New Cunard Website

[Underwatr]

1 hour ago, panamapd said:

I happen to think the new website is genius in that it is so bad you are compelled to call the local rate, not free, 'phone line to get a quote or further information!!! I have given up in trying to get a quote for a sailing that includes our 10yr son!!  Well done Cunard (Carnival).

 

It's more likely to push bookings from the website to travel agents, which will cost Cunard real money in commissions.

Edited January 24, 2019 by Underwatr

[bobby1119]

Horrible website. So much for White Star Service.

[Froxfield]

We had more or less written off further cruises with P&O, after an horribly cold Oriana cruise to Norway, but I now find that the new Cunard website might drive me back to P&O whose website seems to work pretty seamlessly.  How can two brands of the same company produce such different web presences.  Perhaps Cunard could re-package the P&O software?

[alibabacruisers]

Well after loosely following this thread from Australia, I finally got to see our updated version this morning.  I have tried to attach my snipped page.  I am not a computer tech so my observations are pretty basic.  I will have to check more of the site out in later days.

 

The very first thing I noticed when arriving at the site was the lack of color as OP stated earlier.  White background and lots of open space that seems boring and uninviting.  I loved the gold and red and black from the old site as it made Cunard seem more regal.  But now the site reminds me of HAL's site with the lack of color.  I do, however, like the visual map itinerary when you search for an itinerary.

 

I also tried to dummy booking just to see how the process went and it was interesting and different.  When selecting the grade it did not display the codes (BA, GB, CA, etc) just the category and you could select the choice you wanted like Oceanview obstructed, Deluxe Inside, etc.  It also displayed Cunard Fare and its inclusions and sliding scale cancellation charges.  Proceeding with the booking took me to either let them select a room or I select.  I liked this page with the exception of me not being able to slide the deck plan to see other cabins available on that same deck or even just to see the deck plan further, if that makes sense.

 

Once a room is selected, it takes through to the next section of adding hotels, transfers, land tours, etc. and gives you the total cost of what you have selected.  It then proceeds to entering the travellers info and then asking for whether you want to pay deposit of full.  At no point did I see it ask whether I was a Cunard Member or guest. 

 

I did go to check out the FAQ and immediately noticed how much larger the font was and there were more of them than before.  I will have to see about the links as OP have described as I didn't click on any during my session.  The VP was accessible and looked as it did on the old website. 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2019 by alibabacruisers

[babs135]

Although I had looked at the opening page of the website before, yesterday was the first time I tried to find information re a cruise I'm interested in and wow, it's impossible to find anything.  I'm tempted to offer Cunard the services of my dd who is a web developer and who could do a much better job with her eyes closed.

Are they trying to drive would-be cruisers away, because that's what could happen.  Travel agents must be rubbing their hands with glee at all the extra custom heading their way.

Truly awful.

[sogne]

30 minutes ago, babs135 said:

Although I had looked at the opening page of the website before, yesterday was the first time I tried to find information re a cruise I'm interested in and wow, it's impossible to find anything.  I'm tempted to offer Cunard the services of my dd who is a web developer and who could do a much better job with her eyes closed.

Are they trying to drive would-be cruisers away, because that's what could happen.  Travel agents must be rubbing their hands with glee at all the extra custom heading their way.

Truly awful.

at least the QV Northern Lights 2019 cruise shown on the home page now goes to Norway instead of Dubai as previously indicated

[safarigal]

Well the web site doesn't work at all in Mexico - even changing browsers. Never was a problem before 😞

 

[bluemarble]

10 minutes ago, safarigal said:

Well the web site doesn't work at all in Mexico - even changing browsers. Never was a problem before 😞

 

When I use a vpn connection to make it look like I am in Mexico and go to "www.cunard.com", I am able to bring up the home page for the new site. But the URL is changed to the one for the UK site ("www.cunard.com/en-gb") and it is indeed the home page for the UK site. When I attempt a plain vanilla search for all voyages with no filters, I get this message.

 

"We're sorry; no voyages can be found to match your filters at present."

 

This happens even after I clear my browser cache.

 

There don't appear to be pages for "/en-mx" or "/es-mx" as there are for "/en-us" and "/en-gb". At least I get page not found errors when I try those as potential workarounds.

 

I'm not sure if you are getting similar results, but I'd have to agree there are issues with the new site from Mexico.

