BeachTunes

Thank you @lobsternight! I appreciate your feedback and input. We have booked the 9am departure but our booking is changeable. We'll look into rescheduling to the 11am tour. The reason we booked the earlier "brunch" option is because I really wanted to try their reindeer sausage that's only served in the morning! LOL! Upon further research, I'm learning reindeer is sold in some form or another at all of our ports of call so I'll get my fix at some point! 🙂

We stayed in 6145 in 2015 before the Summit was revolutionized. And we were literally the last cruise before Luminae opened. So fewer suite perks back then aside from having access to a butler. It was an incredible stateroom! Loved the bathroom and large balcony. From photos I've seen online, it is even more beautiful now having been updated. I would stay in that room again in a heartbeat! Not to worry at all! Read the next paragraph with a grain of salt because what we experienced is a thing of the past. Just wanted to share this story that we now laugh about from our stay in that suite... At the time of our sailing, the Penthouse had a grand piano with "player piano" type tech built in adjacent to where our bed was. Normally it wouldn't have bothered us as I would have enjoyed overhearing professional, preprogrammed music. However, the guests of the Penthouse had a large multigenerational group on board - including a hoard of kids - who banged away on the poor piano before the crack of down over the first couple of days. It was especially annoying because I'm a pianist myself and could tell the kids were actually INSIDE the piano underneath the cover harmfully tugging at its strings and hammers. Once we mentioned it to our butler, who had also heard the racket, it stopped. (That had to be a tough conversation with the Penthouse guests!) The good news is, I'm 99.99% sure the Penthouse no longer has a grand piano for aforementioned reasons! I also think better soundproofing was likely put in place during the refit. The piano was the only thing we heard. Other than that, we didn't hear a peep from next door. As DaKahuna noted above, I doubt musicians would practice in their staterooms. I was an entertainment crew member a few moons ago on a non-Celebrity ship and we would always practice in the theatre, backstage or in venues away from any crew or guest cabins. I've actually looked out for that stateroom on many occasions when making mock bookings. That's how much we loved it, piano bangers and all! LOL! Enjoy!

What a fun story! I grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick and non-east coast friends often confuse me for having grown up in St. John Newfoundland. Same coast but two very different places. I adore every Newfoundlander I've met. Lovely people! Perhaps Celebrity should consider hosting a "Come From Away" themed cruise based on the hit Broadway musical set in Gander, NFLD!

I've also been having problems with the website from the Toronto area of Ontario, Canada. It doesn't matter if I'm using my laptop or my phone... For three days I have had issues looking up fares, cruise deck plans, info, etc. I get error messages if I'm lucky and "jumbled" pages otherwise. 🤷‍♀️

@martincath Thanks for the verification! It is appreciated! 🙂 Edited to add: We love YYZ Express in Toronto. Good to know we can prebook the same process in Vancouver! 🙌

Hello from the Greater Toronto Area! We're planning our first Alaskan cruise and are wondering if an 11:40am flight out of YVR (Vancouver) is advisable for Canadians traveling to YYZ (Toronto). This would fall on a Sunday in mid-September. We'll likely be booking with Air Canada whose recommendation for domestic airport arrival times with luggage to check in is at least 2 hours prior to departure. We figure we can either self-disembark or aim for an 8am disembarkation slot to get us through everything to be at the airport (likely via the SkyTrain) by 9:30am. There are 1pm-ish flights as well but they land around 9pm in Toronto, which is not terrible timing either... We just like to get home as soon as possible after vacations to reunite with our fur baby! 🙂 Thanks in advance for your input!

