Sail the seas

I have just returned from a 3 night trip and was surprised there was no welcome aboard party on the formal night and thought I'd missed it the details, so called the pursers ofice to enquire.

 

I have been advised that they will no longer be doing these for trips of under 6 nights. I do think this is a shame as I feel it is part and parcel of a cruise and encourages people to mix and mingle.

 

I appreciate a lot of cruisers don't bother going to them, but it is good for new people to see the captain and senior staff and find out a little about the line when sailing.

 

My next trip is only for 5 nights so looks as if I won't get one again which is a shame.

 

Because of work commitments I can only get away for short bursts and I seem to be losing out on some of the perks, diamond lunch in Verandah for example. 7 night cruises also do not offer a senior officers party, altough you stil get the World Club party. I wish they would stop some of the cost cutting (the tiny pillow chocolates) as they do need to ensure they retain their loyal customer base and encourage new people on board. C'est la vie.

I did the same trip 3 years ago and there was no welcome aboard party. What was different was having a formal night on the only sea day. I thought this made the trip more of an occasion for such a short trip.

 

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I was on this cruise too and everybody onboard I spoke to understood the situation and was not irate at all. I had been tracking the weather, and dispute that the conditions on Sunday 10th were known sufficiently well 5 days before sailing (ie on Sunday 3rd) for a major change of itinerary to be justified, as suggested.

I would agree with that comment. I was looking at the shipping forecast and there were gales in the Channel on Friday which is probably why the later departure of 2000hrs occurred. The Saturday forecast was for Force 5 to 7 winds in Thames and Dover sea areas which would have made Zeebrugge risky anyway and why going west first as is the usual plan for these short trips was a wise choice for passenger comfort. On Saturday the shipping forecast for the Channel was updated to violent storm 11 which is extremely unusual and seems to have taken the forecasters by surprise. By that time there were no real alternatives and France made the storm their first named storm of the season.

 

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I was just checking the bridge cams and noticed it looked rough for QE. On checking on AIS she was heading for Zeebrougge but turned away and is now heading back down the channel.

 

There will be complaints of a cruise from hell no doubt, but these things happen when you book a cruise in the channel in December.

Just off Queen Elizabeth. Wind peaked at hurricane Force 12 in Dover Straits according to Captain. Sea state not bad considering. Excellent service on board. Better than being stuck on a motorway in snow!

 

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Zs

 

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This will be our fourth QM2 crossing and I have previously booked deck 8 mid ship with regular balcony, this time I decided to try a lower deck and a sheltered balcony just to see the difference, so I had booked 5103.

 

This AM I received an upgrade email advising we were upgraded to deck 8 and the cabin is the farthest you can get forward and still be in a regular balcony. Our sweet spot is rear facing afts on other cruise lines, being up front I'm not too sure about.

 

So, can anyone tell me about 8001?

 

We were in this cabin in 2015 from Cape Town to Southampton a trip with more sea days than an Atlantic Crossing. Like 8003 it is very convenient to the Library, 'A' staircase & elevators, Scenic elevators, spa, the Commodore Club and obviously the newly upgraded areas on deck 7 and the open decks. It has a regular glass balcony and is the same as other Britannia cabins on Deck 8. There is no forward view because of the bulkhead under the bridge and the scenic elevator but that does provide some shelter from strong headwinds. We did not find this a particular drawback. In 18 days we did not find movement a problem in Atlantic swells and the Bay of Biscay even in the Force 7 winds encountered at one point. Because of the bulkhead on starboard heading north meant we only got sun in the morning from an hour or so after dawn. On a westbound course I don't imagine you will get any sun but eastbound should be ok for a lot of the day. I would still prefer it to an in hull cabin but that is just our personal preference.

Has this change in drink pricing occurred in the last month on all ships? We disembarked QM2 on 8 May and it was still the previous drinks menu. The old menus are also still shown on the FAQ part of the web site which is extremely misleading if the change described has happened across the fleet. Perhaps they are too embarrassed to publish the new menus!

We are on the following Dubai Southampton leg and only 6 of the 20 nights are shown as being formal even though there are 12 sea days. It seems that about 2 per week is the ratio being used now. It was more than that on the World Cruise we did in 2009. I have just completed an on line questionnaire that seemed to have questions about dress code which appeared to be heavily biased towards casual evening dress styles. I was left with the impression that the marketing department seem to believe there is pressure to reduce formal dress evenings because the questions seemed to be biased in that direction.

Well I am Diamond & my next cruise is 2 weeks time & my boarding time is 1200 & I am in a BD Balcony on deck 4, So to me that says that loading by decks does not apply to Grills & Diamond /Platinum passengers????

