MeredithFairfax

We have only travelled during school holidays so can't compare it to a non-school holiday. However, we have been to the Med on Elizabeth in August so I can tell you that there are a number of children around - particularly around the pools as the weather was very hot. Most of the teenagers tended to stick together in a group, especially in the evenings. It's fair to say that they were well behaved whenever we saw them.

The kids club area gets very loud but as this is just a 'passing through' area for the rest of us, it wasn't a problem. There is a table tennis table near the lido pool that was constantly in use and the games deck seemed busy whenever we went past.

We certainly didn't feel that children had 'taken over' the ship - they were still in the minority, but as Summergee has said, the pools were monopolised by them. I think they were only meant to use one of the pools but in reality, they used both.

I did chat to a father of four small children who said they always wait for the last minute deals in the school holidays and at that time, Cunard was the cheapest deal around.

Except for the hull needing painting, I didn't see any problems this past fall; I was on Fall 13 & Fall 14 and saw no other major differences from all the others times I have been on. In fact, the Chart Room & Golden Lion are better than their original incarnations. Still pretty perfect, to me.

 

By the way - there are beautiful fresh flowers everywhere on the ship. something you won't normally see on mass market cruise ships. If you like the flowers, sign up for the flower arranging class. It was one of the most fun activities I have done on board. The instructor is great, you get to decorate your cabin with the beautiful arrangements, and it's an activity most people would not have time to do in "non-Cunard" (meaning normal, everyday) life

Thank you, I shall look out for the flower arranging classes :)

Being your first time onboard you are going to be amazed by the ship! She may have some wear and tear but honestly, most ships do! But it's never enough to make you think 'I shouldn't have done this'.. As really, so what if there's rusy on your balcony railing or if your sofa is a abit outdated, it's hardly enough to make you wanna jump overboard, but my main argument with this is that Cunard themseleves should have higher standards seeing as they are the ones who market themselves as 'the best & most luxurious etc etc' so why is it that passangers are finding so much rust on their 'deluxe' balconies upon boarding the ship? On any other ship they may not think anything of it but when when you've been feed so much marketing about the 'premium luxury' it's hard to not notice those little things.. And I think we all do have a right to 'complain' because Cunard need to realise if they plan on continuing to market this ship as 'the best' then they need to get ontop of their basic maintance. Im honestly shocked that each ship doesnt get a full clean, repaint and General going over before they depart on their world voyage. The ship itself is an advertisement so you would think Cunard would want it looking it's best when going around the world. She looks dirty from the photos I saw of her this week when she left Southampton! Crossing my fingers she's much cleaner by the time I board her in feb!

Thank you to everyone for your encouraging words! In reply to the above, I think that's where I am coming from too. I'm not worried about an outdated sofa etc., but when you put all the small issues together they seem to add up to a ship that is in need of a little tlc. Having travelled on QV and QE I thought QM2 would be similar in terms of cleanliness and maintenance, but perhaps this is slightly unrealistic.

We are booked on QM2 next year on a TA - never been on this ship before so we are really looking forward to it. Then I read the things on here about how tired she is/the sofas/the potholes/the rusty balconies etc etc and I'm wondering if we are doing the right thing.:confused:

We did the Cunard 2 day tour of St Petersburg and I think it was about $345.00.

 

It is very hard work as there is an evening concert which meant we returned to the ship at about 11.30pm. The meeting time the next day was about 6.15am.

Our tour didn't include the evening concert but you are absolutely right; it is exhausting seeing everything in two days, especially with the early starts.

We took the Cunard small group 2 day tour. We priced this up against the local tours such as Alla Tours and there was very little difference in price and the itinerary was very similar. I'm guessing Cunard introduced this type of small group tour in order to compete with the local ones.

There were 17 of us in our group. We arrived at the Hermitage before any other tour group and were first in line when it opened its doors. This meant we had excellent unobstructed views for most of the tour. We left the Hermitage just before they opened their doors to the public and I've never seen so many people in my life! We were also ahead of most people at Catherine Palace and some of our photos have no-one in them - just the beautiful rooms.

Our guide was excellent - very knowledgeable.

Beware though of booking the tour at the last minute - it had a waitlist for a while and then the price went up a week or so before we sailed.

When I try to make a dummy booking on the UK site I have always been asked for an email address. Maybe you are not aware of entering it.

I've never been asked for an email address. How far do you get in your 'dummy' booking? You can get all the way to choosing your stateroom number without entering anything more than a first and second name, neither of which need to be accurate.

If, however, you are going further than this, does it ask if you would like your quote sent to you? In which case, it would indeed need your email address.

Maybe you get a different experience if you put in your Cunard World Club number (or whatever it's called) right at the start. Once you do this, you are no longer anonymous of course, and this may well be linked to your email address.

Another scenario of course is that you could have unknowingly downloaded the bug BEFORE you visited Cunard site and so the name you used and your email address could have been harvested that way.

Exactly.

When making a dummy booking in the UK you have to give a name/birth date & year of birth, BUT NO EMAIL ADRESS UNLESS YOU MAKE A FIRM BOOKING. Now I did not make a firm booking & I used a completely fictitious name address ect, So how did some one in Dubai get my Email address& fictitious name which I only use for Cunard, And after spending all of yesterday searching through my computer I found a Trojan bug which I have managed to get rid of this bug must have come from Cunard UK website as I always use Cunard's website direct.