@Crew News: Thank you so much for the info and stunning photos! We are even more excited about this tour! Drinks chilled with glacier ice? Icing on an already delicious cake, so to speak! 🙂 @maggiev: The tour with Celebrity is way more expensive than booking direct. For us Canadians it's $300 more per person! We will be booking directly with the Taku Lodge/Wings Airways: https://wingsairways.com ✈️ For the record, I reached out to them directly and received confirmation that yes, a 9am tour start will indeed be compatible with a 7:30am port arrival time. I was told that check in for the tour is at 8:30am and that our ship will be docked a short few minute walk from their office/seaplane. (I would imagine Holland America ships would be in a similar location at the pier.) ❤️

Thank you Don! It's so funny with all of these online forums these days, I didn't think of the common sense idea of contacting the vendor directly. LOL! Will do! 🙂

Hello! My husband and I are planning to book an Alaskan cruise with Celebrity soon and the Taku Lodge flight/salmon lunch out of Juneau is on our bucket list! Wings Airways is currently showing availability for 9am or 11am departures on our port of call date in September. The 9am seems interesting because it's a combo of brunch and lunch and includes a few extra dishes that sound cool like reindeer sausage! That said, would it be too risky booking the 9am with a 7:30am port arrival time on Celebrity Solstice? My instinct is telling me the 11am would be a safer bet but I'm curious if anyone has done the early time slot in the past. We personally prefer early excursions to allow more time to explore the port at our leisure, chill, shop, etc. Thank you all in advance for your input! 🙂

Thank you all SO much for the delicious advice and mouth watering pictures! I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time in the Commodore Club! 😉 We'll also have to spend a bit of time each morning on the promenade deck walking off all of the on board delicacies. LOL You have made us even more excited about our first Cunard cruise! I don't think a week is long enough to savour everything but we'e going to try! 🙂 I am "one of those people" who (discreetly and quickly) takes pictures of restaurant food so I'll be sure to share lots of foodie photos when we return.

Thank you Winifred 22! I enjoy every item you mentioned! I've been wondering what the lunch menus look like in Britannia as they aren't posted here often so I will definitely look out for the lasagne. 🙂

Greetings From Canada! We are now a mere 5 nights away from departing for our first Cunard sailing! This Friday we fly from Toronto to Barcelona to spend 2 nights in the city followed by a 7-night cruise aboard the Queen Elizabeth. The anticipation is intense! 🙂 The next few days will undoubtedly drag on, even with a jam-packed work week ahead. With our impatience in mind, I'm hoping some of your might help us bide our time by answering the following question: What are your favourite drinks (alcoholic or not) and dishes (Britannia Class/Included/Specialty Restaurants) on Cunard? As mentioned, we're sailing on the Queen Elizabeth but I imagine many of the menus cross over. Thank you in advance for participating! 🍾🥩🍖🧀🦑🥦🍞

Regarding the price of the boxes, I might be wrong but I believe I once read that they are $60 USD per couple plus a 15% service charge. We are considering booking one during our upcoming sailing from Barcelona on October 9th. (The countdown is on! 🍾) I will be sure to share our experience should we book one!

Hi Roy, Thank you for your posts. I always appreciated your live reports on the Crystal boards and am happy to find you here as we will be embarking on our first Cunard cruise on October 9th! We're flying to Barcelona a week from today to explore the city for 2-nights pre-cruise. We are truly looking forward to our Queen Elizabeth sailing as I, at 47 years old, am a bit of an older soul in spirit. I love everything vintage, big band music, string ensembles, etc... I think we're really going to love the Cunard experience. 🙂 But enough about me! I'm so happy you're on board the QM2 safe and sound. Looking forward to reading about your journeys on both ships! Bon voyage!

This is a very sad and stressful situation for all involved. Thinking of everyone affected by this. I know clothes and belongings are just "things" but my husband and I empathize as we have a very specific cruise/travel wardrobe that we've curated over the years. Many are vintage finds and unique pieces. On a sailing with Cunard, most cruisers won't be losing easily replaceable T-Shirts and casual items but formal wear, gowns and other cherished attire. 😞 I'm gutted for everyone who will lose some prized possessions. Also praying for New Yorkers during the floods. Belongings aside, life itself is the most precious treasure and I hope everyone gets through this safely.

