exlondoner

What sort of cabin do you have?

Well, that is the most surprising suggestion I’ve heard for a long time. Cunard’s IT not cope with something straightforward? Shocking.

You must be assuming she is going to be ready on time, so the defects have a little while to develop. We are (totally inadvertently) on her second voyage, at which stage there may still genuinely be many minor niggles of things not quite ready, which we shall be able to exaggerate. 😀

And those of us on board may have an amusing sign competing to find and complain about the first sign of rust. 😀

Like you, I would never go to a rock musical, because I loathe rock music. However, I have, often inadvertently, heard enough of it to know how unhappy I would be at such a musical. Same with Carnival. I have read enough actual experiences and seen enough actual photos to know I wouldn’t enjoy much about a Carnival cruise. We just don’t have that sort of info about QA, so I am biding my time, and hoping she is nice, especially as I have limited other choices, as I don’t do flying (except possibly very short journeys in very small planes).

Actually I was referring to the general sort of thing people said about the QV, while she was being built, or even more when Arcadia was being built, but yes, now I remember you saying that about QA. Sorry for the confusion.

I thought at first this was something to do with pottery classes, but it seems to be about dancing. I would say it might be bad news for ballroom dancing lovers, who might find the Queens Room used for this other sort of dancing rather more often than they would like.

I suppose it just means you’ll need a replacement bottle more quickly. We have given up duck l’orange, because, even between us, it is just too much, But I still enjoy the spectacle.

Because Southampton Airport is the most brilliant connected airport to the train, and is excellent in most other respects. But that may be because it doesn’t have many planes.

Yes, on a good day, I think it is a lovely journey, all the way to Weymouth, though I have not got over the phasing out of refreshment trolleys. The only thing is that the limitation of luggage space makes it hard for people catching ships.

Yes, it is strange isn’t it. We can hear the trains from our garden, and you suddenly think ‘I haven’t heard a train all day.’

At least Southampton usually gets trains even on strike days, which is not the case further west.

Why would they target you in this way? Presumably others would enjoy some of the activities. Or, what I do, gaze at the wondrous sea.

I think I’m easily pleased too. The thing that would really ruin my first QA cruise is something even those who blame Cunard for everything would admit is beyond their control: two week of cold, dull, wet, stormy weather.

Oh, the comments on here, when QE2 retired and QV (at the second attempt) replaced her, were far, far, more negative then anything that has been thrown at QA, and yet, there it is, often full of happy passengers. Strange. I don’t suppose we will ever know what percentage of the people who swore they would never set foot on the mongrel non-Cunard, non-liner, really never did.

I am not sure the comparison is entirely just. There are plenty of those who have had amoebic dysentery, who can tell us how dire it is. The ship isn’t finished yet: nobody has seen it. I expect actual photographs of the interiors, and the accounts of the experiences of those who go on the early voyages, will be influential in helping me form a view, probably more influential than the information we have so far, though I admit there are some rather discouraging signs - but some good ones as well, like the glorious soaring ceiling of the Britannia Restaurant.

So it’s just not just us (should be we but sounds so odd) who love Cunard. 😀

I assume that is a Freudian slip too.Thread?

It was indeed hope. No pineapples though. I have a larder full of turndown chocolates. We are always too full to eat them, so bring them home for a rainy day, which rarely occurs.

You would not recommend Carnival to the Cunard crowd, but, honestly, if the right ship were in the right place, you have almost sold it to me. 😀

I think this is a very measured assessment. I think you are right also in saying some of the things you weren’t mad about, like the formality of approach, were because that is what we staid Europeans like. I don’t know why you didn’t get a pillow chocolate. They usually appear, though the current offerings are not worth having. I think you were harsh on the restaurant breakfast, which to my mind, providing you can get them to warm up the croissants, is the breakfast of dreams. I nope very much we coincide on a Cunard ship one day.

It is December 2023. It just arrived today. It is in an article about Renaissance/Maasdam.

I usually start with a just a glass of rosé. It is important to be awake and alert for unpacking.

Just in good time for a relaxed arrival at lunch.

In an article by Stephen Payne in Ships Monthly, it says that in an evaluation after Covid it was found that 18 ships contributed only 3% of Carnival’s revenues, and they were culled. Isn’t it good none of them were Cunarders?