LittleFish1976

I recently got a Wise debit card for use overseas. The pros are that the exchange rate is good. The down side is that if you use it in a hotel or on a ship against your account they will put hold/pending transactions on the card, during the cruise or stay, against your card balance which takes a full 31 days to be removed!! This means that the money you put on there isn't available to be used for any other payments for a full month. I cruised recently with this card. They put three pending transactions on the card and then at the end of the cruise charged the whole lot AGAIN to the card. So I'm having to wait for all the pending transactions to come off before I can use that money. It would be bad luck if you had to use that money while you were overseas - you'd have to find more funds to transfer into the card.

There are definitely more important issues in the world but this is a cruise forum so the issues here are going to be mundane but pertinent to the topics at hand. I'm happy to talk about wars and other even more brutal unequal injustices but I think we'll have to do it elsewhere.

Quite true. Thank you for the correction. I should have paid more attention to the original post.

You most certainly can. You can nominate which size table you'd prefer to be seated at by logging into your booking via the My Cunard link on their website. If you choose early or late dining (as opposed to open seating) you will have a fixed time to dine and be at the same table with the same guests each dinner time. It's a great option for solo travellers.

My very recent experience would indicate that Cunard may block out as 'sold out' the higher grades of cabin on the website whilst they are shuffling the cabin allocations around during the bidding process. I recently bid on a Q3; all categories above Britannia balcony were showing as sold out and yet my bid was accepted. My logic tells me that they just need to start moving people up to any higher category to start freeing up other cabins for the acceptance of bids. It makes sense to me that they close them for sale temporarily on the website while they do their shuffling around. It's a much better arrangement for Cunard to achieve a guaranteed amount of money for the higher grades of cabin than to risk being left with them empty and unsaleable closer to departure (or even at departure). I'm sure people are willing to pay more for an upgrade several weeks prior to embarkation than they might be at the point of embarkation. The prices achieved by this bidding system are higher in my experience than the pay-for upgrade Cunard used to offer prior to departure. And definitely more lucrative to Cunard than the free upgrade which I've been lucky enough to benefit from on one occasion.

If you 'qualify' for a bid-to-upgrade you should see a button on the page relevant to your voyage once you're logged in on the My Cunard page. I qualify for two I'm travelling on soon - one was booked direclty with Cunard and the other through a travel agent. Can't explain why they should have qualified when some other people's haven't.

I recently had an upgrade bid accepted a week after I had lodged it and about 5 weeks prior to embarkation. I did revise my bid upwards twice during that week and it was accepted a couple of hours after the last revision. I assumed the sailing had a reasonable amount of availability and so when they labelled all the higher grades of cabin as sold out I assumed they were just taking some time to shuffle people/cabins around. You can hear any time I think is the moral of this story. It will depend on availability on your particular cruise. If you bid as you said 'way over minimum' I should think you'd have as good a chance, or better, as any but the cabin has to be available first. I bid, from memory, a bit more than 10% over their minimum which was still in their anaemic end of their quality-of-bid graphic. Mind you, it was a substantial bid in terms of sheer numbers.

Thanks for your input. I sailed on Queen Elizabeth in February, 2023 at which time the list price of the Rioja was $12.20 (I made a note of it as I was interested in how useful the package would be) and the drinks limit was $13.50 so it was definitely inside the limit, as was a Sancerre ($11.70) and a very nice Chilean Sauvignon blanc.

It's very odd the way Cunard is listed under both UK Brands and US Brands on the shareholder benefits pdf. As they don't ever use GBP as the on-board currency, it should just appear in the US Brands column as it pertains to OBC.

Well, I will be very disappointed if the Rioja which was previously within the $13.50 limit is the one which is now $14.40. I was relying on that as my red of choice. I'm still contemplating whether I'll bother with the drinks package for the first leg of my imminent trip.

The 20% discount is almost worthless as they add the 15% gratuity on to the list price so it ends up being roughly 5% discount depending when they calculate the pluses and the minuses.

