ballroom-cruisers

Over time virtually every friend and member of the family have had Covid despite being fully triple vaccinated - and all of those infections were acquired on land and nowhere near a cruise ship. However as people have mentioned if you have had all the available jabs including boosters, then when you do catch it, most people have relatively mild illness, no worse than a bad cold. But also apart from a few people we know who had the original variant of Covid, and who had it again earlier in the year, though very mildly and likely one of the Omicron variants, almost nobody has had it twice. So for those who have had it, as well as all available jabs, the worry about the risk of being infected on a cruise ship is much lower than most of us felt about it in the the first year and a half of the lockdown period. As time continues to pass it looks like more and more will have had it, and be less and less concerned about getting it again, even if on a cruise. Quite a few people we know are now very happy to book cruises, and get on board and have no concerns with the continued easing of the mask protocols and the removal of the requirement to have certified Covid tests before boarding at Southampton. Perhaps as the number of people continuing to have major worries about these changes gets smaller over time, cruises will continue to move forward, and fill the available room capacity despite the ongoing posts here about hoping that the protocols will be maintained. Of course hopefully people will be sensible, and if they know they are symptomatic they will do what they can to avoid passing any infection, whether Covid or any other respiratory infection to other passengers. Of course if you are concerned about becoming infected then clearly risk will be lower on a personal level if you avoid crowded places, and even avoid going on any cruise. It is likely those concerns will be no different in daily life away from a cruise ship too, so everyone will be making their own personal decision about what risks they will or will not be prepared to accept. Nevertheless, it seems that more and more voyages are now completing very successfully, with the majority of passengers unaffected by Covid, and also much less affected by the old coughs and chest infections that were around prior to Covid, but of course an unlucky few are still getting infected whilst on board. Things may of course change in the winter or in another year, but all the information we see is showing a gradual return to more normality as we have been going through this year. Let's hope it continues to allow us to get even closer to the way things were, even if we get served our portions in the buffet (which is likely a very good thing in preventing some of the old problems like norovirus transmitting too, so maybe that should stay permanently!). Also note Carnival's latest news release at https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/cunard-updates-covid-19-travel-requirements-0

Hopefully there won't be any water slides and climbing walls installed during the first Queen Anne dry-dock, once the new modern thinking passengers start putting in their feedback on post-voyage questionnaires, saying there is not enough entertainment of the right kind (!) on Queen Anne cruises! (Tongue now removed from cheek!)

At the age of 9 it is still at the learning stage for the rules of life - but at the other end of the age spectrum we should have gained all the knowledge we need about things like that!

Sadly the long standing traditional British table etiquette, both for place setting and cutlery, as well as table manners has been slowly diluted over time. At only very few restaurants in the UK do we see proper fish knives as in the previous poster's picture, but also rarely do we see a soup spoon, and even a decent steak knife is often nowhere to be seen leaving the diner needing to hack furiously at gristle slipping the occasional green pea across the table, since the plates are often stacked to such an extent that there is no room to work with food on the plate. Food volumes are enormous as people now expect maximum value for money. When did people last see a lobster pick presented to them on a meal out - let alone lobster even on the menu! That is one thing that is just so nice about dining on a Cunard voyage - we do indeed still have nicely presented dishes on a plate, whether the starter, entrée, or dessert, and usually the correct knife fork or spoon for the dish. There is indeed a butter knife on the butter plate, and these little details make for dinners that really are an occasion and make meals on board something other than just 'eating out'. I do hope those traditions do not get diluted on future Cunard ships and the voyages they undertake. The rich traditions are one reason people pay to be on a Cunard cruise. A quick search on the web will easily yield lots of images and information about English table etiquette - though of course the dishes are pleasantly multi-cultural.

Yes indeed, but also for my eyes and ears the description saying, "seat at the bar as DJs and live bands fill the air with the soundtrack..." does not fill me with anticipation, but instead gets me thinking I probably would not want to spend much time there. I far prefer the gentler music that has usually been playing at low volume on the decks of QV/QE, or close to none at all on deck 7 of QM2, so that quiet contemplation and pure calm and relaxation, can be enjoyed for my time on deck. The image conjured up from that description reminds me more of raucous loud music on some other lines, with impossibly loud DJ talking over the music, and very loud quizzes that drive me to the other end of the deck on such ships. I like the air to be gentle quiet enjoyment where the primary sound is that of the bow wave just audible as it glides past the hull near the water line. Still each to his/her own!

That canopy looks like Grills area only?

