All access to ask.cunard.com now blocked from U.S.

As many of you will recall, attempts to access the home page of Cunard's UK FAQ site "ask.cunard.com" from the U.S. have been redirected to the home page of Cunard's U.S. web site "www.cunard.com" since September, 2015. This issue was originally discussed in the following thread.

Problem with ask.cunard.com from the U.S.

The work-around to this issue from the U.S had been to access a specific sub-section or a specific question within "ask.cunard.com" (such as the Life On Board sub-section found at "ask.cunard.com/help/life-on-board").

Now it looks to me like any attempt to access any sub-section or any specific question on "ask.cunard.com" from the U.S. is being redirected to Cunard's U.S. FAQ site at "www.cunard.com/frequent-questions/faq/" instead.

As we have discussed here before, the site "ask.cunard.com" is specific to the UK in the sense that the answers to any country-specific questions found there (such as booking terms and conditions) only apply to the UK. So I suppose it was inevitable that Cunard would start blocking all access to "ask.cunard.com" from the U.S. It is very disappointing though since the U.S. FAQ site is so anemic in comparison to the much more robust functionality and content found on "ask.cunard.com". And this will make things more challenging on this forum since we can no longer provide a link to an answer found on "ask.cunard.com" that will work in the U.S. Nor can we research questions on "ask.cunard.com" anymore from the U.S.

I have not been able to find a work-around for this issue other than to use a VPN tunnel to make it look like I am accessing the internet from the UK. I hope this is just a temporary issue but my guess is that it is permanent and those of us in the U.S. will just have to start getting used to not being able to access "ask.cunard.com" anymore without resorting to a VPN connection to the UK.

If you are in the U.S. please let me know if you are still able to access "ask.cunard.com" just in case this issue somehow only applies to me or my ISP or if I have missed some simple work-around.

Regards, John

Neither you nor your ISP are at fault; it's Cunard. About two years ago I bookmarked a link to the UK FAQ site. Now when I click on it it takes me the far less helpful US site.

"Anemic" is a good way to describe the US site vs. the UK one.

How annoying, I guess that means the links in the Sticky don't work for you now either ?

You're correct, Hattie. The ask.cunard.com links in the Sticky take us to the US FAQ page.

Adding insult to injury, Google searches for information often turn up ask.Cunard.com results that now don't work (such as photos of obstructed balcony views).

Thanks for confirming, they do still work for us in the UK & possibly in other areas (my work computer seems to think it's in The Netherlands and I can still access links, at lunchtime of course !).

I'll add a note and I guess in the short term we'll be doing more copying & pasting.

Neither you nor your ISP are at fault; it's Cunard. About two years ago I bookmarked a link to the UK FAQ site. Now when I click on it it takes me the far less helpful US site.

Download Tunnelbear

Thanks for confirming, they do still work for us in the UK & possibly in other areas (my work computer seems to think it's in The Netherlands and I can still access links, at lunchtime of course !).

I'll add a note and I guess in the short term we'll be doing more copying & pasting.

I just tried accessing "ask.cunard.com" from a few more countries. Looks like it still works from Australia and Mexico but not from Canada.

Regards, John

... Adding insult to injury, Google searches for information often turn up ask.Cunard.com results that now don't work (such as photos of obstructed balcony views).

Yeah, this is one compelling reason I figured Cunard would never pull all access to "ask.cunard.com" from the US. They have broken a lot of google search results from the US to some very useful information about Cunard for potential new customers as well as existing customers. In my view they have shot themselves in the foot with this decision.

Regards, John

This seems to be spreading, I can't access the links from "The Netherlands" now either. How annoying.

This seems to be spreading, I can't access the links from "The Netherlands" now either. How annoying.

Interesting. Just to let you know, when I pretend I am in the Netherlands, I am still able to access "ask.cunard.com".

I notice that one of the links in the sticky no longer works though, either from the UK or the Netherlands. That's the question "How much are the drinks on board?". It looks like that question may have been deleted from the FAQ. With all the recent discussion on here about drinks prices, I suppose that's not too surprising.

One thing I notice that seems to be different now is that when I pretend I am in the UK and manually type the URL "ask.cunard.com" into my browser, it redirects me to "www.cunard.co.uk/already-booked/ask-cunard/". I don't remember it doing that before, but then maybe my memory is faulty on that point. Interestingly, the first of the "Top 5 most asked questions" listed on that page is ... (wait for it) ... "How much are the drinks on board?". But selecting that question just produces "Can't find the page you're looking for."

Regards,

John

That was the question I was trying, I'll try a different one as I'm still in the Netherlands !

Yes, the others are OK, it's just the How much are the drinks ?

Good spot !

The How much are the drinks link is working again (from the UK at least)

The How much are the drinks link is working again (from the UK at least)

I know it is covered in other threads but going onto the UK Cunard site and clicking on "how much are drinks" you will find that on the Queen Mary II Commodore Club prices that they show prices for Gin AND Tonic.Nowhere is there a separate tonic price....I am now total confused confused as previous threads have said tonic is extra

I know it is covered in other threads but going onto the UK Cunard site and clicking on "how much are drinks" you will find that on the Queen Mary II Commodore Club prices that they show prices for Gin AND Tonic.Nowhere is there a separate tonic price....I am now total confused confused as previous threads have said tonic is extra

As I said in another thread, we were on the QM2 in October and the bar menu in the Commodore Club listed gin two ways. There was a list of gins indicating the price for one or two ounces. On a separate page there was a list of tonics with the price for each. These were all branded tonics; there was no listing for the tonic that comes from the hose. On yet another page there was a list of "gin and tonic". Thanks to the advice from many on this forum we tried and became fond of Fevertree tonic so never ordered the "gin and tonic" which would be cheaper. I believe the charge for the small bottle of Fevertree was $2.75, but that was sufficient for two G & Ts of two ounces each.

The "gin and tonic" page in the Commodore Club menu shows the price for just the gin! Its the same pricing listed elsewhere for gin. I did verify that they do add the tonic price to the price shown in the menu.

The "gin and tonic" page in the Commodore Club menu shows the price for just the gin! Its the same pricing listed elsewhere for gin. I did verify that they do add the tonic price to the price shown in the menu.

That is a bit cheeky. So on one page they list gin (à la carte) and another page they list tonic. That is fair. On another page they list "gin AND (my emphasis) tonic" yet charge extra for the tonic. That would be like a restaurant menu listing "bread and butter - $1.00" but charging extra for the butter.