Merged - Cunard website Issues

[TheOldBear]

I was exercising some futility yesterday be seeing what information was available about enrichment speakers for our upcoming cruise.

 

Cunard's developers have made the willful [not accidental ] choice to present the information exactly backwards from the way a Customer would find it useful.

 

The current site for 'Onboard Guest Speakers' has five pages of speakers, with links to bios and supposedly the voyages they will be featured.

 

These listings are deeply broken - for example Anthony Inglis (Conducting the National Symphony Orchestra) 'view voyages' link does not contain the upcoming 25 October M234A sailing [as listed previously on Cunard's web site, and currently listed on the conductor's web site. It does contain many voyages [seems to be Cunard's full 'find a cruise listing] including  impossibilities - such as featuring him on simultaneous sailings on the Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth departing from Southampton and Singapore.

 

This exhibited failure on the Cunard website renders the 'On board guest speakers' page useless to Customers.

 

What would be useful to Customers would be the reversion to an earlier format. A simple table of date, ship, cruise number (with link) and presenter name with bio link.

Allow HTML5 style sorting by desired column or filters similar to other e-commerce sites.

[gentlemancruiser]

3 hours ago, TheOldBear said:

 

 

The current site for 'Onboard Guest Speakers' has five pages of speakers, with links to bios and supposedly the voyages they will be featured.

 

What would be useful to Customers would be the reversion to an earlier format. A simple table of date, ship, cruise number (with link) and presenter name with bio link.

Allow HTML5 style sorting by desired column or filters similar to other e-commerce sites.

Notice this too for the following cruise.  Frustrating

When I first saw the listing I do remember thinking there is NO WAY all of these speakers/entertainers will be onboard.     

[BklynBoy8]

4 hours ago, TheOldBear said:

I was exercising some futility yesterday be seeing what information was available about enrichment speakers for our upcoming cruise.

 

Cunard's developers have made the willful [not accidental ] choice to present the information exactly backwards from the way a Customer would find it useful.

 

The current site for 'Onboard Guest Speakers' has five pages of speakers, with links to bios and supposedly the voyages they will be featured.

 

These listings are deeply broken - for example Anthony Inglis (Conducting the National Symphony Orchestra) 'view voyages' link does not contain the upcoming 25 October M234A sailing [as listed previously on Cunard's web site, and currently listed on the conductor's web site. It does contain many voyages [seems to be Cunard's full 'find a cruise listing] including  impossibilities - such as featuring him on simultaneous sailings on the Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth departing from Southampton and Singapore.

 

This exhibited failure on the Cunard website renders the 'On board guest speakers' page useless to Customers.

 

What would be useful to Customers would be the reversion to an earlier format. A simple table of date, ship, cruise number (with link) and presenter name with bio link.

Allow HTML5 style sorting by desired column or filters similar to other e-commerce sites.

 

We were recently on board and could not find the speakers assigned to our sailing. But we waited and were pleasantly surprised with the outcoming and enjoyed their presentations.

 

So we really did not mine not finding out till on board and went with the flow. We do not book cruises because of the speakers so not important with us.  

[lahore]

Ok, I’m actually shocked.  I am an experienced cruiser who just booked my first cruise on Cunard, it’s a cheap trial because we were considering a really long one next year and thought we’d try a quick trial on QEII out of our home port before committing.  I had to book a balcony guarantee as it’s a last minute thing, I’m not sure if the fact we are on a guarantee makes any difference.

The website tells me absolutely nothing!  Here’s what I would expect based on other cruise lines:

- The times of arrival and departure into port:  nothing there at all other than ‘early morning’.

- Capacity to choose dining time:  An indicator that says ‘dining’ but you can’t do anything whatsoever after you click on it.

- Capacity to pre book dining or spa experiences (Ok, not all lines have that but some do. The Cunar website seems to invite you to do so but then you can’t).

- Capacity to book tours - we normally don’t but it actually invites to book ‘experiences’ yet there are none there to even consider

 

Am I missing something (well I am, but is it my fault)? 

p.s. this is for a cruise in December 2022, it is now mid October 2022.

