buchanan101

Was tempted by this, but we were very happy to eat every meal in the QG restaurant. Got us up and out... You must have had Q4 or better to have 6 people at dinner though; we were "lowly" (standard) Q5

About what I thought it was (based on $185 to Times Sq) Over double what a cab would cost... self disembark before 8am and you'll get a cab. we were at the front of the 8am disembarkation queue, which is when the rush starts - there was a constant trickle of self disembarkation passengers

Wish I'd had them skiing last spring when I was in Salzburg and my skis were still at Heathrow. Then Vienna>Frankfurt>Salzburg over the next 3 days. Wouldn't have had to wait around until everyone had cleared the baggage hall...

It’s supposedly included - I guess you have to ask. Packing after a crossing isn’t that hard… just chuck it in. It fitted before…Not sure OH would have appreciated someone else unpacking her finery etc… Personally I appreciated the upgrade for the extra room and the dining and priority on and off. Not sure I would have paid £2k to £4k for packing and unpacking!

See reference to the Brooklyn mad house with all the luggage lined up. I recommend Apple tags. Whilst OH was off searching I turned on “Find My” on my IPhone. I was 5ft from the bags…(doh) saved time getting to immigration…

This will be VERY expensive. They were charging $185 from Brooklyn to Times Sq area - and were offering a full range of transfers (including airports) about 2 days before arrival. Prebooked prices I looked at before travel were about half Cunard fares. We just took a green cab to Times Sq- it was fixed fare about $65 I think from memory. I suspect there will be fixed fares Brooklyn to JFK as well. Most NY cabs now seem to have plenty of luggage space…sort of mini MPV - I doubt there will be any problem with space in a cab rank taxi - they’ll know cruise passengers have a lot of luggage. However we were QG and off at 8am so no problem with immigration or cab availability- not sure what the supply is like over the next couple of hours. If you can self disembark there’ll be no problem with a cab

We were on TA last month - I know it’s not relevant really as tests weren’t needed (as NY only), but they didn’t even ask to see proof of vaccination… (nor any proof of insurance) …2 hours in to the crossing announcement over tannoy… medical emergency. I bet we weren’t the only ones thinking “covid outbreak, return to port”. It was some poor unfortunate being helicoptered off; made the news on the Isle of Wight apparently as we hadn’t cleared the Solent.

Two weeks ago the orchids were in the QG room (and same coloured orchids appeared on the dinner table in QG restaurant). Seem a lot more sensible than flowers (last a lot longer). I guess we could have had daily fruit if we asked but it wasn’t offered. The pre dinner canapés were nothing special. I also thought chocolate covered strawberries were with Champagne on boarding but it was just fairly normal chocolates. The turn down chocs didn’t seem to be the Godiva ones supposedly offered. There does seem to be little bits of cost saving here and there. Wouldn’t really have wanted him to unpack. The butler wasn’t much more than an excellent room attendant though we didn’t ask for anything specific - very happy with him and his sidekick, both quietly efficient and friendly.

Yup - I have several of those and would not dream of thinking they were smart. However, googling now, I quite like the smarter ones like the ones pictured in this thread. Maybe it's because I'm 61 (but not yet a Grandad) Does anyone actually get stopped for being too casually dressed in Cunard restaurants - especially now the rules have been relaxed?

Hi Richard I do have metal level because I (possibly unwisely) invested in them - but that card has been "free" to me for a couple of years. However the 0% foreign currency charge applies to all levels (0.5% at weekends) - so including the free card, and you could front *your* Barclaycard with Curve to get an overall better exchange rate (i.e. 0% to 0.5% fees, not 2.99%) plus your cashback Yes, my Barclaycard is £20 a month (reduced to £15 as I have a premier account, which in turn costs £12 but gets 1500 Avios a month for that plus an annual cabin upgrade voucher). The BC gives the same rate as Amex BA Premium card (also with an annual voucher), for about the same cost, but is a bit more widely accepted (and Curve doesn't front Amex). Plus I just got 25,000 Avios sign up bonus and will get 100,000 Avios soon for holding both products... You can pay tax bills with Curve and get Avios....or cashback on the underlying card A bit of a game I know! But valuing Avios at 0.8p each or so I still come out on top - certainly for the first ~6 months with the card anyway! (£1000 "worth" of Avios for about £150 cost...) **Important to note that Curve is a debit card**, so you can get your credit card rewards where credit cards are not accepted by using Curve fronting your credit card But as I said, you would gain (at zero cost) getting a free Curve and using your Barclaycard through that As for dispute, a couple of the charges have been refunded. It's taken two weeks. It still leaves a bad taste that they are worse than any hotel!

Fair enough. A higher collar than I imagined… I got the impression a couple of weeks ago that being smart ish mattered more than exact details of attire

Not sure that works on any night. It hasn’t got a collar (if my understanding of grandad shirts is correct). Polo shirts are ok - I wore one forgetting my jacket one evening two weeks ago. Not sure how strict the style police are!

