maina

Hmmm. Do people ever get upgraded more than once? I figured since we already got an upgrade we would be flagged and so not be considered for another. However, I do know that on our first voyage, also QM transatlantic but eastbound, we were upgraded from oceanview to sheltered balcony cabin 2 weeks before the sailing. Maybe 2 weeks is the magic number. :D

Thanks to the experience another traveler posted on our roll call, I called Cunard yesterday and got an upgrade on our upcoming Oct. 8th QM transatlantic crossing. Our fellow passenger was able to jump several grades (from sheltered balcony aft on a low deck to regular balcony on deck 11) at no extra charge. We like the sheltered balcony, but requested and got one midships, instead of aft, and up one deck, to 5 instead of 4 as originally assigned--just one grade and price point up, but it's where we'll be happy to be. This voyage still shows a lot of cabin availability, and has been having sales on some cabin categories, so I think that requesting rather than waiting for upgrades may be a good strategy in similar situations. I was holding off printing e-tickets and luggage labels, waiting for possible "upgrade fairy," but think I'm safe to print now (as soon as they show up in voyage personaliser, which I was told by the customer service rep. could take up to 48 hours). Only a little over 3 weeks to go now!

Nothing about the "bundled gratuity" in the comments on our booking confirmation either.Will definitely call Cunard to verify.

In our experience, Cunard ALWAYS uses the bold print technique for lower fares in their brochures. That way, they can keep a master set of brochures and then print selectively with different dates bolded, depending on their promotions. We've seen this often enough now that we know to look for the bolded print dates when we get those brochures. I'm not sure it's so much trying to be deceptive (though it is to us consumers) as it is a cost-savings in being able to have one master set of brochures that has all sailings in it instead of multiple versions.

PunkiC--Sorry for my poor wording. We would never remove the automatic tips. We booked under a special Cunard deal where we got OBC (tiny, but better than nothing) and where the automatic tips were "paid" by Cunard and not charged to our onboard account. The tip was "waived" only in that it wasn't us paying it. I sure hope Cunard does in fact pay it to the staff!

Ann

Because we made arrangements directly through Cunard and not a TA, all I have is the email confirmation from Cunard. I'll give a call about the automatic tip/service charge waiver just to be on the safe side. If that is in our records "shoreside" now, presumably it should be in the computer system onboard as well.

The OBC does show in our email confirmation, but not the waiver of the daily service charge/tip. May be worth a call to Cunard to verify and try to get something in writing about that. I'll definitely print the email and bring it with us. Thanks.

The pre-trip price and the onboard price were the same. I believe the pricing structure is determined to an extent by the shipping company. However, Cunard adds a hefty surcharge over what one would pay if shipping directly with the company. The cost differential was such that we seriously contemplated taking our bag to a local shipping office of UPS, Fedex, etc. in Southampton rather than shipping through Cunard. However, we decided the hassle wasn't worth it, and we wanted to get the earliest train we could to our next destination (Cornwall) from Southampton rather than spending time getting to the shipping office, then back to the train station, etc.

After reading posts by Jimsgirl and others, I got paranoid about documentation that the deal when we booked included waiver of daily service charge and a certain amount of OBC. Nowhere in our original confirmation email or in the voyage personaliser is this mentioned. Once we board, how can we "prove" that we have these arrangements if it is not stated in writing anywhere and they say they have no record of this? We are relative newbies, with only one transatlantic so far on Cunard, and the small OBC through our TA was there in our file just fine then. I never dreamed we might have to document it. Should I be worried? And, where the heck are people checking to make sure that what they've been promised is in fact on record? :confused:

I checked pricing of shipping one bag back to U.S. from Southampton, and was given a range of prices since it is based on weight. The person I spoke with on the phone said it could easily be handled once we were onboard, no need to reserve ahead of time, and indeed it was. Interestingly, they had no scale and just took our word for the weight when we filled out the paperwork and paid. We did ask our steward beforehand if she could find us one of those portable luggage scales, just so we could make sure we weren't overweight. When we disembarked, there was just a cart to drop the luggage to be shipped, no representative from the shipping company (DHL at the time) or from Cunard, and no scale. I was a little leery about just leaving the bag there, but it arrived safe and sound. (We did eastbound transatlantic and were traveling for several weeks in England and Europe, so didn't want to haul around the bag with the dressy clothing we didn't need; had the bag shipped to our daughter's.)

