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A couple of comments after reading through this thread. 1. Buy a bowtie at the ship’s shop because they typically have them and they’re not all plain black ones. And they are pre-tied. No problem if you haven’t learned to tie a bow tie…. 2. Anyone who is concerned about how many suitcases they have to bring, why not try using one of the luggage forwarding services? There are several. We’ve had great success with Luggage Forward, especially with Cunard since they partner. It’s not cheap but we find it’s the best way to get all our dressy clothes on the ship with having to lug another suitcase. 3. If you’re in either of the grills, you can order from the dinner menu earlier that day, and it will be delivered course by course to your cabin. In Queens Grill, it will be delivered by your butler. Embrace everything that Cunard offers. It’s different than any American cruise line. We love it , but it’s definitely not for everyone.

We used it for wool trousers and wool tux pants. On two QE cruises. The trousers were sent on both cruises! I think it was better than the dry cleaning we have at home. Honestly. I’m not getting paid for this.🤣 I am careful to say, wool, because other fabrics might react differently than wool. I have no clue. I’m just really pleased with how my husband’s trousers came out when he had made a mess of things at dinner!

Re tipping w OBC. Two years ago, after Covid, we started taking extra cash with us to tip. We’ve gotten some excellent service from Butlers, stewards, maitreDs, head waiters and waitstaff both in the dining room and in lounges. We have had some odd occurrences that put us in weird situations and everyone helped us out. Maybe our situations are not so weird ? Our experience is that mostly everyone is wonderful on Cunard. (The first room steward we had in Princess Grill was terrible but we’ve done 8 cruises with Cunard now, and we love everyone else.) BTW, in all our cruising since Covid, on all cruise lines we’ve used, we’ve been tipping cash to our daily attendants and servers, and anyone who goes above and beyond. It’s now on our packing list to make sure we have the right currency when we cruise. I have to be honest and say we don’t trust that if we assign tipping with our OBC that it gets to the persons… In any cruise line. What can I say?

HAL does. we are cruising Alaska this summer with them, and I was able to use our OBC, the pittance that it was, towards excursions. Not sure about others.

Thanks. We cruise in the grilles and always end up with lots of OBC at the end of our Cunard cruises. I don’t want to leave it there but I’d rather spend it on things we actually spend money on, than just shop. It’s one of the very few things I complain about re Cunard. This next cruise I will try the canceling and rebooking.

We travel on several different cruise lines as well as Cunard is the only one who still doesn’t let you use OBC to book excursions etc. prior to the cruise. Am I the only one who finds this annoying? I’ve heard you can book and then reverse/ rebook on the cruise, but if you book a popular excursion, will your spots disappear if there is a waitlist? Curious how others feel and if there is something I don’t know about to circumvent this issue. thanks, Norma

As a Floridian with kettles that shut off automatically,😉, I want to note as an aside, that on Cunard, we always get kettles in our cabin, and the water seems hotter!! I’m not sure if it’s because of the higher voltage, or what, because water boils at the same temperature everywhere….or does it🧐? Anyway, we were once able to get a kettle in our room from our butler on Celebrity. Just once… we’ve never asked Holland America as I’ve gotten accustomed to bringing a large insulated Tumbler, putting my own teabags in it and getting hot water from the Lido deck. No, it’s not as hot as coming directly from a kettle, but it does seem to work, my tea never tastes weak. All this from an American, who probably doesn’t know what good tea really is🤣🤣🤣…

You do not have to use the app if you don’t want to in the US, and according to the online info it appears similar in the UK. They provide this information: So I would think you can send an email with the information attached. I did it 2 weeks ago and they added the obc in about 4 days. They emailed to let me know. Good luck.

