omah1975

Did anyone else receive an email to say that Queen Anne's maiden voyage will be to Lisbon?

I'm in a wheelchair and therefore find it quite difficult to wear a formal jacket due to the way it hangs when I'm in my chair, I've been on the QM2 about half a dozen times, the first couple of times I just wore a Waistcoat and Bow Tie in the Britannia Restaurant and had no problems but the third or fourth time the Maitre'D approached me and was quite rude about the fact that I wasn't wearing a jacket, even though we explained to him the reasons why, so after that I bought a jacket and wear it on formal nights on every cruise even though I do not like the way it looks on me.

17 hours ago, Addict said:

Just curious, when is everyone due to sail on Iona?  We've probably all mentioned it at some time or another but wondering who is due to be on the earliest cruises?  We are scheduled for 14 November 2020.

Last month I booked a cruise on Iona for April next year.

Thanks for the reply, there is not an excursion for this on my cruise which is the main reason I wrote my original post.

Hello, I would really appreciate some help please. I am in a wheelchair and I am booked on a cruise on Sapphire Princess to the Canary Islands with my mum in April next year, and after doing some research discovered that the Canary Islands are quite a good place to see whales so I would like if possible to book a wheelchair accessible whale watching tour and therefore my reason for posting is to ask if anyone knows of any companies that offer such a service. After doing some searching I did find one company that said they took wheelchairs but after contacting them and explaining that I am unable to walk at all they advised that it would be extremely difficult for me. As we are stopping in Madeira on the way to the Canary Islands which also happens to be a good place to see whales I will also post this message on the Other Mediterranean Ports board as well (as there does not appear to be a board for Portugal) so as many people see my message as possible.

Thank you.

Hello, I would really appreciate some help please. I am in a wheelchair and I am booked on a cruise on Sapphire Princess to the Canary Islands with my mum in April next year. We are stopping off in Madeira on the way to the Canary Islands and after doing some research discovered that Madeira is quite a good place to see whales so I would like if possible to book a wheelchair accessible whale watching tour and therefore my reason for posting is to ask if anyone knows of any companies that offer such a service. I have also posted this message on the Canary Islands board and also the Disabled Cruise Travel board so as many people as possible see my message.

Thank you.

Hello, I would really appreciate some help please. I am in a wheelchair and I am booked on a cruise on Sapphire Princess to the Canary Islands with my mum in April next year, and after doing some research discovered that the Canary Islands are quite a good place to see whales so I would like if possible to book a wheelchair accessible whale watching tour and therefore my reason for posting is to ask if anyone knows of any companies that offer such a service. After doing some searching I did find one company that said they took wheelchairs but after contacting them and explaining that I am unable to walk at all they advised that it would be extremely difficult for me. As we are stopping in Madeira on the way to the Canary Islands which also happens to be a good place to see whales I will also post this message on the Other Mediterranean Ports board as well (as there does not appear to be a board for Portugal) and also the Disabled Cruise Travel board so as many people see my message as possible.

Thank you.

I received the email too, most of the survey was not relevant to me as I only ever eat in the Main Dining Room (or the buffet at breakfast and lunch). If they really are that interested in what guests want in the new ship I assume there will be follow up surveys to come.

I live near Southampton and the only place they could realistically put her is at the redeveloped Mayflower Park/Town Quay area which hasn't even been given the full go ahead yet so I doubt it would happen. There were plans at one point to bring her to the Thames which had the backing of then London Mayor Boris Johnson but the Dubai owners said no.

WOW, this is beginning to get forensic. My take is the percentage of promenade enthusiasts (and I am one of them) is so overwhelmingly small compared to those who never set foot on it, or even know there is a promenade would not influence making the requisite design changes (cost.)

 

FYI: There was a SOLAS regulation about 15 years ago that imposed lifeboats be no more than 43' above the waterline. Those lifeboats aren't going to gain any height.