People sometimes have luck switching browsers. I understand that some browsers are more prone to problems with voyage personaliser than others. I use Firefox and it's usually OK. I just tried and can get in with Firefox. Clearing your browser's cache and "cookies" can sometimes help as well. I have mine set to clear whenever Firefox closes, but it can be done manually in all browsers I believe. I do occasionally get the error message you are getting if I've got a typo or error anywhere in the drop-down menu, as your exact name, birth date, and voyage number are linked in the system. If any one of those is entered wrong, it doesn't really say you've made an error but rather says they are unable to access your voyage personaliser at this time. Why it can't say instead that you have an error in one of the fields I can't tell you! It's yet another of the Cunard website mysteries.

Ann

Pennbank--In the U.S. I would know what to tip for various services (restaurant, hairdresser, etc.) because I'm from this culture. In places in the world where the service charge is included, I would know (or find out) what to do from reading advice in travel guides or online, e.g., in France one might leave the waiter some change, or round up, since their compensation system is not based on tipping as in the case of U.S. wait staff. I think the problem for some people, which is why they ask, is that there is a combination system on Cunard (and I presume other cruise lines). There is the automatic service charge, but some people (especially I would think Americans who are used to tipping) do want to go over and above that but aren't sure what's reasonable. Let's say you are paying $1400 per person for a 7-day crossing; American guidelines (in restaurants) is 15-20%. For two people for 7 days, the automatic service charge is nowhere near the 15-20% one would tip a restaurant waiter, and that surcharge is divided among various people. Granted, Cunard stewards, waiters, etc. are paid a better wage than U.S. waitstaff who are expected to subsist on tips and not wages. However, I think it's perfectly fine to just pay the service charge, but also perfectly fine if one wants to tip extra, knowing how hard the staff work (at least most of them).

Balf--This seems like a reasonable question to me. Some people do choose to tip over and above the automatic daily amount, and others remove the automatic surcharge and tip separately. I know the latter practice has been the subject of many (sometimes vitriolic) discussions here. However, the OP is asking what appears to be "innocent" and appropriate questions.

Sometimes switching browsers or clearing the browser's cache and any cookies will help. Procedure varies depending on browser, but if you tell us which browser you are using I'm sure someone can post instructions here on how to do this if you don't know how. On the other hand, Cunard's website sometimes seems to be infested with gremlins and you just have to wait it out.:eek:

Jimsgirl--I respect you a great deal, based on a lot of your Cruiseciritc postings. Certainly I've found out a lot of helpful information from you in the past several years. However, you have repeatedly posted the same thing (almost identical cut and paste) in multiple different threads about your recent experiences with German short break passengers; Cunard's false advertising; etc. I'm sure your intent is to warn off as many people as possible who might be put off by your experience, but to those of us who regularly read Cunard threads, it's really getting to be beating a dead horse. Telling the truth is fine, but how many times? It loses its effectiveness with so much repetition, and people may be apt to start dismissing what you say. (Of course when we see you posting the identical comments yet again, we can always skip over them.) Have you ever stopped to think that there might be people interested in sharing space on the Queen Mary with a large international contingent for a few days? :D

The recent poster on this old thread was asking about current availability of luggage storage on land (Southampton) in between 2 Cunard transatlantic voyages 3 weeks apart, not on the ship itself during a voyage. Several respondents gave advice and their recent experience in doing this, so it sounds to me as though the question is answered.:)

Curious about who's the target of the one-day sale. Presumably not us as we're already booked.:D But since those are the prices that show up on the booking site for the general public, one assumes that anyone not already booked could get those prices,not just those who receive targeted emails?

