longton

Friends have booked excursions prior to departure and this appears on the email confirmation: A suggested 15% service charge will be applied to your onboard account after this service is rendered. Should you wish to remove, reduce or increase this amount, please make this request once on board.

I almost booked 2 shore excursions yesterday. The amount that would have been charged to my credit card was the amount quoted. There was nothing about service charges and I doubt they could legally add them once I had made the purchase. In the end I didn't buy them since I couldn't use OBC. If I book the trips onboard, then I can pay for them from my OBC.

Could be a passenger who bought some new luggage in Lisbon!

I agree with you Alslc. Our suite attendant just shrugged his shoulders and pretended not to understand when I asked about Covid cases on my corridor. There were closed parts on Deck 6. When the couple next to our suite moved out they placed a red card into the door card slot. Friends of ours saw a large group of about 70 people disembarking at Southampton and one of the group told them they had all been diagnosed with Covid. I don't know if they were to undergo Covid testing at the terminal or just "released" among the public.

I wouldn't change. We disembarked in Southampton three weeks ago at around 9am. We were on Deck 6. We got a taxi immediately and were in the train station by 9:15.

We were also on this cruise. We called it "Our Med cruise in the Baltic" due the the hot and beautiful weather throughout the cruise. We used the internet on sea days and we had no issues with getting a connection, sending emails, WhatsApp messages, reading news and travel sites. We were able to use it in our suite on Deck 6 and in all areas of the ship. There were no photographers on board and the area where they normally display photos was empty. The Golden Lion was open throughout our trip and we had lunch there 3 times. It was never busy. We enjoyed the lectures on military matters and some cookery demonstrations done in the Royal Court. However there were no cameras on the stage so it was impossible to see what was cooking. I am guessing that 10 to 20% of the passengers were from Germany and I doubt they would have attended the talks on Rudolph Hess, or spying in cold war East Germany... There was also an astrophysicist speaker but personally I didn"t find the first talk interesting so didn't attend others. The suite TV was useless. There was no location map and nothing about our cruise speed etc. There was an announcement in the Daily Bulletin that the technicians were working tirelessly to rectify the situation. Presumably still working at it given that the TV is still not functioning properly. There were Covid cases. Two people in an adjacent suite to ours were moved out but another couple were moved into 6115, a few doors down. I saw them moving in with their bags accompanied by two people in full protective gear. The pursers desk could not tell me why they had moved there and not into an isolation area. It was unsightly to see food trays by the door and clear plastic bags full of bedding and towels to be laundered. The launderettes were all closed a few days before the end of the cruise. I don't remember anything in the Bulletin about the closure and I was left with the feeling that Cunard doesn't want to alarm passengers or use the dreaded C word. Embarkation in Southampton was speedy. We had a time of 1.30 pm. Arrived at about 1 o'clock and were in our Britannia suite before 2pm. Our cases were already there. We thoroughly enjoyed the food in the main dining room and our waiters were excellent. We were originally on second sitting but changed that to first sitting once onboard. We usually got there at 6.30pm and attended the 8pm show. Our next cruise in from Barcelona on Queen Elizabeth in late August and we are both looking forward to that.

If it's such a concern could you not take your own supplies?

By far the vast majority of passengers are wearing masks in the theatre and when walking around the ship. All staff wear masks. All laundetettes are closed.

We are on Queen Victoria at the moment. We reach the Britannia dining room at 6:30pm and then watch the 8pm show. One of our waiters told us they are changing all the chairs in Britannia tomorrow in Southampton.

I am based in the UK. I emailed a copy of my investment statement showing my CCL holding and details of the cruise to shareholder benefits on 17 May. On 19 May I received revised booking details showing that the benefits had been credited to my account. Excellent service.