 

Or it says changes are starting in December and they may be loading Grills followed by different levels of World Club??? and everyone else is being loaded by deck???

I believe the grill and status passengers get a noon boarding time? They will be followed by the order as listed above. There are non grill cabins on both decks 9 and 10 so perhaps the listed timings refers to those.

 

M-AR

 

Even priority boarding may be changing. Our eticket for QE December is showing 1230 boarding as Diamond level when it has been noon previously. As we set off early from Northern UK it is pot luck when we arrive anyway.

Hi Hattie

It shouldn't be necessary to log in, there should be an option just to leave a comment: "Quick login, no account necessary."

 

Adam

 

As Hattie says it does not offer that option. I attach a screenshot showing the link goes to screen asking for email and password

On one voyage we had the soda package and we were only allowed drinks from the guns so i am sure they exist. On our QM2 Voyage in April G&T was $7.60 on our nightly visit to the Commodore club. Spirits are nearly double a British pub measure and mixers are included.

That's good to know, thank you

 

 

Just returned from the 15 day Cape Town voyage on QM2. About 8 days in we commented that we had not heard any waiters singing at Dinner in Britannia. Fatal remark as the very same evening there was a rendition of Happy Birthday a couple of tables away! Maybe only heard it once more. I had not heard of the $35 charge for a cake but perhaps this explains that singing does not happen anywhere near as frequently as we experienced on previous trips.

 

I read on the Aussie boards QM2 may be overnighting here in Adelaide tonight. If thats the case then something is wrong.

 

Harbour information is showing a 0800 departure on Monday so QM2 seems to have stayed in port overnight for some reason

It seems that now, to obtain an indian visa in UK we will have to go in person to an office as no postal applications are possible from March.

 

And of course you still need one if you stay on the ship. Brilliant.

 

VFS will be opening 14 application centres across UK for the convenience of applicants for Visa, OCI, Passport and other consular services. 10 offices will be operational from 2nd March 2015 and remaining 4 offices will be operational from 14 March 2015.

 

VFS will introduce Online Appointment System for all services for the convenience of the applicants across the UK. All applicants will be required to book an appointment online to submit their applications at the respective India application centres, as per the jurisdictions below. No applications via post will be accepted at High Commission of India, and its respective consulates in Birmingham and Edinburgh or at the Applications Centres managed by VFS across UK from 14 March 2015.

 

The advice on the Indian High Commission website states that there will be a central postage application service based in London. It is just that the new centres or the High Commission will not deal with postage applications. This does appear to conflict with a Daily Telegraph report.

 

The website URL is:

http://in.vfsglobal.co.uk/postalapplication.html

While looking at the tracking data of QM2 on Marinetraffic I discovered, QM2 seems to have missed Abu Dhabi today. Does anybody have more information?

 

Just for further clarification if you look at the western track the last plot is at 22.22.58 UT 30/01/2015 but the first plot of the eastern track is at 16.10.UT 31/01/2015. Because of the lack of plots in those 18 hours the system has simply joined those plots giving a false course for QM2.

 

For some reason there was no VHF coverage between those times. Could simply be lack of a receiving station for the system or some security measures in the area.

 

QM2 webcam did show her in port earlier today. I am watching her progress with particular interest because friends are on board and we are impatiently waiting to join her in April in Cape Town.

At 2230 UT they were finally transiting the canal so a port may have to be missed, unfortunate if it is Petra as that is one of the highlights of this leg of the trip.

I think ships generally go through the Suez in an escorted convoy, so anchoring for a while was probably routine.

 

Roy

 

It is true they go through in convoy but QM2 arrived nearly 24 hours ago. They are due in Petra tomorrow 22nd. I believe the distance from their present position is at least 250 Nm so they do seem to have an unscheduled delay.

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this is allow duty free shops to open

 

Do not think it is because of that. QM2 did the same thing at the weekend in order for a sea day to be included. Far from duty free as 20% VAT is added because the cruise is within the EU. Even photos were $30 not the usual $25 because of this.

I too was on the Cruise to Bruges last weekend. We were travelling as a family of four (2 Diamond members and 2 young first timers) and I was a little nervous because of the various comments about short trips.

 

In the event we had an excellent cruise and did not have any problems. Our cabin steward always greeted us with a smile and the cabin was maintained well for the three days.

 

We thought Dinner was very good in the Britannia Restaurant, our newcomers were very impressed and we thought the food was better than on our trip to Cape Town earlier this year. Our waiter did his job to our satisfaction although we did not achieve any rapport but we attributed this to the fact that he was less interested in getting to know us that he would have been on a longer cruise The wine waitress was very pleasant and attentive and was very good at keeping our glasses filled!

