Ubarrow

I keep receiving emails advertising upcoming cruises and would like to do a transatlantic during 2021.

Does anyone know the current position?
 

i.e. Are booking being accepted, and on what basis?

26 minutes ago, JIMinNC said:

 

Wouldn't the best views entering the harbor of the Statue of Liberty be on the left (port) side?

The last time we entered New York, in November 2018, we had a Port cabin and got great views of Manhattan and the statue etc on the way in, then the ship turned round and our cabin overlooked the terminal.

Arrival always seems to be at the same time and there is quite a bit of time to walk around the decks enjoying the view. If you’re on the right side there are great views from your balcony if you are on one of the upper decks.

1 hour ago, newjoisey said:

i would like to think losing an hour a day would save me some weight gaining time.......but that aint gonna happin.......i have been off the qm2 for a week now and still withdrawing from desserts/bacon 

Yes, you can eat about 7% more on a Westbound crossing, courtesy of the 10 hour time difference!

5 hours ago, cindy1957 said:

Your replies are great. Thanks so much. The helicopters sound exciting but not so great if someone is being medivaced.

They were! A broken hip I believe, but we were told they were ok. 

I’m going to add a number 11.

Slow, limited internet. May it never improve .............!

Reading this whilst spending our last hour in cabin 12048, just by stairway B. Very nice cabin, near the pool which I really like - no noise with the cabin door closed.

 Noisy when the helicopter comes though ........

Stairway B takes you straight down to the Royal Court Theatre which we find very convenient. It’s also a short walk to Illuminations and we go to most of the lectures so also a great position.

Slight downside is that accessing the Britannia Club restaurant is not totally straightforward. Easy in good weather, just walk into the pool area then across the deck and down stairway D. But otherwise you have to either go to deck 3 and through the art gallery or walk through the main restaurant.

Personally I’d always choose a cabin near a stairway and it doesn’t really matter which one as it evens out over a voyage.

But we are going to miss our cabin on deck 12 .........

A year or so ago the book club would fill a small room. However, on our journey over to the US in November it was just me and the librarian. I wondered if it was because the book was a little difficult to get through (River of Ink) but wonder now if it’s just because no one knows about it?

Surely it can’t be difficult to give it a bit of a plug in the daily bulletin?

14 minutes ago, jeno said:

I’d love it if there was a list of book club books on all of the ships.  Hoping there will be a book club on the Queen Victoria in the end of January.   

I found this, but it doesn’t have my crossing - M902 - listed.

https://ask.completecruisesolution.com/help/ext/cunard/life-on-board/Ents_book

Does anyone know what book is the subject of the Book Club on the Transatlantic 3rd January from New York?

Seems like a well kept secret!

We are currently on an extended break in the USA, sailing back home on Jan 3rd. We’ve done this twice before and it is a wonderful feeling to walk up that gangway from Brooklyn straight into a UK top class hotel!

On 12/22/2018 at 4:48 PM, david,Mississauga said:

 

That’s what I thought.  

If you eat approx mid way between sittings then surely it must be freshly cooked?

Have just heard that we have been upgraded to Britannia Club for our return journey on 3rd January.

Although its the same menu we’re assuming that it’s more freshly cooked?

As you point out, it doesn’t seem worth spending big bucks on the difference but very happy to try as an upgrade!

4 hours ago, newjoisey said:

wow....that is great news 

Yes, almost $5!!!

Have now received this reply:

Please accept our apologies. The amount of $4.37 was debited for "cabin services" - with no further explanation. As you are sure you do not recognise this amount, I have requested a refund directly back to the card with which you paid your on board account. Please note that this may take up to 14 working days.
Please be assured of our best intentions at all times.

I’ve heard nothing back from “Customer Service”. It’s only $4 so hardly worth the small claims court (!) but I’ll wait a week then follow it up. Many of you have mentioned the bottle of water, does this result in a charge of $4.37?

18 minutes ago, Fairgarth said:

May I suggest you verify that the charge is actually from Cunard?  I got annoyed when my credit card statement showed a similar 'extra' charge.  It was the bank.  I used a U.S. Visa card, issued by a U.S. bank in USD for my on-board charges which were billed in USD.  My U.S. bank added what turned out to be "Foreign exchange fee".  What foreign exchange exactly?  But it was billed from U.K. not from continental U.S.  That's all the flimsy excuse they need to hit you up again.

