bananavan

1 hour ago, MylesS said:

Here’s how the speciality dining benefit works for Diamond members onboard Queen Anne:

 

“You will receive one complimentary meal during your voyage**. You can choose from lunch at Sir Samuel's, or and evening meal at Aranya or Tramanto (valid until Saturday, 22 June 2024) To avoid disappointment, early booking is highly recommended; you call dinning reservations 38000 to make your reservation. A supplement to dine at Sir Samuel's or Ajiwa in the evening will be a $30 per person additional charge.”

Did they actually say DINNING reservations? 
Who is writing for Cunard? 

6 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

I don't understand this comment, 15% is added to non package drinks as well. 

Host Hattie. 
This of us who have the US  Grills drinks package get any drinks under $12. There is still a gratuity added which we do not pay, but the sommelier gets that 15% gratuity. It is a strange system for sure 
IT is not like the Cunard drinks package on which NO 15% is added as it is supposedly included. 

8 hours ago, Bell Boy said:

Not only that , this drinks package malarkey is a hassle if one ( like me) enjoys a couple (or more) glasses of wine with dinner and trying to flag down a sommelier. You could probably have finished your main course before that second glass of wine is delivered, due to the sommelier who has to keep disappearing into the galley bar dispensary to pick up orders. 

   

Bell Boy, that is an improvement on the Sommeliers we have had in PG, but for a different reason. 
The "free drink package" for the US Guests results in overly zealous Wine stewards  trying to earn their 15%, which is added to all of the orders on this package. 
Leisurely drinks never happened. It is truly bizarre. 

4 hours ago, Bell Boy said:

I have just disembarked QM2 , I can confirm that the suites opposite the Concierge are NOT exactly opposite. I had to check this out only a few days ago for friend who has already booked one.

 

The suite doors are a good several yards away from the doors of the Concierge lounge 

I doubt you will have any problems with noise. Hope this helps. 

 

I had Queen Victoria suite (10001 deck 10) , however, this suite does not have a balcony - Balcony suite is Queen Elizabeth suite deck 10 Fwd.

So grateful to you Bellboy. You reassured us tremendously. 
Hope to sail with you again  soon. 

5 hours ago, MylesS said:

What a strange review! Everyone is entitled to their opinions, of course. But to give a "review" like that without even giving your opinions as to why you feel that way is pointless to me.

Yes, service seems to be slower than normal, but again, it's only the second voyage. I can appreciate that people have still paid full price for their cruise, so it's frustrating. However, if people are unable to deal with the expected issues, they should stick to the other ships until Queen Anne is "settled" so to say.

Regarding the canceling of their "World Cruise", it's not up for me to judge how people spend their money. But one would think that they would try the ship, even for a few days before booking a 100+ night cruise?

I understand your commentary but for those of us who are aging out of the cruising demographic, who enjoy taking longer voyages, the Queen Anne is the only Queen that offered the World Cruise for 2025. Queen Victoria is doing the South America voyage, which is lovely but we have done that one. 
Booking a Queens Grill cabin is tough at the best of times but with a maiden world cruise it was next to impossible. I booked a Guarantee Q4 in July of 2023. 
Sadly, the cruises on Queen Anne are available to Southampton cruisers and the first time it arrives in the USA is January of next year. We would have loved to have been able to book a "taster" cruise before booking the World voyage. 
It is one thing to look at the brochures but in order to truly appreciate the atmosphere of the ship you have to actually sail on it. 
So many Vloggers are in love with the Queen Anne but they also give away the fact that they have never been on a Cunard ship before. I am certain that she is lovely .
I believe that QA is best suited to 7-14 day voyages. 

40 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

After disembarking QA last Friday I'm now on QM2  (QG) I can confirm the last few evenings Canapés including Nuts & Crisps have been offered in the Grills Lounge, however, Canapés will no longer be offered in the QM2 Commodore Bar  according to the senior bar tender.

 

It's all Anne's fault 😠  

I wonder how much else will be taken away. 
If it is working for Cunard, they will eliminate a lot of things.

Do the points show up AFTER the charge is paid? 
I only ask this because my offer on my AMEX platinum states that the offer is valid for payments made after May2. 
Usually no points are granted until after the charge is paid. 
I would assume that the offer would depend on payment being made. 
And my points for spending on my Amex are only granted after the charge has been paid. 
****Edit****That being said, Idid read the terms and conditions and it does state that this is not valid if the payment is made through a third party travel site. 
All of my statements say that the charge is for  Cunard, not the agency.
My price for booking directly my travel agency was considerably less than booking it through Cunard and subsequently transferring it, so I take that as a win. 
 