 

The Golden Lion was certainly busy most of the time we passed but we did manage a pub lunch on the Sea Day once some tables had cleared after the morning quiz. We got a table for 4 each evening in the Commodore Club by arriving at about 7.15pm but it was full each time we went to 8,30 Dinner. No snacks or canapés were served in CC each night and we were told this was because of the yellow alert. I am not sure about the veracity of this excuse because they started self service in Kings Court on the first sea day (which surprised us). We had no problems with breakfast in Britannia all 3 days but did see queuing when we left Britannia so people were probably having different experiences.

 

We opted to go and see the Christmas Market in Brussels because previously we had found Bruges on a Sunday disappointing with only a small Christmas Market. We don't know if it different now but we certainly felt Brussels was worthwhile even with the longer journey. Interestingly enough we were told on the trip that we had to be back at 4pm because Belgium was having one of its regular Monday strikes which always start Sunday evening and which would strand us in port. No doubt Captain Oprey was fretting that all the trips would be back on time.

 

We didn't experience any problem with cigarette smoke but in the Pursers desk queue on the final morning we did hear someone complaining long and hard that it was it was the worse cruise they had been on even if they did get it at a bargain price and how dare Cunard tell them they couldn't smoke on their balcony and did Cunard think they would obey such a rule. In the same queue someone was also complaining about the daily charge they hadn't been told about and they were certainly not paying it. They would tip the room steward themselves. As disembarkation had started they were certainly cutting it fine.

 

I guess from our experience that a lot can depend on how lucky you are with the staff you get and maybe it is this inconsistency Cunard need to tackle.

As a Birthday treat for my wife it was a very successful weekend and we are still looking forward to out trip back from South Africa on QM2 in April. We may also have 2 new recruits to cruising on Cunard

Not to worry, gale should be gone by the weekend. It has been there since Tuesday.

 

Extract of outlook from Met Office shipping forecast

 

Gales easing over Fitzroy early on Sunday but winds will be strong to the north of 48 north with a risk of gales, particularly through the English Channel. Risk of gales soon easing on Monday with winds easing from the west

Not too sure about that. While it is likely that passengers or crew members contracted a gastro-intestinal illness while on-shore and then it spread on-board. But we know that there are other pathogens that can cause gastro-intestinal illness, including contaminated food and/or water. We don't know the cause of the current illness on board - we're just assuming(understandably) it's noro virus. Anyway, let's not jump to conclusions until the facts are in - as if.

 

Best wishes to all on board, especially those that are ill and the crew members working double time. -S.

 

 

The email I had from Cunard last night specifically stated that the outbreak on board is Norovirus. Presumably they have test results and are being refreshingly frank.

 

Just to add into the mix Force 8 gales are forecast for the next few days. Hope that doesn't prevent the pilot boat coming out from Zeebrugge on Sunday which is something I have experienced. Still this time the consolation prize will be the weekend on QM2 in a full gale.

Have got same text as we board Friday. First text says terminal has changed to 46/47 Ocean Terminal. Second text at 1345 says it is QE2 terminal. At least it is the same dock gate so we can follow the signs when we get there.

 

To quote "Cars booked with CPS cannot be accepted until after midday. QM2 will now be berthed at the QEII cruise terminal, Dock gate 4"

I have just look to see what the dress code is for my cruise in May on the Queen Victoria. There is two formal nights one the Black and White Ball, the second 175 Ball. Can anyone tell what this is, because I have never seen this before.

 

There is a similar note on the first formal night of the Cape Town to Southampton QM2 Voyage in April. When I saw that my guess was the same as Bell Boy.

 

QM2 had a 10th Anniversary evening on the trip down to Cape Town last January. There was a celebration meal with a specially printed souvenir menu and I think some extra touches in the Queens Room. I would guess it will be something similar but it will be repeated several times across all three ships.

A very good friend of mine works for the security company at the Southampton port and told me starting from December the check in times will be strictly enforced.

So if you have a 14.30 check in and you turn up at 12 you will not be allowed to check in before 14.30.

 

Four of us (same family) are due to board QM2 in 3 weeks time. We have linked bookings made at the same time. 2 of us have 12 noon as check in and 2 of 3.15pm. I was not concerned until I read this. I hope common sense will prevail.

I've just looked at our Luggage Labels on our VP page, prior to printing them.

 

I see that it says " Do not remove, to be used for Embarkation and Disembarkation"

 

So it appears that Cunard may no longer be handing out the usual coloured-coded luggage labels for your disembarkation and if you remove the labels during the voyage you might earn an extra visit to the Purser's desk (deep joy) to plead for replacements.

 

BE WARNED.

 

 

I wonder how this affects disembarkation? I believe grills passengers and Diamond members were always given priority.