We’ve cruised QG and PG, love them both…main difference for us is cabin size and butler, although there are several more. Check the website. There ARE diy laundry facilities on most floors at no cost, detergent provided gratis. Great for every day clothes. Best time to use is on shore days when you return to the ship. Also you can send out for pressing, laundry or dry cleaning for a charge….We usually get so much OBC in QG that we send out the items we can’t wash and it’s not big deal. Yes the beverage package is included up to $12.50 I believe, and most popular drinks are under that price point. Anyway, their drink prices are very reasonable compared to other cruise lines. This applies to alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. So things like specialty coffees and bottled water are included. In your room, you’ll have a small refrigerator and your butler will stock it per your choices with two bottles of alcohol or two bottles of wine if you prefer. They will also stock it with sodas. Not only is there no service charge for en-suite dining, you can order from the QG restaurant menu and your butler will serve you, course by course if you like. Gratuities are also covered. Although we like to reward good service and give addl tips at the end of the cruise. The QG restaurant has a lovely menu every night. There’s only one thing we don’t love and that’s the beef, the steaks on Cunard. We Americans are used to much more tender quality of steak. We also don’t go to the veranda restaurant—we find there’s plenty of things on the QG menu. The best meat on the menu is when they have venison. It’s outrageously delicious. And the lamb is good also. They serve duck, sole, and lamb table side. It’s so nice. Last point, the grills lounge is nice to sit in the morning for a specialty coffee or a pre dinner drink. It’s open all day and the concierge is located there, his/her hours will be posted. Overall we love the grills and recommend you try them at least once!

We have been on six Cunard cruises and seven HAL cruises. We typically only choose HAL because we think that it’s got a great itinerary. Other than that, HAL is a decent cruise line and it’s quiet so you get a good night’s sleep. Entertainment is OK. Food is OK. Because we mostly travel in a suite, it’s disappointing that HAL doesn’t have a separate dining room for the suites. But we have been in the main dining room on both cruise lines, and they were fairly similar in our opinion. We choose Cunard for the itinerary and the cruising experience. The experience is totally different and our opinion. It harkens back to a different age of cruising pre-2000….. just go to afternoon tea one day in the Queen’s room. And then there is the dress code for evenings. On HAL, 10% of the people “dress” for dinner, On Cunard, 90% of the people follow that suggested dress code. (These numbers are based on my observations. Yes, there are people who complain that no one dresses up, but really most people who cruise on Cunard choose to follow the dress code) When you’re on HAL, dressing up is not the same as on Cunard. People really do dress for the evening on Cunard. We actually take a separate suitcase with the dinner clothes and we are not alone. For HAL and other American cruise lines, I would say we dress “resort dressy”, which is more like Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer. On Cunard, we dress like people did 25-30 years go. It’s definitely a different feel. Cocktail or formal…. Another difference is that on Cunard you never feel like any place you go is crowded. You can always find someplace to sit in any lounge you go to. I can’t say the same for HAL, or Celebrity, or NCL or any other cruise lines we have traveled on. I would say, the quality of the food is similar for the MDR and buffet, although, for instance, in the Buffet, you will find lots of British favorite dishes that you would not find an American cruise line. Which makes sense… we are American but we enjoy having something different! The entertainment on both lines is decent, and we have had good speakers on both lines. I think the dancing is better on Cunard. Cunard in general has more options to listen to music on the ship. And I hope that HAL has not gotten rid of Lincoln Center on board because that was one of the things we enjoyed most. One of my favorite features of Cunard is that they actually have laundry rooms on the ships. So on a long cruise, you don’t have to pack so much because you can actually do laundry yourself. You can also send out items for cleaning or pressing as needed. I hope you enjoy your cruise on Cunard, it will be slightly different than Holland America. But we have never had a bad cruise after traveling on seven different cruise lines. It’s what you make of it. Just be open to something different!

We cruised last September on QE and noticed the lack of dance hosts which we attributed to Covid. And there was a lot of Covid on that cruise. We also noticed the mix of generic dancing with ballroom dancing. And there was a lot more happening at the yacht club, than on our previous cruises on QE. I’m not a big fan of putting the generic dancing on the ballroom floor, but it’s great to have a disco-like environment in the yacht club. This year my husband is awaiting hip surgery when we come home from the cruise, so I doubt we’ll be doing much dancing together. I think it would be great to dance with a Dance host for a couple of Rumbas here or there. And if they’re not there, I guess I’ll have to settle for dancing in the yacht club to the disco music.