It says Cunard on the statement. I know what you mean though, some cards do this - but I have a Halifax Clarity card which doesn’t do this.

We received our Stateroom account, which was fine and see that our card was appropriately debited.

But then I noticed that there was another amount of $4.37 debited the day after. I can’t remember anything in the minibar of this amount, and we never use it in any case.

I’m slightly irritated that Cunard haven’t informed me about this extra bill and have emailed to query it. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

Here’s my top ten, not necessarily in order of importance.

1. A big safe ship which rides all of the storms.

2. Captains who ooze dependability.

3. The slightly faded decor of a first class hotel

4. Insight Speakers. We’ve never had a bad one and some are superb

5. The entrance into New York

6. Surf and Turf

7. They let you bring your own drinks on board

8. Music in the lounges

9. Cunard dancers

10 Lovely staff

As a self conscious weight watcher I would welcome calorie info on all the items on the menu. We do go to enjoy ourselves, but it would be good to see which choices are more sinful than others .........

On 11/21/2018 at 8:43 PM, chefandthedancer said:

Wow, so much great information. Having booked an aft 11 deck portside room, I'm unsure to try to change it or ride the waves so to speak, all good in any case, Thanks 

We’ve just come across in 11070 and that was fine.

It depends upon what you are expecting of course.

I’m very sensitive to noise and vibration, when we are on our canal boat it just needs someone nearby to start an engine to charge their batteries and I’m “off on one”! But somehow, when we’re on a liner it seems very natural and doesn’t seem a problem.

On 11/26/2018 at 5:17 PM, orchestrapal said:

 

Based on the lack of quality the Internet should be FREE!

If it was free you’d never be able to get on it at all!!!!

It’s only the fact that it is so expensive that ekes out the limited bandwidth over 2000 passengers all wanting to browse Facebook at once.

Just a tip, be very careful to log off properly. Sometimes it freezes and if you don’t persevere you can find that all your package has gone when you next come to log on. If that happens then the nice lady in Connexxions will give you back your minutes if you make a convincing case.

Anyone know what the helicopter costs? I bet that makes a dent in the insurance excess!

Just arrived in New York after mixed weather conditions. Some days were calm and we sat on the balcony (well wrapped up!) for a while. Others were fairly rough but I think there was only one day when the deck was closed. The highlight was the 3D screening of return to Jurassic Park which starts with a sequence on a boat in a stormy sea. This coincided with a decent swell and the film was much enhanced.......

It was never uncomfortable and if you like the experience of being on a big warm ship whilst everything rages outside then you will love it. But get a balcony if you can. 

We love the Winter crossings .......

Well, that seems to have stirred up a hornets nest........!

Since the original post, the food has improved somewhat. It still doesn’t seem quite as good as a few years ago - especially the breakfasts. 

We tried afternoon tea today, for the first time on this trip, and this has certainly improved. I seem to remember that the cream came in plastic containers, today it was in small pots. And the quality of everything was everything one could wish for. 

The speakers have continued to be good but the evening shows have been a little disappointing with only one outing of the Cunard dancers in 7 days. As I said before, I get the feeling that this is being looked upon as a cruise of several weeks and this week is the settling down week. Whereas for us it’s this 7 days that matters.

But please understand that we are not professional moaners - we see enough of those on board! We are just loyal passengers who hope that our return trip in January will set our minds at rest .........

For some reason the above did not send (I’m not going to add the internet to my complaints as it’s nice to be away!) and we’re now in New York.

For context, Cunard are the only line we’ve cruised with and we’ve only done the Transatlantic. I guess this route does make one think more about the services onboard as there’s nothing else to see!

Just to add a final problem - the disembarkation was the worse we have ever had - but I think this was entirely due to the US facilities and not Cunard’s fault.

As I said in the original post, we are returning on January 3rd so maybe that week will change things. I suppose that if I really analyse the last week, better kippers, hotter and more moist scrambled eggs, a little more sight of the Cunard dancers and a couple of better starters in the evening would have made all the difference. Maybe we’ve been spoilt in the past......

But thanks for everyone who replied, and hopefully Cunard read these posts?