starquake

Worth noting we really liked the QE having sailed on one of the first post-covid recovery cruises (the pre Christmas 10 to 14 day cruise that usually runs getting back on 23/24th December). We sailed on QM2 a year later, and QV 1.5 years later than the first cruise. We found out onboard after a few short days on the QE cruise however, near the entire crew was transplanted from QV who were due to have sailed the same sailing (until an equipment swap nearer time was notified to all of us, so same itiinary, different ship). Since sailing on QV, we have been recognised by several crew and in part our happy memorys on QE were partly down to the crew. The almost mad thing is the QV crew remembered us by name despite having seen them ~ 1.5 years prior and remembered our drink preferences! One particular crew member also told us he was happy to be home on QV when we saw him again. At the time he didn't know of any plans for himself to go onto QA but this was 6 months ago so he wouldn't have known then. So although I've sailed on QE, I don't think it "counts" as it's mostly been with a QV crew (as it was for the 6 months after sailing resumed post covid).

Or Next, who offer a Tux online (inc trousers, but no shirt) for £99, ie, not much more than Cunards rental fee. You will need to be in UK for 3-4 days before for delivery, and they offer all sizes (though do get shortages in certain times of year around University ball season). I'd note the Next Tux is distinct enough you'll spot the other Cunard customers also wearing them on formal night (it's rather popular).

Last year friends flew back after the Carribean segment and Cunard offered a Times Square and other tour for those guests that finished at JFK for their flights. We didn't finish as we had 3 extra days in New York before returning. This dissapointed our friends who done same tour ... on the arrival to NYC from Southampton.

Ref; Black Friday deals We have booked one deal during this period, we had been monitoring for cheap cruises in the deal, and managed to pickup a QM2 itinary for 14 ni in Feb 25 for 2 cabins of 2 for under £100 pp pn which we deal as our base for Britannia Sheltered Balcony class (non upgradable). Insides were £80 pppn average for this. We have booked cheaper in past on a pppn basis but usually only on the pre Christmas winter cruises which are usually cheaper than the actual full over the holiday period Cruises by a substatial margin. Definitely the cheapest QM2 itinary we've booked to date on a pp pn basis, on that basis I approve of this Black Friday event.

We just do as many do (Both now Plat) and use 1 day on one device, and move that device between us as we need it (writing emails etc then moving the plan to send). With 2 of us, we get ~ 4-5 days free most cruises, meaning we only need to spend on 2 days (*usually with OBC thats left but not from our status) for the entire cruise. We have no need or want to use 2 devices at same time, part of the fun of a cruise is being away from tech, but we usually DO get the package for things not on the TV etc, via a VPN (Excample being following our football teams matches which are all online).

Have to say we've been more impressed with Cunard speakers than any other line we've been on to date. We may have been lucky, but we have had excellent political and scientific presentations from actual experts in field, along with some (relatively) famous people in Hayley Mills, Paul Nicolas, and Rula Lenska doing lectures and q&a in one of the cruises we've been on. I would say about 70% of the talks have had appeal enough for us to see. John Suchet the Newsreader/classic FM presenter was on the cruise this summer, and both his lectures were must not miss occasions with an excellent description of tricky and sticky situations encountered in his long career. The main thing with Cunard is the surprise when you get on board of who the lecturers and this has usually been a pleasent surprise to us. I am actually disapointed seeing this thread that P&O are removing such things, as it probably won't stop the booking we are making for next year (given that has not many sea days) but it would make us not consider any longer cruise with them.

Our friends moved from P&O to Cunard for most sailing and have now sailed 3 Cunard sailings (2 with us). We've never sailed on P&O ourselves (yet) but are booking next year at moment (hence being on here), but we have been on Princess and found the ships too busy for our taste when compared with Cunard. The number one comment of our friends who moved from P&O to Cunard said was that the coffee in the buffet was actually "drinkable" and they didn't feel need to spend money on espresso coffee during the trips when directly compared with P&O. They also said the food was slightly better. BTW don't think the dress code on Cunard is dressy, it's mostly same as Princess and P&O these days -> it's just on formal nights *everyone* on the ship participates, well near 99%, but to our experience that is very similar on Princess, albeit with a few less formal nights. I'm not saying this too negatively as we are booking P&O for the itiniary in our case and going other way -> Simply put they have an iterinary next year we want to book.