4 hours ago, MCC retired said:

This Sale is available now for Past Cunard guests .

Good , not great rates . We did better with the earlier American Sale last month.

Where do you find these rates? Please and thank you.
We are Diamond so we are definitely past passengers. 
Sorry, I just found it. 

2 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Telling would be one thing, but advice is always gratefully received. I am worried about spending a fortnight looking at the wall in the QG though. 

I will be searching for your opinions. 
I am worried about spending 81 days onboard. 
We are old school Cunarders(make that OLD)  and enjoy the laid back luxury that Cunard affords. 

On 5/2/2024 at 11:20 AM, WantedOnVoyage said:

Curious how much better Princess Grill at least appears... in size, space (including between tables) and general sense of occasion that Queen's Grill.. Even the chairs are far more suitable (with arms.. hurray!) than those c. 1958 Italian bedroom chairs in the QG.  

Thank you for saying what I have been thinking. 
I am not at all impressed with the poor excuse for chairs>
We are supposed to be spending 81 days in there for the Grand Voyage and I am not impressed with what I am seeing. 
Cunard seems to have forgotten that those who cruise on long voyages in Queens Grill have many options available to us. 
The Britannia Club dining room chairs looked much better than those is the QG. 

1 hour ago, safarigal said:

We had no trouble transferring from Queen Victoria to Queen Mary 2 in 2023. It was arranged by the pursers office. We left our bags outside our door on the last night as usual, and they were in our new stateroom soon after we got on board QM2. There was a coach that transferred us between the ships. We were the last people to leave Queen Victoria and when we boarded QM2 we were able to go straight to our stateroom, but that may have just been luck.

Thank you so much for this information Lesley.  
I mentioned to Alan that we are going to be sending our formal wear ahead to San Francisco using a luggage forwarding service and we will do the same for the return if we disembark in NYC. Doing so from Southampton would be insanely expensive. 
We are in QG on the Queen Anne but going back to the US in First Class would cost us more than a sheltered balcony on QM2. AND we would be able to adjust better to the time changes.

17 minutes ago, david63 said:

To the best of my knowledge you have to take from one ship/terminal to the other ship/terminal. Also bear in mind that you will be disembarking a lot earlier than you will be able to check in on the other ship.

 

And for your next question - no there is no luggage storage facilities at Southampton.

Thanks for answering the next question. I am aware that there is no luggage storage at the port, but I will not be needing that anyway. 
 

We are sailing on the Queen Anne Maiden World Voyage. 
We return to Southampton on April 27. 2025
We are considering booking QM2 to return to NYC on the same day. 
Does anyone have any experience with the transferring of luggage between two ships? 

On 4/19/2024 at 1:02 PM, NE John said:

DW first came over to the US in a transatlantico, and I’m sure, nowhere near any Grills-type area…actually she took a couple transatlantici as a youth. She said she remembers her mother being seasick most of the time!

I came over first in 1957, arriving in Quebec on April 27, 1957. We were on the Arosa Kulm, a converted troop ship, built in 1919. 
We were in Tourist class, with two double bunks, a crib, a sink and small toilet. There was no separation between the toilet and bed area. The trip was very rocky. Our ship was berthed beside the Queen Mary but it was dwarfed be her. It was less than 8,000 tonnes. IT was 436 ft long.

Jeff Bezos' yacht Koro is 416 ft long.  Think about that statistic. There were 900 passengers on our ship. 
It was one of only 8 ships that survived WW2 and was placed into Passenger service until 1960. 
In 1960 we took the "Immigrant Regret Hiraeth" sailing back to Wales on a ship called the Italia by Home Lines. It was much bigger, as it had 21,600 GRT. and was 608 feet long. I have the original brochure for that one. We had no toilet in the room but the community toilets and bathing areas were down the corridor. We were in Tourist class and were on the lowest deck.
We flew back to North America three months later and my father did not live long enough to go back to Wales. 
We will be in Q4 on a portion of Queen Anne's maiden World voyage. We are going from San Francisco to Southampton.
The amazing opportunities that I have been afforded are not lost on me. I have been blessed beyond belief. 
This will most likely be our last long voyage and we were conflicted when the itinerary was changed, but realize that the Middle East will be off limits for some time. 
We thought of taking a different cruise line and therefore a different route, but remembered that Cunard suits us best. 
. 

16 hours ago, safarigal said:

I so wish I was on board with you and Deirdre and Kim. I am lookinf forward to following along 🙂

And ME!!! 
We all love Roscoe ❤️
Missing you all. 

