david63

26 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Definitely don't buy currency on board.  The rate is a total rip off.

But can work out cheaper if you only want a small amount - and I would not say a "rip off" just not as competitive as some other exchange rates.

As Cunard is part of Carnival UK then there may be a case under the UK Equality Act

Also bear in mind the new rules for mobility equipment

2 minutes ago, S1971 said:

 

Totally agree, charge the difference fair enough, but the full price less 20% as @david63 stated is very underhand, more especially if you normal drink is unavailable.

As an aside - Princess only charge the difference (plus service charge on the difference).

One would think that all Carnival brands would use the same system - but I suppose that would be too simple as the passenger might know what was going on.

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

To make people pay the full price

I believe that there is a discount (20%?)

One other things that annoy me is that if you have a drinks package then each passenger has to order their own drink - unlike Princess where the Medallion sorts it out.

5 hours ago, Winifred 22 said:

I was unaware you had that option once the upgrade was assigned

That may be something to do with the difference between US and UK booking/upgrade T&C's

2 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

Did they offer the opportunity to cancel for a refund?

I doubt that would be considered a significant enough change to warrant cancellation and refund. I have known of more significant changes that have not been refundable.

And to add salt into the wounds because the change was made pre departure then you cannot claim for missed ports on your travel insurance

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

Ours was £130 . Both wrinklies with medical conditions.

Mine was not far short of four figures - again wrinklies with medical conditions

17 minutes ago, zap99 said:

They were around a third of the price of the ' full' cruise cover policies

For you they are but for me they were more expensive for a single trip than I have for annual cover.

It just goes to show that there is no "one size fits all" travel insurance and what works for one does not work for another as we all have a different set of circumstances.

===========================

As a salutary warning on travel insurance - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jjn75xpgwo

Just as an aside - you can also obtain foreign currency from reception and have it charged to your onboard account.

14 hours ago, Cathygh said:

We will just have to wait for bookings to drop so we can get a good late deal.

That does not look as if it will be happening any time soon with Carnival group having record bookings at the moment.

41 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

As previously advised, try Total Travel Protection. They are single trip only.

When I did a dummy quote they were for me/us ridiculously expensive - could almost have had another cruise for what they were asking.

5 minutes ago, CaraLark said:

Does anyone know if it is possible to walk from the cruise terminal at Barcelona?

It is possible but the one part that is a bit tricky is when you go over the bridge as the pavement is quite narrow and there can be, depending on day/time, a lot of heavy lorries going at break-neck speed in both directions.

From memory it is about an hour's walk to Las Ramblas as the Carnival berth is the furthest away.

5 hours ago, exlondoner said:

celebrity guest speaker who was the only male I saw without any sort of tie in the restaurant on formal night.

I was always under the impression that for all such people conforming to the dress code was part of their contract - or have times changed?

44 minutes ago, Bav said:

When you search Cunard's site it it states all Princess Suite are sold out !!.

But are QG suites sold out?

It is possible that there are vacant QG suites that PG passengers are bidding for and if successful then one, or more, PG suites would become available

Are these price increases on cruises/holidays any different to the price rises on virtually everything else these days?

6 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

can imagine Britannia would get a bit upset if they were always having to wait.

If they don't like having to wait then they know what the other option is

16 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

When you are visiting several ports in the same country do you have to go through immigration each time (I assume so, as they don't know you've been off at the first port)? How long does that take in post Brexit days?

There are two different scenarios here.

If the country requires a visa or some other form of entry document (eg USA) then in my experience you only go through immigration once but you need to show your passport at each port - one exception to that was Russia but we can forget that for now.

The other scenario is for ex Brexit countries where nothing currently has changed and you just walk off the ship and back on again. However this is due to change at some point in the future (currently scheduled for early 2025 but it has been put back so often that it may well change again) when the EU bring in their ETAIS, but the last time I read anything about ETIAS the EU had not figured out how to operate it for cruises.

Also remember that the cruise line/ship provide the country's immigration with full passenger and crew lists.

Unless there is something different about QA then surely the procedure for getting passengers off and on at ports is the same as with any other ship - and I suspect that the majority of the crew have had experience of doing this on other ships.

By today's standards QA is not a big ship so that should not be a problem and even so there are bigger ships in the Carnival fleet where this is not a problem.

4 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

can be a bit of a winding path with Cunard on occasions.

Not just Cunard but all Carnival brands out of the UK.

23 minutes ago, TowandaUK said:

she said there had been no refund request from the ship despite me being told 3 times that refund was on its way!

That does not surprise me one bit.

33 minutes ago, TowandaUK said:

Incidentally the promised refund of $2016 for the drink package has still not materialised and I’m getting nowhere with Cunard. Seems like I shall have to start a dispute proceeding with my credit card company. This despite being told 3 times by the pursers office that the refund was on its way, and having paid pay as you go for all our drinks.

The problem here is probably one of the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

From what you have said I am guessing that you paid for the drinks package pre cruise via Cunard shoreside but then cancelled it when onboard and both of those worked fine.

Where I suspect the issue is is that onboard cannot actually process the refund (unlike shore excursions that can) and all they can do is contact whoever shoreside who can be somewhat tardy at times in actioning these matters. If you have not already done so then I would contact Customer Services at Carnival House.

1 minute ago, silversurf said:

Applied for insurance on Caribbean cruise and been refused by 10 insurance companies. What can I do now, canI cancel my cruise?

Obviously you can cancel but P&O's standard terms will be effective - i.e. as a minimum you will loose your deposit.

Have you tried the Nationwide account?

From experience ships normally dock in Barcelona around 08:00 - perhaps a bit earlier depending on how many other ships are in that day.

41 minutes ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

apparently martinis are literally off the list now

Better be back on by September or my wife will be having a tantrum!!