Seventyishtraveller

2 hours ago, Clewgarnet said:

If we're talking family history and ocean liners, I owe my very existence to Cunard!

 

My great-grandfather was head chef on the original Queens in their heyday. He started his career as 3rd chef on the Campania, and worked his way up via, among others, Carmania, Caronia, Franconia, and Carinthia (so I always feel a faint glow of family pride in the Carinthia Lounge).

 

While in New York one time, he got chatting to the man who had the contract for pest control on the Cunard liners. "My niece is about to move to Liverpool," said the pest control man. "Tell her to look up my family," said my great-grandfather. And that's how my grandparents met.

 

My great-grandfather's brother was a first class dining steward, mostly on Berengaria, but also on Lusitania, where he managed to survive the sinking and rescue three other people. Sadly, this left him with permanent lung damage. When his health was too bad for the strenuous work as a waiter, Cunard found him work on board as a telephone operator and lift attendant.

That's amazing! My grandfather worked first as boot boy, then as an assistant steward on RMS Empress of Britain 1906-1907 which I guess was actually part of the Canadian Pacific Railway company rather than the White Star. Her sister ship was the Empress of Ireland which collided with a collier in the St Lawrence River in 1914 and sank; over 1000 lives were lost. But Grandfather was well off ships at that time although the voyaging family story shifts to both my grandmothers.

One grandmother immigrated to Canada from Ireland. I haven't been able to find definitely which voyage she arrived on as her name was fairly common, Mary Kate Reilly. But once she married my grandfather in 1910, she became Torrance and that was less common so I was able to find a record of her voyage to and from Ireland on the Pretorian, which was at first part of the Allan steamship line, in 1912 with my only a few months old mother. It amazes me to think that she traveled, alone, with an infant by choice back to Ireland to see her mother and to also pick up her youngest sister, whom she brought back to Canada with her.  Ugh 1912, with a baby! That grandmother made one more voyage many years later, in 1957, on the Carinthia to once again visit her sisters who lived in England and then return to Canada. I remember seeing her off in Montreal and actually seeing her very small cabin--those were the days, when you could be on board as a visitor until they called "All ashore who's going ashore...." 

My other grandmother came to Canada from Scotland to marry my grandfather in 1907; she traveled on the Ionian which was another ship that belonged to the Allan steamship line. Then in 1919, pregnant with my aunt and with my 8 year old father in tow, she decided she wanted to go "hame" to her mother in Dundee. They sailed on the Minnedosa, which belonged to the Canadian Pacific steamship lines. Dad said Grandma was so seasick (and probably morning sick too) that she stayed in the cabin the whole voyage and he was left to ramble around the ship, being well looked after by the sailors who showed him all the engines and how the machinery worked, which left him with a lifelong love of all heavy machinery. When they arrived in Liverpool, Dad said there were so many soldiers who were traveling back from France after WW1 had ended that Grandma became overwhelmed. He remembered a kind young soldier taking her by the arm at the dock and saying "Now, it's alright mum, you just sit here and have a cup of tea and I'll see that you get your tickets for the train to Scotland."

A year after arriving, Grandma had had enough of Scotland and decided to go back to Canada, just as my grandfather was getting ready to move back to Scotland, having saved up enough money. So back my dad and my grandmother traveled, this time with my months-old aunt, on the Sicilian, again an Allan line ship. 

6 hours ago, Pushpit said:

I have a double connection for you then. I am very distantly related to the two families that ran White Star, hence my badge, and hold some family memorabilia including a White Star share certificate. The village school I went to as a kid, which I can see right now - it's a few miles down the valley and painted white so it sticks out - was the same school that Sir Joseph Hickson went to as a child and learned to read, write and do sums. He went on to become the charismatic and entrepreneurial boss of GTR who built the hugely pivotal railway originally between Toronto and Montréal along the St. Lawrence River. My school had a 200 year celebration a few years back and we were trying to work out the most famous pupil - there weren't many! But Sir Joseph was the only one to earn (as opposed to inherit) a title.

