fantasy51

I was in 1066 on my last cruise and will be in 1065 on my next one. I have travelled in Outside cabins on Deck 1 before in about the same location and have never noticed any noises.

Personally I would choose an Oceanview rather than an Inside because I like natural light.

One friend travelled Inside and then got Norovirus and said it was terrible to be stuck inside like that for 3 days. In those circumstances, a balcony would be better.

I wondered what to do with mine so took to pinning it on the leather strap of the small bag I wear during the day. That worked for the Platinum pin but the Diamond one was either of poor quality (and fell off) or was too tempting to someone (and was stolen) as it soon disappeared. I don't know how long it had been gone before I noticed. No real loss.

If you ask to upgrade on a cruise in the UK you are charged what the price of the cabin was on the day you made initial booking so you cannot take advantage of any current deals.

Interesting. This has not been my experience with a similar situation. I wanted to add someone to my booking, after booking single occupancy. The addition was possible but I would have been charged at that day's fare rather than at the fare when I booked. This was in the UK.

Ever since then, when I book a Saver fare and double occupancy costs no more than single occupancy, I add another name. It's easier to delete than to add.

I can't remember how many Cunard cruises I have been on but I have been a Diamond member for some time. In all that time I have only once had an extra charge appear on my credit card after getting home. Seeing I was travelling with someone who drank quite a bit, I accepted that he had probably used the mini bar on the last morning while I was in the shower.

As for losing out on exchange rates on the refund, I once challenged this. I had booked an excursion before embarking. There were two almost-identical excursions on the Personaliser; the only difference was that one specified no children. On arrival I found a note from the excursion team asking me to speak to them as they noticed that I had chosen the German-language tour and they wanted to be sure that was what I wanted. They could not understand how it happened because it should not have been possible to book that from the Personaliser. They said I would have to cancel that tour and book/pay for another one, and then receive a refund on my credit card. I politely pointed out that doing that would mean that I would incur bank charges and I could lose out because of currency fluctuations. That did not seem fair when the mistake was on their Personaliser. They promised to discuss this with Head Office. When my refund came, it was for an extra $10. It pays to be polite but informed.

Minnie, any answer we give is just guesswork. You will have to phone them tomorrow and ask.

I was surprised recently when a friend in the UK was able to change his entire cruise to one four months later. I think they'd already paid the full amount when they decided the cruise was too close to the birth of their first grandchild and they would rather not be away. Perhaps it helped that the new cruise was more expensive than the old one.

So, it's a possibility but there's no guarantee.

In a case like this the best thing is to try to book it direct with Cunard via the phone. The agents can often do things that the online system can't.

[emoji3] "what took me so long" was a tendency to sea sickness ! Several cross channel/North Sea ferry crossings and a short stint working on a cruise ship from Sydney had convinced me that cruising wasn't for me.

How do you cope now with sea sickness? It's something I've wondered about because I definitely experienced it during rough days on 2 or 3 early cruises. Since then, I'm sure the seas have been rougher but I don't notice a thing. Is it something we adjust to after a few cruises?

Thank you so much for posting this. I contacted my credit union and they said they wouldn't process any payment that had not been converted to dollars ahead of time. So glad I checked.

 

I think we'll just take them with us to Southampton next year and find a charity that would be willing to take them. At least we only had two of them.

That sounds like a lovely option. The alternative is to make friends on the cruise with someone British who is willing to change them for you in their home bank. I have done this a couple of times with friends from Finnland. I have never had any trouble taking the money into my bank to be changed.

To justify arriving "early", your view appears to be, that those who are allocated "a back of the queue time", albeit 14.30, could suffer delays of up to 90 minutes at check-in, and may not have their luggage delivered to the stateroom.

Port Royal, I'm not quite sure of what you are accusing me. I don't need to justify arriving 'early' as I am a Diamond member and have priority boarding at 12.30. I cannot always get there by that time, much as I like making the most of all my time on the ship.

My comment was nothing to do with arriving early at Southampton. It was a response to Toad's comment (which I quoted) that airlines manage it with people arriving all at once so why can't Cunard?

1. People don't arrive all at once for airlines. They self-stagger their arrival. I gave the example of the flight where we DID all arrive at the same time, and the airlines could not cope, thus showing that Toad's analogy was incorrect.

2. What I didn't say is that Cunard has 2-3 thousand passengers at a time, and a flight does not have that many. Cunard may have lots of check-in agents but it has fewer hand-luggage screening machines than an airline does, which would make it even more difficult for Cunard to cope if everyone arrived at once.

I therefore think there is a need for staggered arrival times. I'm sorry if I did not make that clear.

2000 people on a ship and they all have to arrive at different times it seems in order for the poor staff to be able to cope. And yet plenty of planes have several hundred 100 passengers and they are not told to arrive at different times. It makes you wonder how airports manage with 1000s of people arriving constantly ? How do they do it !!??

They only manage because people automatically arrive at different times, some early and some late. Three years ago I was on a charter flight back from Rome, after a cruise on QE. That meant the whole flight load arrived at the airport within a 15-minute slot. Unfortunately my bus was the last to arrive. My friend and I stood in a queue for about 90 minutes to check in as the airport had not put enough staff on to expedite this. On the plane, the pilot said that we were almost ready to go, just had to wait for a few more suitcases to be loaded, and he hoped we would not miss our slot.

We arrived at Heathrow in good time. My friend and I were among the first off. However, our suitcases did not arrive! We had to wait for another 90 minutes before the airport agreed that they had not arrived and we could go and stand in line at lost baggage. There were quite a few people in that line from our flight - all those who had been at the back of the queue. (Our luggage was delivered to our home a day or two later.)