So you never go to other websites, or download emails with attachments or install programs? Sorry, but it think you are jumping to conclusions saying it's definitely the Cunard website. I'm not sure it's that easy to pinpoint it is it?

Did you report it to Cunard? Could it be your computer that is compromised? Just a thought-I'm no expert

BTW, I believe that now days if you don't attend the safety drill, they make you attend another. On our last cruise there was a Seahawks football game during the safety drill. A lot of guys just stayed and watched the game instead of going to the drill. Later they announced all of their names and "invited" them to attend a second safety drill.

I'm really surprised to hear this as I've never come across it before. How did they know who attended the drill and who did not? It sounds like a logistical nightmare to me.

Have any of you booked a "no upgrade" cabin and later been offered an upgrade for a modest additional payment? If so, I would be interested to know:

 

How close to the sailing date was the offer?

 

How was the offer made? To your email address? Via your travel agent?

 

Were you offered a specific cabin?

I asked this question of someone at Cunard reservations not so long ago. I was told that sometimes people ask for these paid upgrades but they would not be offered until a day or two before sailing. She then told me that on embarkation day, guests go straight to the pursers desk to see if there are any 'no shows' or late cancellations just in case they can upgrade. Apparently, there are always 'no shows' :eek:

The short July trip has been available each year since 2004. I know because I have been on each one. In the early years the number of days would change --sometimes 3, 4, or even 6 days. Cunard has been fairly consistent with this trip for a number of years now -- 5 days to Halifax and Boston. Next year, because of the anniversary year, the 5 day trip will not be until the end of July. Katherine

Yes you are right - I remembered after I posted earlier but forgot to re-post. It is the fact that it has been moved to the end of July that is different to normal, as you say. :)

In 2015 (July) there is an eastbound with a 5 day NY/Halifax/Bolton/NY cruise before the westbound return

 

 

That itiniary might be available in 2016 too

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It might, but I don't think it was available in 2014, 2013 or 2012. The itinerary was available at other times of the year, but I have a feeling it wasn't available in July.

I'm not absolutely certain, but I think that was the case.:)

If it was a TA in December (like our last one), I would be more concerned about being midships. But on this voyage I am thinking 33% more area is more important.

 

But we have never been on QM2. Should I be more concerned about cabin location?

No, not at all :) Your upgrade sounds great - I was just wondering.

To add a data point... We have not sailed on Cunard for 10 years (we were on the final westbound crossing on the QE2). We bought PG P1 on deck 10 for the 9/15/2014 Canada voyage.

 

Just got an upgrade email. We are now QG Q6 on deck 9...

Do you mind if I ask, are you pleased with that? I only ask because the Q6's are forward as opposed to your midships P1.

Thank you Austcruiser for a really enjoyable read. What an upgrade! No wonder you jumped up and down :D

In my view, unless you particularly want to choose the location of your cabin and you want to eat at 6.30pm there is little to be gained by paying the extra money. First sitting for dinner is very popular for some unknown reason so if you are given it you will easily be able to swap to the later sitting. In these days of stabilised ships, there is little to distinguish between forward or aft or up or down. I would suggest that you save the money, go with the cheaper fare and use the extra for drinks on board.

I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you on this one. As the OP is completely new to cruising, my advice would be to go for a midship cabin. Everyone reacts differently to sea travel, some feel every movement others really don't notice. I think it's a personal thing - but if it were my first cruise, I'd go for the safe bet. :)

You can have as much mineral water as you like in your PG suite! There will be a bottle in the fridge when you arrive. If you ask your steward, he or she will check each day if a new bottle needs to be provided.:)

How do you know to ask for it if you never knew it existed in the first place?

I feel like I've been missing out on these cookies :D

Perhaps I should just go to the buffet and ask them for a plateful of whatever it is they are hiding.....:rolleyes:

Yes, you can wear jeans, shorts, trainers - normal holiday attire really. The evening dress code is where it gets a bit trickier! I'm sure you will have a great holiday. :)

If someone makes and pays for a booking for which there would normally be only a 50% refund by the time it is made, and then they want to cancel 20 hours after they have paid for it, would they still charge you 50% of the fare when you have just made the payment? They should at least give you a 24 hour grace period.

 

Has anyone tried this?

No I haven't but isn't there some regulation that says if you sign a contract online you get a cooling off period. Can't remember exactly but I think it's 7 days. If you sign a contract in person there is no cooling off period. Not sure if a holiday booking is a 'contract' in the same sense though I'm afraid.

This is in the UK incidentally.

I was writing an on board blog live and they called my cabin.

Well, that's interesting - so perhaps someone is reading after all. Do you think you would have a different experience when writing a live blog than you would if you had already returned home? I realise this doesn't negate the fact that if your blog was posted here, then they obviously saw it, but I am interested in whether you think a live blog would demand an immediate response?

Yes, I have.

Then I stand corrected :)

Do you mind if I ask how they made contact? I notice that you post an email address in your signature - is this how they contacted you? Or was it because you are such a frequent Cunard customer that someone just knew who you were?