Lynnewob

2 minutes ago, Werangels said:

 

I don’t think it crashed into the actual terminus.  It looks like the Zattere lower down. 

It does look a little further down when looking at more videos. 

There has been an accident at San Basilio cruise terminal today with MSC Opera and a river boat.   The news is saying 5 are injured (no fatalities thankfully) due to the MSC ship's inability to stop and hitting it. 

We are joining the Pursuit at San Basilio on 10 June.   Do you think the embarkation terminal will be changed?

We were on this cruise and found everything fine, although admit we didn't use the buffet at all. We walked through it once but never stayed to eat as buffets are not our thing.  We did use the International Cafe for a quick snack/cookie if needed on our return from port which was really useful.

We had an aft cabin and didn't have any issues with air conditioning, only the shower cubicle which didn't drain properly.  This was mentioned to our steward who said he has tried to rectify the problem several times but couldn't.  We have had the same issue on Cunard, so it's not just a Princess problem.

We were very pleased with the public spaces on board, everything seemed clean and tidy and the public toilets were always very clean.   It was generally warm around the ship but that is normal when on a cooler weather cruise, so we adjust our clothing accordingly.  We don't wear heavy clothing if we are not venturing outside and just add a jacket if we plan to walk around the decks.

We did miss the first port of Zeebrugge due to poor weather but that can happen at any time, however we had an automatic refund of port taxes on our onboard account.

I did see huge queues at reception on the last sea day before disembarkation and have never seen queues like it before so not sure if lots of people had issues and just hadn't reported them before or just wanted to query something on their account. 

We checked our account regularly and reported any discrepancies immediately.  This is easy to do using the free wifi (in airplane mode) on any electronic device.  You are advised how to set this up in the Patter on the first day.  It makes life easier as it also shows events happening each day around the ship to save carrying the Patter with you. I also liked the machines near to the desk where you can print out your account, so you don't need to ask reception to do this.

It was a full sailing so I appreciate moving cabins would be problematic but at least this happened. On some sailings, it just is not possible.

Love reading your blog Roscoe.  Thanks for keetping us entertained throughout your voyage.

I see Desiree has had a promotion and thoroughly deserved it is too.   She looked after the four of us admirably as our main waiter in PG in Oct 2017 in the Med.  Here's our photo with her.

It is also open for the Suez Canal transit, together with the slimmer deck just above on deck 6.

Happy Christmas to you too and a very Merry Christmas to all Cunarders out there.

Lynne and Mark

We stayed in the Steigenberger Hotel which had nice views over the river and also about a 3 block walk through the designer shopping street to the main area where the Town Hall is. 

We were lucky to be upgraded to a suite so it made it even better.

We did a Vista suite to Alaska on Grand Princess in September on D deck.

The first night speciality dining is available for all suites.  We ate in Crown Grill.

We used Crown Grill for breakfast every morning and were served by Sabatinis staff, they alternative which staff serve breakfast every cruise, so the trip after ours would have been served by Crown Grill staff.

The final breakfast is served in the Club Class dining room, rather than Sabatinis.

Giovanni is the Head Waiter in Club Class and cooks a speciality meal every night to give you an alternative option than what's on the menu. 

Thank you for your responses.   I will email Richard now. 

Have asked this question in the midst of another thread, but thought i would enquire on a thread of its own.

Looking to embark Pursuit on 10 June 2019. The ship is in port on 11 June until 10pm.

1. Can we embark/fully check in if we arrive at the ship after midnight on 10 June?

2. Can we embark/fully check in if we arrive at the ship at around 1pm on 11 June?

I do not know if check in staff are available at all times of the day, or only on 10 June, say between 1130 and 1700 perhaps.

I am happy to miss a night on board if we do number 2 as we have been to Venice many times but CAN we check in?

I look forward to hearing from anyone who can assist.

If no one minds, can I ask a further question on this thread re: embarkation in Venice on 10 June 2019.

If the ship doesn't depart until 11 Jun at 10pm, what is the latest time I could check in 10 June?

I can get a flight on frequent flier miles on 10 June that arrives into Venice at 2325.  Can I still check in on 10 June in the early hours?

If that is not possible, can I check in at lunchtime the following day (11 June) as there is an alternative flight early the next morning, arriving at 1205.  I appreciate it means missing 1 night on board, but having done Venice many times, I don't mind missing a ship night or even roaming around VCE for the day.

The issues is, are the check in staff available at all times?

I have had a few in all categories.

If you are willing to accept whatever they give you, then it will be fine.

Only once I contacted them when we were allocated an accessible cabin to see if we could be moved and told it was not possible as there were no other cabins in that category available. I kept checking online and amazingly a standard cabin in the same category popped up the day before sailing. Cunard agreed to move us into it as I imagine it was unlikely they could re-sell it so late in the day. Any other time, we would not have been moved.

