Anyone booked for 2021 ?

[Host Hattie]

Did anyone take the plunge when bookings opened this week ?

[sfred]

Sort of...   I booked the QM2 Christmas/New Year voyage NY-Caribbean-NY, starting 22 Dec 2020 and ending Jan 2021.  Should be great!  The new web site crashed at the payment screen, but the booking went through anyway.

[Host Hattie]

Lovely, have a wonderful time.

[Jack E Dawson]

We booked Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco via the Panama Canal on QV in January of 2021.

Sooooooo long to wait. This east-to-west bound route is important to us and is only offered once every other year.

[ZZRLAD]

just booked Grand Carribean over Christmas and New Year from Southampton and back. 26 nights. The business is quiet at that time, well it normally is !!!!

 

interesting though that even with Cunard fare was unable to book preferred dining choice. although the booking confirmation stated first sitting on table for 6. So see if can change when voyage personalised is up an ready. 

 

The boss is already planning it....LOL

[BklynBoy8]

Maybe a Caribbean or the Independence Cruise to Portland.

 

We'll see what in the Stars...

 

[Vic The Parrot]

I had no idea that 2021 was available right now. I'm glad I checked this forum.  

 

Thanks, Hattie for bringing this up!  

[Host Hattie]

5 minutes ago, Vic The Parrot said:

I had no idea that 2021 was available right now. I'm glad I checked this forum.  

 

Thanks, Hattie for bringing this up!  

My pleasure, it's only Winter/ Spring 2020/21 not the full year.

[Vic The Parrot]

6 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

My pleasure, it's only Winter/ Spring 2020/21 not the full year.

2020 is fine. I'm interested in seeing what's on offer for Caribbean, and Trans-Ats for later that year.  

 

Thanks again!  XO

[Elephant1151]

We have booked Queen Victoria 108 days - Southampton to Southampton as the itinerary looks interesting.

 

 Our travel agent was trying to book at 8am when the Cunard system crashed. It was an hour later when he finally got on and we got one of the cabins we wanted, so all OK.

 

Thank you Underwater for the heads up on the 2021 voyages.

[Aquadesiac]

We'll be joining Elephant1151 in Ft Lauderdale for the rest of the 2021 WC (97 days) on Queen Victoria. Only 670 some days to wait!

[cruiser1955]

I booked on Monday for March 2021. QE Sydney to Tokyo for 37 nights. Very surprised that I was able to book a single cabin and get it on the early saver fare which includes flights and a hotel in Tokyo at the end of the cruise - for operational reasons.. It's effectively 3 back to back cruises but sold under one cruise ID and gives a good saving. Off this may on QE for Japan and Alaska 🙂

 

Seems Cunard is starting to get their act together on the price of the single cabin as it now seems to offer a good discount compared to booking an outside with single supplement. Have one on QV this December as well and the single worked out at just over £100 than the price per person based on double occupancy of an outside one when I booked - that was a Cunard fare, so also gave me parking at Southampton.

[Aquadesiac]

How lovely that airfare is included for you. It was not for our WC booking. Must be something for UK passengers. ;-)

[Jack E Dawson]

21 minutes ago, Aquadesiac said:

How lovely that airfare is included for you. It was not for our WC booking. Must be something for UK passengers. 😉

Aquadesiac,

Fortunately, airfare into Ft Lauderdale is very reasonable. We will be joining you in 2021, boarding in Ft Lauderdale. While it's still too early to book, fares right now are running around $115-125 per person out of Chicago. I see you are from Missouri. Fares out of St. Louis should be about the same. We get off the ship in San Francisco but coming back out of London we have used Norwegian Airlines for our last to trips. They fly direct from Gatwick to Chicago O'Hare for $175 coach and $549 Business. With the business fair you also get access to the Club Lounge at Gatwick which includes a nice meal and open bar. You could probably then catch a $59 flight out of O'Hare back to St. Louis. 

Hope to see you...in a couple of years.