They apparently change around which pop-ups are available during the cruise and seem to be put on for three nights in a row each so you'd have a different choice of restaurant depending on which date you wished to book for.

One evening I asked for a cocktail that didn't appear on the menu and simply asked if that could be made within the limitations of the package. Waiter said it could and had it made for me. Very simple.

I'm starting to feel a bit - not exactly depressed - but dragged down by these regular posts about the lack of 'a proper promenade deck' on Queen Anne. I see them here. I see them on other social media groups. I do not see that they will make a jot of difference to the design or build of this ship since she is for all intents and purposes, completed. I've booked a couple of cruises on this new ship and I am really looking forward to experiencing whatever she has to offer. It may not be to my taste; I may prefer the older ships but I'm excited to try Cunard's new offering. We have choices and if people wouldn't dream of sailing on a ship without a prom deck as wide as QM2 well that's your (very limited) choice. I feel this expression of dissatisfaction about the promenade deck is just whingeing now.

Yes, the pop-ups are $20 when pre-booked.

I checked Allianz and Covermore and they both do. Which ones are you having a problem with?

If you add cruising cover the automatic assumption is that you are outside Australian territorial waters. You're therefore covered for ship-to-shore evacuation and all the important expensive things. This is true even if you first select the only country you will travel to as Australia. Some policies will just refer to this as 'domestic cruising' but it means ocean cruising and gives you the required benefits.

Surely they haven't built a hull without the plans having been finished? Palmer says he will put the tender out in June to sign contracts in December and expects build to start next year (according to the news reports I can find). I'm surprised there's so little lead time on starting the build of such titanic proportions! I won't be holding my breath but I do look forward to reading the reports here of your experiences on board in 2027 (his projected launch date).

He is only interested in having other people do the dreaming. He is just full of hot air. I hope everyone is just having fun with this topic and not taking any of it seriously - he would have no intention whatsoever of building this thing. It's all just publicity for the product which is Palmer himself and probably means he's going to resurrect his failed political party and have another tilt at a seat at the next election. He doesn't want to win a seat but just uses his interference in the election process to try to sway public opinion. Enough said I think from me on this subject.

Thanks very much for those rakkor. Interesting to see the Rioja still within the package despite the comment by @D&N above.

Can anyone post a more recent version of a bar list, please? I'd be interested whether the Sancerre is still within the package price. There was also a drinkable Rioja within the package 12 months ago. I notice that certain cocktails have increased in price over the course of last year and wonder if they've increased again recently. When I was last on board (February, 2023) I was interested to try the English sparkling wine but there was none on board. Does anyone know if they currently have this available on Queen Elizabeth?

I've sailed on QE a number of times and to be honest prefer that ship to QM2 which is that much larger. Same vibe, but more intimate without being the slightest bit small. I'd say that advertised price of 13k is pretty cheapo for 60+ days on board and including flights and land accomodation.

Are they now bending the 3 month out from sailing rule?

Usually you need to wait until Cunard have a chance to process your booking and send you a confirmation*. Might take minutes or a day or two. Keep trying. The system seems to be currently working. I've just had confirmation that they've accepted my upgrade bid so I've been able to log in and see which cabin I've been allocated! *I've noticed that I don't receive a direct booking confirmation from Cunard when I've booked through a travel agent which I personally find annoying.

If you can wait a few weeks I'll be able to give you a first-hand report. I'll be on board QE for 18 nights circumnavigating Japan and more. We will have four sea days in the first nine days, two of which are consecutive (one involves 'scenic cruising' which usually involves cruising by geographical features) and three non-consecutive sea days in the second nine night segment. Lots of port time it seems to me. If you want to be on a Cunard vessel to see Japan you only have this year and next; they have removed Japan from their regular programming as per the rest of Australasia. Anyway, I'm happy to let you know what the experience is like if you're interested.