Kynance

Much to Mr K’s disappointment there were no strawberry tarts(!) available in the Chart Room on QV in June, our first time on Cunard since autumn 2019. However, being able to order an afternoon tea from the room service menu for consumption on our balcony was a welcome change. (Pretty sure this wasn’t available 4 years ago.). The evening menu in the Britannia restaurant has fewer choices (5 main courses as opposed to a choice of 8 when we last sailed.) Port maps & information were not provided alongside the daily programme. Certain items in the cabin like cotton wool & ear buds are now provided on request rather than being left automatically in the bathroom. Key cards were left in envelopes in the “fan” rather being issued at check-in. For the first time ever, I found the Pol Acker quite drinkable! The cabin fridges are now empty except for the sparkling wine, so more space for your own drinks although you can still buy a package of certain drinks if you want. The ship’s photographers are back but much less in evidence (eg they didn’t come into the restaurants.)

@richstowe - Sometimes I ring Cunard’s customer contact centre and ask if a note can be placed on our booking that we would like a window table, if possible. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. (Once we had the table next to the window table and lovely conversations with the ladies who occupied it, so that worked well anyway). Quite often on our trips it’s dark by 8.30 anyway, so the request is less about the view and more about being in a nice position with neighbours only on one side.

Yes - the online check-in process is all about the formalities such as uploading photographs & registering credit cards. “Arrival” times, as Cunard calls them, have already been assigned. There’s been some discussion on another thread about how this is working. As a rule, guests in the Grills board first, then diamond followed by platinum World Club status (the latter 2 just at Southampton & Brooklyn I think). Many guests also have either diamond or platinum status now, so whether there is genuinely much benefit is dependent on the specific voyage: a lot of diamond & platinum members means more people in the “priority” queue for the physical check-in & then the security screening. The time you get will therefore be decided on certain factors but regulars on this board have found the factors to be somewhat randomly applied, I think.

I’m very fortunate to have tickets for the ladies’ singles final at Wimbledon on Saturday. Judging by the weather forecast it looks like the match will be played under the roof. That’s probably going to be better for the players anyway as gusty winds are also predicted. After a hot, dry June I suppose it was typical of the British weather to do an about turn in time for the tennis!

@Unesco - thanks! Regarding surveys, I received an email with a link to the Feefo review site shortly after I got back but that was it and it didn’t ask any detailed questions - just for an overall rating and a few comments.

We had 1.30 on QV in June for deck 7 forward, which I was quite happy with. (We were in Britannia & are Diamond/Platinum in WC status.) In September we are in Club on QM2, deck 13, so I’m intrigued as to what arrival time we will be given for this voyage. Bit of time to wait though!

@Bigmike911 & your fellow Americans - have a wonderful day today and thanks from across the pond for your friendship too!

I love the fjords - stunning. Have always cruised in June but if I was travelling in August I’d pack the same stuff: layers, a waterproof jacket with a hood or a waterproof hat, umbrella, sturdy footwear and sun cream. We’ve also taken walking poles & a small rucksack. I’m not a light packer and tend to pack for all eventualities! Whatever you do take, have a lovely time. Hopefully the weather will be kind - you’re not gong to Bergen which has 300 days of rain a year - but fortunately we’ve always had good weather there.

Despite the instruction on the label not to remove them as they are used for both embarkation & disembarkation, we received specific labels for disembarkation on QV2 recently, “Purple 2” I think. I don’t know whether this is an anomaly Cunard haven’t got round to removing from the tags or whether there are any circumstances in which the original labels would be used for disembarkation. As far as I can remember, all of the bags set out in the arrivals hall had coloured & numbered disembarkation tags attached to them. These were pretty sturdy when attached in accordance with the instructions but we still had other identification on our bags “just in case”.

I can confirm we had the same type in QV a week or so ago and that they were in the wardrobe, along with the bath robes, on our arrival.

