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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…

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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.

5 hours ago, techteach said:

@sandancer 3.5 hours? That sounds horrible. Good luck.

3 hours ago, ace2542 said:

Nevermind the 3.5 What about all the time at Heathrow doing check in and security is that not a concern as well?

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.  

We’ve not yet cruised on Costa, but we’ve heard that their ships have a nice dance floors and good old fashioned couple dancing music. Is that still true or is it only on some of the ships?

Appreciate any information on which ships still have great dance floors and music, (something other than a discotheque…)

thanks in advance.

Oh wow.  Thanks for catching.  I’m getting old and clearly not reading everything as well as I should. .  Yes we are B2Bing. Now I need to revisit my emails and make sure I have it correct.  DH would kill me if we showed up without the correct docs…or I might commit HariKari if I couldn’t board after all the packing.😬

I seem to remember Queen Mary having a luggage scale, but maybe I’m confusing myself here. Since we’re going to be flying on a European airline when we get off in Barcelona, I want to make sure the suitcases are within the right weight range. And I hate to carry one of those little Luggage scales with me if I don’t have to.

Does Queen Elizabeth have a luggage scale somewhere?

 Thanks.

In response to the requests, I received the email on July 21.  Here’s the excerpt.

“we’re letting you know that we’ve updated our pre-sailing testing requirements. These will apply to your voyage, Q226A, departing on 08/22/2022.

For your embarkation port, all guests aged five years and over must still take a Covid‑19 antigen test and receive a negative result within two days of departure. You will no longer need to provide a test certificate, however, you will be asked to confirm the test has been taken, with a negative result, for you and each member of your party as part of your pre‑boarding health declaration at the cruise terminal. Adequate tests include over the counter tests, providing they fall within our list of accepted Covid-19 antigen tests. “
 

It’s my belief that Cunard is dealing with every cruise on a case by case basis. I had called Cunard to ask a couple questions about a week before this email came, and the agent told me that how many ports a particular voyage goes to can make a difference in the requirements.

And yes, I’m not sure that the website even matches what came in my email…

Just commenting…..We are Americans departing from Fort Lauderdale on QE on Aug 9.  We received an email about a week ago, telling us the same, that we must test ourselves but not a monitored test, prior to boarding.   
 

Americans have been a given the opportunity to get free self-tests for the past couple months. So it’s great for us, since the monitored tests may or may not be covered, depending on one’s insurance.

Glad to hear this change in requirement is becoming more common, especially since they require vaccination in order to sail.
 

Looking forward to putting Covid behind us all!

I must say to the people who can pack the day before— I am so impressed.

I always start packing about two weeks before any trip. I have packing lists and I leisurely do things so it’s not all on me to do it at the last minute. However for Cunard, I actually have to pack the formalwear earlier because I ship them to the port,  we don’t carry them.

We typically have 2 carry-ons, 1 26 inch suitcase for our every day clothes, and 2 more 26 inch cases for our eveningwear.

We have one carry-on that’s full of medical supplies, unfortunately that’s part of our aging reality. Then we have a smaller carry-on that has all of our toiletries and whatnot,  and a pair of PJs for each of us because quite often we’re doing a pre-flight or a pre-cruise night somewhere in a hotel.

Since our first Cunard cruise where I had packed 3 gowns that I never wore, I have learned to pack with less clothing.  I actually have a little spreadsheet that I’ve used over and over to make sure that I don’t over pack anymore. And even for my husband, he takes a tux, and he takes a blazer with two pairs of trousers. The first cruise I packed a second sport coat for him, but I looked around and saw most men wear their blazers every night so he does too now.  
 

Another thing helped me pack  less was using the laundries and the laundry service. It’s so easy on Cunard, so I don’t have to pack as many clothes because I know I can do laundry or we can send it out. We actually pack many more every day clothes when we’re doing Celebrity since they don’t have self service laundries… We get free laundry bags, but sometimes they don’t do the best job…

One more thing, I also love packing cubes. I find not only do you fit more items in your suitcase, but it really keeps them from wrinkling if you pack them in well. So I highly recommend packing cubes to anyone whose are frequent travel traveler

I am surprised you are booking in the Grilles and don’t have a drink package included…I guess the booking inclusions are different for the UK and the US?
 

When we travel in the Grilles, the drink package is included.  It’s not so bad, we can get plenty of drinks within the price range!!!  (Celebrity’s is a bit better if you have the premium package..) DH and I actually think the drink prices are lower on Cunard so their limit is lower.

Hmmm, perhaps Cunard thinks we Americans drink a lot more 🤣 🤣🤣 and so ups the cruise fare to include the drinks?

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Due to travel yesterday, I didn’t even look until today.  We will be going on the QA Fort Lauderdale to FortLauderdale Caribbean cruise in February 2024.