Thank you for the beautiful photos! We will be embarking Queen Elizabeth in just over two weeks. I will try to return the sunrise photo joy. That is, if I mange to be awake that early! LOL! Either way, I'll definitely share a post-voyage report. 🙂

I for one benefited from this sale. I originally rebooked a premium internet plan for our 7-night Queen Elizabeth sailing for $168 USD. When I spotted the sale on My Cunard yesterday, I canceled the original plan and rebooked fo $140. Not a huge amount of savings, but it will at least will cover one cocktail in the Commodore Club not included in our drinks package! 😉

@seivwrig Thanks for sharing your timing. Enjoy lunch on board! 🙂 And to everyone else I've bombarded with this trite woe: I've calmed down and have turned the glass from half empty to half full. 🥂 We've never been to Barcelona before and will be staying 2 nights pre-cruise. I've shortlisted more restaurants in the city than we could conquer in a week let alone 2 and a half days so adding one more lunch in Barcelona will be a treat! 🍖🦑🧀🍾🥩🥘

Thank you for the input Jack! That's helpful to know that if we arrive at 3pm we might get lucky and be on board a little sooner. I just can't wait to check out this beauty of a ship! 🙂 Our "New Ship Routine" is to head to the top deck and work our way down exploring all of the venues along the way. Worst case scenario: We will accomplish that on day 2, a sea day. And huge thanks for your recent live reports! You have helped us become even more excited about our first Cunard sailing! I'll be sure to return the favour with a post-cruise report! ⚓

Hello. We are on Deck 6 in a Balcony Stateroom. We were originally booked in an Obstructed View Balcony Guarantee but won our upgrade bid.

Hello! First of all, thanks to each of you for answering my plethora of questions over the past few months as we anticipate our first Cunard cruise aboard the Queen Elizabeth. We've reached the three week mark until embarkation which is very exciting, which also means we have checked in and received our boarding time. Alas, we've been assigned a very late check in time of 4:15pm. It is what it is but my goodness, that seems late! By the time we check in, go through security and reach the stateroom, we will barely have had time to go to our muster station, clean up and be ready for dinner. (Already have noted to pack evening attire in our carry ons.) Our typical boarding times on other cruise lines have been 2pm at the extreme latest which has allowed us to find our bearings, unpack at our leisure, explore the ship, have a snack/bevy and get settled in. We will be in Barcelona for two nights pre-cruise so we'll just have our hotel store our bags while we enjoy another lunch in the city. Not a terrible problem to solve and a first world problem at that, but I have to confess we're a bit disappointed. I've read that others say to "Show up whenever!" and all will be fine but I don't want to mess with the system. We'll likely arrive at 3pm and hope for the best. I know this has been discussed at length so I hesitate to post but am a tad bit downtrodden and am looking for a pep talk! 😉

Thank you! I have actually pre-purchased an onboard WiFi package from our cruise line for around $160 USD for evenings and sea days. I was thinking about using the eSIM for port days but if it will also connect to the ship's WiFi, even better! More savings! If I need both the eSIM and ship's WiFi to cover sailing time, no worries. Thanks for helping this "47 year-old who thought she knew about tech but doesn't" out! 🙂

Thank you for sharing this! We will be spending 2 nights in Barcelona followed by a 7 night cruise next month. I'm thinking about purchasing an Airola plan for our pre-cruise Barcelona stay and port days. Seems too good to be true! 🙂 We racked up a hefty cellular bill last year using maps to "Roam in Rome". LOL! I'm assuming, though, that the Airola app won't work while at sea? Thanks again!

A random note about the $70/day drinks package for 5+ night cruises.. Considering that the package INCLUDES the 15% gratuity, in theory, the daily rate is about $61 per day before tax. When factoring this, it definitely appears more economical. For us, the value is there: 2 x $5 bottles of water + 1 x $4 specialty coffee + 1 x $13 pre-dinner cocktail + 2 x $12 glasses of wine with dinner and 1 x $13 post dinner cocktail = $64.00 before the 15% gratuity or $73.60 after tax. (And we admittedly will be enjoying more bevies on sea days!) Another consideration is that our ship will be in 3 Spanish ports during our 7 night cruise which might add another 10% Spanish VAT tax on drink purchases while docked, making our daily "ritual" ring in at over $80/day if we didn't have the package. To each their own, though! 🙂

Thank you for sharing this info and website image. We're 5 weeks away from our first Cunard cruise so this is very helpful! Question: Does the Onboard Dining section show MDR evening menus? Just curious. Thanks again!