Calling all Princess experts! We have traveled on several different cruise lines and amassed 20+ cruises. But we only took one Princess cruise 18 years ago and don’t remember much. so we are basically newbies on Princess. We are booked on the Enchanted Princess for New Year’s at the end of 2023. So, I’m wondering what advice you would give to someone that you wish you had known about prior to cruising with Princess? Thanks in advance!

follow up: It worked! The engineer said the interior was metal on metal and they put some insulation to prevent the banging. Last nights sleep was great!

OP here, Thanks for your comments. We went to the concierge this morning and told them we wanted the engineering supervisor, the one who told us they would be here to caulk yesterday, to come back and make sure the work is done today. We also told him we felt we were due some compensation for the fact that we’ve had 4 really noisy nights. {Yes, this is not your regular creaking, engine noise or anything, it’s banging. That’s why I did more than one night of recordings on my phone.} So the engineering supervisor had somebody come and do caulking, we can actually see the results right now. We’re hoping that this takes care of the issue. I also believe we will get some compensation because I told the concierge that this should have already been fixed and we expect some compensation for too many interrupted nights. She said she would follow up with that. Thanks again for your feedback.

We are on a cruise now, the second of back to backs. Approximately day 10 of a 12 day cruise, a banging noise started at night, and it was hard to sleep. I recorded it on my phone, and notified our butler, and the manager. They came with the maintenance manager and said they would caulk around the side window but we needed to be out of the room. We suggested they do it on the change day, because we had a full day excursion. They said they would. Today is the second day of the second cruise. The seas are calmer and we believe we are sailing slower, but I still heard the noise last night, albeit less frequently. So I asked the butler if the maintenance crew did anything. She said no. So we are in a suite, $$$, and we are loyal guests, and they just dismissed our legitimate problem. (After promising to do something, which may or may not have fixed the situation, but at least they would have tried.) What is the best way to handle this? We believe they should fix this or compensate us in some way. We would prefer the fix, but that may not be possible. Should we go back to the manager, who will be different since the other one went home? Or should we wait until we are home and contact Celebrity? I don’t want to spend too much time on my cruise dealing with this, but it’s disappointing how they are not dealing with the problem. Appreciate any advice. After 20+ cruises it’s the first time we’ve had a situation that wasn’t resolved. Thanks. Norma

Wow. So not impressed by customer service at Celebrity air. It was easy enough to book 10 months ago. Clearly they are trained to take reservations. And there was no huge discount like we had with other cruise lines…. We leave in 5 weeks. Two weeks ago we received a notice that there was a schedule change and that they would get to it ASAP. Nothing has happened and the schedule changes were major, (we have one leg out at 3 o’clock one day and the second leg is out at 9 PM the next day). So clearly we want that first flight to be corrected. Just move the first flight to the next day, the airline does it free of charge because the the major schedule change. ( I already confirmed with the airline even though the travel agency pretends there is a fee as they state in their email). Well it’s not so easy with this travel agency. I called today and basically talked to the three agents who have little ability to do anything. They told me they are not allowed to call the airline. Not only that, but they said could not even find the same flight the next day in the same class. I had to go on the airline website and bring up the information and tell them how many seats were still available. One agent wrote up a case and told me it would take 5 days to resolve. I am just glad I didn’t wait longer. I have no confidence that anybody would’ve done anything. I just hope they will get it right when they finally fix it. Its not possible to talk to anyone in schedule changes. It makes me wonder why anyone would use them a second time. We certainly won’t. I want to write Celebrity because they brag about the level of quality, but it doesn’t extend to their travel agent. Trying to find an email the CEO, when I called Celebrity they just put me on hold, and then told me there was no email…not for customer service or the CEO. any advice is appreciated…

Thanks so much for your replies. We have cruised Cunard several times and their dance floors are fantastic, but the selection of music has always been a bit stodgy. We just came back from Queen Elizabeth, and we are delighted to see that they are updating the music program to more modern music, although still playing ballroom tempos in the Queens room. Dancer Bob, you get a shout-out for the pix. Thank you.