If it helps we tend to work out the cruise port location and if buses ran by Cunard (often are).... and use this to decide on if to take a tour in first place. As an example - Lisbon IMHO you don't need a tour, as we found a drop off by bus with a map and a leisurely 3-5 hour stroll back to ship was enough to see all we wanted to see. But same was true of the cruise we got off last week on Victoria to Norway -> we found Olden benefited from a tour, so we did use that (Glacier troll car), however at all the other stops we either used a local hop on hop us trolley thing or bus at *under* 30% of the cost of the cunard tours which done much the same or just walked when it made sense, and the payment place was usually right outside the entrance to the ports secure area, so in a way, as convienient as paying on board. We beat the Cunard bus to the funicular at Bergen too, so avoided all the queues and people by being there near opening time (though we walked that with a map, and just paid contactless on arrival at the funicular). That was a 7 day cruise with 4 stops, and we only purchased a Cunard tour on one, which is about our "average" historically. We used to worry about getting back to ship when we were new cruisers, but we now usually plan to leave ship on arrival (ideally 8 or 9am) and get back for lunch ~ 1pm as a target, usually 3-4 hours ahead of ship leaving. (we plan our itinary to match). My wife sometimes goes back out for shopping afterwards.

Also don't feel bad about the following; Ordering breakfast in bed & visiting the Britannia other restaurants. Quite often we wake up to a delivered pot of nice coffee, juice, and some pastries or fruit, then wander down to breakfast at Britannia a hour or two later for a fresh omlette, or other egg dish. It's perfectly fine to do BOTH and it's one of the best tips in enjoying your mornings if you are an early bird, as there is something special about having NICE, not instant coffee on the balcony in the mornings before everyone is up. Interestignly on our last QM2 trip, one of the deliverys of the above morning breakfast ALSO was our waiter in the evening (a very nice man called Soloman), showing he worked a very long shift! In topic of tips, this crew member got our largest (additional) tip at the end given we saw him twice a day for at least 5 of each 7 days.

I would note that a few days of last the Christmas transatalntic and the day out of New york down to carribean (so same rough area) the weather was rough and movement was noticable far more in some areas than others. Our room (up on deck 12) 12003, so 2 behind the Captains room had *noticable* movement up down the corridor it was like walking on the moon at times. However in middle of ship down on deck 5 near midships it was not really noticable at all in same conditions. Thus if you are doing a winter crossing and weather last year was unseasonably mild as mentioned, I'd reccomend not picking the higher balcony cabins at front or rear of ship due to the movement. Lower, midships, sheltered would 100% be our pick and we have indeed picked that for our next winter crossing. The glass balconies on QM2 on a winter crossing as said give little protection and you don't really get chance to use them until Carribean on the winter Carribean crossingings attached to the tranatlantic legs in Nov/Dec most years. We got ~ 6 days use of a 19 night cruise, but paid handsomely for that, and in hindsight would have been happier lower, on a cheaper fare. Should add the glass balcony on the cruise we were on added ~£60/ni onto the fare.

Exactly, our table done this every night bar one on the 19 night, and with our special orders taking longer, starting 5:55pm sharp, we regularly finished 8:15-8:30. Note everyone on table was doing above - it was a slow, small portioned affiar (all bar main portions were reduced on our ask as above!).

Quite simply it's because Cunard dining is an experience, 5 or 6 course affair as normal if you take all the food on offer. As such it takes 15 mins a course to be served. At Christmas on our 19 night cruise we arrived 6pm prompt for dining, and finished at 8:15 most nights and actually missed the first 2-3 songs of the early show on around half the shows! Others did finish faster (we had a slow eating member of party, along with 2 people with dietry requirements, which do slow things up as they are "special" orders). We have booked late dining for our summer cruise, as the timings seem "more in line" with the time our tables take to eat.

I'd book 2 at the Lido pesonally, both on Coriander (it's amazing if you like Indian foods). We've had amazing both service and foods at the alternative lido dining on both QM2 and QE, and it was better than the trip we had to Verandah at both. The steak resturant, although good, we have had as good steaks from the MDR on occasion. The rum babas in there are not to be missed, but you can have that at lunch at Verandah usually. (There is another reason actually for us, the Verandah's suppliers of steaks as noted in the menu are actually the same place we buy our meat from in rural suffolk, England, so we are quite accustommed to it, but given we have a steak a week from that supplier when at home, it's not actually something special for us).

That and you can trust the water hasn't been filled from local taps and resealed. Been bitten by that in poorer places before (India) and had quite a nasty infection as a result. Last trip included some Caribbean islands with poorer economies, and I believe the ship's own advice was to not buy water from street vendors in the program that day.