@exlondoner - I was away from home when I replied to your question about the Bilbao shuttle bus. Now I’m back, I have been able to check the daily programme and can confirm that the shuttle stop was at Museo de Bellas Artes. Of course, that might change for August but I thought I would share the details in case you wanted to look the location up on a map. For general info, the shuttles, which were provided everywhere except La Coruña, were complimentary for everyone. Enjoy your trip!

@Petulia - thank you. Hope you enjoyed the trip as well. Those sunsets were spectacular weren’t they?

To be honest, we forgot to ask. However, that’s a good reminder to everyone about the unpublished menu’s existence.

Yes, there was a Cunard bus. Nice drive - takes about 30 minutes & you are dropped fairly centrally. It is then a gentle 20-30 minute walk into the old town area. However, there is no shade at the drop off/pick up point, so bring a hat or parasol if it is going to be a sunny day.

Have a lovely time - August will soon come round. Yes, I wouldn’t want anyone to think the food at dinner wasn’t enjoyable overall. I just think that some people might find the choices a bit restricted if they have a lot of “dislikes” (which my other half does).

A few photos as promised. If they appear in order, they should be: A view of the ship in port in Gijon Bilbao getting ready to host the “grand depart” of the Tour de France on 1 July A Gatsby Julep on Roaring 20s night Sunset at sea somewhere in the Channel

@Chart Room Princess - thank you for sharing you photos. I really wanted to try the Chieftain of the Clan on our QV cruise last week but never quite got round to it - as I was always drinking the Commodore’s Cure! I will be sure to make amends on QM2 in October. Did you think any of the cocktails were better suited to drinking at a particular time of day or the evening? Eg before or after dinner?

