1 hour ago, sogne said:

another maiden call  stern  of Oriana

Casablanca

23 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

How about this one ?

Two Cunard ships. QM2 (obviously) and Cunard Crown Dynasty ( now Fred Olsen’s Braemar)

Queen Victoria in April 2010 to Vigo, Lisbon, Bibao and Brest.

25 minutes ago, DaisyDancer said:

Does anyone know where this is? 

 

Half a point for naming the ship?

Looks a bit like Stavanger. But it's 50 years since I was there.

53 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

This is an easy one, another in my collection of ship at anchor with guest appearance from a church !

Looks like Queen Elizabeth below Fira, Santorini. With the Ekklisia Agios Minas at the left and the dome of the Church of St John the Theologian in the foreground. (and the Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral behind you)

1 hour ago, Camgirl said:

To be honest, we struggled a bit with being inside.

Getting £10 off your meal is all very well. But it doesn’t make it safer.

We’ve used it a couple of times but only where we already knew the precautions they were taking. (my wife’s former employers)

I know but I'll let it run for a while.

I think this one will be a bit trickier.

Saw this on Cunard's FB page yesterday but didn't think too much about it:

"We are sorry but our UK, European and Australian contact centres remain closed today due to an IT issue over the weekend which has affected our telephone system. We apologise for this and we are working to resolve it as soon as possible. In the meantime, please visit our website for inspiration, information and bookings."

Then, this started appearing on several IT and financial sites:

"Carnival hit by ransomware attack, guest and employee data accessed  

(Reuters) - Cruise operator Carnival Corp (CCL.N) said on Monday it launched an investigation into a ransomware attack on one of its brand’s information technology systems.

Carnival, which operates AIDA, Carnival and Princess cruises among others, in a regulatory filing said the attack included unauthorized access to personal data of guests and employees.

It does not mean that it was the Cunard system that was breached. Shutting down other systems in the Corp. & PLC could be part of the containment actions. Does anyone know if other brands are also 'offline'?

Queen Elizabeth around New Zealand in February his year.

Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Akaroa, Dunedin. 

Hi, I've not stayed in any of these cabins so this is just based on my experience of the ship.

I'd avoid 4141, and probably 5143 (and their portside equivalents). On deck 4 you won't be able to see ahead due to the lifeboat directly forward of your balcony.  From deck 5 you'll be looking over the lifeboat and tenders but they'll still take up a large part of the view.

The downside of a better view OUT is that it's easier to see IN. These balconies are much less private than others. The outer half of them is in clear sight of not only other balconies ahead of you on your own deck but also the decks above you, and to those leaning on the rail on the top deck. So again a higher deck might be better than a low one. (I assume you meant 7119 not 7991?)

Not sure about the wind. But remember, in the scenic areas you won't be sailing at full speed.

The cabins further forward that you mentioned do not have metal fronts. Those stop at 4041/2. On my deck plans 4053/4 appear to have slightly larger balconies, not smaller, but I have absolutely no confidence in the accuracy of that level of detail.

I hope that is of some help until someone with experience of some of these cabins comes along.

39 minutes ago, LadyL1 said:

. Has anyone else in the UK, hit this time lapse span for repayment?

Not quite. We got to about 120 days when we got a cheque, that bounced.

And, I think, 123 days when we got a second cheque that cleared OK. 

And at about 125 days we got an email telling us to bank the first cheque (we had already tried to) and shred the second one (just as well we didn’t).

I don’t blame you for going the route you have. I would have done the same by that point.

24 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Can you "make" money?  No.  Can you, with proper planning of pax count, crew count, itinerary (speed and distance), lose less than when non-operational?  Most likely.

Funny, I've been thinking for a while now that in the short term the resumption of cruising will be less about making money and more about cutting losses.

18 hours ago, SilverHengroen said:

I don’t see what is in it for Carnival for the moment,

I agree but for a different reason.  We don't know which ships Carnival used to secure their recent loans. If it was 'most ships' then the Cunard ships are likely to be included, if it was 'all of their ships' then obviously the Cunard ships were included. 

So selling the Cunard brand, and the ships, may allow them to pay back some of that debt and avoid the future interest payments but wouldn't raise large sums of cash.

