majortom10

It is in early December when all cruise lines struggle to fill their ships and to do so offer some very good deals normally. Unfortunately unless a few have booked early and paid a higher prices it will be harder to offer too low a price because of the price of fuel and food.

So is BLC Select Fare only and booked direct

That is correct they have cancelled 4 cruises on Bolette due to insufficient bookings to make the cruises worthwhile to operate with high fuel prices. They will carry out technical work which was scheduled for 2023 during that period and the ship will return to service for the Christmas cruise.

Cunard are very closely combined with P&O both coming under Carnival UK and have the same staff in their HQ in Southampton. Princess have offices and staff in the same building but run independently from Cunard/P&O.

I have tried in the past with a BLC and have been told you only get the OBC if you ask at time of booking and not later and you have to book direct with P&O and not through a TA. OBC with a Defence card might be different T&C's.

That is only for cruises booked direct with P&O and not those through a TA.

Soon to be seen on a P&O cruise ship.

Classic 🤣

We have done many roundtrip TAs and have always booked an inside cabin and never had any problems whatsoever. Once outside of your cabin you have exactly the same facilities as everyone else. We are in the situation because balcony cabins on QM2 are so expensive if we didnt go in an inside cabin we wouldnt go at all. We are booked again to go next May love QM2.

Yes the arson theory is a major factor but they said the 2 fires did 60000 Euros of damage that is not a small fire.

I am assuming you mean norovirus. If so you will never eradicate that and is a common occurrence where large groups congregate i.e. hospitals, schools and cruise ships to name a fewl As long as you have people with filthy habits of not washing their hands properly after visiting the toilet, or even at all, and mauling foods like the buffet it will rear its ugly head on a regular basis.

There seems to be some very good deals on Arvia in 2023 might be worth considering if you liked Iona.

We are open minded about sailing on QA. We were considering booking on Maiden if possible but when it was released wasnt interested in a 7nt cruise with 1 port of call. We then looked at other cruises to find them very expensive so will wait to see what prices are for second part of 2024 when they are released. I am not worried about comparing traditional Cunard ships with QA, new builds are moving forward with the times and demands of cruising so will wait to see what facilities and what more details are released about the ship. You cannot blame Carnival building QA basically the same ship as others within Carnival corporation. That is nothing new as it has happened on P&O and Princess for a few years then if it makes the build of ships cheaper then hopefully it will make cruising cheaper.

I am sure Princess are testing the water to see if it works and if so and perhaps Cunard and P&O will follow suit. But like as previously stated Cunard dont seem to have any problems selling QG, PG and BC at the moment so dont think it might be worth the effort just for inside, oceanview and balcony staterooms. P&O is a different matter and it might be worthwhile trying to sell upgrades rather than giving them away for free.

Doesnt need bouncers just Restaurant Managers on the doors of the restaurant to enforce the rules. On one of our first Cunard cruises in the late 90s a man in the queue in front of us was wearing a suit but had no tie on. The Restaurant Manager on the door discreetly took him to one side and opened a draw with ties on for him to use or was told he could go back to his cabin to get his own tie. This was in Britannia, if that is what it was called on QE2. Of course those day every night was either a dinner suit or suit and tie every night.

I think we were very unlucky with whole experience I presume was the Head Waiter or whatever they call them who prepare meals at table side couldnt even carve a duck in half and it ended up on the floor and we never saw the butler. Having said that thinking that everything seems to happen to us last November on QE in PG we ordered with the Maitre 'd at lunch rack of lamb for that nights dinner. At dinner nothing was said we had our appetiser and soup and then was a long wait for our main course. Nothing was said for ages and then it became obvious even though we were never told or apologised too that he had forgot to order the lamb at lunch time. Few days later we ordered another meal at lunchtime for our dinner and the same Maitre 'd laughed and said yes and I will remember to order it this time. Think wherever we go we must be very unlucky.

Sorry but this might upset a few or even many but if Cunard allow the dumbing down of the dress code especially in the evenings not just in the MDR but around the ship Cunard will stop being special and just be another cruise line.

Trouble is the price that is now being charged by Cunard for QG suites it should not be down to "luck" and how efficient the staff are especially as it was our first time in QG and wasnt sure what to expect. All I know is when we disembarked we didnt way "wow" that was a great cruise and that is how it should be for everyone not just those in QG.

Only you can answer that by what amount of alcohol you drink on a daily basis. Also don't forget you still pay the same daily price when you are in port and off the ship possibly for 8-9 hrs.

When we did QG on QE in November 2019 we were never offered or was never ever mentioned by anyone about the possibility of ordering off menu.

Sorry but a bit too expensive for me for what really is a pre cruise stopover.

Yes but banks would charge more foreign currency transaction than $1-29. We got charged over $100 on QE last November but we're lucky enough to be onboard and got it sorted. But these erroneous charges whilst onboard or after the cruise are happening too frequently and Cunard are responsible and have to sort it out.

Princess do refundable and non refundable OBC but I don't think P&O do.

Also depends where you expect to eat in the evening. If you plan on using Kings Court then there will not be a problem but there will be areas of the ship you will not be able to frequent on Gala (formal) nights including MDR.

Whatever it is it should have not been added to your card. If they do that erroneous charge a thousand times over a year across all 3 ships then it is a nice little profit. These charges are becoming far too regular and some for a lot more and they should be challenged and should be stopped happening.