doghouse2

I forgot to add comment about Southampton. Ship usually departs about 5pm. We like to arrive about 12:30 so we can have lunch in the Grill. Closes about 2 or so.

We Sail Southampton to New York at least once a year usually in a Q5. Normally ship arrives by about 6 am and as noted by others they start allowing disembarkation about 8. Can’t remember about room service (I think so) as we always go to restaurant for breakfast that day (the only day we do go for breakfast). They want to have you off the ship by 9. When we sail in Q4 we can disembark any time we wanted once they start calling “colors” so I’m sure in Q 2 you can do pretty much what you want time wise. Just tell the butler ahead of time and usually they will tell you what can be done. if everything has gone smoothly (sometimes it doesn’t) the luggage will be waiting (by that “color”—luggage tags you receive for disembarkation). When things don’t go smoothly it can be a little chaotic. Once you have your luggage together you have to wait in line for a porter if you need help with luggage. This can take a while if they are still unloading luggage for ship. Once you have luggage (and porter if needed) you get in next line for immigration. If you are US citizen line not so bad. Otherwise it can be long. Normally I have the car scheduled for about 9:15. Sometimes I make it and sometimes not. Just have your phone on so you can communicate with the driver. Hope this helps.

I’ve read several posts about their new program so I thought I would add another tidbit. I should start with my initial view of the new program was not good from my own personal preferences and situation. As an example, my wife is allergic to wine and champagne and only has an alcoholic beverage occasionally. While I have no such constraints I also drink sparingly these days. In addition many of our cruises are the transatlantic ones as we both no longer like 11 hour plane rides. So, when I heard about the new program i did not have a favorable reaction. Having already booked several cruises under the old program I have not had to decide if we are going to continue sailing Oceania. In checking one of my cruises next spring (for a potential cabin change) I saw what Simply More meant in terms of shore excursions. It’s states that there is a $1000 shore excursion benefit—in addition to the other components of the new program. Having noted our low alcoholic consumption that part of their program is of no interest to us. But, the $1000 caught my eye so I went to my booking record and saw I was getting $1400 of O’Choice benefits. Now, for those who do imbibe, this $400 loss might possibly be offset by the beverage component. So with fares being higher and, in this particular case, the benefit being less I would say Simply More is simply less.

Yes. I had this injection in Barcelona while on a 3 leg cruise. It went very smoothly but did take a bit of planning/dialogue with the facility prior to arrival. We had only 1 day in Barcelona so I had to make sure that it could be done in my time constraint which was not their normal practice.

My wife has similar requirements. I would take a photo of the pillow with you for the room attendant. I’m pretty sure they do have that type. There is a lot of choice as to type that you can chose. You could ask onborardservices prior to your cruise. They might know or be able to ask the ship staff directly.

We disembarked in Trieste from the Riviera in April. Oceania offered a bus transfer to the Venice airport for $69 per person. I looked at private transfer and the prices were about £340. I took the bus which is first for me. Part of my reasoning was that I was also staying in Murano just around the corner from the museum and the hotel I chose had a shuttle from the airport to the hotel for their guests. All water transports I looked at had a 1 bag per person limit—even the hotel shuttle. After a bit of back and forth they did agree to handle all of my luggage—5 checked bags and 2 roller bags. After the bus ride, while you walk to the terminal (about 5 minutes) the luggage is taken to the front of the terminal for you to pick up. From there there is about a 15 minute walk (with moving sidewalk assistance) on the 2nd level of the terminal to the water taxi docks. At the end of the walkway you take an elevator down to the ground level and all of the water taxi options are there. You cannot take the luggage trolleys on the moving sidewalk so if you have to use trolley you have to walk all the way. It’s covered and smooth surface but slightly “uphill”.

I’ll add my 2 cents to the comment about Trieste disembarkation. We were on the same cruise as original poster but sailed from Miami to Trieste. The ship side went smoothly as noted. Baggage pickup fairly easy as a young women asked if we wanted help, found our luggage and brought it to us. Luggage was roped off so you could not get it yourself. Then things got a little more difficult. I ask for a porter and young woman told somewhere else and we were told to wait. No porter, no luggage trolleys. Finally managed to snag two trolleys and used them to take luggage up and down a couple/three loading dock “driveways” to awaiting transportation. If you don’t have much luggage or don’t have any mobility limitations to push luggage trolleys then it’s fairly easy but I would guess for some it might be a chore. Comparing this to Barcelona, Civitavecchia, Lisbon I’d say it was a bit more difficult. They are flat with carts or porters more available.

We have boarded QM2 several times at Southampton. Each time as grills cabin guests—usually a Q5. We arrive about 12:30. Several lanes provided for vehicles to unload pax and luggage and normally a porter quickly arrives to take the luggage. Have your boarding pass readily available as we get ask for it several times. Normally, I would say it appears to be chaotic with lots of people trying to check in. Since there are different terminals the sequence of the process may vary somewhat but I will describe the Ocean Terminal which we “used” a couple of weeks ago. After dropping luggage you head into terminal, expect to show boarding pass and passport and go up escalator, and you are greeted by a mass of people including terminal (not Cunard) staff. There is a separate check in line for grills and “diamond” level pax but not all of the staff seem to know that. There is signage indicating the appropriate line but sometimes it is at the opposite end of the terminal (through the crowd) but not always. The signage not always easily spotted because of the throng of people so keep asking staff if you don’t see it quickly. After the checkin formalities (boarding pass-again, passport, credit card, etc) you are directed to security for screening you and luggage and then you are allowed to board ship. Someone mentioned the escort for Q1-Q4 which occurs after you check in. I put quotes around “used” above because we boarded the QM2 on the cruise that was canceled that morning so on that day we found a very empty terminal but was asked to show boarding pass about 5 times. I’m sure there is an arrival time when you might have to wait due to their cleaning the staterooms but if you are in a Q1 or 2, once you get to the check in desk, the few Cunard staff in the terminal will begin to assist you. Some suggest you arrive early and some say arrive late to avoid the crowd. Both probably work. Despite what I think is chaos, in the grills it does seem to move fairly quickly if they have enough staff at the checkin section for grills. Your butler will come to the cabin shortly after you arrive—maybe even be waiting for you. In the Q1-2 the butler may even be the escort.

It looks a lot like the items you can order at Jacques, at least the last time I was on the Riviera in April 2022.