I haven’t yet provided screen shots. I will be on Monday as that is 10 working days.

I recommend Curve. It’s a debit card with 0% currency transaction fees (0.5% at weekends). But it fronts credit cards - but not Amex. So I get 0% conversion charge on a good exchange rate, plus, 1.5 Avios /£1 using my Barclaycard (which has also just given me 25,000 Avios sign up bonus with 100,000 more to follow in 3 months - though this means I have monthly fee bank account and credit card with them - yes it’s worth it if you do the maths…)

They are double charges. I’d have to pay double if credit card needed paying today.

No hotel I’ve ever been in does (a). Cunard ships are hotels. No reason at all to do what they do, especially as customers with issues with payment can’t really do a runner. I’m surprised that some people here can’t understand the difference between Cunard and standard hotel practice. As for (b) my hotel in New York returned the balance in 2 days. I still have the double (individual day) charges on my account after 2 weeks. This quite frankly stinks.

To clarify... on my Barclaycard account now (also for items purchased through Curve) I have 3 items showing as "pending". The daily charges from Cunard and the total charge at the end of the voyage are all shown as fully charged to the card: Neither the daily or the total appear in the pending section. I currently *have* been charged double whatever other people may claim. It's not an "old chestnut" and it is quite different from what hotels do as I have tried to explain

My credit card currently HAS double charges on it because if i had to pay off that card today I would have to pay the double amount It is greatly different from hotels who charge a flat fee; hotels don't charge you daily then again at the end of the stay, and then sometime down the line remove the first charge. Again - why don't they just make the daily "holding" charges the actual charges to the card? This is what I assumed that they were doing when daily notifications popped up on my phone

Whereas I can say that "I can't believe that people don't use a Curve debit card fronting a credit card so that I pay 0% currency transaction fees (saving 2.99% typically) AND I get Avios from the underlying credit card...!" Hotels repay in 2 days. It should not take Cunard 2 weeks. Hotels take a sum to cover misconduct (e.g. $50/day); that isn't remotely like Cunard do - they charge specifically for the items purchased each day, so why not leave it at that - no need to charge twice

All a customer can do is dispute the charge I will give it 10 working days, and then put it back to them. It should not take that long - as I said the hotel did it in 2

Just this very second... an email response - exactly as you've been saying. But why can't they just charge as incurred during the voyage rather than pre-authorise? They'd want me to contact bank...hmm The transactions don't show as pending on the account though From Cunard: Thank you for your call to the Customer Contact Centre with regards to your onboard account. I can advise that any amounts other than your final balance payment are likely to be pre-authorisations. These checks are typically done at embarkation and throughout your voyage in line with your spending. This is done in order to confirm that the card has not been reported lost or stolen and that there are funds to take the final balance at the end of the voyage. Generally, these pre-authorisations should drop off your card within 7-10 days of being taken and therefore should now be removed from your account. Once you have disembarked and your account has been settled, we advise card providers to place any pending transactions back on the account as we will not be taking them. This is a practice we have been doing for many years and is detailed in our brochures and on our website. Many hotels and other cruise companies use these checks to ensure the card is legitimate. Therefore, I would kindly recommend that if you are still seeing the pre-authorisation checks after 7-10 working days, you contact your bank and advise them to place the pending transaction back onto your account. Failing this if it is still showing on your account, please could I ask you to provide a screenshot/evidence of the additional payments being taken from your card and I will get our finance team to investigate this further for you.

Exactly this. And they managed to return the $1 test charge in 2 days. Holding charge for Hotel Riu in MYC returned balance in 2 days It's only $150 for me, but now 9 days and counting. I phoned a couple of days ago, maybe a complaint email is required

Damn, so if it's QM2 I'd be happy with PG, but the other 3 I may have to think QG. (It'd actually depend on relative prices in the end though)

Seems to me that the ratio between what you get is a bit different for the various ships - or at least QM2 v the other 3. I'm talking about the cabins, and the "standard" QGs, not the specials On QM2 it's simple for cabin space and it's all on width. QG = 2 x brit and PG = 1.5 x brit. Which are nice upgrades in that it gives proportionally bigger balcony width On the others from what i can see PG and Brit are the same width, just that PG is a bit under 1.5 x deeper. Doesn't seem as good to me. QA seems to have QGs at >2x Brit. Conclusion: PGs on anything other than QM2 are a bit less special; QGs on QA are a bit more special relative to QM2... (just done QG on QM2 - which was great...looking at Norwegian Fjords - wondering which ship and which class!)

Ok - it could be that I paid by Curve fronting Barclaycard - Curve is a debit card, but I use it as it charges no currency transaction fee and a good exchange rate Seems that the system is wrong - either charge people daily OR at the end of the voyage; given that they don't want people to run up bills that they can't pay, then just charge daily - no need for the final amount Wonder how much working capital that gives Carnival across all its ships...?