worldtraveller99

Thank you all. I guess because it's a one-off with a paper tag, being taken from a dock 10 yards to our room on the ship! I already have super leather tags on our cases for flying, but they are small and would not fit the long paper tags from Cunard. Thank you anyway, I shall let the porters staple the paper tags when we give them the cases (which also have our names on anyway in the leather tags).

If we just bring the cases and tags to the dock, do they have a stapler there they can use to get them fixed? If not, what do they do?

Napria, I agree with you that our Silversea butler was conspicuous by his absence. But re sea-sickness, I take morning and evening Dramamine and am fine. And I am someone who feels nauseous looking down in a glass bottomed boat in a lake!

Thank you - there is also lots to see in A Coruna, so I shall look at the excursion times when they are uploaded on the Cunard website. If any of you see these next year for 2026 please will you point the link out to us all?

I sincerely hope that from the top Terrace of the ship nothing will block our view of the eclipse in Spain? Re the tour to Santiago de Compostela, I would like to do that. I believe all tours must get back on board at least an hour before departure, so that would still give us time to set up our tripods? I have spare eclipse glasses if you arrange to meet me on board; we have just come back from Texas where they gave us loads - we saw 98% and then cloud, but with nice wines at a winery as we were in Fredericksburg, so still a fun day!

We are aiming to use our OBC for our drinks - and not bother with a drinks package, so we can buy more expensive wines and cocktails, and not feel we need to drink quantity not quality, which drinks packages encourage I think?

PS After asking Cunard customer services, I received the reply that we leave Al Coruna at 9.00 pm - so presumably we all need to be back on board at 8.00 pm, and the eclipse in 2026 is at 8.30 pm. He said, very reasonably, that the ship will still be stationary at 8.30 pm, so hopefully we will be able to photograph it from the terrace.

Me too ocean sounds! But I read that we don't leave port until the evening, which should allow us to photograph the eclipse on land before we leave? Oops if that isn't so!

We are booked on the 9th August sailing out of Southampton with the eclipse on 12th August at A Coruna. Will there be any Cruise Critic meetup, and how does that work please? - am relatively new to ocean cruising. I understand that the ship stays late in port that evening, and assume there will be an excursion out of the town for us to photograph the eclipse?

Thank you! We shall see!

We have just booked our future cruise (first with Cunard, and third ocean cruise overall) and chosen a table for 4. I once won a Fred Olsen cruise where we had a table for 2, but the next table was very near, so we did chat to them every day. They were elderly (and we were much younger than now!), and they had not gone out at the ports, so it was a bit strained. I am assuming they will choose people to share with us who are similar to us in age? Do you think that is right?

Personally I think if staff do not receive a living wage, then every penny of profit goes to the business owners. I know a lot of Americans are business owners, but much fewer people in the UK are, so we see those people as skimming our money. I work in the gig economy - I have had about 4 tips in over 20 years, but my fee is fair, so I really was never expecting it. Just to say, it was mostly the poorest people I served who tipped me! Anyway, we will pay the service charge, and only tip if someone does something extra for us.

I think if we are paying a service charge then fewer people will want to tip as well?

All sounds good thank you very much - Cinzano and lemonade all round!

I was aiming to ask for a bottle of simple single malt whisky, to make our own cocktails - that costs more than many Champagnes?

How lovely!

It was 1980. Yes everything would all be much better value for money!

Thank you all, looking forward to it!

Ah!!! When I was a girl I worked in New York for a year after graduation and the rate was 2.4 dollars to each pound. We could go into any shop and buy anything. Those were the days, sob!

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much. Our friends are aiming to book to come with us, but not in a Queens cabin. If we invite them to our room for drinks, will we be able to give them cocktails or wine too, without extra charge?

Our first Cunard cruise which I have just booked will be our first non-all-inclusive cruise (indeed our 2nd ocean cruise ever). How compulsory is the hotel etc service charge? - which seems very high for us poor Brits who earn half the salaries of similar Americans due to our awful exchange rate nowadays...... How long is the queue to take it off (I understand it is at the Pursers desk on embarkation day - does this have to be done then?), and how then do you tip please - an envelope in your cabin? thrusting cash - UK or US? - at service personnel - and if so when? Thank you for your help! PS I assume all drinks still go onto our bill with a 15% charge added to each one?

This will be our first Cunard cruise. It says you get "2 included bottles of wine or spirits" in your cabin minibar. Is this daily or once for the whole cruise? Because we may make a bottle of spirits last for 7 days, but not a bottle of wine. And if we do choose to make our own cocktails, are the bottles of orange juice eg replaced every day, and if not, do you request those from room service, and is there a charge for this? Thank you for your help.

We have decided to take the QA Spain cruise in 2026. It has 2 sea days - and Brittany Ferries also has a sea day going out and one coming back - and I know there will be a lot more fun things to do than on the ferry!

Just a PS - do you know how to print out the itinerary of a cruise? I cannot see that on the cruise page.