Cruise NH

I checked out a youtube video of some ATR-72 flights. The engines are pretty loud but the plane looks comfortable.

I see that. I’ve never flown on a plane with propellers before! 🛩️

I didn’t know that, I’ll look into it. Thanks. We’re going to Boston.

Good point. We’ll get in on a Sunday so maybe all options are open? Well not the train though, I’ve been on a train in England on a Sunday where I learned the phrase ‘track works’!

I have gotten off the QM2 Ana QV a number of times in Southampton but never flown home the same day, but now I am. I never paid attention to transfers before 😗 We haven’t made our flight reservations yet so we can leave out of Heathrow or Gatwick. The flights were interested in leave around 1pm. We’re thinking transfers because we’ll have plenty of OBC but we’re open to anything. We could even self disembark and get a car service if leaving that early is really necessary. Is one airport better than the other for our purposes? This is an international flight. Thanks.

You would think Cunard Air could help with this. They do offer flights for cruisers. When the 2020 WC abruptly ended in Perth they did an amazing job getting flights, at a reduced rate for them, for all of us. I’m not saying they should pay for them, but they could offer the services to those looking to get back to NY and maybe save the passengers some money.

Of course you can always board when THEY board and that would resolve the problem. 😜

On the Cunard 2020 world cruise we used www.guidedtoursisrael.com We were docked in Haifa for two days and they had a two day itinerary. They do service other ports. I have no idea if they're still in business of course. We did it as a private group tour, meaning others from the ship could sign up for the same tour independently (no one was running the show). They kept the group small and the vehicle was very comfortable. Just as an aside, with the confirmation they sent a 'must read' section that basically told you to lower your expectations of Israel in general. Places are crowded, traffic is bad, etc. They were right. Good luck!

Thanks I’ll look at that.

That would be cumbersome but perhaps possible for an individual one. This is for the world cruise so…not so easy. At least I’m happy to see that I didn’t miss something obvious on the website I could be doing. thanks

Does anyone know how I can print out the shore excursion choices for our voyage. For HAL you can convert to PDF and print if you want but I can't seem to find that option on Cunard's site. I don't mean shore excursions we've already chosen and paid for. I can't get DH to spend time in front of the computer to look at the choices, he wants it in print.🙄 Thanks!

We were on a 16 day Panama Canal cruise on the Zaandam, then went on the Koningsdam for an 18 day Hawaiian cruise. We would take the Zaandam anywhere while we hope to never sail on the Koningsdam again. The 'Z' is older for sure but it felt more relaxed and can I use the word...cozy...we loved it. We were in a balcony room, termed a vista suite by HAL. We did hear carts being rolled above us in the lido but it was infrequent and didn't disturb us. If we had watched the floor plan above us more closely we could have avoided even that. I wouldn't worry about taking the Z it's fine.

Just after I posted I remembered we did a post cruise excursion with Cunard too while on the QV. It was the same deal, luggage went onto the bus from the ship, we took our tour and then we went directly to the airport.

We recently did a post cruise excursion - with HAL - but I’m sure it’s the same with Cunard…the luggage was kept on the bus the entire time. It was so convenient to get off the ship, have our luggage placed on the bus and then go do something fun rather than sit around the airport. Most airlines won’t even let you check your luggage in that early so we would have had to hold onto our bags for several hours if it wasn’t for the excursion. Definitely a plus!

Agreeing with all the others, don't worry about the bed configuration in advance, just ask your steward on the first day, that's the way we do it all the time. I always go to the dollar store or the like and get a small pack of 'thank you' cards before we leave, they don't take any room and it's nice to leave a note with your extra tip.

We go to Canada fairly frequently and I’ve never run into a place that would take USD, why would they. Just go to an ATM at the first port and get about 100 Canadian (approx $74 usd) and use your card for anything bigger.

As always it’s a good idea to make sure you have the latest update to your browser too.

I don't know about Edge, but just now at 5:57 PM EST I tried to book an excursion on Chrome and got no where. I went over to Firefox and was able to complete the transaction. As I said above I had to click on the credit card field once, got no reaction, did it again and the little notice saying you have 15 minutes to complete the transaction came up and I was able to input my credit card.

I had this problem too. I was using Chrome and then tried Firefox. I was able to complete the transaction on Firefox. So my advice is to try another browser. I did find I had to click on the credit card field once (got no response) then I clicked again and only then was able to enter my card number. I didn’t have another excursion to book so I couldn’t try that in Chrome but it might be worth a try.

Ugh the music walk, that was awful. I ate in the Club Orange dining room and when we walked out of there we were accosted by LOUD music and it was never really well done. Yes, I hope Cunard does not follow HAL's lead on a number of things!

Someone mentioned the Koningsdam in an earlier post, is the QA the same class ship? We were just on the Koningsdam for an 18 day Hawaii trip and vowed to never sail it again. There is a promenade deck but no chairs because it's too narrow. In some places narrow enough that two people walking in opposite directions have to move a bit to avoid each other. The theater could probably hold about a 1/3 of the total passengers (are trip was full) so many folks sat on the stairs. As one of my fellow passengers said, 'this ship may have enough beds for 2600 people, but it doesn't have enough room for them'. I think it actually holds a little more then 2600, not sure but it sure wasn't our cup of tea!

No you can’t reserve and yes there sometimes is a wait. They’ll try to get you in as soon as possible of course. People were showing up and filling up the place soon after opening on our last cruise, if you showed up a little after that then you have a wait. On the two occasions this happened to us we just went to the nearby main dining room. Since they ask for your room number they can see you are CO. Both times we were seated right away (table for two) at a great location, usually near the window.

If this happens to any future CO person nicely ask to speak to the person in charge. The first person my husband spoke to at the port didn’t know what he was talking about but the lady in charge overheard and gave the first person a mini training lesson.

We just did Club Orange on the Koningsdam in February so your experience should be similar. Priority Embarkation - your boarding pass will say 'Priority' but won't indicate club orange. Just tell the HAL people controlling the lines your club orange and you walk through. Our boarding pass said 1:30 embarkation (but with priority on it) but we walked on before 11:30. Tendering - just join the line showing your key card (it will have orange coloring). We just joined at the last stairs going down to A deck. No problems. Concierge - there is a number to call -95- for the club orange concierge, you'll get a notice about it in your room when you first arrive. If you do want to go up to the desk there is a separate line for Club Orange. Just FYI - at the shore excursion desk there wasn't a roped off line but there was a club orange sign, I just stood there and was helped as soon as someone was available however I did get stares from folks in the regular line who probably never heard of CO.

In the library on the Zaandam and up at the crows nest on the Koningsdam this past Jan/Feb.