Oh my! What terrific family history 🙂 My grandfather grew up in the cotton mill town of Hoddlesden in Lancashire. He was working in the mills at age 10 but at age 16 he lied about his age and joined the Army, went to South Africa to fight in the Boer War. Which turned him into a pacifist. Came home and, still restless, joined the White Star Line in Liverpool. He'd had very little schooling except what he received in the military but he was very good with figures so I think that's how he became an accounting clerk for the GTR, transferred from Quebec City to Joliette, to Toronto and ended up back in Montreal. It helped that he spoke French as his mother had been a Swiss governess for a wealthy family in Liverpool before she married his father, the gardener. I grew up in Montreal, went to work as a secretary at McGill and then headed over to England when we early 20ish folk were mostly traveling, back to Toronto and so on. I love family history as most of my family had died by the time I was 16; digital genealogy and DNA has been such a boon!

Oh, by the way, I've just received confirmation that we've been upgraded to Cabin 5059, midships balcony. So, so pleased!!

14 hours ago, Pushpit said:

 

A funny thing: my grandfather worked as an Assistant Steward for White Star Line's RMS Great Britain 1906-1907. Left the line in Quebec City and joined the Grand Trunk Railway. I remember going down to the port of Montreal as a little girl to wave off various relatives sailing across to visit our relatives in the UK. And now I travel that way too, although much more luxuriously 😉

5 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

If you did a Plusgrade bid, normally it's best to get them just when they open up, which is around 70 days before departure. Then about 3 or 4 days to departure they will tell you if you have not been successful. If you have been successful they tend to contact you sooner. They are a Canadian company working on behalf of Cunard, so they work Montréal office hours, you typically won't hear over a weekend. I'm assuming you are getting a line you can drag over to make your bid and the webpage URL starts something like upg.plusgrade.com

 

If that doesn't work, then as soon as you board go to the Voyage Sales Office and see if they have something for you. Also, if you get the rejection message from Plusgrade you are free to call Cunard on the customer service number to enquire (though I wouldn't hold much hope for that). However if you have a TA booking, it's best to work via the TA, Cunard direct won't normally handle TA bookings.

5 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

If you did a Plusgrade bid, normally it's best to get them just when they open up, which is around 70 days before departure. Then about 3 or 4 days to departure they will tell you if you have not been successful. If you have been successful they tend to contact you sooner. They are a Canadian company working on behalf of Cunard, so they work Montréal office hours, you typically won't hear over a weekend. I'm assuming you are getting a line you can drag over to make your bid and the webpage URL starts something like upg.plusgrade.com

 

If that doesn't work, then as soon as you board go to the Voyage Sales Office and see if they have something for you. Also, if you get the rejection message from Plusgrade you are free to call Cunard on the customer service number to enquire (though I wouldn't hold much hope for that). However if you have a TA booking, it's best to work via the TA, Cunard direct won't normally handle TA bookings.

Thank you so much for responding! I did work through a TA and we actually were happy with our Oceanview cabin assignment, feeling that we could just go out on the promenade deck on the QE and enjoy the scenery. Plus we are Gold tier, heading to Platinum with this voyage, with Cunard so thought maybe if a complimentary upgrade was offered on the day of departure that would be fine. We're eligible for a complimentary one but, as someone wrote, with more people traveling, any kind of upgrade, flights or cruises, is becoming scarce. But my husband's had a lot of stress recently and I thought it would be nice for him to sit out on our own balcony if he didn't feel like going on deck. Cunard had sent several emails telling us we could upgrade so I finally thought, well, why not try to upgrade to a balcony. I put our bid in yesterday and received confirmation that the bid was received and they'll let us know if it's been successful. Thank you for letting me know that they're on Montreal time. Although I'm in Arizona, I'm originally from Montreal 😉 Also, after I posted my query today I realized I probably should have asked our TA (not used to working with a TA) so have left a message with her. 

On 7/9/2024 at 6:54 AM, Host Hattie said:

Welcome to Cruise Critic

Is the crossing shown as sold out ? Did you get an option to bid for an upgrade at some point after booking ?

 

Hi, tagging on to your comments above, if there is an option to bid for an upgrade on my booking does that mean that some cabins are still available? We are heading out on the QE Alaska cruise in a week and although we have a nice Oceanview room, my husband has had some health issues that he's worked hard to overcome and I want to surprise him with a balcony. I looked at our booking and it showed that we could still bid on Balcony so I bid the max. But I was wondering if there are actually still cabins left and, if someone else gets the remaining upgrade(s), we know before we go or do we not know until we get to Vancouver Terminal.