 

Jack

[cruiser1955]

36 minutes ago, Aquadesiac said:

How lovely that airfare is included for you. It was not for our WC booking. Must be something for UK passengers. 😉

The fare also includes transfers. The nice thing is that everything is booked in one transaction and not having to wait until flights become available. It seems that booking really early, the airfare is also lower than booking say 9 months before departure. My Japan - Alaska cruise this year had flights and transfers priced at 920 pounds when I booked in 2017 but later rose to 1220 pounds. Flights are schedule with British Airways - not sure if all Cunard flights are with BA, but all of mine to date have been..

[Aquadesiac]

16 hours ago, Jack E Dawson said:

Aquadesiac,

Fortunately, airfare into Ft Lauderdale is very reasonable. We will be joining you in 2021, boarding in Ft Lauderdale. While it's still too early to book, fares right now are running around $115-125 per person out of Chicago. I see you are from Missouri. Fares out of St. Louis should be about the same. We get off the ship in San Francisco but coming back out of London we have used Norwegian Airlines for our last to trips. They fly direct from Gatwick to Chicago O'Hare for $175 coach and $549 Business. With the business fair you also get access to the Club Lounge at Gatwick which includes a nice meal and open bar. You could probably then catch a $59 flight out of O'Hare back to St. Louis. 

Hope to see you...in a couple of years.

 

Jack

Wow! Just checked the Norwegian Air site and you're right. The savings are amazing, in time as well as money. I'd been using google/flights to compare rates and NA didn't even show up on their listing. Since you've flown with them maybe you can answer this. Are there electrical outlets at the seats in Business class? I travel with a portable oxygen concentrator and need to save my batteries when I can. 

 

See you in 670+ more days! 😉

[Aquadesiac]

16 hours ago, cruiser1955 said:

The fare also includes transfers. The nice thing is that everything is booked in one transaction and not having to wait until flights become available. It seems that booking really early, the airfare is also lower than booking say 9 months before departure. My Japan - Alaska cruise this year had flights and transfers priced at 920 pounds when I booked in 2017 but later rose to 1220 pounds. Flights are schedule with British Airways - not sure if all Cunard flights are with BA, but all of mine to date have been..

In the US, we can't book that far out. We did really well going through Princess with our flights for our Princess WC, but I haven't had as good luck with Cunard, sadly. We were able to save quite a bit through booking our own flights to NYC for this summer's cruise  over the offer from Cunard.

[Jack E Dawson]

1 hour ago, Aquadesiac said:

Wow! Just checked the Norwegian Air site and you're right. The savings are amazing, in time as well as money. I'd been using google/flights to compare rates and NA didn't even show up on their listing. Since you've flown with them maybe you can answer this. Are there electrical outlets at the seats in Business class? I travel with a portable oxygen concentrator and need to save my batteries when I can. 

 

See you in 670+ more days! 😉

Yes there are electrical outlets in the business class seats. For their transatlantic flights, Norwegian Airlines uses the 787 Dreamliner. Because this plane is made largely from carbon fiber, it is pressurized to a much lower altitude than other commercial airliners, which puts less stress on the respiratory system. Also, the cabin air is circulated more frequently. 

[Aquadesiac]

Very good to know, Jack. Thanks!

[cruiseluvva]

We have just booked Southampton to Hong Kong on QM2. Via Cape Town and Australia. 59 nights.

 

We were in Mauritius when bookings went live so missed it.

[Topper123]

We recently booked a cruise for October/November 2020. Cunard we’re offering some good perc’s for booking that far out, but I wasn’t able to book the airfare portion of the trip. Their agent told me to call back in December.

Last year we booked our plane tickets through Cunard and I was blown away by the savings. Our tickets from Portland, Oregon to JFK weren’t any cheaper than we could have paid elsewhere, but the ticket home from Heathrow was at least 80% cheaper than anything else I saw on-line. We flew Delta One for about $1,900 each. The same ticket on-line never went lower than $10,000 each. Our next cruise is going to be “on the cheap” and I shall relish the $25,000 we will save by forgoing a larger cabin and “any-time” dining. Still, I expect I shall experience a pang if longing for that big “lay flat” recliner up in the front of the plane when I’m stuffed into the back of economy class for seventeen hours.

Topper113