Megabear2

There is a form to complete at reception. The gratuities are supposedly shared by all and in my experience no one is personally impacted. If service has not been good elsewhere on the ship but some have excelled I would prefer to reward them, but as I say it's personal choice. There will be many who will advise you it would be wrong. Incidentally you can reduce rather than remove gratuities and I have on occasion done that and then tipped those who have been directly helpful.

But again you could have removed them or reduced them, there's no embarrassment in doing so and then tipping who and where you like. I'll get shot down for saying that but it is a personal choice in my opinion.

American sailings generally don't have them. European and UK departures do. Not sure about Princess but certainly on Celebrity I asked for a kettle and it was provided with lots of teabags, coffee and fresh milk every day. Re chocolate and biscuits, nightly turndown generally you can request these on the Medallion. I always have them delivered along with ice in the evening turndown.

If you had the Princess Plus your gratuities would have been included. Was that not part of your gift? There is of course - yes it's controversial- the opportunity to remove or reduce them.

I'll happily oblige when I board on Friday and offer up my opinions on the view from the cheap seats. I understand a cabin crawl is being planned for our voyage so I'm sure that there will be plenty of pictures coming through from all sorts of people. Being in the lowest grade cabin myself I'm very interested to see the balcony cabins too as my husband is keen to join me on my next adventure on Quen Anne.

I have a special favourite dress I wear when we go to see Andrea Bocelli in Italy. Normally I'd never take it on a cruise but in yesterday's repack I took out some other things and put it in. It must have been meant to be!

I note from today's email regarding the naming ceremony Queen Anne is having a Godparent. Are they going gender neutral I wonder? "of course the official naming of the ship by Queen Anne’s Godparent, followed by the iconic smashing of a bottle of champagne against the ship." The other news is the appearance of Andrea Bocelli: "We are thrilled to announce the world-renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will be performing. The maestro will be joined by legendary Liverpudlian TV personality and DJ, Craig Charles who will be teaming up with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for a unique collaboration. Craig will keep the party going until the grand finale, when Queen Anne sails away as light falls"

Yes, they really are pushing it. They couldn't understand why I didn't take it for my Baltic cruise when they could see it on my Caribbean one. I didn't see the need to explain but it was a bit off putting.

Oh happy day! I've just had an email from Cunard to tell me the icing just went on my cake BIG time!!!! "We are thrilled to announce the world-renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will be performing. The maestro will be joined by legendary Liverpudlian TV personality and DJ, Craig Charles who will be teaming up with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for a unique collaboration. Craig will keep the party going until the grand finale, when Queen Anne sails away as light falls." Can't contain the excitement now, my 80's hero Midge Ure on board and now my ultimate present in Andre Bocelli.

Yes I've got that too. No change for use, still aTUI flight.

Well I gave up on going to bed - the cat wasn't too impressed to see me - so I cat napped in the recliner for an hour or so instead. The pile of removed clothing is now considerably higher though. It will now be a wait to see if the weather forecast for drier weather over the weekend is true. It's rained here since 5.00pm yesterday, not the buckets we've become accustomed to but still fairly wet. Hairdresser at 11.00am and due to the city centre being dug up still I can't park anywhere near. Here's betting the deluge will come exactly as I exit and a sad end to my £250.

Yes it would be wise to register even if on a just in case basis. I sympathise with you very much regarding the lack of understanding by some fellow travellers who judge others by what they think they have seen. Hidden disabilities are a really difficult thing, particularly when it comes to lifts. My husband has had difficulty with lift entry both onboard and ashore on a normal day to day basis as he suddenly becomes invisible and also gets challenged for occasional disabled lavatory use. What those seeing through him do not understand as it's not visible is he has fibromyalga, ME, IBS and a myocardial bridge, all of which mean stairs could quite literally be a killer. The problem is he's very active as encouraged by his doctors but the list of please do not's grows on every check up so in a close environment if you look at him not knowing him you wouldn't have a clue. I do therefore know how upsetting the situation can be for those with hidden disabilities and can only say please do not allow those who are fortunate enough not to have one to make you feel uncomfortable.

Yes, very much adhered to these days.

Yes, she is. I assume it would be acceptable to have more than one though as the late Queen Elizabeth had three at the time of her death, Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Britannia.

The drinks package is also getting to be a hot potato on the "Mothership" it seems. This article from mid May on the 15 drinks rule on Carnival Line https://www.thestreet.com/travel/carnival-answers-threat-over-unpopular-beverage-package-policy

So what happens to the unassisted member of a couple, do they get sent to their muster station without their partner? I'd be very unhappy to be told to leave my husband behind, particularly when the one to one assistance is definite overkill in his case.