 

[Underwatr]

56 minutes ago, lahore said:

- The times of arrival and departure into port:  nothing there at all other than ‘early morning’.

- Capacity to choose dining time:  An indicator that says ‘dining’ but you can’t do anything whatsoever after you click on it.

- Capacity to pre book dining or spa experiences (Ok, not all lines have that but some do. The Cunar website seems to invite you to do so but then you can’t).

- Capacity to book tours - we normally don’t but it actually invites to book ‘experiences’ yet there are none there to even consider

I'm not on your sailing but I am doing the November Caribbean itinerary. Here's some info from my experience this time and the December trips in the past. The website was actually more user friendly until they did a redesign or two to obfuscate it. (come to think of it, so did Cruse Critic 😉 ).

 

- Port times are historically only stated vaguely and generally details are published in the daily newsletter a day or two after embarkation. Once or twice I've booked a private scuba excursion only to find that I have to contact the dive operator after embarkation to let him know I'd be a little late. Consider looking at the Port Authority websites for the ports of call to see when the ship is expected to arrive and depart.
- Dining choice is made under the "Booking Summary" tab. Scroll just past the itinerary map and you'll find "Your dining choice" next to "Bed configuration." Click there and you'll be able to see your current selection (you should have been able to make a request at time of booking) and an opportunity to request a change. I think "register preference" is your current selection but I have no proof.

- I'm currently able to book specific spa appointments (guest, day and time) via the website under the Wellness and Beauty tab. I'm a little over five weeks from embarkation. 

- I've been able to book shore excursions for my late November voyage since booking in August. Just in case you didn't find where they've hidden the selections, click Shore Experiences then scroll down to the red button labeled Discover More. You should be presented with a row of ports on the itinerary and clicking on any will show the available excursions.

I don't know about the spa bookings but if you book an excursion before embarkation the (refundable) payment is charged immediately to a credit card you provide. If you have a significant amount of onboard credit you might need to weigh having the booking early vs applying the OBC toward the excursion.

[BklynBoy8]

1 hour ago, lahore said:

Ok, I’m actually shocked.  I am an experienced cruiser who just booked my first cruise on Cunard, it’s a cheap trial because we were considering a really long one next year and thought we’d try a quick trial on QEII out of our home port before committing.  I had to book a balcony guarantee as it’s a last minute thing, I’m not sure if the fact we are on a guarantee makes any difference.
The website tells me absolutely nothing!  Here’s what I would expect based on other cruise lines:
- The times of arrival and departure into port:  nothing there at all other than ‘early morning’.

- Capacity to choose dining time:  An indicator that says ‘dining’ but you can’t do anything whatsoever after you click on it.

- Capacity to pre book dining or spa experiences (Ok, not all lines have that but some do. The Cunar website seems to invite you to do so but then you can’t).

- Capacity to book tours - we normally don’t but it actually invites to book ‘experiences’ yet there are none there to even consider

 

Hope you enjoy a pleasant sailing.

 

But we will never book again guarantee after a disappointing experience. Regular bookings even get us upgrade experiences.

 

We alway search the internet to find the arrival and departure times for Ports of Call. "Early Morning" gives us an idea around the time.

 

Our selection of cabin cat. is always Grill so we know right off the set times of 8-930 12-130 630-9 which we are accustomed to.

 

When availability to book alt. dining we also use the capability even thru the Cunard Landline to assure a booking. Being Diamond & Grill also assures us of concierge bookings. 

 

And this last sailing all our tours were booked online and assured us of a spot that sometimes turn limited or close out by the time we step foot on board. Our tickets are awaiting in the Cabin on arrival.

 

Yes Cunard can do better but we don't let it bother us and look forward to the primary reason and it is to sail on board with all the work behind us.

[lahore]

5 hours ago, Underwatr said:

I'm not on your sailing but I am doing the November Caribbean itinerary. Here's some info from my experience this time and the December trips in the past. The website was actually more user friendly until they did a redesign or two to obfuscate it. (come to think of it, so did Cruse Critic 😉 ).

