seasickphil

Have you or your TA asked Cunard if that is indeed possible.

When asked last year for our cruise out of Barcelona they said they could not arrange flights out of Norwich as they do not have contracts with the carrier, as they say some you win some don't.

While i appreciate your understandable disappointment, Cunard, along with all the other cruise lines with ships in that area have no other option than to reroute. I can't think there would be anyone who would think it pleasurable to be on a cruise ship around that area at the moment. It is a hugely depressing situation for everyone in that area at the moment.

That i do have to agree, unfortunately this don't work for us because as we have got older getting down to Heathrow has become more of an unnecessary chore. For us we now find it more convenient to fly out of our local airport via Schiphol. When we sail with Regent and Viking they can offer us flights out of Norwich but unfortunately Cunard can not, leaving us with no other option than booking our flights independently, although since the 2020 kerfuffle we do get our TA to book our flights along with the cruise and then if anything unforeseen happens again to us, then at least they can deal with all the hooha that goes with that and not us.

I'm sorry to have to disagree again but we were on the Covid interrupted QM2 2020 cruise and we were not left out of pocket at all regarding flights.We were fully reimbursed our money we paid for our rearranged flights from Singapore that we did ourselves and as we didn't go to Singapore but instead ended up in Perth Australia and the Chief Purser for Cunard then rearranged our flights and a 2 night 5 star hotel stay in Perth at no cost for us at all. All i'm trying to do is inform people who should have disembarked in Dubai who have made their own flight arrangements, that there is a possibility that Cunard could reimburse their costs, incurred in having to fly home from Cape Town instead of Dubai.While you rightly say that it's not Cunard's fault, it is also not the guests fault either.

I did say that not all of what you say is correct and that is the case, for they can and do reimburse monies lost on cancelled flights.

Not all of what you say is necessarily correct, yes if you book flights independently then you do have to rearrange those yourself but depending on circumstances, Cunard can cover your costs of the new flights, if your insurers won't.

Have to agree Captain Kim Tanner is a breath of fresh air, he was Captain on our last cruise aboard SoA, he had to leave the ship early because both his parents were seriously ill, hope everything is ok with them both now.

We didn’t get any last October either. On embarkation day we got the normal Laurent Perrier and later in the cruise we got left a bottle of Grand Imperial. No Pol Acker appeared but with Hendricks and Grey Goose provided it was not missed.🤣

It is not my place or intention to say what you should do, of course not but just to say that you could certainly sit on your balcony in the sun until around 6.30 at that time of year, this is of course after you get as far south as Madeira.

You could of course have still have a g+t while watching the sunset (very pleasant temperature still) then after 6.00 progress to the grills lounge or anyone of the other bars to finish off pre dinner drinks.

When we disembarked in Barcelona last October, passengers had to vacate their cabins by 8.00am apart from those in QG ( maybe PG as well ) which was 9.00am. We saw our butler before going to breakfast and informed him that he could get on with getting the suite ready for the next guests as we would only need to clean our teeth and pick up our things.

I believe most travel insurance company's do not cover war/terrorism.

Eric, Also agree with @Jane Mitchell & @swansong our flights on our Regent cruises have been given way earlier than 75 days out. We have been informed of our flight times by our TA normally around 9/10 months before our cruise departs. If the flights offered don't suit you then you can always ask Regent if there are alternative flights available, we did this last July for our cruise on Splendor, where we flew out of our local airport instead of having to travel down to London We were given BA flights from Heathrow [obviously not ticketed] to Rio in July 2023 for our March 2024 Rio to Lisbon cruise aboard Voyager, we would have asked Regent once again if they could arrange flights from Norwich [via Amsterdam] to Rio but unfortunately my wife's mother is very poorly with cancer, therefore we cancelled the cruise just before Christmas so as she can be with her mother. So if you do not like the flights/times offered then don't be afraid to ask if there are alternative flights available from airports that are more suitable to you. We have gone with the original flights offered by Regent from London, we have also asked and were provided with alternative flights from Norwich [small charge] and we have also made our own flight arrangements instead of taking ones offered by Regent.

Are you saying that there are no loyal cheerleaders on this board then.

World cruises offered by all the other lines are made up of many different segments, therefore allowing guests to cruise for as many nights they choose [for those not wishing to do the full cruise] this also gives the cruise line the opportunity of filling empty berths on those segments, thereby making that a more viable financial option for them. Saga of course could also give guests that option, as they did on a few cruises a number of years ago, i'm just not sure Saga are looking to go down that road just yet.

The way Saga are working right now i believe that would be unlikely. The reason i'm thinking that way is a W/C is normally 100+ nights long and with Saga not operating fly cruises at the moment if they do go back to providing world cruises and they don't sell well then the ship would then be sailing at less than full for the entire 100+ nights and with nobody being able to join the ship at a later date to boost the numbers, they then could face major losses. I think the last W/C Saga offered was on Saga Rose in 2009 and for Saga to put all their eggs in one basket may not be financially viable. I believe in all probability they will continue to offer 30+ nights as they are presently doing in 24/25. This is purely of course, total conjecture on my behalf.

It's funny how different things impact on peoples decisions, the reason we don't sail more with Saga is that they do only depart from the UK. My username might indicate why sailing out of the UK is not so appealing, with having to deal with BoB or even the North Sea we much prefer to fly and embark where we can avoid those areas.

That's good to know we are back on Viking next year.

It would be interesting to know which cruise lines you think standards have not slipped post covid to pre covid? we have no allegiance to any one cruise line and have only cruised on Cunard x2, Regent x2 and Saga once since the pandemic but for us none of those cruises matched the ones we took on the same lines prior to covid.

Not sure our vegetarian friends [i'm not one of them] on this forum would totally agree with that statement. 🙂🙂

I know that food is very subjective but i could not possibly agree that Saga's food is comparable to, let alone better than food served in Cunard's Queens Grill. In the last 4 months we have cruised on Saga,Cunard [Queens Grills] and Regent and when you can eat caviar, lobster, chateaubriand and [as i'm sure you know] many other luxury items any night of the week that you can say Saga's food is superior to Queens Grill is certainly not my conclusion, after all how much effort is required to go off menu and to ask for what you would like that evening if nothing on the Al a Carte menu take your fancy. While there is nothing wrong with the food at all on Saga, for me, it does not match the food served in Queens Grills. Post pandemic i don't think the dining experience in general on cruise lines [which is not just about the food] has been as good but do still think overall that Queens Grill is the best, obviously, like you not everyone will feel the same.

You may be getting your wish, [i sincerely hope not for the rest of the passengers] according to todays shipping forecast Gale force 9 winds with rough seas are predicted later today in the Trafalgar/FitzRoy areas. I truly hope [as my username might indicate i certainly wouldn't enjoy the predicted conditions] that the gales do not materialise and everyone onboard remain safe, well and enjoy your last few days aboard QV.

I have to agree, we came off QE recently, suite 4195 and will not be booking that again for that very reason, we have been in the aft suites on QV [though can't remember on which deck we were on] but can not remember experiencing any issues For me it will be back to midship Q3's in future when on QE.

I saw that, if that is correct then it looks like a completely revised itinerary as they were originally due to arrive in Barbados on the 25th, the eighth Caribbean port of call.