview.

30 October 1pm - past guests can book....

31 October 1pm - all other guests can book.

What I would like to see is a world cruise starting in late November or early December. That way, you would have Christmas and New Year away in a destination other than the Caribbean or Europe. Keep it to around 100 days, and they would then be able to do March voyages from Southampton.

King Neptune held court on QE in 2013 on the way out to New Zealand. On the way back he couldn't hold court as the ship had been invaded by the dreaded Noro or similar.

Closing this thread now as she is going

As Haworth has said, looks like Azamara

This is from their website

P&O confirmed today (26 Sept 2017)

We can now confirm that small ship Adonia will be leaving the fleet next year.

The sale will be completed in March 2018 and Adonia's last cruise as a P&O Cruise...s ship will be D804 leaving Barbados on February 23 and ending in Barbados on March 9, 2018.

Guests booked on any Adonia cruises after March 2018 will be contacted directly either by P&O Cruises or their travel agent in the next few days.

We know this has been the subject of much speculation but as we are sure you can appreciate we were unable to confirm anything until an agreement was in place.

During her time with us Adonia has captured the hearts of many thousands of P&O Cruises guests. She has ventured into new ports of call around the globe and has negotiated Icelandic Fjords, European rivers and Caribbean coves. We will be making sure that these discovery itineraries are continued on other ships in the fleet.

With almost six months until Adonia leaves the fleet, we will ensure that each of the cruises in her final season with us are extra special and celebratory.

Seems the last cruise you can book is in January 2018 as all remaining 2018 and 2019 cruises have been removed from the P&O website

Looks a bit like the new Holland America design.

I hope they wait until 2019 then to sell her, so we can do our D812/D813 cruises next June/July. Never mind CMV and Tilbury, Carnival can move Adonia to Australia as part of P&O Australia fleet, she would fit in nicely for the Pacific Island cruises.:cool: Rumour No.99.

 

Then all you mob can travel 12,000 miles to get the 'Adonia experience.:evilsmile:

 

Standby for incoming from the P&O UK stalwarts.

G'Day. No Cunard have new plans.

http://www.cunard.co.uk/cruise-ships/new-ship/

Looks like you will get one of the Queens :)

Rumour No 103 !

..........

 

As a further point of interest, of the five future cruises we have booked, all but one was booked during the pre registration period. Every single one of them is now more expensive, one by an eye watering 50%.

Selbourne, that made me think about mine. I also have five booked in pre-reg with P&O and prices have gone up by:

12%, 107%, 26%, 27% and 50% which in cash terms comes to over £10,000 more.

I book as a solo traveller and the 107% rise is partially due to the single supplement increasing from 60% to 80%. All prices are based on select fares but even the early or late saver prices are still higher where available.

I don't need an adapted cabin but I have my preferred locations and these always sell out fast. Stern cabins on Arcadia and C deck cabins on Azura/Ventura.

I agree with what majortom has said.

In theory, you have to have completed your first cruise before getting a past passenger discount. I came up against this when doing my first Cunard cruise even though it was the second I had booked. I was on board and wanted to book my third and they wouldn't give me the past passenger discount. However, they contacted Southampton and they gave the go-ahead for me to get the discount as I was on the ship.

Have people received a new full size P&O brochure for cruises up to October 2019? I received a thin summary version from P&O last week, but someone was quoting from the 'new brochure' on the thread regarding the policy on taking alcohol on board. The P&O website only shows the old version with cruises up to Spring 2019. Thanks.

Selbourne, I've downloaded the PDF version of the 2018-2019 brochure. Did a search on alcohol and this was all I could find. This is the statement on alcohol policy: It's a cut and paste, but I've tried to tidy it up a bit.

Our policy for the responsible serving of alcohol

applies at all times. We reserve the right to deny

access to the ship to anyone who appears to be

heavily under the influence of alcohol. We may

also confiscate alcohol in the terminal and at the

gangway, and it may be destroyed. On board, bar

staff may refuse service if a guest appears to be

inebriated. Any offensive or unruly behaviour may

result in individuals or the whole group being asked

to leave the venue. Dangerous or violent behaviour

will not be tolerated and will likely result in the

termination of the involved guests’ holidays and their

disembarkation from the ship.