On 8/29/2023 at 4:46 PM, Buffalobills said:

I booked one of my cruises through Carnival and the other with Costco. You can still get cover more insurance even though you didn’t book with Costco. It’s a couple of dollars more but still worth it. 
I can find the phone number and post it if you would like. 

BB, I booked my cruise through Cunard and transferred it to Costco within the 21 day period to get the pre-existing condition waiver. 
GO BILLS!!!!!! (Today is January 15. 2024. ) 🙂

20 hours ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

Pleased you were pleased....

 

The beer prices are cheaper than most "happy hours" in the U.S.   Nothing beats a San Miguel in the Commodore Club sailing out of Stockholm through the archipelago.  And unlike the Grills Lounge, the crisps are not stale shards. 

 

Me... I just like to see another Expos fan .. like QE2, they date from 1969!

 

 

Well, well, well, another Expos fan. Went to the second home game in 1969. Little did I know that my husband was there too but we did not meet until the end of June 1969. 🙂

On 8/10/2023 at 12:29 AM, LibertyBella said:

 

 

P.S. There are always lots of window seats available for breakfast and lunch on port days when everybody is out on excursions!  At night, in the dark, there is nothing to be seen anyway.

That is not how it works in Grills. You have a table for the duration of your voyage. 
It is up to the Maitre D to determine who gets the window table, based on when the cruise was booked and loyalty to Cunard. 

Dear Ross, 

My husband and I are much older than most people on these boards. 
We will be in Auckland for two days while on the Queen Anne Maiden World cruise. 
We have already been to Waiheke Island, although he is hell bent on returning and I can not find fault with that. 
Other than perhaps smuggling you onboard, if you are in the area, what would you suggest we do in Auckland? 😇
Evana

Roscoe, very interesting about the lack of entertaining lecturers. I will be interested to see if this is remedied by July when I take the Iceland cruise. 
AND What were those interlopers even thinking? 
Forcing you to get up earlier and earlier to get the seat that you so carefully preserve! 
A curse on their staterooms. 🙂
Enjoy.....
 

1 hour ago, PaperSniper4 said:

 

 

Good luck. Chat, when it works, and you connect with a decent agent, is so much better than trying to communicate with their agents using the phone.

 

 Doug

They have seemingly outsourced their live phone agents. 
Today I spoke with two agents regarding a drop in price of my booking and an increase in OBC. 
The first one told me I had a good price and what was my problem? Then the line disconnected. 
The second one went to speak to a Supervisor and never came back. 
I will try the live chat next. 
Thanks 

7 minutes ago, Suzanne123 said:

I could be wrong, but I don’t think that Chase pays for actual medical expenses unless they are emergencies.  They cover things like hotels, flights and cruise costs as part of trip delay and cancellation coverage. You missed their 20 day deadline to file a claim anyway.

( page 34)

 

 

 

Thanks for that information. 
I am trying to be patient and not put too many irons in the fire at this point. 
We have multiple claims because we also dealt with Covid and isolation for three weeks. 
I have not made the Health claim with Aon yet. 
I have filed for missed hotels and prepaid trips through the trip interruption and am waiting for that as well.  I did not file those with Chase and it would have been useless because we were unable to return home within the claim filing deadline. 
 

We had a Transatlantic cruise this past April. We purchased the cruise line insurance .
I had two visits to the clinic onboard the ship and was sent to a hospital for treatment on one day. 
I paid for everything when I was billed. The total came to almost $1000. 
I returned home and submitted my bills to my United Health care Plan F claims department. 
That was on May 29. I have receipts for their arrival at the Insurance offices. 
I have been waiting since then for word as to how much will be reimbursed. 
Plan F supposedly pays 80% of foreign claims. 
I am waiting for this before I can file a claim with AON which insures Celebrity.
I have been told that the claims are paid in the order that they are received and that they are getting to those for the month of May soon. They hope that they will resolve. this by the end of the month. 
Does this sound normal? 
As I paid for the hospital bill with my Chase Sapphire card am I better off trying to get reimbursement there? 
Thanks in advance. 
 

We booked the Emerald September 29/23 on June 17. 
Nobody at Princess mentioned anything. 
That is super strange. 
We want an M1 and are waitlisted for one .
 

I just wanted to let you all know that Celebrity has done the right thing. 
We are getting a pro rated refund of the days which were missed on the Transatlantic due to testing positive for Covid. 
My husband was unable to enjoy any of the second week of the trip so that is fair. 
Thanks again for supporting me and hopefully learning from my experience. 
I am the kid your mother suggested you stay away from. Wierd things always happen around me. 🙃