si_boy

7 hours ago, MrMuscleDude said:

If it helps, I have been watching Celebrity's testing requirements on a regular basis as we are going from Rome on 4th June.  Until very recently, the guidance stated that 'the test must be supervised by a health professional, pharmacy assistant etc.'.  The guidance has now changed and doesn't mention the test needing to be supervised.  However, I have just looked for you here - Travel Requirements for Southampton Cruises | Celebrity Cruises.  It states that testing for cruises from Southampton must be supervised.

 

In any case, we have booked supervised tests through Boots COVID-19 testing (boots.com).  There are other providers available, including ones where you take the test at home but it is supervised via a video call.

 

I hope you get sorted and enjoy your cruise.  Celebrity is amazing (once you are on board) following all the stress of testing etc.

@MrMuscleDudeThank you for taking the time to reply, we do not want to risk not taking the incorrect documentation so have booked supervised tests for Wednesday. If I am feeling brave I might ask when we check in, if I do I will report back.

Really looking forward to this cruise, could be the first of many with Celebrity.

Am in the UK and boarding at Southampton next week on first cruise with Celebrity.

I have ordered a 'fit-to-fly' Antigen test kit which is taken at home. 

All being well will have a letter saying negative, will this be acceptable to board or does the letter have to say the test has been supervised.

Has anyone else used a fit-to-fly test to board?

Have used the same test before, just checked the letter and there is no mention of test being supervised, just personal details and result negative.

If it helps, reputable company.

We booked the 4 day short cruise to Amsterdam late May only yesterday!

Just received the email, but no explanation, had to visit the website to find out why it was cancelled.

We are also on QM2, having boarded at Southampton for the 4 night cruise to Hamburg and return to Southampton.
Getting onboard at Southampton took longer than normal due to the complimentary COVID test, queued for about 15 minutes and then waited for 25 minutes for the text with the test result. We had taken a LFT test at home that morning but it was still a slightly nervous wait! 
We had all our paperwork with us but did not need to show proof of insurance.
Having completed mainly QV and QE cruises over the last 10 years, could not help but observe a lot of younger guests in their 20s and 30s onboard. We suspected this was due to the cruise being shorter at 4 nights and Valentine’s Day.

There is a really good atmosphere onboard and everyone appears to be enjoying themselves. Nobody seems to mind wearing a face mask while moving about the ship.

If you have never been to Hamburg you are not missing out. It was Sunday and the shops are closed. Still the Starbucks appeared to be doing well with crew and guests queuing to get their drinks.

For the OP, my wife had the Crepes Suzette last night for dessert at dinner  and she said it was very boozy, I hope it is as good tonight.

Thanks to everyone for their help with the form, all done now.  

Looking forward to being back on board QM2 tomorrow.

I have just got to that exact same point in the form and also stuck. Mandatory fields so cannot bypass and click next.

Any replies appreciated.

2 hours ago, aday10 said:

I did ask about the short cruises in February and my TA believes this will also be cancelled due to operational reasons, which is why he offered the 30th March cruise. 

Booked on the 4 day cruise to Hamburg and return on 11 February, difficult to see this going ahead after the 28 night Eastern Caribbean cruise departing on 14 January given recent issues on QM2 which is such a shame.  

Perhaps not surprising, just received the email to say that our November Norwegian fjords cruise on Victoria is cancelled.

Pause in operations for Victoria is until late April 2022. 

More replacement cruises coming in July to Caribbean, Atlantic Isles and Europe

We are delighted to see the world gradually open up, as vaccine programmes and other effective measures to manage Covid-19 take effect. However, based on the latest guidance from countries we visit, we unfortunately need to make some additional changes to our published itineraries involving international ports of call.

Due to this, and the practicalities involved in returning the full Cunard fleet to service, we have taken the decision to cancel Queen Victoria's current scheduled 2021 voyages and a number of her voyages in 2022, including her World Voyage. Queen Victoria will remain out of service until late April 2022. We are therefore sorry to advise that your voyage has been cancelled.

In July, we will be launching some replacement sailings across our fleet, covering destinations such as the Caribbean, the Atlantic Isles and Europe, that we hope may be of interest to you. However, we understand you would have been excited to sail your planned itinerary with us, and we are sorry for the disappointment this may cause.

Just received the email saying my Asia cruise in October 2021 is now cancelled. 

Was already using FCC from the same cruise cancelled this October towards that one, so really not sure now what to do.

With so much uncertainty and cruises on sale for only the early part of 2022, likely to request a refund of the deposit.

Some guests may have paid in full for cruises up to 15 October of course, but i suspect most it will be deposit only.  

Balance of payments are due soon for cruises after 1 August, if Cunard follow suit this will hopefully avoid similar pain for guests and administration for the cruise company

34 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

Cunard/P&O together announced 450 redundancies. Sorry for staff,  but also sorry for all of us awaiting refunds, they will be even slower

And the remaining staff are being asked to work 20% less hours for 20% less pay from the start of July to end of November.