 

CUNARD's concept (with new tonnage) would be to expand their customer base - grow their product offering, converting cruisers from other brands which most likely don't have a large or loyal promenade deck guest following. I've been on ships with decent promenade decks that are empty from dawn til dusk. I'm afraid there aren't many of us left. The joggers and walkers will have to (and usually do without avail) settle for a track up top and frankly speaking, I'm not quite sure many of them are steamer chair, rug and bouillon folks. What happened to the bouillon? This would be particularly true if CUNARD geared this ship to the AMERICAN market. Rock climbing for God's sake. Does anyone miss those?

 

There are some trade offs with the K-DAM footprint (which I have been on) in our favor. For example, the main, mid-ship pool embedded in a wonderful two story domed oasis is amazing. While not a KDAM fan (see my earlier post), I'm confident (optimistic) CUNARD will have license to continue their tradition with the iconic lounges and dining venues by re-configuring the design foundation of the public decks (to a certain degree) as opposed to what Holland America tried to do and IMO failed. Remember HAL is trying to reinvent themselves - CUNARD has a proven, established and widely accepted tradition of how their product is delivered. I love what they did with QE.

 

Change is inevitable and if the only transition or evolution is a reduced promenade (a tunnel is correct) than so be it. I'm sure she will have some extraordinary features we won't know about. Heck, delivery is 5 years off. They may not cut steel for another 3 years, so there's a very large window for ensuring the ship is perhaps more than we could ever imagine. Everything could change in that time frame, look at VIRGIN's new ship(s) and in fact it may. Technology and design are moving ahead at breakneck speeds.

 

Of the items on my wish list (simple), I'd like to see them emulate QM2's new single staterooms and put a bunch of them on this new ship. They sell out, always, and I fell in love with #3002 (QM2). I'm so happy with CUNARD frankly, whatever we end up with will no doubt be a great ship (albeit a tad ugly). If anyone believes the Westerdam is anything like the QE or QV except for the bones, look again. Thank you CUNARD.

 

SV

I agree, I think that it's much more important what she is like inside than out, once your onboard your not really going to see what she looks like. As I said before, I'm looking forward to seeing what new innovations they come up with.

Well according to this website they might call her Britannia because any other name might be too controversial? https://cruisearabiaonline.com/2017/09/26/cruise-industry-cunard-face-dilemma-in-choosing-name-for-fourth-ship/

I highly doubt that seeing as P&O already have a Britannia.

Trivia question ... I note the statement from Cunard about this new build mentions this will be “the first time since 1998 that we’ll have four ships in simultaneous service”.

 

How many ships were in similtaneous service within the Cunard fleet when it was at its largest?

 

I do not know the answer to that question so I would be interested to learn what the answer is from our many Cunard historians on this forum.

There is a list of the Cunard fleet past, present and future on their Wikipedia page here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunard_Line

As to what the new ship should be called (or not) I would think that Queen Anne would be one of the favourites, I sincerely hope that Queen Camilla is not chosen. Changing the subject slightly, the press release put out yesterday has this quote "Distinct Cunard signatures and brand new experiences will combine as part of this next generation of the Cunard fleet" in it, so what brand new experiences would anyone like to see on the ship? As I said in the thread I started a while back about a possible successor to the QM2 when the time comes, one of the features I have seen on another ship that I have really liked are the Virtual Balconies on Anthem Of The Seas. I'm in a wheelchair so need a wheelchair accessible cabin, the first cruise I ever did was a westbound transatlantic crossing on the QM2 and we had a cabin with a porthole and I couldn't really see out so since then we have always chosen an inside cabin (this also saves money) so having the Virtual Balcony on the Anthem Of The Seas made it feel just that bit more special to me.

I'm rather surprised by this news, I wonder what they will call her.

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

I just looked at the two links listed above as I'm going on the Queen Victoria next May, the guest speakers for my cruise aren't listed yet but I noticed what appears in my opinion to be quite a big mistake. On the 2-7 February 2018 cruise on the Queen Victoria it says John Peters RAF Squadron Leader and Gulf War President when it should say Gulf War Prisoner of War as his Tornado aircraft was shot down by a shoulder launched SAM and he was captured along with his navigator John Nicol and they were held captive until the end of the Gulf War.

