durante

The other port change which was announced by Captain Hashmi  is that Bitung will be replaced by Bali.

I haven't received any statement from Cunard and am on that first sector.

That was one opinion. The usual activities were all still available except for the Planetarium, which was no great loss as most of the shows are repeated. The guest authors and journalists were very interesting and their shows were extremely popular and prompted quite a bit of discussion. I never heard anyone complain. I suppose there are alway some people who are not interested in these special event cruises, such as the Fashion Week, Food and Wine either....Just have an open mind and be prepared to enjoy

Hi, I have just returned from a BTB TA and the Transfer to Macy's was available to book once onboard. We did something else so cannot comment on it. 

By the way if one of your  December TA crossings is the Times/Cheltenham Literature Festival at Sea, it should be fantastic as we really enjoyed it last week! 

Yes, there is.

Am on QM2 arriving in Southampton tomorrow in an obstructed view balcony on Deck 8 and we still have the individual small bottles of shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and moisturiser.

The search function doesn't work for me at all on my ipad despite clearing cache, history etc. Im looking at it now on my work pc and its still terrible. The maps don't correspond to many of the descriptions.

Hi Paulpgr ,

Cruisecal shows provisional schedule for QE at Madeira on 21 December from 8am to 5pm.

The website is incorrect when it refers to a 'taster menu' for the Diamond free lunch. It is actually a starter, main course and dessert taken from the standard lunch menu.

And for the person on the 2 day cruise, you don't get any benefits apart from the free internet, all the other benefits are for a week or longer.

I'm still waiting for a reply from Customer Services to a query sent in August, despite sending them a reminder a week ago...nothing.

Thanks ClanMcLean!:) I don't know why I never spot these competitions myself....

The room we are in has 1 double bed and 1 single bed. I think it is called a triple, although we only booked and paid for a twin room, they allocated us this one. The single bed is a proper bed not a sofa bed.

The other time we stayed here was in January when the building work was starting and it never bothered us during the morning when they started work

I am currently staying at the Premier Inn which is directly opposite West Quay shopping centre. The construction site you mentioned is behind the hotel, and absolutely no noise at night. As mentioned earlier, it should be finished by the time you are here.

The other thing I would mention is I can see the Holiday Inn from my window and can't see any shops/restaurants near to it, so think you would be better off at the Premier Inn if you don't want to do the longer walk to West Quay over 3 days. It's the second time I've stayed here and it's spotlessly clean.

I was on the QM2 full world cruise earlier this year, and we had one Indian port. We did not need an Indian visa if we wanted to stay on the ship, which is what we planned to do. And no problem with that as about half the passengers must have done the same and stayed onboard. However, prior to the cruise, there was a lot of incorrect information especially from Cunards Visa specialists CIBT who advised me we would need a visa even if we wanted to stay on the ship. This was totally untrue. The Telegraph article quoted by Blueriband below is factually incorrect as in addition to not needing a visa if staying onboard, the rule was changed to allow e-visas, I think in December so cruisers didn't need the full visa if they only stopped at one Indian port and wanted to go ashore.

Anyway, after worrying about whether we needed a visa or not, I emailed Cunard a few weeks before the start of the cruise and received a reply confirming we didn't need the visa as we were staying onboard. I don't know why they can't confirm the same thing to you, unless they think it's too far in advance to give a clear answer?

The lunch menu is now different to that link from the Cunard website. The Verandah is only open for lunch on sea days.

Hi Balloonman, here's an update on the Prosecco situation on QM2...there were only a couple of bottles of Prosecco left in the Britannia restaurant last night. Our sommelier said it would be replaced by a South African sparkling. They had already run out of the Prosecco in the alternative Coriander restaurant when we asked about it a few nights ago, and the replacement offered was the same South African sparkling wine. Interesting that the venues seem to keep their stocks separate.

Currently on QM2, and we had no problem bringing back six bottles of wine onboard after our day at the Wineries in the Stellenbosch area just over a week ago.

Hi Kathleen, my post and others on this thread relate to the Indian Visa on QM2 2018 World Voyage, so cannot comment on your situation regarding the Indian visa with Princess.

FTnumbers,

Am currently onboard and many people, including myself, do not have Indian visas as we will be staying on the ship at Cochin. If you still require confirmation directly from Cunard, then why not email them ? They will confirm you don't need the visa in writing which will give you peace of mind.

I originally had the same query as you, and wish the Visa specialists CIBT had been more open and factual, instead of advising that I would not be allowed on the ship without the visa, this was blatantly untrue, and a ploy to create more business for themselves.

We are still anchored off Dakar, Senegal awaiting a local boat to arrive and transport a sick passenger off the ship. We must have been here at least two hours waiting.

Well, the person who checked us in at Southampton made no mention whatsoever of the Indian visa. She only asked to see proof that we had valid Tourist visas for Australia.

In addition to at least two other people who have contributed to this thread, I have also received a written reply from Cunard confirming that I only need an Indian visa if I want to go ashore. I have a UK passport and will be embarking tomorrow 10 January. I am annoyed with CIBT as they told me it was compulsory to obtain the Indian visa and would be denied boarding the ship at the start of the cruise. I'll try to let you know how I get on tomorrow!

I wrote to Customer Service, and they replied by email, but we have since had a general notification by snail mail that I assume everyone has received.

Thanks for this. No, we didn't receive anything in the post regarding the visa.

Sandra Smudger, thanks..

For those that are not concerned about going ashore in Cochin, I have it in writing from Cunard that without a visa passengers must stay on board.

Hi cruiseluvva, could I ask which department in Cunard wrote to you, as I need to check this with them also.

I emailed CIBT this morning with the same question, and have just had a reply saying the visa is required for Cochi, whether you stay onboard or not. It could be a case of CIBT trying to drum up extra business of course!

I

The new rules say arriving at Cochin by sea is fine for an E-visa and Cunard have sent documentation to this effect.

Hi CRuiseluvva, we will be on QM2 next year, and were sent the below info by Cunard two days ago regarding the Indian visa.

They are now contradicting their previous advice, and are now saying get the tourist visa not the e-visa.

On another note, there is no mention of passengers being denied embarkation at the start of the cruise without an Indian visa. The note from Cunard merely states that people without an Indian visa will have to stay on the Ship while in port at Cochin (as one would expect).

Hope this helps

**Important Information - Visa requirements**

Guests visiting India by ship and wishing to go ashore will be required to

a valid visa. Although India introduced electronic visas, the sea ports wevisiting have limited capability and infrastructure to support the processing

of large numbers of guests with this type of visa and very long clearancedelays would be inevitable. This is due to the additional process requirementssuch as visiting a port building by shuttle bus, scanning of fingerprints andprocessing passports (Biometric recording).

In order for you to proceed ashore quickly it is important that you obtain aTourist Visa from your local Indian Embassy in advance of your travels. This isnormally in the form of a sticker in your passport. Regular Tourist visa

holders are cleared en route prior to arrival at the first Indian port.

For more information, please check your Voyage Personaliser, or alternativelyplease visit our preferred visa provider CIBT at http://www.cibtvisas.co.uk/cunard

If you do not hold a visa or E-Visa, you must remain on board the ship when inport in India.