This cruise was our first since the autumn of 2019, when we were also on Queen Victoria. I will post a modified version in the reviews section but in case anyone is interested in them, I’ve broken down my thoughts into digestible chunks with sub-headings. (Mr K says I have a tendency to write “War & Peace” otherwise.) Hopefully pasting as plain text from my iPad has not resulted in any horrendous formatting issues. I’ve a few nice-ish photos which I will post separately. Itinerary This included four ports- La Coruna, Gijón, Bilbao and Cherbourg - and 2 sea days. I believe the itinerary is being repeated later in the summer. The ports were all new to us - we didn’t do any tours, just staying and exploring locally. These were all pleasant places to spend a few hours wandering around. Cunard no longer do separate port guides, with information & a map of the local area. However, maps were available at the ports from tourist info people. Embarkation & Disembarkation We had a 1.30 arrival time for deck 7. From handing our car keys to CPS to walking through the air bridge onto deck 2, it took no more than 45 minutes but I wasn’t watching the clock closely. The new check-in process seemed to be efficient - the queue slowed a little bit at security screening but nothing to complain about and overall, the embarkation process was smooth & well-managed. Disembarkation from our cabin at 08.40 worked well for us - there was a bit of a queue to leave but it moved pretty swiftly. Cabin & Ship Condition Our cabin was in very good nick - no noticeable scrapes, scuffs or stains - or at least any that bothered us. The same with our balcony. Both were kept in very good order by our friendly steward. It was the same with the overall condition of the ship - making allowances for age, I didn’t feel there had been any marked deterioration since 2019 and members of the crew were always busy painting, fixing and cleaning. Our only cabin “gripe” wasn’t down to Cunard at all - it was caused by our neighbours on either side who constantly slammed their doors. Really annoying, especially when on the balcony. Dinner, tea & breakfast I won’t repeat the initial issue with our dining arrangements (as I’ve already posted about it on the open dining feedback thread) but we did get great wait staff on late sitting once it was resolved. We rarely go the shows so dinner is the evening highlight for us and we don’t like to feel rushed (as we were on the opening night). The food was quite nice overall, aside from a coconut panacotta which was actually a cold rice pudding with no coconut in it whatsoever! My partner likes his meat well done and the chefs got that spot on each time, while the fish cookery was also good. By accident, in one of my bags, I found a 2019 menu featuring 2 “signature entrees” and 6 other main courses. In contrast, the current menu offers a choice of five: 2 meat, 1 fish and 2 vegetarian. The choice of desserts was also reduced. This meant the menus lacked the “wow factor” over the array of choices. There was a lot of beef on offer (all good when we had it) and I don’t remember any lamb unless it was on the night we went to the Verandah. Aside from the weird rice pudding, I had a curiously flat chocolate fondant (it was about a centimetre in height) and a definitely reduced in size from 2019, lemon vanilla soufflé (which was also a bit flat). Possibly these were one-offs and I will say for balance that the afternoon tea cakes were excellent. Dinner in the Verandah was also excellent and as good as it was four years ago. However, the menu has hardly changed at all, so I do think this is something Cunard could be updating. If Cunard could also see their way to replacing the banquette seating by the windows (too deep and too low for the tables), that would be welcome too. That’s probably one for the next re-fit. An innovation we liked was being to order an afternoon tea from the room service menu for the cabin. We twice enjoyed tea on our balcony - the selection of sandwiches and cakes changed each day, plus there was always a couple of scones with jam & cream. A innovation we disliked was that breakfast in the Lido is now served until 10.30 rather 11.00. With a late sitting dinner, a late breakfast the next morning rather than lunch has often suited us and the earlier finish time made a difference. We did have one Lido breakfast on a port day (from the lovely omelette station) and one room service breakfast, otherwise, as late risers when on holiday, we started the day with coffee in the bar of the Chart Room, one of our favourite rituals. The crew were serving guests in the Lido for the first three days of the trip due to a norovirus outbreak on the previous cruise. They were doing a good job in difficult circumstances, especially those working the drinks stations. The Lido themed restaurant was “Riviera” every night - I was slightly surprised it didn’t change to one of the others such as Coriander, but maybe that is the new way of doing things. Bars & Booze Something must have happened to either me or the Pol Acker since 2019, as I found it really quite drinkable this time. It was a lot less dry and more easy on the palate: we had a half bottle in the cabin fridge on arrival and another half delivered towards the end of the week. We drank them whilst unpacking & packing respectively. We were luckier than Host Hattie on QM2 with our visits to QV’s Commodore Club - we managed to get a window table every evening apart from on the first gala evening when the room was full. However, we did find a free table in the gin & fizz bar. I must say that I think the advent of open dining means the room fills up earlier than before. I had always found that 7pm gave you a choice of seats but we started arriving at 6.45 to ensure a seat and that worked well. It appears that much of Mr K’s onboard bill was accounted for by my pre-dinner drinks! (It’s unfortunate for him that my favourite cocktail is the Commodore’s Cure.) Gala Nights We had 2 gala nights - the black & white ball & Roaring 20s. Lots of ladies - and quite a few gentlemen - participated in the Twenties’ theme. My contribution was to order a “Gatsby Julep” cocktail, one of the themed cocktails devised for the evening. There was a nice sense of occasion around the ship on the gala nights. Inevitably, a few people ignored the elevated dress code but they were a tiny minority (at least in the areas of the ship I visited). The shows on the gala nights were “Be Our Guest” and “Top Hat” (can’t tell you anything more as we didn’t go to them). Party-poopers & a love-in with Roger Waters… We opted to forgo the World Club party and spent the time in the quieter Commodore Club. There was no senior officers’ party, which I put down to the port-intensive itinerary but since they began holding them in the mornings we’ve missed those too. We didn’t attend any activities or lectures, apart from a couple of sessions held in the Queens Room on sea days. These displaced afternoon tea to the Britannia restaurant - I don’t know what the tea-goers thought about making way for the 30-40 of us who were listening to the guitarist from the Amethyst duo talking about and playing music by Jimi Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd & Pink Floyd. He was extremely talented & clearly a massive fan of Floyd’s Mr Waters. Internet & Voyage App I bought the premium internet package and Mr K had the essentials one. Our cabin was close to a Wi-Fi access point and it worked fairly well - there was a clear difference in speed and the premium connection worked on the balcony but the essential one didn’t. (We were using the same brand of phone). We bought a cheap roaming add-on from our UK provider for port days. I did manage to get the Cunard voyage app to work. I used it to book the Verandah and to view my onboard spend but not for much else. It did have a copy of the daily programme but I needed to really zoom in and scroll down constantly for it to be readable. I would have liked to have seen copies of the daily menus in the Britannia & Lido on the app but suspect the landscape formatting would create readability issues. Fellow Passengers We were told that there were 500 first time passengers on the ship and there were a number of family groups, sometimes of three generations, with babies or pre-school children. All the babies & kids we saw were well behaved and their parents clearly took pride in dressing them up on gala nights. Perhaps they are a new generation of Cunarders! Final thoughts It was a nice trip and I think in this instance, a week was long enough, to see what had changed & what hadn’t. And to assess if we’d changed too. We have a QM2 short break to come in September - looking forward to trying out Britannia Club & the deck 13 cabins. And hoping for quieter neighbours!