Well done Cruise Raider on the upsell. It'll be wonderful to have the balcony and lovely for your anniverary.

We are on board with you too in a Vista on D deck.

Looking forward to it - just need to get my head around what to pack - everything but the kitchen sink seems to be planned so far!

Have just returned from 2 nights in this cabin again.

Still love it, the position is perfect and it's interesting watching everything going on dockside as you are so close. It has so much natural light coming from the two large windows.

Re: the shower, I thought it was fixed as I had a lovely hot shower in the morning, but on the second morning, I couldn't get it above warm again so really not sure what's going on there.

Majortom - on the 10 Aug QM2 departure, it has been moved from Ocean to City terminal, with QV using Ocean instead. My original eticket said Ocean but it has been changed to City recently. I don't know the reason why as I thought QM2 took precedence at Ocean terminal due to its size. Not sure if it's because there is supposed to be a Red Arrows sailway on 10 August - not long to wait now though.

Answering Indiana's query, if using CPS, they drive your car away from one terminal, park it elsewhere for the cruise duration and return it to whichever terminal the ship is scheduled to arrive at. If coming into QEII terminal, you will have to walk through the "shed" to collect your keys from the hut, walk over the road and into the car park opposite to collect your car.

Deck chair - Looking forward to reading your reports.

You are on the way to pick us up in Southampton for a short trip to Hamburg. The 3 Queens will be in Southampton when you arrive at City Terminal (which is a change to the originally planned Ocean terminal where QV will be (QE at QEII terminal).

If you are staying on board until Hamburg, we will have to meet up.

We've done 2 fly cruises with Cunard and opt for the LHR departure each time due to the generous baggage allowance, against using the regions which is a lot less at 20kg and 5kg.

If you book early enough, you will be allocated a Cunard BA charter flight. If booked late, they will put you on a scheduled BA flight instead.

They both allow 23kg cabin and hold luggage, but the cabin bag has to be within certain dimensions (check BA website for that). You will also be allowed a handbag/laptop bag too.

They usually charter the old 767s which are seated 2 3 2 and the front section are the old Club Europe seats which are ever so slightly larger, up to about row 10 I think. You CANNOT pre book seats like on scheduled. Cunard pass the details to BA beforehand and seats are allocated by date of booking (not on ship grade of cabin type) so you could sit together as a couple or could be across the aisle, or separately around the cabin if late bookers.

The first one we went on a meal was provided, but the second one was buy on board - cash was not allowed, it was only payment by card or by using BA Avios points. It's the usual M&S buy on board menu which I don't like, so took my own Boots meal deal on board instead.

Hope this clears things up a little.

As it usually overnights in Quebec, you do not have the problem of waiting for it to dock and be cleared by the port, so you can disembark at any time if you want a really early flight. If you self disembark, whicn can be done really early, you must be able to take ALL your luggage off the ship yourself and tell the pursers office the day before that you want to do this.

If you cannot manage your own luggage, they usually disembark by deck and stack the luggage in colour co-ordinated sections for collection. This usually starts a little later at say 8 or 8.30am and begins with Grills/Diamond first, then highest deck downards.

The good thing is that not everyone will be disembarking in Quebec so you are not fighting with 2800 other passengers to get off so there will be less of a wait between disembarkation times.

We had a late flight and were allowed to stay on board until around 12 and the port area retained our luggage in a secure area enabling us to wander around Quebec until 4.30 ish luggage free and then use the Cunard provided transfer to the airport.

Thank you for posting these.

Again, it is a shame there are no Med fly cruises, only the longer Ston round trips to the Med on QV.

Thanks everyone - that's a lot of different responses!

The original plan was to carry it on in the store's carrier bag and ask if they would hold it for us until disembarkation but I'm a little uncertain now as it seems it could be down to the mood/different understanding of a particular person on the day.

Yes, we do return to SF and our flight doesn't leave until 1630 so I think we will ask the store to hold it for us until we return and pack it into our hold luggage. I don't want to risk confiscation.

Elipooh, yes we are on the same trip as you. It is a Scotch whisky that does special editions for various countries and can only be purchased there. We have the Nordic and Russian editions and just need the US and Canadian editions (with the US one now sourced in SF which is great).

I had planned to use the pier to store our luggage while we mooch around SF on our return, so it should be easy to pop into a case before we go to the airport.

As we have never sailed Princess before, I am not sure of the policy regarding boarding with alcohol.

I am aware of the 2 wine bottles per person and any wine over that amount will be subject to a $20 charge.

My query is that there is a special bottle of whisky husband wishes to buy and it can only be purchased in San Francisco where we board. It is a US only collectors edition and we want to take it back home with us to the UK to add to his existing collection. If we ask Princess on boarding, will they hold it for us until the last night before disembarkation, which is fine. What I do not want them to do it confiscate it and say we cannot get it back.