Some notes—I have to say the pricing was a shocker…we like Princess Grilles and the price really has jumped, with very little OBC!  The fare price is about 40% more “per day” than when we cruised in 2018 and 2019, and we had tons of OBC on that cruise. Another noticeable difference is the deposit is much larger than it was previously.  I guess Cunard cruise lines need to refill their coffers…

Despite the pricing, we will not have to fly or ship the big luggage which saves a lot of money for us, so we decided to enjoy the new ship closer to home.

We are really looking forward to the cruise, wondering how much we will like the ship….we love QE, not so much QM, and all our cruises we had planned on QV were victims of Covid, so it will be fun to try another Cunard ship!

Late to this topic, but we were waiting to go into Ocean blue on Bliss a couple of years ago, prior to Covid. A family had a teenager who I guess was inappropriately dressed, I don’t remember what the issue might have been, but they refused him and told him that he had to come back dress appropriately.

so, I’m thinking that sometimes they do enforce the code. We always dress country club “nice“, so we never have an issue.  That includes our millennials… always pack a pair of khakis. Khakis and a clean polo shirt take you a long way. 

On 2/19/2022 at 8:59 AM, godfreyb said:

As a recently departed New Yorker, I wouldn't regard the subways as 'safe' at the moment.  But everyone has their own assessment of risk.

Between 1996 and 2015 we lived in New Jersey and frequented New York City. We took the subways quite often, because we thought they were faster than taking a cab or walking.  We never felt unsafe.

Since the changes in crime statistics over the past two years in New York City, everything I read tells me the subways are not so safe, even during midday. 
 

If I were a visitor and unfamiliar with subways in New York, I would probably take Uber nowadays. 

1 hour ago, BSinPNS said:

I wuld love to see new itineraries.  I love to sail Celebrity, but fortunatly have done most of the itineraries.  

I would love to see longer itineraries.  Longer itineraries make it harder for working people, but I really love 15 to 25 day cruises.   I’m guessing that they’re aiming for a slightly younger crowd than HAL and Princess, so therefore they don’t want to have too many long cruises with that would exclude younger people. I guess they prefer that we do back to backs.

Hello and thanks for your comments.  On Silhouette now and have been to world class, ensemble, passport and sky lounge.

My take so far.  World class bartender puts on a show.  He also dumps about 2 tablespoons of simple syrup in a cocktail.  Seriously? yuck.  I couldn’t drink it nor could DH.  My first impressions was not good.   He also didn’t muddle the fruits, and I asked for a traditional old fashioned…. So, not a fan.  Interesting enough, we’re going to do the mixology class, so I guess I’ll have a chance to ask questions and understand why they do what they do.   
 

Ensemble, passport and sky have all made ma a good drink not overkilled in sugar.

Appreciated  all your replies.   Going to try another bar tonight…. Maybe Sunset.

We’re getting ready to cruise Silhouette and are wondering which bars make the best whiskey drinks.  We looked at the drink menus but they are lacking in Whiskey…saw lots of Vodka, Gin, Rum…we might want a real Manhattan or Old Fashioned…where should we head..?

(yes we have a drink package and can try all the bars, but looking for advice from any experienced folks who are similarly inclined toward American and Canadian whiskeys)

Thanks…

We drink about 4 drinks a day plus 3 bottles of water each on port days.   On sea days we drink more, maybe 2 drinks earlier in the day.

And if there are masks required, then we drink even more.  True, we did this on 2 cruises this past fall, especially after we noticed that everyone with a drink in front of them didn’t have their mask on.  

Not really answering the OP….

We are in our 60s.  I love a lanyard, DH hates them.  To each his own! 🤣🤣

I do prefer when you can punch the card and not use a pouch, but it’s a minor issue. I use one on every cruise…Celebrity, Cunard, Hal, NCL, Viking, Oceania…. I think I was the only person on Oceania who wore one.   Didn’t bother me a bit, but I noticed it after a lady complimented me on mine and asked where I got it.

This would be an fun survey as a separate thread…

We are planning back to back cruises out of Sydney this coming fall. (Fingers crossed Covid will be gone….) Today I went on the Celebrity website and pulled up some business class airfares. Then I went onto two of the carriers’ websites and compared the prices.  I was really shocked. In one case the carrier was at least $1000 less per person for the same flights, and the other was the exact same price.

I tried doing one-way tickets and round-trip, and there was still no advantage to purchasing through Celebrity other than, the fact that we wouldn’t have to pay in full until something like 45 days before the cruise. (This is tempting with Covid)

We have only ever bought air tickets through Viking and Cunard.  Cunard airfares and choices for business class blew me away. They’re so reasonable. Viking was not as good, mostly because they offer fewer options, and they will change your flights to suit their purse—but they were still better than buying tickets on your own.

For those of you that have purchased overseas business class tickets through celebrity, did you see a distinct price advantage? I’m wondering if I should give it a month and see if the fares come down a bit…

Appreciate any advice or comments….

thanks…