Those links won't work - but it is not difficult to go to the Cunard web site and find the new Queen Anne pages that include the new section on outdoor spaces.

That would be lovely, but has that been confirmed?

Let's face it, even with the strictest protocols there will always be some level of risk that you could be infected whilst on board, at least it would seem that way for the voyages in the past month or two. In fact it looks from the figures that I have seen that there are fewer cases per 100 people on Cunard cruises, than on land (in the UK it is around 1 in 20 people in the population who are infected at any moment in recent months, varying a little either side of that, and currently in the UK gradually going down). It looks like there is less than 5% infected on recent Cunard cruises if the information I have seen is correct. Whatever happens, we all accept that risk is not zero. Hopefully no new nasty variants will emerge that change the situation.

It will be interesting to hear about whether the Pavilion roof is more open than closed from the folk who are on the first few voyages when she first sails with paying passengers.

It is a bit like going to a busy rodeo dressed in a tux and bow-tie, instead of a Stetson, jeans, chequered shirt and spurs - and even without a horse, goodness me! But if you want to go to a rodeo in a tux I am sure you would fit in perfectly! Oh dear, maybe I have it the wrong way round?

I just got an email from Cunard advertising the wonderful outdoor spaces on Queen Anne - when I looked at the pictures I was horrified - there is pretty much no shade at all - it is fine for those who want to boil to a cinder in the sun, but what about those of us who like being on deck but not in the direct sun?

True - and what English people would call an evening dress generally works well - and not too many wear the extra elaborate evening gown as we would call it, but some do! Also a ball gown is generally a more formal elaborate form of evening dress but usually is not related being able to dance, whereas a ballroom gown, or ballroom dress, is usually completely different and designed specifically to make it optimal for ballroom dancing.

I think for the ladies anything that is elegant, classy and not casual works for Gala nights. I guess that what a lot of ladies wear is what used to be called an evening dress, as opposed to the kind of casual clothes people would wear in the daytime. It is a night out so dress for the occasion. Of course if you are a ballroom dancer then some nice looking evening dresses would not allow the lady to move her legs enough when dancing, and would also restrict the man's leg movements - which is why there are ballroom gowns, which often have godets that allow the dress or skirt to hang with a pretty curve but also allow it to flair out during dancing, but also allow correct leg movement when dancing ballroom. Latin dances do not need that extra room in general and Latin lady dancers more often wear shorter and tighter skirts or dresses. However if you are not a ballroom/Latin dancer then standard evening dresses, or elegant separates are what a lot of people wear, and do look elegant - and it is the combination of well chosen dresses or separates along with nice shoes that make for the kind of appearance that many people enjoy and like to wear on Gala nights. So it is not hard and fast rules, and there is a large variation in the style of clothes that people wear, but what does not work is daytime clothes on a Gala evening. For men too, it does not have to be a bow-tie, and indeed many men wear a lovely dark, or indeed white, suit, with a normal tie. I have also seen a very smart evening suit with a cravat looking very smart. So it is not a fixed rule except that casual doesn't work on Gala evenings, and most people just seem to know that instinctively.

Whatever the comments are that we see in this forum, at the end of the day the majority of people on Gala evenings dress so that they look and feel nice in an atmosphere where they are part of something special a couple of times in a week for the evening. Yes, you will see dinner suits, and yes you will see bow-ties, some black and some white, and some other colours. You will see plenty of ladies looking proud that they are wearing their nice evening dresses, or gowns, and some in smart and elegant separates. A lot of ladies will wear earrings and necklaces, and bracelets, and wear make up. They will have their hair done specially for the occasion. Yes you will also see some people walking through the Britannia dining room half an hour after dinner starts, in casual clothes, but they are the minority. Whatever the 'rules' there are enough people among the passengers on every Cunard cruise I have been on who wish to continue dressing up on Gala evenings, to make it special, and to be part of a community of like-minded people who also enjoy making an elegant and special occasion a number of times in the voyage. That is what makes Cunard voyages different to many of the other lines (though not all and some other lines also have formal evenings where people similarly enjoy dressing up), but it is only on Cunard cruises that a Gala Evening is also an evening where it is not just an elegant dinner with extra special dishes on the menu compared to other nights, but is also an evening where people can go into the Queen's Room and find that many others are making the ballroom dancing special for that night by being part of a classic event, whether as a ballroom dancer on the dance floor, or being a spectator to watch the ballroom dancing as one of the magical evenings of entertainment whilst chatting and enjoying a drink at the same time in beautiful surroundings. I do hope that this continues for a long time yet, as it is the reason we choose to go on Cunard cruises rather than on other lines.