 

- Port times are historically only stated vaguely and generally details are published in the daily newsletter a day or two after embarkation. Once or twice I've booked a private scuba excursion only to find that I have to contact the dive operator after embarkation to let him know I'd be a little late. Consider looking at the Port Authority websites for the ports of call to see when the ship is expected to arrive and depart.
- Dining choice is made under the "Booking Summary" tab. Scroll just past the itinerary map and you'll find "Your dining choice" next to "Bed configuration." Click there and you'll be able to see your current selection (you should have been able to make a request at time of booking) and an opportunity to request a change. I think "register preference" is your current selection but I have no proof.

- I'm currently able to book specific spa appointments (guest, day and time) via the website under the Wellness and Beauty tab. I'm a little over five weeks from embarkation. 

- I've been able to book shore excursions for my late November voyage since booking in August. Just in case you didn't find where they've hidden the selections, click Shore Experiences then scroll down to the red button labeled Discover More. You should be presented with a row of ports on the itinerary and clicking on any will show the available excursions.

I don't know about the spa bookings but if you book an excursion before embarkation the (refundable) payment is charged immediately to a credit card you provide. If you have a significant amount of onboard credit you might need to weigh having the booking early vs applying the OBC toward the excursion.

Hi and thank you for the comprehensive answer.

 

- I’m very familiar with port websites, I’m just not familiar with having to use them because the cruise ship doesn’t provide that information. I find that so strange, but whatever I guess…

- I see you are in USA: we are in Australia.  Unfortunately what I can access does not give any option under ‘Your dining choice’ other than ‘main dining room’ (see attached photo).  I am presuming it might be because we only have a guarantee????

- I did manage to find the capacity to book spa treatments thank you (I only wanted the aqua therapy room) but you can’t book a time/day in advance so I don’t see the point.

- Wow, they really did hide those ‘shore experiences’ but thank you, thanks to your guidance I found them.

 

Really appreciate the help, thanks a lot. 

 

 

[lahore]

6 hours ago, BklynBoy8 said:

 

Hope you enjoy a pleasant sailing.

 

But we will never book again guarantee after a disappointing experience. Regular bookings even get us upgrade experiences.

 

We alway search the internet to find the arrival and departure times for Ports of Call. "Early Morning" gives us an idea around the time.

 

Our selection of cabin cat. is always Grill so we know right off the set times of 8-930 12-130 630-9 which we are accustomed to.

 

When availability to book alt. dining we also use the capability even thru the Cunard Landline to assure a booking. Being Diamond & Grill also assures us of concierge bookings. 

 

And this last sailing all our tours were booked online and assured us of a spot that sometimes turn limited or close out by the time we step foot on board. Our tickets are awaiting in the Cabin on arrival.

 

Yes Cunard can do better but we don't let it bother us and look forward to the primary reason and it is to sail on board with all the work behind us.

Yes, as I said we had no choice but to book a guarantee, it was a last minute type promotion.  I also had a bad experience with a guarantee on a much more expensive line than Cunard. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, at least the price is right.

 

I’ve never had to search the internet to find arrival and departure times.  I find that totally strange, but I’ll roll with it.

 

I’m first time on Cunard so neither high status nor Grill level (although I am a shareholder).  Cunard has never appealed to me because of the ‘gala evenings’ but this cruise is only 7 days and cheap enough for us to treat this trip as a trial run  If we like it we’ll be booking a much longer one from England next year (we are in Australia).  That one will be for a special event so we don’t want to book if we don’t enjoy the Cunard environment.  We are more used to small ‘country club casual’ ships such as Oceania and Azamara.  Cunard is much larger and there’s the dress code which we loathe. But I’m sure we can work with it if we like everything else.

Edited October 15, 2022 by lahore

[exlondoner]

I think the lack of ability to make dining choices may be because of your guarantee booking. After all, there is always the very unlikely possibility you will end up in the Grills and won’t need to make a choice. 😀

[BklynBoy8]

7 hours ago, lahore said:

I’ve never had to search the internet to find arrival and departure times.  I find that totally strange, but I’ll roll with it.

