bluemarble

There is a post on social media saying QM2 won't be calling at Villefranche tomorrow. Instead she will be heading to Alghero. I suppose that means no photo opportunities for @D&N this time around if that post is accurate.

Here's Cunard's official photo of the 2023 bear posted today on their facebook page. 2023 Cunard Bear (Prince's Trust) "It’s Beary nice to meet you! Say hello to our new Teddy in partnership with The Prince's Trust. $2 from the sale of each bear goes straight to The Prince's Trust. Make sure to get your bear next time you are on board!"

Introduction of the onboard "My Voyage" digital planner. Muster drills replaced by scanning your keycard/boarding pass at your muster station. New wifi/internet plans based on days rather than minutes. New smaller format daily programmes. Introduction of several new themes at the King's Court/Lido Alternative Dining venue (Nordlys, Riviera and Frontier). Retirement of several of the previous themes (Smokehouse and Aztec). No more Godiva menu at Sir Samuels on QM2. Michael Kors shop replaced by Liberty of London shop on QM2. Toiletries now provided in reusable dispensers. Welcome aboard sparling wine no longer set out in an ice bucket in Britannia cabins. Placed in fridge instead. Various brands now in use instead of Pol Acker.

There is a "Hotel and Dining Service Charge Policy" page on the Cunard US website which includes this FAQ entry. (Q) I noticed “gratuities” changed to “hotel and dining service charge”. Why did this change? (A) We want to be transparent that these are charges that will be added to your onboard account. In addition, we want to be consistent with the onboard policy that uses this language “Hotel and dining service charge” and be clear that what formerly referred to as gratuities is one and the same as “hotel and dining service charge.”

Yes indeed. That's a webcam image showing a portion of QV during her maiden call today to Bornholm (Roenne), Denmark. I believe that's the first call to Bornholm for any of the current Cunard fleet. It's been on our unseen ports list because of a previous visit by Vistafjord reported by @Colin_Cameron.

Here's a webcam image showing a Cunard ship (at least a portion of one) at a port we haven't seen yet.

Here's an update to what I posted back in January in response to a question about how the current Cunard fleet's schedules have been coordinated in Southampton around the dates of the various world cruises over the years. My take on this is that Cunard does tend to coordinate the schedules for two of the ships to be in Southampton on the same date when they are commencing their world cruises. Only once (in 2016) were all three ships scheduled to be in Southampton on the same date to start their world cruises. Once (in 2017) all three ships started their world cruises on different dates. And of course QM2 isn't doing a world cruise in 2025. That said, I do think Cunard has missed a great opportunity to feature a "Three Queens" meeting in Southampton with QA, QM2 and QV there prior to QA and QV starting their 2025 world cruises. That's in addition to that lost opportunity for QM2 to serve as a "World Cruise Taxi" from New York for those who would like to join either the QA or QV 2025 world cruises from Southampton. Interestingly there is a seamless connection to take QM2 back to New York after the QA 2025 world cruise. QA arrives back in Southampton on April 27, 2025 and a westbound crossing on QM2 departs that same day. ==================== 2011 Jan 5: QE and QV left Southampton on world cruises; QM2 at sea in Caribbean 2012 Jan 10: QM2 and QE left Southampton on world cruises; QV in Puerto Quetzal 2013 Jan 6: QE left Southampton on world cruise Jan 10: QM2 and QV left Southampton on world cruises 2014 Jan 2: QV left Southampton on world cruise Jan 10: QM2 and QE left Southampton on world cruises 2015 Jan 10: QM2 and QE left Southampton on world cruises Jan 20: QV left Southampton on world cruise 2016 Jan 10: QM2, QV and QE left Southampton on world cruises 2017 Jan 5: QV left Southampton on world cruise Jan 7: QE left Southampton on world cruise Jan 10: QM2 left Southampton on world cruise 2018 Jan 7: QV and QE left Southampton on world cruises Jan 10: QM2 left Southampton on world cruise 2019 Jan 3: QE left Southampton for Australia Jan 10: QM2 and QV left Southampton on world cruises 2020 Jan 10: QM2 and QV left Southampton on world cruises; QE in Hobart 2023 Jan 11: QM2 and QV left Southampton on world cruises; QE in Dunedin 2024 Jan 11: QM2 and QV leave Southampton on world cruises; QE at sea in Australia 2025 Jan 9: QA and QV leave Southampton on world cruises; QE at sea in Australia Jan 11: QM2 leaves Southampton on Caribbean cruise

Not sure if this means anything. I just noticed MSC Meraviglia's 11-night Canada/New England roundtrip from Brooklyn on September 25-October 6, 2024 is no longer listed on the MSC website. That's the cruise causing the conflict with QM2 on October 6, 2024 necessitating the rescheduling of QM2 to be in Brooklyn on October 4, 2024 instead and ultimately that's what prompted this topic. Now maybe that just means that particular MSC Meraviglia cruise is sold out. But that does appear to be the only MSC Meravigila 2024 cruise no longer listed on their website. That was the last MSC Meraviglia cruise that had been scheduled so far.

