LittleFish1976

Just received mine in the post. I notice they have a different number of months of consecutive cover for Black versus Platinum cards (6 versus 3). The key word being consecutive - if you were on a world cruise and commencing on the other side of the world (it's possible a person might want to) you could book the cruise in segments and get yourself home in between. For example, when it visits your home city you could go home for a quick visit and then go back to the ship to re-board under your new booking number. For the amount you'd save on paying for insurance, you'd probably lose benefits of booking your world cruise as one voyage though. Still, three months is 90 days which is very close to your 113 day WC. The limitation of total cancellation cover as mentioned by @Ethel6666 would be more of a concern - wouldn't even touch the sides of the cost of a world cruise, would it?

Regardless of which ship, they advertised the Auckland to Sydney leg of another cruise for 2025 when it was first released; it was sold out within hours and then the listing stopped appearing at all on the Cunard website. If your TA can wrangle you a cabin go for it! I had my first taste of Cunard by doing the Auckland to Sydney route (well actually it was Tauranga to Sydney) and had a ball trying to fit in everything there was to do on the QM2 in 5 days. Get on the waitlist and keep your fingers crossed.

Oh sorry, sfred! I'm easily confused these days... I did think it was odd given you've recently disembarked that you were about to board again! Cunard don't seem to be all that responsive to 'cutting deals' it seems but I wish you luck were you to embark on that negotiation!

Been off-line all day in Aust, sfred. Bit frustrating for those of us managing up-coming as well as new cruises. Hope you get to check in soon - was just thinking when I saw your most recent photos that you seem to be living on QE now! You'll have to include your new address in your signature!

I've had that on another line in Reykjavik - stayed overnight in the port on embarkation day. I guess it's very different if it's your home port though.

How very frustrating and annoying. Let me know if you'd like someone in a different geographical region to check and see what's on offer here - it may be different.

I had a similar chat experience with a Cunard rep on the phone yesterday. 'No, all waitlisted'...she agreed to put me on the waitlist. I have since booked something else once they went live. Someone on here recently explained that they 'refuse' (my terminology) to put certain cabins on sale for certain legs of what is also being sold as longer voyages so they can try to sell them on the longer voyages first. I tested that theory out yesterday and found there was availability in the cabin grades I was looking at (PG, QG, BC) on other voyages which incorporated the one I was interested in. So it's just their stock management system. The cabins hadn't already been sold when you and I were looking earlier. They will release them eventually if not already sold on the longer segments.

Like other Carnival brands - I think it's 15 from memory or maybe 11. Someone else on here can confirm but it is in the T&Cs of the drinks package.

I've just managed to book solo occupancy on two QA 14 night voyages in 2026.

They tend to just use up two of your allocated number of alcoholic drinks for the day (but I've never kept count as I wouldn't come close to the maximum).

I'm also excited with a rather extravagant B2B booking also on Queen Anne shortly after that.

I wouldn't be put off by the Ponant ships not having 'multiple specialty restaurants'. The food they do have in the two restaurants is generally better quality than you will find on many or most mainstream lines so there's no need to shop around looking for a meal you would enjoy. From memory the Japanese itineraries are quite short so I wouldn't see a need for more variety. I recently completed 10 nights on board Ponant - my first Ponant experience. I was very impressed and booked another cruise whilst on board. I think you'd find a lot of English speakers on a Japanese itinerary, being distant from Europe, and I would think you'd find a lot of Australians on board (as we found on our Antarctic itinerary). All the staff speak English; almost all the housekeeping and restaurant staff are from Asian countries and so do not have French as their mother tongue anyway. I'm travelling to Japan in a few weeks for a long cruise on Cunard (just around Japan!); cherry blossom time in the north but mild weather all over the country hopefully. Summers there can be very hot so I would avoid that time of year. I've only travelled overland in Japan previously but expect that cruising will be an excellent way of seeing a wide-spread area efficiently and easily. If you decide on a Ponant cruise I would add on either another cruise there taking in other locations or some land travel to see more places. Best of luck with your planning and decision-making.

Not even for cabs? We'll be there for 6 days before heading down to Ushuaia for the ship and then another day/night on the way back. Expenditure will be normal things like hotel, meals, coffees and ice creams, cooking lesson, tango show, museum entries and cabs. SMall purchases here and there also maybe of souvenirs. I would assume if pesos are needed it would be for the small coffee/snack type things in smaller kiosks or shops/ cafes but also as someone pointed out above, for cabs.

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions and information, it's greatly appreciated. I'm leaving on Sunday. If I can muster some tech savvy I'll post a picture or two when I'm at sea in Antarctica.

Didn't know that about the QFF card. MIne's as old as the hills and I'm sure it doesn't have a chip. Just googled the card and they don't allow Argentinian pesos I'm afraid but I do have the Wise card and have loaded some USD onto it so that's a good start.

Thanks gor this advice. I hear conflicting advice over whether to get pesos on arrival or not. If I can't use a card in the taxi from the airport I'll definitely need some sort of cash though. I'll get some USD before I go and get some pesos at the airport I guess. Re: paying the hotel bill; I assume that an Australian card gets the advantageous exchange rate which Visa and Mastercard have introduced (the info I've read only mentions US cards and maybe EU ones as well). Thanks for the tip about the Trip Advisor forum - I'll check it out.

THis sounds like a great idea and I'll be able to do that with the travel card I've just got. Thank you for the suggestion.

Good advice but I've left it too late I'm afraid. Got a Wise travel card the other day which has suspended Arg pesos exchange.

Yikes, that's one hell of a devaluation. I'll read the article again more thoroughly in the morning when the brain will be firing on more cylinders hopefully. Thanks very much for the link to the article.

Brilliant. Thanks Mic that's the sort of information I'm looking for. So have you been exchanging USD for pesos or paying directly with USD? Is your AUD credit card making an exchange rate similar to the so-called 'tourist rate'?

Hi all, I know you're all well travelled and there's been some talk on this board from time to time of South American trips so there must be some knowledge out there that can maybe help me. I worked out recently that there's two exchange rates - one for locals and one for tourists, the tourist one being preferential by a substantial amount (around 100%, I've even read it can be more). I understand that last year that some credit card companies introduced the ability to get the better rate even through use of their cards whereas previously it was just available when changing cash. Has anyone had any experience of this working in practice either by using an Australian credit card and having the tourist exhcnage rate applied there? Or if changing cash, does it have to be USD that you're exchanging in person? I'm going to have a decent sized hotel bill to pay while I'm there so I do need to understand how to pay in the best way properly. Any help (particularly recent experience since the changes last year) would be gratefully appreciated. I'm leaving on Sunday and now feeling very disorganised.

There's a sale on for wifi at the moment for those already booked but just how much that is may depend on your country of residence/ area in which you've made your booking. Log into your booking via their website to see this. Drinks packages - not a sale as such that I'm aware (in most markets - the US may be an exception) however there's a new sliding scale (new to my eyes in any case) of how much the package costs depending on the length of cruise. https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/activity-types/bars-and-lounges/a-world-of-drinks

All grades of cabin available on our website for M408A so they're clearly trying to sell the longer trip first.

Very curious. When I search using the voyage number you supplied I can find it on the Aust. website but if one searches more generally for voyages in March, 2024 boarding in Singapore there are only two - M408A and V408C. Searching again devoid of any port of boarding preference also fails to show M408 as a result. Ah, but a further look on the M408 page shows all categories of cabin as sold out. So they have nothing to sell...?

Norovirus is nasty and in an enclosed environment such as a ship I suspect they may even have legal requirements to handle the situation as carefully as you have described.