Yes I'm on the naming ceremony cruise. The walking shoes are for the Giants Causeway. I went to bed and got up to repack because it's stressing me out really badly. I now have one pair of jeans, two cotton trousers and two pairs of leggings for going ashore. I have no problem with cold as I dress in layers as needed. I have big problem with wet, I cannot abide being in damp clothes all day. I've therefore left my Joules rain jacket in along with my Queen Elizabeth pack away coat. I also took out copious amounts of underwear, my change of gym clothes (hoping the remainder aren’t going to get smelly)! and one of my heavier sweaters. I've also taken out my sandals apart from a pair of Skechers. So considerably smaller. Now I just have to make sure I can get my five bags of Haribos and mints into my hand luggage along with my Milka chocolate biscuits although I'm sure my health coach would be far happier if I couldn't! I'm currently at serious risk of divorce now after waking my husband up twice when he has to drive to Leeds tomorrow to arrive by mid morning so rather than push my luck I'm thinking of going to the spare room if the cat will let me in! P.s. I just opened a back pack and found a P&O umbrella which was a prize on Arvia for winning Pointless last year! A definite result with that one.

Agree. I wanted cream cheese for my bagel. After the first day of asking it appeared every day without asking.

We did the Euro finals and the World Cup on Britannia. Games were streamed in Brodies and for the actual finals also in the theatre. I'd guess as these are just qualifiers Brodies is the obvious place to start and depending on match time could well be the Club House as well.

Around Britain on Queen Anne. The weather for half of it now shows warm and wet. I was reluctant to take out my warmer weather clothing so topped it up with a couple of pairs of jeans which take forever to dry if they get wet, two sweaters, a hoodie and my walking boots. My evening wear filled one suitcase as I wanted to keep the weight to something I can handle okay. I bought three heavily beaded dresses for the main formal gala nights and had forgotten how they fill half a suitcase. After lots of discussion with my friends I've taken out all the nice sparkly trousers and tops and replaced them with little cocktail dresses plus three pairs of evening shoes with various heels . Even that has filled the case up so I moved to number 2 for my day clothes but squashing it down meantbby the time I'd added my raincoat and lightweight jacket there was no room for my toiletries etc. It's total OTT but I'm tired of replanning it all. Ironically my packing list is actually quite short save my underwear where I take way too much. I'm normally really good at packing and when I fly I'm always underweight. Actually these cases aren't heavy, just bulked out.

The rain has arrived, there's a surprise. Packing finished but somehow once I put in the jeans, leggings, raincoats, hoodie and sweaters the suitcase was very reluctant to join in. So now I have one large suitcase full of formal stuff and cocktail dresses plus evening wraps and jackets (assuming it will be cold onboard as Cunard ships generally are) and evening/dance shoes, one full of cold weather gear and my hopefully useable lightweight onboard gear and a third half size case with my sundries. I took less for 5 weeks in Canada and Florida in a cold damp February a few years back, so this looks ridiculous! This ship better be worth all this!

If your form has been completed and you are walk ons without assistance you can carry on as normal, at least that's what we do on P&O. The assistance would be presumably only in an emergency which thankfully we've not tested to date. Our first cruise under the one to one assistance isn't until August so I'm afraid I haven't up to date information at present.

The "insider" on the P&O forum said some months ago things had to be tightened following the Britannia line breaking incident when it was realised a large number would be in difficulty if they needed to go swiftly to their muster station. As to whether this is the full reason or even correct I have no idea but the timing does tally. Also trade press carried stories last year that Carnival Cruises had been ordered by authorities to clamp down on "unofficial" wheelchairs and mobility scooters as they'd been turning a blind eye. Reading all this a combination of the two would seem to have led to the clampdown and new arrangements across all the Carnival mainstream lines.

Deservedly so. I was very shocked it was considered acceptable particularly as it was apparently an all girls church school in Kent. Myself being an oik went to a comprehensive school, ond of the first after the scrapping of secondary modern and grammar in our area. I was a year older than all my classmates after missing the 11+ due to being in hospital for over a year. We had navy pleated skirts, white shirts, black and white diagonal striped tie and black blazer. In summer we could wear a gingham dropped waist seersucker dress. There was a catch, we had to make the latter in sewing class and my sewing was so bad I never actually got to finish a dress before leaving school!

A shirt such as the ones in this picture would where I come from be called a "business" shirt. A dress shirt would be worn with evening dress as would a formal one. Incidentally several leading UK shirt makers refer to "short sleeved" business shirts. These are plain for striped with the same collar styles as long sleeved ones and can be worn with ties. Just another take ... Incidentally I doubt many UK businessmen would buy the work shirts at Harrods as there are specialist business shirt makers who most use.