When the in-package Sancerre ran out last cruise, they swapped for a more expensive unavailable by the glass wine, and same occurred the previous year with the Merlot. Cunard do still try to give good service, and we so far havn't been unhappy with substitutions. We have so far been on 4 cruises (well, 3 but one was 2 segments of a larger one) with Cunard, and had package on 2 of the 4, and overall our math worked like yours, we found it better overall. Even on some of the port days it was useful as allowed us to load up a backpack with cans/bottles of water as we left to avoid expensive port prices ahead of a hike. (if you ask nicely at some bars they will give you a can unopened if you do it as you go to bed etc).

Can confirm it's up to $13 ignoring the tip. Have ordered items costing $12.30 with no charge to myself.

We have tried once (with some friends + children) , repeating this Xmas (minus the friends as they are booked on 2024). Fair to say given BOTH of us rebooked albeit for different years it was enjoyable. Agree many of the more senior crew will ALSO have their families onboard, so will many of the guests. Children were plentiful compared with a normal Cunard sailing (we had been on 3 prior, this was most!). However all were well behaved as a general rule, however some older cruisers didnt like the children having fun in the Queens room in the evening, and complained resulting in a strange children under 11 must dance with a adult rule for part of the cruise. (We actually thought the kids were great, and better at ballroom dancing than some of the adults!). In summary lots more family groups who keep mostly to themselves than a non-christmas cruise. The atmosphere was great with some great shows flown in for the cruise throughout the 19 nights we had on board (we only done the first 2 of the 3 segments), including a first time a full west-end play ("Best Exotic Marigold Hotel") was performed at sea over 2 showings on 2 afternoon matinees. The regular performers and show team were also excellent. Food wise, we were treated very welll, as we had a full table of 6 "filled" effectively, we got to know our head waiters as well as our own waiting team (wife is intolerant to certain ingredients) so we had lots of interactions with the chefs and had a table of our choice reserved for both lunch (on 2nd floor) and dinner (on the balcony above the middle of the dining area)-> which they even managed to move to a different sitting for the single (port) night we moved to late dining to accomodate a sailwaway. (This was because technically we despite not being on open-dining were seated in the open dining part of the restaurant alongside a 8 table next door, so us moving to late didn't require anyone else to be displaced).. The lectures on board were also varied, and interesting. World Politics/Economics, Astronomy, Naval history, and Cyber threat landscapes were all topics of interest to myself. My wife enjoyed the famous (female) racing driver Lyn St James doing a presentation, as well as the West end show the "most". The main negative I would say is fitting everything in, we struggled making/doing all the things we wanted to see on many of the sea days, as quite often 2-3 items clashed at same time, alongside some "annoying scheduluing" on the lectures meaning quite a few times the first lecture in a series would be promiently at 10am so easy to attend, future elctures in the series clashing with Lunch at 12. This made things difficult as we could not see the next days program before booking lunch menu (12-1:30pm) with the chefs (wife having special diatary requirement) to know if we'd miss a lecture, so had to catch up on TV.

Can't answer the others, but for 3. We're a new to Cunard couple, about to embark on about our 5th cruise, only sailed SINCE Covid in fact. But the dress code whilst formal does suit. A jacket is most common (about 70% I'd say wear every night in colder climates, and maybe goes higher) , but on warmer climates like Caribean expect a less formal evening except of course on the "Gala" evenings. We found on the Christmas cruise that the hotter it got the less formal it got. For 4, we travelled as a group of 5 for Christmas, 2 couples in 40-50's + 1 child (10). Met bankers, insurers (Lloyds names), plumbers, electricians and people from all walks of life really in Brittania. The officers had their familys on board in many cases for the cruise, and were dining amongst us "normal" people in the restuaurant every night. Even the occasional celebrity as the entire cast of "best exotic marigold" hotel show were in the Brittania resturant every night (Notably not in the Grills in that case). Generally agree with others that the general mix of people was friendly, nice people, all who generally enjoy lifelong learning/education. We did meet a few guests from the Grills and have been invited to a cocktail party before the evening held in their suites. Everyone onboard does generally mix as after all there are few "Grills only" places onboard outside of the terrace, bar, and resturaurant. Worth noting we do plan to go to the Grills outselves in future, but took the choice of taking family on board instread of doing that this Summer, given the Grills were approx 2x the Balcony fare. Multi-generational family groups have been on every cruise we have been on with Cunard, and as such I suspect quite a few familys "treat" entire family to Grills, or the cruise itself.