That has happened to us on several cruise lines, running out of the popular wines…. (We typically don’t upgrade the package unless it’s included…) The sommelier always has offered us something better, so it’s never been an issue for us

Would love to hear others’ opinions. We have done lots of Celebrity Caribbean cruises, but we will be doing B2Bs out of Sydney this winter. In the Caribbean we have seen many folks dressed up more so, or less than us. We typically wear what I call classy casual, and for the galas DH wears a blazer and trousers, and I wear a cocktail dress or nice pant outfit. Not too dressy but nice. Not even sure how many cruisers will be Americans, so wondering if the crowd down under tends to dress up more or less or about the same. Appreciate thoughts… ?

Yes, except for the chiffon the laundry service has been great. Lovely getting back everything washed AND ironed. Many cruise lines only wash for the basic price.

Thanks for the tips. Shower didn’t do the trick. Helped for the wool tux jacket, but not the chiffon.

So we embarked in Ft Lauderdale on Aug 9. They cancelled the Bermuda port, just saying it was untenable. Three days later they said there were several Covid cases on board and everyone had to mask up. They also closed the laundries, and gave us a discount to use their laundry service. So we aren’t happy to wear masks to dance, but we deal with it and don’t dance so much, which disappoints me a lot. But the big problem for me was the laundry. It’s bad enough I have to send clothes out or hand wash the ones I don’t want them to ruin, but here’s what really ticked me off. We pack for gala and smart attire, so that means a few of my outfits have some chiffon, which gets folds from packing. Typically I would just take them into the launderette and steam the folds right out…easy peasy… But… I can’t do that so I sent one out and it came back with the same fold wrinkles. I showed it to our Butler who took it and got it done correctly. I then sent out item number two, a simple chiffon skirt which also came back not steamed. The butler says, no problem, I will take it back and tell the manager. Well, there is a problem, because she then came back and told me “they cannot do this”. And they won’t charge you. Duh? That it? What kind of laundry can’t steam a clothing item? My next step is to talk to the concierge. Now I have 2 outfits I can’t wear because they have arbitrary decision making due to Covid. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. I feel like I’m whining, but Cunard has to consider how they react to Covid at this point in time. They could even ration out launderette time so all of us who packed fewer clothes could wash them ourselves. Frustrating….anyway, thanks for reading. I’m wondering if there’s a better way to complain or if no one listens.

Just like everything else with Cunard, they move pretty darn slowly. This morning we got an email telling us they are taking off the Bermuda stop. That’s after everybody on the ship already had to do the Bermuda travel authorization form, and pay for it. And pay for the excursions. Yes, they will reimburse us, it says via our onboard account so I guess that means OBC. We cruised five times during Covid, and we understand that itinerary changes happen, but this is ridiculously late based on the lame reasoning they gave. Most of the times when they changed the itinerary it was because the ship had too many Covid cases, or the island had too many cases. Neither of those exist. My guess is they didn’t want to have to do all the testing for the people who’ve been on board prior to today’s departure. People getting on today will have a negative Covid result that’s within the number of days that Bermuda requires. This could’ve been decided at least a week out. I think Cunard needs to get a move on it and start being a little bit proactive. There’s been no change in the situation that I can tell. Anyway, we get to go to the Azores now, which is another place we haven’t been so I won’t complain too much. I just don’t understand why Cunard is still the slowest of all cruise lines to “get a move on it”. Thanks for listening to my mini-whine. 😉

We have used Cunard Air three times. We’ve traveled in business class and their prices knocked my socks off. They were so good. We have not been able to match it when traveling with Celebrity Air, for example. Also having traveling with Vikings river air, you don’t get your final flights until about 30 days out… They will give you flights, but they will continue to change them if they can’t keep the prices low enough for their budget. And Cunard we flew twice with United, once with Lufthansa. All three times we were able to select our seats by going to the Airlines website and just adding them to our reservation.

The last time we flew into Heathrow for a Cunard cruise, the lines were not much better. I’d say they were about 2 1/2 hours long. And that was in 2018 before Covid and all the problems that there are currently with respect to hiring people and keeping positions filled right now.