Fox trotter

On our last QM2 cruise, we found the band would change tempo midway through the music which made it difficult to dance true ballroom. Someone asked the bandleader why they do this and the reply was "sorry we don't do strict tempo". On our recent QE cruise there was lots of recorded music before the band came on which was much better for ballroom and Latin.

I can't remember which insurance company we used, but a few years ago my wife was taken ill on board with some sort of bacterial or viral infection. At first, we didn't think it was too serious and we ran up a small medical bill. To be honest, I would have paid this and not bothered with an insurance claim. However after three days, the medical team were getting concerned and advised me that they would send my wife to hospital at the next port. Basically they said to me, "Go and pack your bags in readiness to leave the ship next day" At this point I thought I had better telephone the insurance company. When I called them, they 'reprimanded' me for not calling them as soon as my wife was taken ill. They advised me that if we had to disembark, they, the insurance company would decide which hospital and doctors we would use.

Fortunately my wife improved next day and they allowed us to stay on ship. We ran up a medical bill of around £1500 GBP. When we arrived home, we completed and sent off a claim form. The expenses were paid in full within a week.

The moral of my story is, if you feel that anyone needs medical attention, always call the insurance company at your first opportunity. 

When I think back about this, I'm surprised that the medical team didn't call the insurance company before they began treatment, as the cruise line has details of all passengers insurance.

I looked at a company, which I won't name, but I Google earthed their address and surprisingly their was no sign of an office or car park at that address. After some research I discovered that they are a scam company who changed their name and address a frequent intervals. There are sources on the internet which list trusted and scam parking companies, so do your research before booking.

Has anyone used the train to get from Manchester to Southampton? We are thinking about this as an alternative to coach travel. 

On our embarkation date, which is a Sunday, I see there is a train operated by Cross Country, leaving at 08.35 arriving 12.45 which seems ok, and there are two later trains which would get us there on time, just in case we miss the earlier one. The ticket price seems reasonable, cheaper than the coach, so it does seem to be a good option.

I would be interested to know if anyone has used this service and we're they happy with it? Any downsides to it?

We are looking at our first Saga cruise and have a query about the included chauffeur service.

The brochure states a limit of 300 miles for the free service. Is this 'as the crow flies', or the actual road distance?

Having checked a couple of route websites, the road distance from our home to Dover is 303 miles so we are just outside the limit. Is there an option to pay for the extra mileage?

We have cruised on Queen Elizabeth in a Queen's grill suite which had a bath and separate full size shower cubicle. We are now looking at a QM2 cruise in a Queens Suites. However we need to know if these suites have separate shower cubicles as my wife is unable to use a bath. It's unclear from the Cunard website as all I can see are photos of baths with shower over. Could anyone confirm if they have separate shower cubicles?

On our recent QE cruise, the balls started at 9.15 although there was dancing before this.

I recently celebrated my birthday on QE and at dinner, much to my surprise, the maitre'd and our waiters turned up with a large cake and sang happy birthday.

We were in Queens Grill, so I don't know if this also happens in Brittania.

We have two large suitcases which have a main zipped compartment and an outside zipped compartment. When we disembarked QE a few days ago, the main compartments were securely locked.

We used the outside compartments just to store a lightweight raincoat in case of rain. These were zipped closed but not locked.

On collecting our luggage at Southampton, we noticed that both of these unlocked compartments had been unzipped. It tends to suggest that sometime between being collected from our cabin and us collecting them the following morning, someone had unzipped them presumably to see if there was anything of value.

Not really a problem as nothing was stolen, but I'm wondering if I should flag this back to Cunard?

Just returned from a QE cruise and the band played lots of my favourites.

Waltz, foxtrot and rumba.

During the early evening recorded music sessions when the dance floor was not too crowded, it was possible to dance true ballroom slow foxtrot, reverting to social foxtrot when it became more crowded.

Nice also to see some sequence dance sessions during the cruise.

I understand that evening dinner in the grills is 6.30 until 9.00 pm. Does this mean service finishes at 9 or is it possible to commence dining at say 8.45?

My wife and I spend quite a lot of time dancing in the Queens room, so we like to plan dinner time around dance sessions.

Whatever travel insurance you decide on, take time to thoroughly read the small print, and then read it again, and again.