If anyone can let us know, it would be appreciated.

I've just rebooked 3002 again on a short 2nt cruise.

I have made sure that it is marked "do not upgrade" as the cabin is perfect and I don't travel solo very often as I am usually with my husband but he couldn't get away for this trip. I said no upgrade as I could be moved into one of the oceanview cabins near the bow which vary in size and are darker due to only one window or to an obstructed view/sheltered balcony which I don't like, so it's wonderful to have this same cabin again.

I had this exact cabin between HK and Singapore and found it perfect also. It had lots of space and definitely felt more spacious than a standard balcony cabin for two.

I was a little worried having the first cabin into the access corridor when booking but didn't get any noise from the door to corridor as not many people used as a walkway so it was very quiet.

I did have a minor issue with not getting hot showers, they tended to be warm instead, but would have that cabin in a heartbeat again if travelling solo.

It was fun watching the tenders leave when in port as I was very close to them and waved at people I knew as their tender was leaving.

I spoke to the room steward to enquire if I could view a deck 2 single cabin to compare size but there wasn't one free for me to do so. He felt the deck 3 cabins appeared more spacious too, although the brochure states deck 2 are larger. If there was a choice, I'd take deck 3 over 2 anyday.

The location was perfect for the end of a busy night in the casino, not so much though for my pre-dinner drinks in the Commodore Club!

We were also on this short trip and enjoyed it.

We arrived at 12.30 and queued for about 45 minutes in the priority line and felt so sorry for the people in the normal line who waited for a couple of hours.

The weather was gorgeous as we embarked and many people were on the outside decks. If we had left on time, we would have had a wonderful sailaway, but we left late when a thunderstorm (which was forecast for earlier in the day) happened. It is a shame we had to leave the aft decks at about 6.30 as we wanted to get ready for the evening. The rain was so heavy, despite this, people were still waving from the shore.

We had a balcony cabin on deck 11 which was switched from an accessible cabin on deck 8 a couple of days before in the same grade. All the paperwork was in German and we were given half bottle of Pol Acker. The steward quickly changed everything for us, including giving us a full bottle of Pol Acker.

We had the worst muster drill ever - crammed into the Kings Court in a tiny corridor between 2 cooking areas. It was so hot, I nearly passed out.

Having caught up with my favourite bartender in the Commodore Club, she advised me there were only 600 continuing on to New York, therefore 2,200 were doing just the two nights.

Dinner in Britannia on the first night was really nice and we could not fault the service. The sommelier was very stretched but managed admirably. We had done a recce of our table in the afternoon and was shown by the head waiter to it. However, someone was sat there already and had already started eating bread rolls. We said we didn't mind moving if there was another table for two, but they moved the couple into Britannia Club. I think they were the couple who had our room beforehand and must have been upgraded to Club, that's how our cabin became free.

After dinner we were in a very quiet casino and stayed until 2am when it closed around us.

The next morning, despite putting our breakfast card outside the room very late we still had breakfast delivered on time. We were not sure if it would arrive, but it did, so we were very pleased.

We had a mooch around the shops in the day, drinks in the champagne bar and saw Dr Payne's lecture which was excellent.

Following more drinks pre-dinner in Commodore Club sitting at the bar and chatting to Alex, we went to dinner where they served a huge lamb shank portion. We had a lovely chat with our table neighbours, 2 German couples who were flying straight back home after disembarkation and the other side a couple from Manchester whose flight got cancelled, so they didn't get the night in Hamburg they had planned before embarking (instead staying in a Manchester hotel) and flew in the next morning via Zurich at their own expense. We didn't see them the first night as they were so shattered after the flight issues and late arrival. The LHR Eurowings flight leaving on the morning of 1 June was cancelled too and people arrived into Hamburg via Frankfurt. I am so pleased we flew the day before from London where we only had a 1 hour delay and a lovely night in the Steigenbert hotel before boarding.

We had another good night in the casino - again staying until it closed. It is a pity we missed the show as I thought it was just the orchestra playing various Motown songs, not male singers, which I would have liked to have seen. Oh well, I am sure there will be another time.

We woke up to a fabulous sunny morning in Southampton with P&O Britannia following us in.

We went down at 6.30am for breakfast in the Britannia dining room, quickly shown to a table for 2 and had very fast service whilst there. We left our cabin at 8.15 and disembarked straight away, with my nieces chauffeur driving us home.

All in a all, a wonderful trip albeit short.

I understand about 1200-1400 Aussies were boarding for New York on the final leg of a trip on the 3 Queens. Here's hoping they have a great time on board.

Be careful on the Q6's on the QV now. They used to have huge open balconies on decks 4 and 5 but no longer.

The refit on deck 6 to the Q1s has caused those on deck 5 to have a large overhang now. Those on deck 4 are not as affected.