DaisyUK

Oh no, what bad luck. At least you have a nice suite to relax in but even so, imagine you'll be climbing the walls by Saturday. Hope you make a swift recovery.

Just checking through our booking for our QM2 cruise next week, and see that there are some alternative dining options (Asian, Indian, Mediterranean etc). Are these the 'pop-up' restaurants which I have seen referred to from time to time? Or permanent restaurants? Are they all open every evening? Thanks for any insight.

I was just looking at an old youtube video of our suite on QM2 and it showed DVD players in the cupboards below the TV. Does anyone know whether these DVD players are still in situ and, if so, whether there is a DVD library onboard?

Bingo! Thank you so much - that worked. Was starting to panic!

I wanted to check something on our upcoming cruise and see that it is no longer listed on Cunard's website. The 2nd part of it (6 days from Civitavecchia - Southampton) is listed, but not the first part. Is this a normal occurrence close to a sail date? Or should I be worried? Thanks for any insight.

Sounds like you had a fun day. We will find something, but it's the principle...

That sounds like a very sensible way to go. Why can't it be like that all the time, to quote Van Morrison 😊

Thank you Mike, that's very helpful (and it is the Jan cruise). I did ask for the list of excursions in Sydney but I think perhaps customer services was reluctant to give me it in case we set our hearts on an excursion that was sold out by the time we embarked. I never thought to look for the list via the 33-day cruise - duh! I appreciate your help - but I still think it's insane that I can't book!

The reason I find it incomprehensible is that we are embarking on a 33 day cruise and tour options are being offered for those passengers who booked it as a 33 day tour, but we are excluded prior to embarkation. Why? We are going to be onboard for the same 33 days on the same itinerary. Why are we being discriminated against? This is a once-in-a-lifetime cruise, costing over £100,000 which is a lot of money for us and Sydney is an important port. Yes, we could book our own excursion and probably will do so, but why should we? Regent seem to set a lot of store by offering included and additional-cost excursions to save passengers the stress and trouble of organising their own, getting stuck in port etc, etc and yet the clear message to us is either book your own or wait to book on board. If you decide upon the latter, there 'may' be availability for the tour you want. They won't even send me the list of tours they are offering to the 33 day cruise passengers. Makes no sense to me. As for 'overthinking' it, yes I like to plan ahead and book excursions prior to embarkation and know that it's all settled and sorted and that I don't need to think about it any more. In fact, it's one of the reasons we book Regent. OK, rant over. It's a first world issue and I'll get over it. But it doesn't alter the fact that I'm frustrated by Regent's response to something which is important to me.

Hi Snoozecruise - we have the same problem. Turnaround day is Sydney and I find it incomprehensible that a tour is not being offered to us. The cruise we are on is offered as a 33 day cruise with Sydney in the middle and tours are available to those passengers who booked the 33 day. We had to book as a back to back because the same suite was not available on both legs, so it was the only way we could stay in the same category. It is incomprehensible to me that Regent cannot resolve this before we get on board, by which time options will surely be more limited.

Thank you BklynBoy and Roland787 for the reassurance!

Yikes, boarding in 2 weeks. This does not sound good!!

Georgia Peach - can't tell you how much I am enjoying reading of your current adventures. I can relate to the uncertainty of booking a longer cruise. DH and I have been on many cruises, but the longest so far is 14 days. We have booked a 33 day cruise in Jan 24 and are dithering, blowing hot and cold etc. On the one hand, it allows us to visit a part of the world we have never before been to with the luxury of time to justify the long journey to get there but on the other hand we are completely 'stuck' if we get bored/stir crazy. On balance, I think we are going to go for it on the basis that we always enjoy our time together no matter where we are or what we are doing, but it is certainly taxing our brains at the moment!

Thank you both for your advice. What is surprising to me is that on the 33 day cruise there are many excursions available, so they are definitely there, just not being made available (at the moment) to back to backers. Good to know that it will (hopefully) be resolved as you describe though 😊

Hi, we wanted to book a 33 day cruise but our suite of choice was not available so we booked it as 2 cruises and we will switch suites mid-way. Excursions have opened, but I don't see any option book excursions on the 'changeover' day (Sydney). Is this normal, or a glitch in the system for this particular cruise? Any advice/help welcomed. Thanks..

Thank you so much for posting this review. We are booked on the 33 day cruise Auckland-Singapore in Jan 24 and have been debating whether to cancel or not following the debacle this year. We assume that lessons will have been learned and the same thing won't happen again and, so far, have decided to proceed with it. The excursions, though, are a worry. We have never been to this part of the world before and would like to make the most of it through excursions and if they are a bust, then it will be disappointing to say the least. Excursions aside, I enjoyed reading your review. We have been on several Regent cruises, and would agree that the weak link is always the excursions. Often it isn't a deal breaker as we have the opportunity to revisit/re-do ports where excursions have been disappointing, and we have done this many times, but this is probably not an option when we have to travel 24 hours to get to the embarkation port! I'd also agree about the entertainment, although I don't think it's any better or worse than other ships we've sailed on. We, too, used to sail 'old' Crystal and will probably try the new Crystal. There were many aspects of Crystal we enjoyed, with the lectures/speakers being high on the list, but in our opinion the accommodations and ships generally were showing their age and we do enjoy the general ambience and decor of the 2 new Regent ships. Anyway, enjoyed reading your review and pretty much agreed with all of your comments about Regent.

Sounds good, thank you for taking the time to reply and hope you continue to have an amazing time!

Thank you, good to know and I will report back…

Ha ha, maybe have to include QA for the royal flush! Actually not sure the QM2 is going to work out. Availability is looking thin on the ground..

Wow, thanks for the speedy responses! I had to smile at the '2 of each ships' comment, and agree that people who have had a negative experience seem to post more than those with a positive or mainly-positive experience. I will take a look at Roscoe's blog - thank you for the link. We were fine with QE and QM2. It's true that they aren't as new and glitzy as Regent's new ships, which we also enjoy, but we have found different advantages to sailing with Cunard. I have booked! Looking forward to a cruise on each of the Queens this year, and hopefully QA next year.

Hi, as a relative newbie to Cunard (having sailed on QE and QM once each), we are now considering a QV cruise in November. My understanding from previous advice on these boards is that QV and QE are very similar, but I have just read some pretty damning reviews of QV which basically say that she is in poor condition. Any recent experiences of QV would be very much appreciated!

Thank you all for your various replies which I read with interest. Generally speaking we have always booked through an agent, mainly in order to get a good discount (in the region of 8-10% with RSSC). However, our agent only gives 2% discount for Cunard cruises (obviously because they don't get as much commission from Cunard as they do from RSSC). The comment above (2Oldpeopleinlove) resonated because I have had problems with indirect communications with Cunard. For example, when we booked our last cruise, I might have missed it altogether had I not booked direct because it was my agent's day off and there was only one suite left in the category we wanted to book. For an 8-10% discount on an expensive cruise I'm happy to deal with an agent, but in my experience I have had better service from the cruise line direct (Cunard and RSSC). Perhaps I just haven't found the right agent yet! Anyway, thanks again to everyone who responded..

Apologies if this question has been asked and answered previously. I have searched the forum and cannot find anything that refers. I am wondering whether most of you book direct with Cunard, or through a Travel Agent and, if the latter, the reason why and whether you receive a discount by so doing?

and the answer is??? have been following this excellent thread with interest. we had a great 2 weeks on QE recently, having previously sailed predominantly with Crystal and Regent and asked ourselves the same question.

That Cosmo looks amazing - my mouth is tingling just looking at it!