I wouldn't be surprised if most ships are fully electric by then, either from solar or wave power. One feature I would like to see would be the virtual balcony that is on some Royal Caribbean vessels. I'm in a wheelchair and the very first cruise I took was a westbound transatlantic crossing on the QM2 and we had a cabin with a porthole and I couldn't really see out of it so every cruise since then we have booked an inside cabin (mostly to save money to be honest). A couple of years ago we went on the Anthem Of The Seas and thought the virtual balcony was one of her best features.

I realise it's quite a long way off yet but I've been watching a few Youtube videos of QM2 lately and one that I saw (I'm not sure when it was from) mentioned that she will only sail for another 37 years. I know this is partly due to the problems with the vibrations from the Mermaid pods which have apparently taken 10 years off the life of the hull so I started this thread as I'd be interested in what people think might happen to her and what her replacement (assuming there will be one) will be like and what sort of things you would like to see on board as regards facilities and such like and also what name do you think it should have. If there's already a similar thread to this already then I'm quite happy for this one to be deleted if someone will point me in the direction of an existing thread.

Thanks.

About time too, although I do think that they should have added the time he managed to avoid jail onto his sentence. Regardless of that, 16 years for what he did is nowhere near long enough in my opinion.

Just thought I'd add my thoughts, I've read through all the posts in this thread as I'm booked on Anthem at the end of October, I definitely saw Dreamworks advertised in the UK brochure and am sure it was specifically mentioned on the cruise I'm booked on (October 27th transatlantic). I think it's pretty disgraceful that they have misled so many people about this and even though I'm 40, love the Dreamworks films so was quite looking forward to seeing something on board, I am sure that Watchdog would be very interested in this story if someone hasn't already contacted them I think it is definitely worthwhile, also the ASA and maybe ABTA too.

I'm booked on the October 27th sailing on the Anthem Of The Seas in Stateroom 11525 as I'm in a wheelchair so need an accessible cabin, it's right next to the Adventure Ocean so was wondering if anyone on here has stayed in this Stateroom and if so how noisy it gets, obviously during the day it's not an issue as we won't be in the stateroom much but in the evenings it might be, I'm not going to change the booking (I can't anyway as it was the only one available) I'm just curious how noisy it might be. Thanks.

I guess so yes.

I asked the same question as I am going on her at the end of October and was pointed to this site:

http://hjorth.com/menus-from-anthem-of-the-seas/

The menus change half way through apparently.

thanks for this, but made me so hungry looking at it :)

Me too! I didn't understand the difference between menus (eg American Icon Grill Pacific and Atlantic).

Someone else posted this. They change menus halfway through the cruise.

http://hjorth.com/menus-from-anthem-of-the-seas/

Thanks for the reply.

I'm sailing on the Anthem at the end of October and was hoping someone could clarify something for me if possible. On the Royal Caribbean website where it talks about the restaurants, it says that the menus listed are just sample menus, does this mean that there are other choices available other than what's listed on the sample menu, and if this is the case, does anyone who has been on the Anthem have any copies of the actual menus that they could upload somewhere for me to look at please?

Thank you.

This is a vexing problem for a lot of people coming into the port. I live in NJ so I haven't had to figure it out but I will work on it.

 

First of all, there should be accessible taxis coming into the port. You are correct in that the port is close to the city, but 7 miles and a river make it very far away.

 

Where is your hotel? Can you transfer from the chair?

 

Here is how I would do it. I would try to take the light rail from Bayonne to the ferry terminal, take the ferry to Manhattan and then take the free bus from the ferry to my hotel. I have no idea if that would work or how intrepid you feel.

 

I've checked the light rail map and see that they don't go to the port. I would take a taxi to the NY Waterways Ferry Terminal (there is one at Exchange Place in Jersey City). Or, I would call Uber.

 

 

Good luck and I would love to hear suggestions from others.

 

Kate

First of all, thank you for the reply it was very helpful with lots of good ideas. I have found a taxi company called Dial 7 who will be able to take us from the port to our hotel in Manhattan. They have a freephone number for people from the UK to call when booking a taxi which is a very customer friendly option in my opinion as calling the US from here in the UK is quite expensive.