[safarigal]

1 minute ago, bluemarble said:

 

When I use a vpn connection to make it look like I am in Mexico and go to "www.cunard.com", I am able to bring up the home page for the new site. But the URL is changed to the one for the UK site ("www.cunard.com/en-gb") and it is indeed the home page for the UK site. When I attempt a plain vanilla search for all voyages with no filters, I get this message.

 

"We're sorry; no voyages can be found to match your filters at present."

 

This happens even after I clear my browser cache.

 

There don't appear to be pages for "/en-mx" or "/es-mx" as there are for "/en-us" and "/en-gb". At least I get page not found errors when I try those as potential workarounds.

 

I'm not sure if you are getting similar results, but I'd have to agree there are issues with the new site from Mexico.

 

[safarigal]

Yup! This is exactly what happens - no way at all to even look at voyages, let alone book anything.

 

I can confuse my computer to think we are in the US, but it's very frustrating as one should not have to go to such measures. I simply expect the web site to work whilst I am drinking my tequila.

 

 

 

[KandMB]

I'm interested in booking a specific cruise but the new website is driving me nuts - just can't get the information about cabins! I have resigned myself to booking with an agent in the hope that they can access more information than I can. And I have sent for a good old fashioned brochure! 

[bluemarble]

I noticed a few days ago the new US website added this "Flights" section to the booking process.

 

 

This looks like it's just a template at this point borrowed from the UK website since no flights are actually offered (and there is that "Marketing - lorem ipsum" text). But it does make me wonder if they might have plans to add the ability to book flights from the US website at some point.

[Bennybluehat]

This site is just awful. I want to book a cruise which is over a year away & picking a cabin is virtually impossible. When I try & choose a specific cabin they are always “already sold out” which leaves approx 3 cabins in the worst position it will actually let me pick. I don’t believe for 1 second they are sold out, it happens on every category you choose! What the hell is going on with it, it’s getting me frustrated!

[Ray66]

The best thing is to look at various cruise agents' websites. Some of them give cabin numbers. They also often work out cheaper than Cunard.

[Bennybluehat]

Regarding my previous post I have now spoken to Cunard & they told me that there are very few cabins left on that particular cruise as they have nearly sold out completely. So I have had to compromise on the cabin but at least we didn’t miss out altogether. I guess the moral of the story is to book as soon as the cruise is available if it is possible to do so! 

[Underwatr]

I just booked a Holland America cruise on the HAL site tonight. It felt very much like the new Cunard site to me - it defaulted to letting them choose my stateroom or I could override and select my own, and then the selection process for deck, section (fore/mid/aft) seemed to flow very similarly to the new Cunard workflow.

[Bedruthen]

I completely agree. The new site is atrocious especially when trying to choose or change the cabin type. After almost an hour trying to browse for a cruise in the next three months, I have given up and will go with Celebrity. What is more frustrating is that I couldn’t find any balcony cabin availability on a particular cruise, yet I could have booked the same cabin type on the same cruise via an agents site. It’s madness.

[Host Hattie]

I appreciate that the Cunard website is proving troublesome but please bear in mind our guidelines when posting and do not use Travel agents names.

 

Thank you for your cooperation.

[sogne]

another little gem: we are on QV 7 August 2020 -19th August  Fiords (12 nights) looking at cruise on this wonderful example of how not to design a website via the interactive map the cruise has somehow extended in length to 17 days because the numerous sail byes through various fiords are each treated as a separate  day , same applies to V015 May 3rd 12 nighter to same area

 

is anyone at Cunard aware of this shambles and if so is anything being done about it? 

[bluemarble]

Here's an interesting pricing glitch from the new Cunard US website. This example happens to be for the July 6, 2020 eastbound crossing on QM2, but I have been able to repeat this behavior on other crossings as well.

 

I started a booking for a sheltered balcony where it says the fares are "From $1,799 pp". I then asked to select my own room. This is the cabin it initially selected for me.

 

The fare is $1,799 per person as expected, but note the selected section is "Aft" and the selected cabin is 4225 which is indeed aft. That means it has selected a category BY cabin for me. The lowest sheltered balcony fares are usually for category BZ cabins in the forward section of the ship, not BY cabins in the aft section.

 

OK, let's see what happens when I request a "Forward" cabin instead. This is the cabin it selected for me.

 

It has selected cabin 4032 which is indeed a BZ category cabin in the forward section. And the fare is still $1,799 per person.

 

OK, maybe the fares are the same for BZ and BY category cabins. That does happen occasionally.

 

Let's see what happens when I ask to go back and pick a cabin in the aft section.