I am so sorry to hear about this. Your points are very valid. Cunard could have done better in its customer service. They got it wrong in the beginning and then tried too hard to fix it, causing more issues.

I'm glad you still enjoyed your cruise and I hope you cruise Cunard again.

I too suffer from chemical sensitivities. I have never had a problem on the ships (and my last cruise was in June). However, I steer clear of the lobby as lilies can also cause my blood pressure to drop alarmingly. It's only other passengers you need to worry about, those who wear their perfume like armour, to be smelt by others at a distance of 2 meters.

At Southampton we always use Parking 4 cruises and have done for several years. Highly recommended and a fair price.

I have used them twice with no problems. Friendly service and a bit of humour thrown in.

Some years ago I travelled on Oceania line with any-time dining. I ended up sitting alone every evening - not just alone but generally the only person in my section of the restaurant. That was because I chose to eat early so I could rest in the evening.

Two years ago I travelled on Celebrity with any-time dining. We frequently had queues at the time we wanted to eat.

With Cunard I know what to expect. I have company and no queues (except perhaps the first day when I am arranging my table if they have put me on a different sitting from what I prefer). Sometimes I want a faster meal and eat alone in the Lido. Having accepted the time frame, I build my time around it.

I believe he did the correct thing in sending a letter.

There have been a couple of times when I spoke to someone at Reception saying I wanted to leave a compliment, e.g. with Head of Housekeeping for one of the staff. I was told to write a letter and was offered a piece of their paper and an envelope. At no time was I given the opportunity to talk to the person directly.

My cheapest cruise was in November 2013. I had 12 nights in a balcony stateroom for £600 as there was no single supplement. (An inside stateroom would have been £500.)

How prices have changed. That cost me £50 per ROOM per night in a balcony stateroom. Now I think I am doing well when I pay £200 per room per night in an Oceanview room.

The recession is well and truly over.

Friends did this on a cruise last month. They made a flower arrangement, a corsage and a man's buttonhole.

I can confirm that it is a proper overnight. I will be starting my cruise on 13th October in Venice, so they have to be there long enough to get us onboard after flying us from the UK.

I had a great flight booked, leaving Heathrow around 11.30am with BA. Then I received an email from Cunard saying that the charter flight to Venice had to be changed as Venice airport was too crowded to fit them in. We are now flying out at 7.15 to Treviso airport and will be put on a coach to Venice. I hate early mornings! Oh well, I guess it gives me time to explore Venice. However, I was there for 3 days in February so that's not a priority.

Once while onboard I noticed a charge that I had not incurred. I queried at Reception, who sent me to the relevant shop. It turned out to be an issue with the sale of a watch from one of the tables on deck 3. You don't use your card for those sales; you give your room number and sign a docket. When the relevant docket was found, my room number was on it but not my name. Someone had put down the wrong room number, presumably by mistake. It really is important to check those dockets. (At least problems like this can't occur at the last minute as they don't have table sales on the last day.)

I have just come off the QV. There were a few occasions when I had trouble logging off. I had to persevere for about 5 minutes each time. The connection was bad. I spoke to the gentleman in the internet room and he installed a 'magic button' on my ipad that he assured me would log me off immediately each time. In appearance the page looks no different from what I was doing myself, but I had no trouble once I used his method. Perhaps it was just coincidence or perhaps it really did do things a different way. Anyway, if you have trouble, then go for help sooner rather than later.

Here is a good introduction to Tallinn.

http://www.sturnidae.com/cruises/ports/T/Tallinn-walking-tour-by-jay-********-october-2010.pdf

(I used to access these guides at Jay ********' site but I can't find it tonight. Luckily the Tallinn one was posted by someone else and can still be accessed.)

Edited: I notice that the link does not work. The word in stars is b-r-e-n-t-j-e-s - but without any of the hyphens. Click on the link as above and then edit the URL by replacing the asterisks with this name.

If it really is fine wine then I do think that is a nominal amount. I would first want to know which wines we are tasting though.

It also depends how much wine you are getting for that. On the one and only wine tasting I attended (a free one when I reached Platinum level) I think I might have received about a glass of wine in all. If the fine wine course is the same, that's a lot of money for just one glass!

It would also be a waste of money for me as one glass of wine would be enough to leave me totally tipsy. They laughed at me at the dinner table that night.

Some passengers told us that tipping is not required on Cunard and maybe that affects the crew?

Tipping is always a contentious issue on this board. It depends what you mean by it. I always pay the full auto gratuities (which includes room service - I know that because I asked). Anything extra would be given for excellent service above and beyond the call of duty. Other people have different ideas.

Your informants are correct that tipping is not required or enforced, though it is expected to the amount of the auto gratuities.

Thanks to both of you. It's always interesting to know what is going on.

It shows how many things are out of the control of Cunard. It's fantastic that they can step in and find another port at short notice. I'm sure all the seasoned travellers, who have been to Lisbon countless times, would be interested in the change to La Rochelle. It's just a pity for those who had planned to meet family or friends, or who had never visited before.

My sister, a first-time Cunard traveller, has emailed me that QV will not be going to Lisbon this week but will visit La Rochelle instead. She said they could not get into Lisbon - though I'm not sure exactly what is meant by that. I am intrigued. Does anyone have any more information?

On a couple of port schedules I can see QV as the only ship visiting Lisbon on 4 June. However, on what looks to be the official schedule there is no ship for that date.