@blonde-cruiser - not sure what ship you will be on, but just for info, I am on QV at the moment and early sitting is 5.45 with last call at 6.15, so a slight variant from QM2. If one member of your party is unable to stand for too long, then a call to the customer contact centre might help with flagging any additional assistance they might need whilst on board or with boarding itself, as there can be a fair bit of standing in line, even when things go smoothly.

Both times we’ve been to Livorno, there has been a shuttle from the ship to a central drop off point in the town. I think it was a Cunard shuttle, rather than a port authority one. The journey wasn’t long. I can’t remember if you could just walk off the ship into town - we last went 4 years ago - I’m sure others who have been more recently can advise about that.

We have always used CPS. You leave your car with them at the terminal you depart from & your car is waiting at the terminal when you get back. Sometimes the arrival terminal will be different, in which case, CPS will bring your car there instead. It’s very convenient but I understand that they may be more expensive than other options. If you are travelling the day before, many hotels will offer a stay & park option, so you can then just get a taxi to & from the terminal. I’m sure you will get lots of good suggestions from other forum members for you to consider but CPS has always worked for us.

@MrsPeel55 - I’ve got my Dyson hairdryer with me on QV now and can report that it works as well as it does at home. I’m not sure which ship you’re going to be on but UK plug sockets are few and far between in the cabins. On QV, there is one at the desk/dressing table with mirror in Britannia cabins but the Dyson plug is too big to fit, so I’m using it plugged into an extension lead. It’s the same issue with a lot of chargers too. We also bring an extension lead & have never had any problems bringing it on board. I’m sure we aren’t the only people who do and clearly from the info Ray66 posted above, extension leads are not actually on the list of outright prohibited items. We wouldn’t bring one if we didn’t need to - we have never mastered the art of packing lightly - and don’t leave anything charging when we are away - but without one, I think the only other UK socket might be behind the bedside table, which you’d need to move each time you wanted to use it.

I said I would feedback about my quest to change to late sitting - well, I can report it has been successful! Yesterday, when we arrived for dinner in the Verandah, the Britannia Maitre’D had left a note to say we had a table for 2 on late sitting from tonight. It was the end of a row of 3 & no one was in the middle. We have very good wait staff & knowledgeable sommelier. Interestingly, our lead waiter said the table had been used earlier in the voyage for open seating!! No idea why we weren’t just allocated this, or another table on late sitting in the first place, in that case. However, polite persistence paid off. If this happens to anyone else, I recommend persevering. It worked for us.

Hattie - in your absence, Wales appears to have moved… I took this photo from the voyage information on QV. It’s not just Wales either, Italy and the Hebrides have shifted too!

Thanks Pear Carr & Hattie. I’m pretty sure the ship is full and don’t expect we’ll be offered a change but it would be nice to receive an explanation. I will let you know if we do!