My thoughts exactly. In positives the selection on board makes it an easy choice to have the package if you like whiskey given it'll often cost significantly more than the package price with only "moderation" in my whiskey drinking. I should add the only buying one leg of a multi-leg did confuse the staff slightly on QM2, and I may have had several (non alcoholic) drinks uncharged for on the 2nd Carribean leg when I perused the bill on my return to UK. I wasn't really drinking in the second week with the first leg having satisified my appetite for alcoholic drinks , with a small exception during the New Years day party. I can't complain at this, but equally am hoping the staff were not punished for this. We're also on this Christmas and hope the split arrangement is again available as it did really suit our trip.

We were on on the Xmas cruise. It was $13 then and $75 on board for package, $70 in advance. HOWEVER on a multi-leg tour like ours, unlike buying online, where you could ONLY buy all 2 or 3 legs (depending on booking), you could buy just the transatlantic segment and thus we did.. And most of the cocktail and shot prices hadn't increased. It puts doubles of some nicer whiskeys now avaialble.

It's worth noting with the recent increase from $69 to $70 they have also increased the per-dirnk limit to $13 ... making many martinis now in price range (and quite a few doubles). It was also $75/ni on the transatlantic at Christmas. We got value, and the amount of wines per glass offerred has improved. The sancerre on the per-glass package was superior to the ones available "by bottle" (second week we didn't have the package), and tried 3 bottles going up the price range, and ended up going back to buying by the glass as it suited our palette more. It's worth noting if you are on a Cruise like the Christmas cruise this year they allowed you to have the package for the transatlantic, but not the carrbean segment, and we took advantage of this last month.

As an aside on the Xmas cruise from which we returned a few days ago, we found the new PA replacement (the Italian one mentioned) quite quaffable, but ordering room service breakfast Orange juice (x4) to mix with the new fizz made very passable mimosas for one boozy morning. However we were disapointed that despite us getting double internet allocation (the Gold credit for both the transatlantic leg and the Carribean one) this did not expect to the PA replacement, we only got one single large bottle, with no explanation in Britannia, and no WC second bottle unlike some others we spoke with. Maybe our cabin attendant forgot? Given we have now 4 more Cunard trips booked (approx every 6 months from now on) , we will report on the sitation as the year(s) developments.

On the equivalent cruise last year (we were on it - the Atlantic Coast Adventure on QE (as QV was not replaced) they did not serve turkey to my remembering in the Britannia even on formal nights. That said it was avaialble at dinner time for a few evenings in the Buffet -> carved to your choice by the excellent staff with all the trimmings. I didn't see Goose at all. That said, the food served on the 10th to 23rd cruise last year was all excellent in the Britannia and the lack of this didn't spoil our trip, in fact if anything it made us book many more! (we've been on 3 since!). This year we're on the longer QM2 caribbean cruise leaving the 15th to the 3rd Jan, and they actually wrote a couple of weeks ago asking for dining times for all on the ship (even open dining people) to plan the Christmas eve/ Christmas day big mealtimes in the Britannia, and yes, a full formal Christmas dinner is planned.... which apparently will take longer to serve than a "normal" meal in the restuarant, hence moving dining around and not allowing open dining on those days.

Agree with all here, just book Cunard for this itinary. We've been on full other ships of same class as P&O Brittania (Sky Princess) and others have said, at 50% on those sailings, they felt busier than Cunard at 100% (Iona may be better however). For the fjords we have booked QV ourselves next summer and are taking my parents along for their first cruise. We chose this purely as the thing putting my parents off booking P&O (or any cruise) was the complexity of the dining, Cunard with their single dining room per class and only one "at cost" addition is simpler, and more suited to their love of simplicity. Agree with other posters that whatever booking you make you should have a great time on Cunard, as although Queens Grill/Princess are excellent, personally we perfer to sail multiple times a year in Britannia versus less times in suite class now.. It may also be worth checking recent vlogs on youtube and reviews for recent experiences on P&O -> the staffing levels last few months on some ships have been under normal levels, and 1 hour virtual queues for MDR have made us actual pause considering booking to try their new ship class (we'll probably book late next year when we see some reviews). Waiting around for dinner rather than having a resturarant with your own table is a major class differentiator, and may well be worth the money paid (Time has significant value to this couple). Remember even in Britannia class on Cunard you can choose to eat on a fixed time so you just walk into your own allocated seat at that time every night with the same waitstaff. Personally we prefer this so the actual class of the booking is less important than the cruiseline.

Has anyone tested availability of Sake on board recently out of interest. A disapointment on QM2 earlier in year was that several of the Sake were unavailable at time ...