Just for reference, the Cunard US website is offering pre-voyage hotel packages at Singapore prior to your March 23, 2024 QM2 voyage from Singapore to Southampton. The hotels they are offering are the Paradox Hotel Singapore and the Flagship Shangri-La Singapore Hotel. Not sure what to make of their rates though. They appear to be offering per room rates on the US site now rather than per person rates. The rates for the Paradox seem to be in line with what you can book yourself while the rates for the Shangri-La appear to be about twice what you can book yourself. But again, this is just what the US website is showing. Not sure why they haven't worked out the details for the UK yet. Based on the feedback from others here, I'm not in a position to recommend booking a Cunard hotel package. I prefer to book my own hotel accommodations.

Traditionally the remaining portions of each year's itineraries have been announced during early to mid September. However, Covid caused significant adjustments to when those schedules were announced the past few years. The announcements of the 2022 through 2024 itineraries were delayed anywhere from early November to mid January. Specifically, the 2024 announcement was November 29, 2022. One hopeful sign that Cunard might be getting back on track to a more typical timeframe this year is that they announced the 2025 World/Exotic schedules this year in early March which is back to when those schedules were typically announced pre-Covid.

I suspect your issue is similar to the US in that there is no Cunard "My Account" functionality set up for Australia yet either. I'm not seeing any "Log in / register" link on the Cunard Australia site the way there is on the Cunard UK site. There is no such link on the Cunard US site either. That's the mechanism to set up a Cunard "My Account" using your email address as your login id which you then link to your Cunard World Club Number. Now I'm flying a bit blind here since our friends in the UK have the first-hand knowledge for how the Cunard "My Account" functionality works. But I'll go ahead and speculate the new "Loyalty" functionality depends on having the underlying "My Account" functionality to work correctly. I welcome comments from others as to whether you think I'm on the mark with that conjecture.

In the US, the link to "Marketing options" on the "Before you sail" page of "My Cunard" is trying to go to "www.cunard.com/en-us/my-account". Since there is no Cunard "My Account" functionality for the US, I suppose the "Unfortunately, we can't find that page." error is not all that surprising. When I play around trying to go to "www.cunard.com/en-gb/my-account" from here in the US, I do see this screen shot for just a fraction of a second before I am redirected to a page to log in to "My Account". I suppose this is what those of you in the UK are seeing now with its new "Loyalty" section and what we are missing in the US. Perhaps this is a preview of coming attractions for the US. I'm not holding my breath though, but maybe we can hope Cunard will start supporting the "My Account" functionality in the US once again.

Yes, the full name of that venue is "Steakhouse at The Verandah".

That's correct. Assuming you and your wife are both Platinum, you will each have $80 internet credits. That works out to three separate 24-hour segments each (at $24 per segment for the Essential plan). Depending on the length of your cruise and your specific connectivity requirements, you might also consider one of you purchasing three individual 24-hour segments during the beginning of the cruise. Then the other could purchase the last four days (at $18 per day for the Essential plan for the remainder of the cruise) when there are four days left in the cruise. That strategy works well to provide full connectivity for a cruise of seven nights.

Here are the port timings I'm seeing for V334. Dec 11 Southampton Depart 16:30 Dec 14 Cadiz Arrive 09:00 Depart 17:00 Dec 15 Malaga Arrive 08:00 Depart 23:59 Dec 17 Valencia Arrive 08:00 Depart 17:00 Dec 19 Lisbon Arrive 09:00 Dec 20 Lisbon Depart 17:00 Dec 23 Southampton Arrive 06:30 Unfortunately I can't name specific travel agent/cruise booking websites. But I can offer a clue that Cunard's partner websites for Spain, Austria and Switzerland list the timings. One secret I've mentioned in the past is that you can even find the port timings on the Cunard website if you know where to look for them hidden within the HTML code. Here's an excerpt from the viewing the page source for the V334 itinerary on the Cunard website which reveals the timings for Cadiz. "arrivalTime":"09:00 AM","arrivePartOfTheDay":"Morning","departTime":"05:00 PM","departPartOfTheDay":"Afternoon","portDetails":{"id":"CA1","name":"Cadiz, Spain"