A few months ago I took out a policy for a forthcoming cruise, and it was only recently that I read the small print and realised that the policy didn't cover cruise holidays.

My fault entirely, but thankfully I was able to upgrade the policy.

Sorry, I should have said that this was UK based insurance.

We are off on a 14 night cruise in a couple of weeks, so I was just browsing the travel insurance policy which I took out when I booked the cruise a few months ago. Having found a policy which met our needs and was a reasonable price, I completed the online application and was given a list of optional extensions, one of which was cruise extension.

This covered just a few items like, missed port calls, cancelled excursions, confinement to cabin etc but was rather expensive compared to the basic price of the policy. After considering this, I decided to decline the cruise extension option.

However on reading the small print, I was concerned by the wording that seemed to suggest that if on a cruise, absolutely nothing was covered unless the cruise extension was taken out! Just to clarify this I contacted the insurance company and was advised that if on a cruise then cruise extension option was in fact compulsory and not an optional extra.

Fortunately I am able to add the cruise extension even though it is rather an excessive cost, but it worries me that I could easily have overlooked or misinterpreted the policy wording and effectively be left without insurance.

I suppose the moral of the story is always read the small print and query anything which doesn't seem clear.

We usually request large tables, but on one cruise (not Cunard) we were given a table for four and sat with a couple from another country. We couldn't speak their language and one of the other couple just just manage a few words of ours. It started off to be a very quiet week at the dining table, but by the end of the week with a combination of sign language and gestures, we were having a really enjoyable time with our new friends!

By the way, have you picked up the right costs $55 is around £40, not £83.

You are correct. I had converted to £ for two people.

Anyone done the British Isles tour and visited Edinburgh? Do you know if Cunard provide a free shuttle bus from Newhaven port to the city centre?

I see from the excursion info that they offer "Edinburgh on your own" which as far as I can see is just a 15 minute coach ride to the city ..... At a whopping $55 or £83 per person.

The distance is just 5km and a private taxi fare for two people is just $21 or £16 return.

So for two people $110 dollars excursion, or $21 taxi.

Or hopefully a free shuttle bus!

I had a conversation with someone at the coach company as their website was a little confusing regarding weight and sizes of suitcases. They advised me that 23kg was the maximum their driver was allowed to lift, so they quote 20kg as a maximum as from experience they know some passengers will always try to squeeze in a bit more than the limit.

I guess one solution, assuming you are not going to use the minibar would be to ask for it to be emptied at the start of the cruise or locked if that's possible.

I think I have figured this out. We are booked on Intercruises coach travel to Southampton and they have a 20kg per item limit. The coach booking is linked to the cruise booking, so the 20kg is shown on the tickets and luggage labels. The 20kg also applies to Eavesway coaches.

There is absolutely no reason you can't wear a sparkly top and silky trousers. It's the men's apparel that is the most restrictive on formal nights.

 

Kings Grill is dire -- been there, done that.

Does this mean being a man I can't wear my sparkly tops and silky trousers. :D:D:D

According to the FAQs on the Cunard website, maximum weight per luggage item is 23kg. However having received etickets and luggage labels today, I notice it states maximum 20kg per item. Although of course there's no limit to the number of items.

Has the limit changed ?

This thread reminds me of our first cruise 25 years ago to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary. My wife and I decided to take a six week beginners ballroom course hoping that we would be able to dance on the cruise. 25 years on and we are still dancing, and still learning. In a few weeks we will be cruising and dancing on Queen Elizabeth to celebrate our golden anniversary.

A trip to Portsmouth to see the historic ships is worth considering ...... if you like ships!

http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/

My wife and I took our first cruise 25 years ago to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary. Before the cruise we decided to take a few dance lessons. 25 years on and we are still dancing. It's the best thing we ever did as a couple. This year it's our 50th and we've booked another Cunard cruise because we love the large ballrooms. We understand that we have to share the dance floor with other couples better or worse than us, but 25 years of dancing has taught us the skills of floorcraft and hopefully we can dance around other couples. We don't find cruise ship dance floors any different to our local ballrooms where there are always dancers of different skill levels. I hope we don't frighten anyone off the dance floor on our next cruise.