Ah! We both posted at the same time.

I've just noticed "anchor" symbols against some ports on other cruises suggesting that they are planning to dock at all your ports. So that's good news.

If they were doing evening tours and sailing very late (or even in the early hours) I'd expect to see the departure listed as "Late Night" rather than "Late PM" but anything's possible.

Just realised that neither the website nor brochure say whether you're scheduled to dock, or tender so they're no help.

On our last visit to Iceland in 2015 we couldn't get in to Ísafjörður because of the weather so can't tell you anything about it. Apparently this is not uncommon. There is a dock and Google Maps satellite view actually shows a cruise ship docked there but whether Fred plans to use it is anybody's guess.

Seyðisfjörður has the dock for the ferry to Denmark but whether it's suitable for, or used by, cruiseships I can't say.

Akureyri has a dock but we've docked once and tendered once so again I can't say what you're likely to do with any confidence.

Maybe Fred would tell you if you called them?

Not sure what you mean by "Has anyone done a cruise without a daytime stop ..." Like the dock/anchor situation I no longer see the definitions for the arrival departure times but it's along the lines of, Early PM = Midday to 4PM, Late PM = 4PM to 8PM. If I've completely missed the point just say.

2 hours ago, nigelc said:

 

Not got a horse in this race - but it reads like a bit of a scam to me. Why should you have to pay another deposit when they already have your money?

If the ‘new’ cruise costs 50% more than the ‘old’ cruise then presumably the deposit is also 50% more? Simply moving the deposit, even with Cunard’s 25% boost will not be sufficient to cover the full deposit on the new cruise. 

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

Fred is just too old an ambience for me, I am only 69.

Hmm. Not sure what that says about us. Almost a decade younger than you, and started cruising with Fred 20 years ago.

From 2006. An overnight on Queen Mary then QM2 to Hawaii.

QM2 starts at about 4:15.

On 7/8/2020 at 5:38 PM, Colin_Cameron said:

Day 118 and finally the refund for our Fremantle-Cape Town  QM2 voyage has arrived. 

The saga continues.

Day 123 and my bank has informed me that Cunard’s cheque has been bounced by their bank!

I’m hoping it’s because they’ve realised that they’ve sent two cheques. Maybe it’s just me but I’d have thought they’d stop the second one, not the first? Here’s hoping the second one goes through OK.

1 hour ago, Happyboating said:

Taken at Southwold this evening:

 

Perfect for water skiing. You wouldn’t even need a boat😁

1 hour ago, Kynance said:

This was also my first experience of wearing a face mask: it ... rode up into my eye.

I had the same problem. Maybe it’s just these masks, or my ears, or eyes. I found the solution was to twist the elastic at each side so that the elastic from the top of the mask went to the bottom of my ear, round the ear and from the top of my ear to the bottom of the mask. Sort of like a figure of eight, if that makes sense?

1 hour ago, oskidunker said:

I would not do guarantees with the capacity control that is going to happen. I am guessing if too many people book a cruise, the guarantees will be the first to be cancelled. 

Ah, but the problem with that is that you're thinking logically.😁

On 7/8/2020 at 5:38 PM, Colin_Cameron said:

Day 118 and finally the refund for our Fremantle-Cape Town  QM2 voyage has arrived. 

 

Still waiting on the Cape Town-Southampton leg but if I remember correctly it wasn’t officially cancelled until a day or so later. If I had any confidence that they were doing things in any sort of order I might expect that in a couple of days. But I haven’t, so I don’t.

Looks like I spoke too soon. Here we are a couple of days later and the cheque for the Cape Town-Southampton leg has arrived.

Along with a second cheque for the Fremantle-Cape Town leg! majortom10 you’re not alone.

Here's a compilation of clips from QE2, Caronia and QM2.

Not for the queasy and probably not for those about book their first cruise.

Surely there must be some others willing to share their Cunard videos?

Day 118 and finally the refund for our Fremantle-Cape Town  QM2 voyage has arrived. 

Still waiting on the Cape Town-Southampton leg but if I remember correctly it wasn’t officially cancelled until a day or so later. If I had any confidence that they were doing things in any sort of order I might expect that in a couple of days. But I haven’t, so I don’t.