Wjm989

Interesting also to see the rest of her prow loaded on top of the section.

I'm sure we've all seen it but now that the deck plans have been released it is clear that the ship growing on Google Maps has indeed been Queen Anne. Here we can see the void of the Queen's Room among other features.

I think we can safely assume that the updated livery - and lets be thankful that it is a fairly minor one - will be rolled out across the rest of the fleet. What will be interesting is if they wait until QA debuts before doing that, or if they roll it out next time the current fleet are in their (bi)annual overhaul periods.

IIRC Carnival announced their new livery as part of the Mardi Gras announcements, but then actually debuted the new livery before Mardi Gras was even delivered. If that's the case, does anyone know when the current trio are due for some time out? 

Alternatively, the changes are so minor that we might end up seeing them implemented as and when, which of course P&O did a few years ago.

As unimpressed and disappointed with the name, I can get on board with the full caps bow name - which of course harks back to the original Queens Mary and Elizabeth. I also can't decide if the funnel looks massive simply because the windscoop has been omitted, or if they have indeed scaled it up a bit. The midships exhaust is a shame because it interrupts the classic liner look but hey ho, it'll be required.

The lobby is a bit P&O but done well I'm sure will be lovely. If that 2nd space is the Queen's Room......

Oh I know all about how awful Isabelle was - hence my absolute belief that Isabella (and KJ) have been put in there as red herrings. My sincere hope is that they know we're all expecting QA and if this is "the first of the Halifax Class" then we're actually in for two new ships, Mauretania (3) and Aquitania (2)...

I suppose it is all down to where the bosses see Cunard. If they do not see growing the brand beyond this 4th ship then sticking to a 'Queen' makes perfect sense (Queen Isabella????where the hell has that come from) but if they see scope to continue a slow growth beyond this ship then absolutely builds the case for going back to other Cunard names, given that they've pretty much already run out of Queen names. 

Surprised Caronia is not there, to be honest. KJ and QI are bizarre...

Slightly related....a good friend of mine is director of hotel ops for P&O at Carnival House and when I grilled him the other week all he would tell me is that "Cunard have registered five new ship names at the registry port (presumably Hamilton but he couldn't confirm) and it will be one of them". Unfortunately, I have thus far had zero luck in finding an up to date list of vessels registered at Hamilton or for that matter Southampton or London that includes and potential new Cunarders.

On 10/10/2019 at 10:22 PM, hullmackem said:

Like i said surely we can do better than ships built in the mid 90's, like an earlier post stated its like TUI think we'll tolerate it.

I was working aboard Celebration when the transfer of Discovery was announced in 2015 and the number of pax moaning about 'big new ships' shocked the company. New ships will depend on what TUI/Royal Caribbean have in mind for the Marella brand. I suspect that they wouldn't want to grow it to the size where new ships are really a requirement as the English-speaking cruise market is already well populated (unlike the German market).

They hold the nightclub function up in VIking Crown.

Viking Crown? Not what I expected. Does it work OK?

Also, if anyone here has been on Freedom or Liberty since their drydocks, where has become the nightclub since 'Labyrinth' has been lost...

Do we know where the drydock will take place? We just came off the Northern Europe one and wondered if her one-time only call at Hamburg was a test run for a potential dry dock there...

Just as a note of interest, Discovery is now out of the drydock and floating once more :)

You can use the climbing wall when the ship is underway...

Debating whether or not to weigh in on this, but here's the two-pennies (cents if you must) of a more-than-likely-younger-than-the-average avid cruiser.

Firstly, I'll admit my experience of Cunard only reaches back as far as 2005, so I have never experienced Cunard as a non-Carnival entity.

I agree 100% that Cunard has an identity crisis. Whether this identity crisis is exacerbated by its shared management with P&O is probably debatable - I'm not sure that Cunard would know its direction even as a completely independent brand of Carnival.

Fleet is an interesting issue. I recently completed my fourth cruise on QM2 and I consistently come away with the same feeling of both having enjoyed every second of it yet feeling like a disappointed parent of a lazy child. As wonderful as my experiences of her have been, I always moan about the same problems. I have yet to experience the QV/E but am eager too because, generally, they are well spoken of. My grandparents racked up 63 voyages on QE2, tried Mary once and vowed never again but were won back by QV/E. I would be very interested to see if they feel as unloved as I often find QM2 feels.

I can't help but feel that perhaps the investment it would take to keep QM in tip-top condition and really hit the marks it should do would (as previously commented) perhaps preclude me from being able to enjoy her again for a while!

As to future ships, it's a tough one to call. I don't believe that anything much smaller than QV will appear. Something akin to Oriana/Aurora perhaps.

However, given current trends within Carnival, I think it's more likely that we'll see some Pinnacle Class ships built for Cunard. From what we've seen so far, the new Koningsdam looks pretty nice, and it would be a logical next-step up from QE.

The major issue with direction, I think, is the over reliance that Cunard now has on the 'Queen' branding. I think as it stands there's no future for that to continue into new ships (if nothing else there are just not enough names that work) IF Cunard are to receive new ships, then the question as to whether the QV/E were truly deserving of their names after all. The bank of names available to Cunard is so rich, but whether they would recycle any is another question. It's a shame that Britannia will now be unavailable for quite some time!

Before anything is done, Carnival needs to decide just how much they want the Cunard brand to survive. As others have pointed out, competition for the Cunard market is increasing, especially as we come out of the most recent period of financial difficulty. I am skeptical as to how someone can effectively head up one operation while also the top dog of a separate entity...

For now, I will hope that some of the more interesting ideas out there come to fruition (for example the talked about/planned revival of a liner service between UK/Australia) and the ideal situation would be for another line to introduce a Transatlantic service once or twice a year that would *force* Cunard to up their game.

BUT in conclusion I will mention the biggest issue of them all. I have already said that I always enjoy my time despite all the complaints. I believe that Cunard know full well that enough people will continue to come back because of the positives that ultimately outdo the negatives. I was even foolish enough to say this after the 3rd voyage on the post-cruise feedback (oops!)

I guess nothing will really change until it really has to!

Crossed the Pond on Queen Mary this August. A lovely experience, as it always is, BUT.

It astounds me how in so many places it looks as though someone at HQ pulled the plug on keeping her in tip-top condition.

Stained carpets, chipped woodwork, scuffed furniture, odours (particularly unpleasant was the strong diesel/exhaust smell that was most noticeable at our dining table), backed up toilets (as we approached NY it seemed that most of the toilets on D7 were out of order) uneven floors everywhere (we did see them patching one particularly bad pot-hole up one night) a lovely layer of green slime around the waterline in the pools (which came off if scratched, so there's no reason for it to exist, just needs a good scrub from time to time!) nothing seemed to work properly in the spa...

Not good if the refurb has been pushed into 2016!

Edit: drydock pushed into 2016 according to a friend who is currently dancing onboard. Will let you know month when he finds out!

Can I vote for none of the above?

I love Mary, but that doesn't mean I don't think there are many, many things I would have done differently.

I've not sailed on QV/QE but there's such a wide pic of similar ships now that I'm not too fussed about trying them out.

I'd like to see something size wise similar to Oriana/Aurora. I find them generally very aesthetically pleasing (they still look 'ship' like) Ideally 1500-1800 pax.

As for names, they should re-use their heritage names. Mauretania is the obvious first choice, followed by a host of many others.