18 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

It’s hard to see the economics of sailing with 2/3 complement of passengers — while some staff could be cut, such cuts could never match the passenger reduction without so trashing service and making the necessary cleaning improvements impossible - that few would want to bother with cruising - especially at the greatly increased fares necessary to cover the fixed costs built in regardless of passenger load.

I realise there will need to be adjustments and cruising in the future will be different to what we remember, but the whole experience is what we all enjoy.

However in my opinion 2/3 full ships, half empty MDR, theatre and lounge areas, afraid to leave stateroom and walk round deck, reduced onboard activities and possibly being unable to stop at scheduled ports of call is not going to be much fun.
Am not sure I would even bother dressing up for a formal night.
I think my concern would be that any booked cruises are based on what we remember of the experience, nobody knows what cruising will be like when it restarts.  
It is a leap of faith.
Yes the cruises will happen, maybe as soon as 1 August, but what It will be like onboard for say 2 weeks, nobody knows yet.

21 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Dont you think its unfair that in the UK we have to pay balance 90 days before cruise when in US they have changed it due to Coronavirus and told them they no longer have to pay 90 days you can pay balance at 60 days  before your cruise.

Completely agree and for the time being no guarantee the cruise will happen, even in October.

3 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

I sail on 2nd October and my balance is due 27th June. What date is yours in October towards the beginning or the end. In the US if you have a cruise booked up to 30th September Cunard have reduced their final balance date to 60 days but have not done the same for UK cruisers.

Departs 25 October, balance due 27 July.

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

To my knowledge it is only in US in the UK as far as I am aware they still want balance at 90 days. Rather upset that those in US who have cruises booked in September can delay their final balance until June whereas we have one booked in October but Cunard still expect final balance payment in June. Totally unfair.

Am in UK and just checked, balance for October 2020 cruise that we are booked on is still due in July, 90 days before sets sail.

5 minutes ago, Neuhoftraveler said:

My understanding has been that Cunard do not actually ticket return flights until 45 days prior to cruise departure (if not flight departure).  So I'm puzzled by the idea of air cancellation fees for return flights following an August 2020 cruise.

 

FWIW, my own cancellation notification from Cunard for a late May cruise, which I cancelled more than 45 days prior to scheduled sailing (shortly before Cunard cancelled the cruise), shows no cancellation fees of any kind.

The issue is that the tickets for the flight have been issued which to be fair I seem to remember being told a few months ago. I had no idea then where we would be now.
I guess the cancellation fees are outside of the control of Cunard if it is a scheduled flight. 

Has anyone else been made aware of flight cancellation fees if looking to transfer a cruise after August 2020 to next year?
Booked direct with Cunard for a cruise with return flights and wanted to transfer to 2021 when things will have hopefully settled dow around the world.

No Cunard fee for transferring the cruise, but steep flight cancellation fees.

Referring to Cunard, the art gallery is owned/run by Clarendon Fine Art who also have over 40 galleries across the UK going under the Whitewall Galleries trading name.
You can buy direct from them and arrange shipping.

Booked on the Tokyo to Singapore Cruise in October, have bought the guidebooks and so looking forward to it. The Med would be nice as a stop gap

Personal Cruise Specialist...I think

We saw a drone overhead when we left Southampton on QE last year, was a reasonable distance so as not to cause concern.  

A quick look after and I found a YouTube channel where the user uploads drone footage of every cruise ship that arrives and departs Southampton.

As the cruise we were on departed from and returned to Southampton, I was able to watch footage of us leaving and arriving back to port.  On that occasion QM2 was docking just behind us, so a bonus.

I believe if you book before departure you pay for them, but if you wait until onboard you can use OBC.

Cunard have updated the process for logging off the Internet when using your own device (iPad etc).

To log off now you just type logout.com into the web address space.  

I assume that there must have been people surfing who weren't returning to the landing page to logout, or worse just disconnecting the wifi connection, which doesn't end the session.

From memory, if sign up on the first or second day of your voyage, you will get a few more minutes than the complimentary 120 minutes for being Gold.

Also if there are two of you and you are both Gold, you both benefit from the complimentary 120 minutes, it is not per stateroom.  

Different usernames etc, but does mean if you have used all yours up, you can use theirs...

The equipment generally onboard is provided by Technogym.

You can use headphones like the ones you would use with a mobile phone which I think are referred to as 3.5mm.

The latest Technogym equipment uses Bluetooth but I don’t think the gym equipment onboard has been replaced for a while and is still pretty good.

I followed the steps as if I was to make a booking and no mention of stateroom categories. You can’t help thinking if Cunard will eventually drop these.

A stateroom with a balcony is just that and price depends on ship location.  

For those who are new to Cunard this is not an issue, a stateroom will be chosen by location, but to the regulars who always choose the same stateroom category you will have to refer to the deck plans.