buchanan101

Generally not ball gown type stuff, but OH bought a couple of nice knee length dresses* from Hobbs for our crossing. Hobbs are also in John Lewis but better selection in their own shops/online (*reminds me of Wordle from a day or two ago ... "frock"..does anyone call dresses "frocks" any more?)

We were waiting in the queue for timed disembarking in Brooklyn - right at the front of the queue - and at 8am there was a trickle of people self disembarking. So I see no problem with having breakfast if self disembarking, or leaving when you want. After all, what are they going to do if you hang around for a few hours - they don't know who you are!

We looked to cut through, saw the doors, and went instead through the Art Gallery. The Art Gallery was great; bought a painting... (and I'm not normally in to art) It can be temporarily blocked by Alex's talks but he directs people through Britannia restaurant

Cunard is an American line as well, trading off a good British name... it may well be better, but they are both owned by Carnival!

That was fine in October on QM2 though they seem to have reinstated "dress shirt" rather than "collared shirt". I wore polo shirts a couple of nights on QM2, with chinos, which fulfilled the requirements. In summer I bet you'll be fine with what you suggest

Oh! sorry... assumed wrongly. Now looking at the plans - these are 10001 and 10002? Have they always had these names - the suites - because if so this would have ended any speculation about what QA was going to be called, surely? (Queen Camilla? Seriously?)

Ok, but passing ships on a crossing (actually, that was an assumption for QM2, the trip under consideration may well not be!)... spotted a distant tanker once on ours. Still have windows to the side to see most of the above

Most of us probably can’t afford it…! Two issues with the cabins - movement and curtains - are facts. whether you mind movement or not is up to you! For sure it’ll move more relative to other cabins because the bow moves the most if there’s movement to be had. The neutral point is about 2/3rds of the way back so it could move up to twice as much as a stern cabin; for sure on recent October crossing Illuminations - at the bow - was rather uncomfortable on one day compared with other parts of the ship (for an art lecture that day in the Queens Room - given by Alex these are highly recommended - at the stern our chairs were sliding around) Given the movement we experienced in Illuminations - which is low down so less movement than higher up - we wouldn’t want a forward cabin of any type. Maybe we are a bit chicken… the curtains in Commodore Club are closed at dusk, so presumably the rule applies to all forward facing windows as has been stated here. There again what are you going to see after dusk?!

I think a lot of the stuff is over the top* - I too thought QM2 was fine in October. We were in QG but would have been fine in PG as they are 3/4s of QG size and 1.5 x standard size and better aspect ratio than vista PGs (* some broken chairs in the planetarium part of Illuminations and some rust and some lifts not working - but plenty of lifts...and that's it)

Aren't they also a whole lot more expensive than "standard" QGs all along each side? As for balconies, that would depend on time of year: I chose a port side QG for a westward crossing in October and it was very pleasant and warm on half the days in the sun and out of the wind. A starboard side balcony in the conditions we had would've been almost worthless. Plus forward suites will be the worst anywhere for ship movement The "standard" QGs on QM2 are plenty roomy enough in my opinion and will be a lovely upgrade from Britannia

Took our first crossing in October - generally seemed pretty good to me, well, at least compared to the complaints about her condition. I guess I wasn't looking that hard; the overall interiors impressed us. I do expect better things of QA in June 2024; maybe then it'll be things not working because of teething problems... I note that they have considerably fewer lifts than QM2 (QM2 did have a number of lifts out of order, but there was never a problem with lift capacity)

Why would I generally wear any sort of jacket indoors? Why would I put a suit jacket on to go out rather than an outdoor jacket suitable for the weather conditions? Why would I wear a suit jacket outdoors in summer - i wouldn't have any jacket, so where do I put the suit jacket I'd have with me?

Dress "properly" is still expected in many areas in the UK, but I'm an engineer haven't worn a suit for work for about 35 years, and haven't worn a tie for probably 25 years, and even then that was only for meetings. There really is no point; people will work better if comfortable. Estate agents (your "realtors") will still tend to wear suits, car salesmen will generally wear a tie. All to "impress". In the words of Shania Twain - "that don't impress me much"...