 

Oops! It has picked the same aft cabin 4225 (category BY) for me this time as it did originally, but now the fare has increased to $1,849 per person. That is actually the correct fare for a BY cabin on that voyage based on what I am seeing on other cruise booking websites.

 

It seems to me the problem is related to the booking process initially picking a higher category "Aft" cabin rather than a "Forward" cabin but retaining the lower fare for a "Forward" cabin.

 

If I start the booking process over and proceed to check out after it has initially offered me that aft balcony cabin for $1,799 per person, it retains that incorrect $1,799 fare for the aft cabin. I did not complete the booking, so perhaps it eventually adjusts the fare later in the process. But clearly this is a pricing glitch I thought might be worth mentioning.

Edited February 8, 2019 by bluemarble

[Underwatr]

I'd be interested in seeing whether it keeps that price right up to the point where you enter your payment method.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Underwatr

[bluemarble]

1 hour ago, Underwatr said:

I'd be interested in seeing whether it keeps that price right up to the point where you enter your payment method.

 

Yes, it does retain the $1,799 base fare + $72.92 taxes and fees per person (for a total of $3743.84 for two passengers) on that mis-priced BY cabin all the way to the page where it asks for my credit card information on the "Pay now" page.

 

I can even choose one of the other available BY cabins offered to me (not just the one it pre-selects for me) and it keeps that $1,799 base fare. But once I try to switch to another section or another type of cabin and then change back to request a sheltered balcony in the aft section, then it realizes the correct base fare for an aft sheltered balcony (category BY) is actually $1,849.

[bluemarble]

I've done some more experimenting with the pricing anomaly I reported earlier today. To recap, here is what I see after requesting to select my own room for a sheltered balcony on QM2's June 6, 2020 eastbound crossing.

 

The system has selected "BY" cabin 4225 for me at the incorrect lower $1,799 fare of a "BZ" cabin.

 

At this point, if I "Edit" the Room number, I can select another one of the "BY" cabins on deck 4 that it offers me and the fare remains $1,799.

 

Or at this point, if I enter a specific "BY" cabin number on another deck that I happen to know is available in the "Search for a specific room number" field, then it also retains that $1,799 fare.

 

And it allows me to keep that incorrect lower fare all the way through to at least the payment page of the checkout process.

 

But at this point, if I instead "Edit" the Room type, "Edit" the Ship section, or "Edit" the Deck, then it corrects the fare for an aft sheltered balcony to $1,849. The same holds true if I click "Begin" at this point to restart the cabin selection process.

 

I have reported this issue via the "Feedback" mechanism on the new website as I have for most of the other issues I've found with the new website. But it's hard to provide a detailed description of this issue via a plain text feedback form, so who knows if that report will go anywhere. At least this appears to be an error in favor of the customer rather than Cunard.

Edited February 9, 2019 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

On 2/1/2019 at 9:39 AM, bluemarble said:

I noticed a few days ago the new US website added this "Flights" section to the booking process.

 

 

This looks like it's just a template at this point borrowed from the UK website since no flights are actually offered (and there is that "Marketing - lorem ipsum" text). But it does make me wonder if they might have plans to add the ability to book flights from the US website at some point.

 

Looks like they have realized it was a mistake to add this "Flights" section to the booking process on the new US website. I'm not seeing it there any more today. And you can once again book pre-voyage and post-voyage hotels and transfers on the US website without that being tied to selecting a non-existent flight first. Another case of a moving target with the new website.

[3rdGenCunarder]

On 2/4/2019 at 8:34 PM, Underwatr said:

I just booked a Holland America cruise on the HAL site tonight. It felt very much like the new Cunard site to me - it defaulted to letting them choose my stateroom or I could override and select my own, and then the selection process for deck, section (fore/mid/aft) seemed to flow very similarly to the new Cunard workflow.

 

HAL changed their site a while ago, I forget how long, but the complaints I'm seeing on this thread are very much like the ones on the HAL board. 

 

I haven't been on Cunard's site in a few months, so as soon as I saw this mess, I thought "Holy cow! They've hired HAL's web designers!" The way the itinerary is displayed with the overly huge list of ports that require a lot of scrolling is like HAL's site. But Cunard's is worse because some of it is incomplete or garbled. For my Alaska cruise, it lists Juneau 2 PM-10PM AFTER cruising Tracy arm from 7:30AM-11:30AM. Apparently, the website can't tell time.

 

I really miss seeing the list of all cabin categories so that I know prices and availability at the start. I hate that I have to search through several steps just to see deck plans. Does Cunard not think that's useful/important information????

 

What a mess!!!