Second Cunard cruise - a few questions

[Onescoop]

Hi everyone,

 

Recently did our first Cunard cruise on QM2 to Hamburg and back. Naturally the 'new passenger development' cruise worked and now looking to book another!

 

We're looking at V521 next year, which is the Barcelona > Citavecchia, 18 Aug - 1 Sep cruise via Italy and the Adriatic on QV. Thinking of booking now as there's an OBC and champagne breakfast offer but I have a few questions, which I can't quite find an answer to:

 

- Does anyone know if the Barcelona sales tax is applied to drinks package purchases on embarkation? We'd use the OBC to pay a decent chunk of one drinks package, but this is much less attractive if we have to pay the onboard purchase premium and sales tax too.
- Do Cunard cruises ever get cheaper? The price for a Britannia Balcony has increased by about £500 in the last week, so not sure whether to hold off and see if there's a sale. It appears that the rooms we want are selling out though. It's at the limit of our budget now, so don't want to wait much longer if prices are only going upwards.

- Is there anything in particular to bear in mind about QV vs QM2? We're looking at a Forward balcony on the 8th floor as we had similar on QM2 and enjoyed that location.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited May 24 by Onescoop

[King Amo]

With regard to your second question, the answer is yes. I'm on a similar itinerary this summer, albeit a round trip from Civitavecchia, and a few months ago a particular new deal made it worth my while cancelling my previous booking (and losing the deposit) and rebooking under the new terms. Madness really. 

[napria]

8 minutes ago, King Amo said:

With regard to your second question, the answer is yes. I'm on a similar itinerary this summer, albeit a round trip from Civitavecchia, and a few months ago a particular new deal made it worth my while cancelling my previous booking (and losing the deposit) and rebooking under the new terms. Madness really. 

This is helpful to me too. I saw a trip we were thinking of booking increase by $1500, and the room type we wanted sold out in a matter of hours.  The cruise is for 2025, so it’s helpful to know to wait and watch for a new deal.

[Pushpit]

1 hour ago, Onescoop said:

- Do Cunard cruises ever get cheaper? The price for a Britannia Balcony has increased by about £500 in the last week, so not sure whether to hold off and see if there's a sale. It appears that the rooms we want are selling out though. It's at the limit of our budget now, so don't want to wait much longer if prices are only going upwards.

- Is there anything in particular to bear in mind about QV vs QM2? We're looking at a Forward balcony on the 8th floor as we had similar on QM2 and enjoyed that location.

 

Does Cunard reduce fares: yes, on your HAM-SOU sector the lowest fare went down to £98 per person with 2 sharing, and £140 for balcony. I suspect you may have paid more than that.

 

QV v QM2 - there are a lot of differences, so much it's difficult to know where to start. But one big difference relates to the promenade deck on QM2 being deck 7, so you were one above it, and on QV it's much further down on deck 3. On deck 9 QV there are a range on public spaces, some of them will give a bit of noise below, chiefly chairs being moved around. If you are Forward, then it's presumably under the spa / gym area. Not much noise travels down but some does, and more downwards than upwards. Gym usage tends to tail off late afternoon but there are plenty of early users.

[Onescoop]

Thanks, that's helpful to know. 

 

Sounds like we may as well wait it out and see if prices come down later then. The current OBC offer doesn't seem all that amazing to actually book right now. I see that this year's equivalent cruise is quite substantially cheaper than the 2025 one.

[Jim_Iain]

VAT in Spain.   Technically if you were to purchase a drink package VAT would be due at point of sale.    If however your ship has at least one non-EC port then they usually hold off processing the purchases until in international waters so they don't have to charge VAT. 

 

If i'm not mistaken Montenegro is not currently part of the EU so should be VAT free.

[rakkor]

9 hours ago, Onescoop said:

 

- Is there anything in particular to bear in mind about QV vs QM2? We're looking at a Forward balcony on the 8th floor as we had similar on QM2 and enjoyed that location.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Also have a look at the Deck 4 balcony cabins (fore have a solid balcony and aft glass) these balconies are larger than the ones on the higher decks and very convenient for the theatre, MDR etc

[Onescoop]

Thanks @rakkor and @Jim_Iain - both really helpful answers.

Edited May 24 by Onescoop

[ExArkie]

7 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

If i'm not mistaken Montenegro is not currently part of the EU so should be VAT free.

Correct. They are a “candidate” for EU membership, which implies some progress, but they have been a candidate for about 20 years, which definitely implies a lack of progress. I have an acquaintance in the government there - his job is not related to EU membership - who gave up on tracking their progress years ago. “If it happens, it happens” says he. 

[Wonky]

I think last year when QE was in the Med she was effectively operating from Barcelona and therefore attracted Spanish tax on every cruise until she started onwards to Australia. 
We’re doing Barcelona-Istanbul-Barcelona-Southampton this year so anticipating the tax on the first 2 legs but not the last. Will update then.