There are links to enrichment programs in the questions and answers in the "meet the fleet" section, which is not readily accessible from the main site. https://ask.cunard.com/help/cunard/life-on-board/Speakers

As you can see, this website is ask.cunard.com I have no idea why the main Cunard site, cunard.com does not provide a link to this other site, or why in fact there is this other site at all--why not just have all this useful information accessible from within the main site? I found out about ask.cunard.com from the helpful posters here on Cruise Critic.

We're booked on this trip, and out of curiosity I've been checking cabin availability and costs, dreaming of upgrade possibility. Yesterday, I noted on another thread that costs had jumped, in spite of there still being a lot of available sheltered balcony, inside and oceanview cabins. Today, the prices for sheltered balcony are back down to more or less what they've been over the last several months, but oceanview and inside are way down. If anyone wants a last minute bargain, oceanview are showing as $949 and inside ranges from $849-929. This is an 8-day crossing, so it works out to a max of about $118/day per person for double occupancy and as low as $106.

There's also been a big price jump on remaining available cabins for M423, westbound transatlantic Oct. 8-16, which immediately precedes the Oct. 16 NY-New England-Canada-NY trip. There still seem to be a lot of remaining Britannia sheltered balcony cabins and insides on M424. However, the deck 8 obstructed view cabins now appear to be sold out, perhaps as a result of the "balcony for the price of inside cabin" sale. You'd think with unsold cabins this late in the game prices would drop or hold steady, not increase!

Another very flexible formal dress option is to have a long skirt, maybe black and flowy/lightweight, with several fancy tops, plus one dress, rather than having 2 dresses. I'm going to do that on our upcoming westbound transatlantic that is 8 days so has 4 formal nights. My theory is that the people who are most apt to notice what you are wearing is your dinner table-mates, and all we see of each other is mainly from the waist up. If the top varies, who knows that the "bottoms" are the same for several formal nights! :D Even if you get by with a minimal number of outfits, which is a fine idea and very do-able, I second the idea of leaving one bag checked with Cunard in Southampton. Traveling around with just a couple of smaller carry-ons is so much easier than having a third bag in tow. When we did our transatlantic 2 years ago, we went one way and shipped our bag with formal clothes back to the U.S., using Cunard's service. We traveled in Europe for 3 weeks after, using one carry-on each. That's easier to do in the warmer months, I will say.

On our very first Cunard trip, transatlantic on QM2, we were upgraded from oceanview to sheltered balcony about 2-3 weeks before departure. That's in line with Bob Brown's statement that about upgrading "people into higher categories, just to make more of the lower categories open for last minute sale." For our upcoming westbound Oct. 8th transatlantic, they were recently marketing balcony cabins for the price of inside or oceanview; in fact, the only balcony cabins in that sale were the less desirable obstructed view ones on deck 8. I've been watching Britannia cabin availability for some time now, and that sale may have had the desired effect in that the the obstructed view cabins are now showing as sold out. Still plenty of sheltered balcony ones on lower decks, however, and plenty of insides. Given that the sailing is just over a month away, might we predict another sale? We're on deck 4, aft, and wouldn't mind getting upgraded to midships or to deck 5-6, but we're happy where we are.

Thanks BlueRiband. When we boarded QM for transatlantic from NY 2 years ago, I think our check-in time was around 14:30; we showed up about 45 minutes before and went through with little to no wait. I just wasn't sure if the situation is similar in Southampton. Last time we were on deck 5, and this time on deck 4, which I suspect is last in the official boarding schedule. But maybe we'll be upgraded and end up with a different "official" check-in time. (Last time we were upgraded from ocean view to sheltered balcony about 2-3 weeks before departure--had to reprint everything. :D)

Recently got notification that our e-tickets are ready for October 8th QM transatlantic from Southampton. Our listed check-in time is 15:30, 15 minutes before the close of check-in. I know it's possible to check in prior to one's listed time, but don't want to push it too much. Do you think 13:30-14:00 might be reasonable? Does it cause problems for stewards (or others) if people from their cabins show up early?

PunkC--

Thanks so much for posting in such delightful detail. I have a sense of let-down today, knowing that you have returned home and I won't have the daily enjoyment of reading your blog. While some of the details seemed a bit extraneous and, to some, worthy of extended critique, overall it was a great read. Happy future cruising!

Ann