Anyone under the age of 18 (under 21 when in

United States of America waters) will not be served

alcoholic beverages on board and must not be in

possession of alcohol. Guests may be asked to verify

their age. It is prohibited to attempt to purchase

alcohol for those under 18 in the bars and shops

on board. 16 and 17 year olds may be bought beer,

cider or wine to drink with a meal in the restaurants

when accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

Alcoholic beverages consumed in the public areas

on board will be subject to a corkage charge and

enjoyment of alcohol in a public area will always

be subject to appropriate standards of behaviour

being met. For further information on our alcohol

guidelines and corkage charges please refer to the

Advice Centre on our website

Me done as well now until October 19. Unless there is another offer like I had in June for Arcadia:D

Maybe a quick pre-Christmas in 19 but no brochures for that until next year,

I always think that when comparing P&O with Cunard, a good place to start is by looking at Arcadia vs QE/QV. So I'll just stick to that rather than include the larger and smaller ships. I've done around 150 nights on Arcadia and around 200 nights on the two smaller queens. Both of the Cunard ships are far more elegant and for me have better theatres. Even now there is still a bit of a wow factor when I board any of the queens.

The queens have a higher staff to passenger ratio, but it now seems to me that these extra staff are in the revenue generating areas rather than cabin steward and MDR waiters. I'm just sticking to Britannia grade as I've no experience of the grills. Cabins are virtually the same, main difference being Arcadia has a bath in most balcony cabins.

I've seen passengers taken off P&O and Cunard, so it happens on both lines.

I've done the Baltic itinerary on Arcadia and QV. QV scored on a few extras and when I went the price was similar on both lines. I'm prepared to pay a bit extra for the Cunard product and am travelling again on QE in 2019. However, when I went to look at an autumn 2019 cruise, both lines offered a very similar 19 night cruise to Venice from Southampton - QV left a couple of weeks earlier. However, when it came to price in a balcony, QV was £5,700 and Arcadia was £3,300 for me as a solo. Sorry, Cunard, no sale or sail ;p at that price. Some of their prices do seem to have been significantly higher this year and for 2018/19.

For me, little to choose between MDR food and service. However, I find the alternative dining options on P&O offer a greater choice than Cunard. I guess Cunard's answer would be to use the Grills. A plus point for me is the lunch options in the pub on Cunard.

I like the Commodore Club but the Crow's Nest on Arcadia is similar and now has an improved range of cocktails, so little to choose between the two, but drinks wise, CC wins just. Enough has been said about drink prices elsewhere, yes they are higher, but I just cut back a bit.

Overall entertainment for me would be to go for Cunard, but I do like the string quartet and harpist that they have on board. Cunard also seem to have more speakers than P&O but most come from the same pool.

Some of it is down to the exchange rate, but I went to the Canaries on QE last December and on Ventura this January and it was noticeable that the Cunard excursion prices were 50% higher than those charged by P&O. However, compared to some Celebrity excursions I've done, Cunard are quite reasonable.

At the end of it, if there is around 10-15% difference in price, then I'd pay the extra and go with Cunard, otherwise, P&O gives me what I'm looking for.

They do have two distinct accents for Romany and Irish Travellers. They may behave in a slightly different traditional way but not normally a problem. I don't think they will start the grabbing amongst a mixed group of passengers on a cruise.

 

Regards John

Agree with you John. As with everything, it is the bad ones that tarnish the rest. A cousin of mine married into the travelling community 40 years ago and they are appalled by the reputation of some of their community. Very difficult group to know well as they do keep to themselves a lot.

Jon

TOMOGP

Like you I went on Ventura in her early days and said never again. Last year was more or less forced to go back as there wasn't anything else leaving Southampton at that time. I was very surprised by how much the ship had improved, so much so, that I booked a further two cruises while on board. I did those earlier this year and now have 3 further cruises booked on her including 2 35night cruises. OK, I travel during term time so very few children are on board but that also applied to my first cruise on her.

Biggest problem I found was getting a seat in the theatre for the evening shows, but apart from that there isn't to me much wrong with her or the staff.

As to the travelling community, that seems to be an issue on a number of ships. There were major problems with a group on a QM2 Christmas cruise I did a few years ago.

.......... I guess the same applies to booking plane seats and specialty restaurants? ..........

I've managed to book the restaurants in the past as you just book a table for the number you want rather than having to name individuals which you do on excursions. That's been on Arcadia and Ventura. If you do this, take the confirmation with you as once they didn't realise I'd paid up front for the meal. No problems getting the charge removed. Now normally remind them when orders are taken.