I'm all in favour of comfortable clothes for work - why are suits ever needed for work - and I mean ever... if you need a suit to create an impression, well.... However, strangely, I rather liked the concept of dressing up for a couple of special nights on QM2 and even went and bought a fitted dinner suit before the crossing (the investment in which means we have to go on Cunard again, and are in June 24 on QA)

What proportion of people have a Bath these days? I think my last was in a kitzbuhel hotel about 9 years ago with lots of skiing aches and pains. Quite happily have suites with no baths… and decent rainfall showers.

I don’t think “Brits” is anything more than a very slightly lazy Americanisation. I mean we British sometimes (less so it seems) call Americans “Yanks” which may well be slightly insulting to them?

They could also make money through links to insurance companies. I had to get pre-existing condition insurance (atrial fibrillation) - and it kicked off again first day in NYC after a crossing in October. Spent a day in ER (all I wanted was blood thinners as those are needed if heart in fibrillation). Doctor sent me to ER for a day. $1500 to be checked up but with the number of staff there this really is what healthcare cost. $100 for 10 tablets… Anyway insurance company paid up quickly no quibbles so I’m going to mention them ; Staysure. I didn’t rely on my Amex Platinum card insurance as doesn’t cover many pre-existing conditions. Also Staysure specifically covered cruises and top level Covid cover. it cost £350 for the two of us (60 and 51) for US + cruise cover included. Renewal cost for just me in Europe only (no cruise) is just £90. (OH has insurance on bank account - we only went for couple insurance for cruise / US / top Covid to be sure)

Very disappointed that on QM2 crossing last October that they didn’t have any talks about the ship - its design etc. I’d have thought every voyage should have at least one such talk given by a crew member

Seems to be no benefits at all going direct - my booking has Cunard early booking discount and full OBC.

To be fair there are virtually no communicating cabins on QA so she may not have thought there were any. Also it was the first hour that bookings were open. Anyway, we will see!

I booked direct the first (and only) time I sailed. This time for June 24 on QA I used a travel agent as they offered a 5% discount (on top of the early discount offered by Cunard). I may live to regret it, others have relationships with TAs that don't offer discounts but offer them the service they want. Most fringe stuff I can sort myself so how I would judge a TA will only be on whether unnecessary problems arise because of them, or how they handle problems that arise. They had booked me in to one of the only PG rooms on QA with a linked door to the next cabin (as the next cabin was for reduced mobility). I noticed and they changed it immediately, no problem. Maybe a real top notch TA would have noticed something like that? But 5% was £280 in this case (for PG), so not to be sneezed at.

Not good. Only disembarked once in NYC and it was fine, but we were the very first in the (non-self disembarking) queue to get off so maybe we were lucky! Always prepared for delays at US immigration after experiencing JFK a few times, but this was a lot quicker...again because we were head of the queue and the Apple Tags in my bags allowed me to find the suitcases (that's a bit of a nonsense, all those bags laid out like that)

Of course you could do the reverse and get longer days... Sailing in to NYC is somewhat more glamourous than sailing in to the container port/oil refineries of Southampton (though fog at 5am in October put paid to seeing the Statue of Liberty etc). You may get better air fares out of US ? (air taxes from UK are expensive - people are known to do small jumps to Ireland or mainland Europe to get much cheaper flights overall)

Partly depends on whether you want a particular cabin location - maybe midships, or, on our recent crossing to NY I wanted a port side cabin; it was October but 2 or 3 of the days were lovely sitting on the balcony in the sun; the starboard side was cold and windy. Some want to go higher for better views, but I'm not sure that would bother me. But most cruises won't have one side that is better than the other, and depending where you are going and time of year (summer in Med, say, v November across Atlantic) the ship's motion is likely to be quite a bit different (on average) so maybe midships not so important Northern Europe and Baltic in Summer *should* be reasonably calm and port v starboard doesn't matter at all. Maybe saver fare?

There are these 4 which are wide and shallow... plus there are some on other decks which have an angled balcony which may be a touch bigger