fiomar

Thanks to everyone who has pointed this out. I have just put some dollars onto the on board account at an excellent exchange rate. It was really easy to do, person I spoke to seemed to know all about it!

We will be on the Queen Victoria cruise 8th to 22nd October; one of the ports is Barcelona where I have a friend I would like to arrange to meet. All it says on the itinerary is arrive early morning and leave early evening. What do these times mean? Would we have time to meet for drinks say at 5pm and still have time to get back to the boat?

Secondly does anyone know if you can drive private cars onto the port, there?

Have a brilliant holiday. We came back from New York in July in the same room 4011 and loved it. The water wasn't brilliant so the extra space in the room was good. The weather on the crossing is hard to predict we had a mix some warm and sunny others chilly and a bit foggy. spa is well worth the money and the library and talks were great. I thought the entertainment on the whole was poor, though the classical musicians were good as were the RADA productions. We loved the food, afternoon tea and lunch in the pub or Sir Samuel's was a regular treat and the drinks in and the view from the Commodore superb.

the weather in New York should be fine as all being well the heat and humidity should be less than in July. Really depends what you want to do, we loved the Frick Museum, the Tenement Museum and shopping! The Met and the Cloisters are other 'must sees'. If you haven't done the 9/11 memorial would also suggest that.

Have a wonderful time, we hope to cross again next year.

We booked a late saver fare in mid June this year for the July 14th TA crossing from New York. We booked the cheapest inside stateroom. We were upgraded to an outside room 4011. On arrival on the ship we found that we had the late sitting for dinner which was what we wanted. We find that the loss of the hour at lunchtime means that the early sitting is just too early to eat dinner.

We were on a table for 6 but most of the time there were only 4 of us. Our companions were good company and we met a couple of times for drinks before dinner as well as eating with them.

All in all we had a great holiday and thought it was fantastic value.Whilst there were clearly a range of people on board we found that there were enough people like us; for us to have a good holiday, classical music, 3D opera, RADA presentations and intelligent talks as well as good food! Though some of the entertainment did seem to be aimed at a rather different clientele, we did not have to attend! The service was excellent and very helpful, all in all a wonderful experience.

We booked in June for the July 14th QM2 crossing and got a cheap inside guarantee cabin. The cost was £699 each including our flights to NYC. We were upgraded to an outside cabin about a couple of weeks before departure. We booked direct with Cunard and it was my second and my daughter's first trip with Cunard.

It was a clever move on Cunard's part, we loved the cabin and will probably book it or similar explicitly in future at least for Atlantic crossings, as having seen them we are no longer sure that we would enjoy an inside cabin.

Further to the upgrades, we booked directly with Cunard and I wonder if that made a difference. When we booked our inside guarantee room the oceanview rooms were shown as being fully booked, .

A smart move though on Cunard's part as I think we would not 'risk' booking an inside guarantee again. Indeed our room was so good and spacious and quiet and convenient that in future we might ask for it specially.

We were on the same cruise as Stu and Karl and indeed were their table companions. Whilst I agree with much that they said I think that the food was better than they imply, we found that there was always a reasonable choice of dishes and with the exception of one dessert really enjoyed all the meals and felt they compared well with the best restaurants around where we live, Surrey and the Scottish Highlands. Room service and food in the Sir Samuel coffee bar were also excellent and the afternoon tea was a highlight of our trip on several days.

We also found the lectures excellent especially the Broadway producer, Nigel West, Robin Oakley and the US General. We were somewhat underwhelmed with the entertainment and felt that this was the weakest part of the whole week, though this is possibly a matter of personal taste. Although I found the classical guitarist excellent and also enjoyed the jazz in the chart room and the string quartet. The 3D film of Madam Butterfly was also superb.

We had also booked late in June and also got an upgrade from an inside guarantee to an outside ocean view room 4011. It was excellent and spacious and we had none of the smell or shower problems encountered by Stu and Karl.

I used the spa most days and really enjoyed the facilities, never too busy, whatever time I went there.

We had a fantastic holiday , the flight included in our £699 fare was a Delta flight to Newark and was almost empty so we had plenty of room to spread out, excellent service and no queues to get into the US, very different from previous trips.

Overall this was just the holiday we had hoped for and far exceeded our expectations, Cunard deserve enormous praise.