The ballroom dancing in the Queens Room has people of various abilities. If beginners stay near the edge as they go anticlockwise around the floor then more experienced dancers can go around when overtaking on the inside track, and it works well. If couples do something other than the correct dance for the ballroom dances, or block the middle of the floor, then it clogs everything up. The Latin dances don't travel apart from samba, or the rarely played paso, in which case the same rules as above keeps everything working well. There are also dance classes for beginners that sometimes include some teaching for more experienced dancers too.

Yes a scroll bar appears if you move the mouse cursor to the list..... not sure if that was there yesterday though!!

Great. thanks and hope it gets some care and work to get it fixed.

If you mean paying for a 24 hours of internet - then it starts a clock as soon as you purchase the internet package, and 24 hours after you bought the one day package it expires. When you logout it tells you how many minutes you were logged in and I seem to remember also tells you when it expires.

I was looking for the big collection of pictures of QM2 in the review section, that used to be there with a nice extensive set across most of the ship. However when going to the photo section for QM2 the page opens with a large font comment, "Oops! This page is out at sea.". Does anyone know what has happened to those photos?

Perhaps - but I am not sure everyone would laugh. People will read the thread without looking too closely at the title - so having the positive aspects listed is useful, don't you think?

When you said, "Food and service were mainly good, I admit, but I once had to send a dish back because it was tough. Not good enough even in a school canteen.", that is amusing because you 'once' had to sent a dish back, but what about all the other meals which were really excellent? Our waiter explained that with the current supply chain issues Cunard are actually doing an amazing job sourcing supplies of so many of the the foods and ingredients that passengers have come to expect at every meal. But it is tough, and getting supplies of high quality meat on board, is not always assured when suppliers have to be changed and with little time to establish how good a replacement supplier is, or its products. Yes there was a day when orange juice was not available, but they got that back next day. All in all Cunard are doing a pretty amazing job keeping up the standards, given the global supply chain problems, and the significant difficulty in keeping up the required number of well trained crew across the various skills and requirements needed for a cruise ship. One of the waiters in the Verandah was leaving at the end of that voyage, and they had been unable to get a replacement for the following TA voyage. All in all we were very lucky to get the level of service and crew at all levels who work flat out, smiling, and giving such high quality experience on a voyage.

Is it not the case that QM2 would be unlikely to be in the Caribbean in the summer when it is hurricane season? In any event even in the Caribbean the sea temp is rarely much above or below 27C, and never over 30C.

I can't believe some of this whingeing - you complain that the ship needs refurbishment, and yet complain when the maintenance crew were working flat out on the external door re-varnishing when the weather was ideal for that work to be done. In addition there were teams sanding down cracked paintwork on the external parts of the ship, and priming and repainting throughout, again because the weather was suitable for that work - which can' be properly done when it is wet weather. In Lisbon there were two giant cherry pickers bringing crew up a hundred feet above the dock level, to do the same on the external walls just below the promenade deck, as well as working on the outside of the lifeboats, to bring them up to good condition. They worked all day until the last half hour before she sailed on the last leg of the voyage. And no, they can't do that unless the ship is at port with the necessary facilities, and not at night. In any event the noise of sanding at night would soon enough cause people to grumble that they can't sleep because of such work going on! A lot of people disagree strongly with people walking through Britannia dining room on the upper level in shorts or 'slouchware' without due respect for those significant numbers of passengers who enjoy an elegant well dressed group of diners in the classy dining atmosphere, and not wish to have that spoiled by sloppily dressed people breaking that atmosphere. I hope you will find time to post a more positive view of the ship - and from the many people I talked to on the ship, it might seem your view is a minority one.

I think you should have included the real facts about the cold water being rather warm - a day or two after that there was a captain's announcement, and he told us that they had been trying to work out what had caused the hot cold water, and eventually worked out that it was because of unprecedented high sea water temperature due to the extreme heat wave across Europe and the Mediterranean. He also then announced that they were going to turn off the entire ship's water supply overnight, between 1am and 5am in order to make a major engineering change that should resolve the problem. Next morning when we got up cold water came out of the taps as normal, so the engineers had done a fantastic job in uncharted territory - the sea temperature was over 31C through most of the voyage. So this was the reality, and the crew and engineers did an amazing job in difficult circumstances. So you can't fault them, and it was not because the ship was clapped out at all.