Prior to the shutdown in 2020, the prices for Steakhouse at The Verandah were $25 for lunch and $39 for dinner. The Kings Court/Lido Alternative Dining venue was $19.50 for dinner. During our first voyage after the restart (November 2022 on QM2), the price for Steakhouse at The Verandah was still $25 for lunch but the price had increased to $45 for dinner. The Kings Court Alternative Dining venue had increased to $25 for dinner. This past May on QM2, the price for Steakhouse at The Verandah had increased to $30 for lunch and $50 for dinner if booked on board. The Kings Court Alternative Dining venue was still $25 for dinner. But a $5 discount had been introduced if you booked Steakhouse at The Verandah prior to boarding the ship. That meant dinner at Steakhouse at the Verandah was still $45 if booked in advance but $50 if booked on board. That parallels what they have done with the drinks packages where you receive a discount if booking them prior to boarding. I'm not certain at this point if they also offered a $5 discount for booking the Kings Court Alternative Dining venue in advance. That pricing structure for Steakhouse at The Verandah is what I'm seeing listed on this page on the Cunard website: https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/activity-types/dining/the-verandah "The cost for dinner is $45 if booked pre-cruise, or $50 if booked on board, and for lunch, $25 or $30, respectively."

If you print the labels at full size on A4 paper and fold them as instructed, you end up with a long narrow label designed to be looped and stapled around your luggage handle without the use of a separate luggage tag holder. That's what I do. The resulting dimensions of the labels folded that way are 11.7 inches x 1.5 inches. I suspect those who use various sized luggage tag holders may fold their labels differently, perhaps ending up with something along the lines of 5.85 inches x 3 inches. They can confirm those details.

The scheduled times I'm seeing for Newport on July 6th are 7:00am arrival and 6:00pm departure.

Oh good. It sounds like they extended your stay an hour to make up for the hour late arrival this morning. At least the itineraries I have indicated a scheduled 8:00am arrival and 8:00pm departure. But then maybe the plan was for a 9:00am to 9:00pm call all along.

No, the new smaller "Your Ocean Awaits" booklets are quite generic. No luggage labels and no details about shore excursions as in the past. The only details I can find specific to the voyage are found on the front cover (guest name, booking reference number, departure date, ship and voyage number). The Welcome page is also customized with "Dear Mr. John ...". I booked three consecutive voyages as separate bookings (eastbound crossing, Norwegian fjords and westbound crossing). As a result, I received three separate "Your Ocean Awaits" booklets. As far as I can tell, all three booklets are identical except for those voyage-specific details printed on the front cover and a numeric code printed along the lower right corner of the back cover which looks like it might indicate the date and time the booklet was printed. The only items I can find within the contents of the booklets which indicate they aren't totally generic are references to Queen Mary 2 and venues such as Kings Court which are specific to Queen Mary 2. In other words, there is apparently some customization to the contents for the different ships.

While Cunard does not provide the actual arrival and departure times, they can be found on various travel agent and cruise booking websites, including several of Cunard's partner sites for other countries. Here are the port timings I'm seeing for your cruise. Oct 09 Barcelona Depart 23:00 Oct 11 Toulon Arrive 07:00 Depart 17:00 Oct 12 Livorno Arrive 07:00 Depart 19:00 Oct 14 Ibiza Arrive 11:30 Depart 21:00 Oct 15 Valencia Arrive 08:00 Depart 18:00 Oct 16 Barcelona Arrive 07:00

Here you are. This is a scan of one of my recent "Your Ocean Awaits" booklets. It's A5 paper size.

Here's an earlier thread discussing the new bidding process. And here's a link to Cunard's page about it. https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/stateroom-upgrade To answer your second question, yes you do have to log in separately to My Cunard to retrieve each of your bookings one at a time using their individual booking reference numbers. There is no single login to your account where you can see all your bookings in one place.

Not a particularly auspicious return to Halifax weatherwise for QM2 today, I'm afraid. Even with the extra delay of a few more hours leaving New York yesterday, I thought QM2 would still be able to make Halifax at her scheduled time of 8:00am this morning. She was giving it the old college try with speeds in excess of 24 knots at times. She almost made it as scheduled but I suppose the fog had the final say. Here is what it looked like about an hour ago as she was alongside at Halifax a few minutes before 9:00am this morning. QM2 ought to be on prominent display in this view. This is a capture from the Pier 21 webcam at the Westin Nova Scotian Hotel found at "www.novascotiawebcams.com".

The boarding pass should be in Adobe Acrobat ".pdf" format. Does your platform have support for reading ".pdf" files?