 

I’m first time on Cunard so neither high status nor Grill level (although I am a shareholder). Cunard has never appealed to me because of the ‘gala evenings’

 

but this cruise is only 7 days and cheap enough for us to treat this trip as a trial run  If we like it we’ll be booking a much longer one   

 

Cunard is much larger and there’s the dress code which we loathe. But I’m sure we can work with

 

Each person needs to do what will make them comfortable for the entire voyage. Personal choice.

 

Some voyages have the typical times set but like our recent sailing, our times changed due to operational reasons. But there can be security reasons. So we also go with the flow. The tours or excursions are altered to the changes. We never got shorted.

 

We personally for over 40+ years have enjoyed sailing and really look forward when we moved to Cunard. We are not impressed with these Mega Ships. We even for three years before we moved to the QM2 were not impressed with HAL. You need to be open to Gala Evenings to enjoy them as they are applied. Maybe not for everyone but there are a lot of people that really enjoy and look forward to Gala Evening. And also after 6PM attire that set a really nice feeling for the evenings.

 

Even though we sailed the QE2, we did a trail short sailing on the QM2 to see if we would like her and our decision was made. And have sailed her on many longer trips.

 

So to each is own. We know people in their early 70's that still sail Disney and it's amazes us.

 

So good luck on your choices and enjoy what style you pick and like. Bon Voyage.. 

[Underwatr]

16 hours ago, lahore said:

thought we’d try a quick trial on QEII out of our home port before committing

I assume you mean QE (QE2 is now a floating hotel in Dubai). I missed "out of our home port" and originally thought you were on Queen Mary 2 to the Caribbean which is a popular December itinerary. Both Elizabeth and Mary occasionally get misidentified as QE2 or QEII so no big deal. 

[lahore]

14 hours ago, exlondoner said:

I think the lack of ability to make dining choices may be because of your guarantee booking. After all, there is always the very unlikely possibility you will end up in the Grills and won’t need to make a choice. 😀

In my dreams....but I guess that could explain their thinking. :)

[sfred]

Wow  - was I surprised this morning.  Doing MyCunard checkin for our upcoming QM2 voyage.

 

• MyCunard prepopulated and accepted our passport details, no worries.
• MyCunard accepted our payment card, no worries.
• MyCunard accepted our uploaded photographs, no worries.
• Downloaded and printed our boarding passes, no worries.
• Downloaded and printed our luggage tags, no worries and no formatting issues.

 

What was I doing so wrong to have this happen???    😀

[lissie]

11 hours ago, sfred said:

Wow  - was I surprised this morning.  Doing MyCunard checkin for our upcoming QM2 voyage.

 

• MyCunard prepopulated and accepted our passport details, no worries.
• MyCunard accepted our payment card, no worries.
• MyCunard accepted our uploaded photographs, no worries.
• Downloaded and printed our boarding passes, no worries.
• Downloaded and printed our luggage tags, no worries and no formatting issues.

 

What was I doing so wrong to have this happen???    😀

You’re missing the fact they don’t need your boarding passes , they will retake your photos, and you don’t need to download baggage labels . We showed up with passport , vax card and test results that’s all they actually needed - oh and our cabin number for the porters to tag the bags 

[Tonopah]

So we’ve never really had problems with the website, probably because our T. Agent takes care of things. Today we were looking at the Calendar for our Norway trip that starts next Tuesday and… every excursion is messed up. We have excursions on sea days. We have Stavenger excursions on days when we are not in Stavenger. We have a Tromso night tour that shows up on the date of our Tromso departure. I am a little bit panicked but Mister just says, “Cunard booked them, Cunard will fix them”. It’s just weird and doesn’t show Cunard in a very good light.

[bluemarble]

1 hour ago, Tonopah said:

So we’ve never really had problems with the website, probably because our T. Agent takes care of things. Today we were looking at the Calendar for our Norway trip that starts next Tuesday and… every excursion is messed up. We have excursions on sea days. We have Stavenger excursions on days when we are not in Stavenger. We have a Tromso night tour that shows up on the date of our Tromso departure. I am a little bit panicked but Mister just says, “Cunard booked them, Cunard will fix them”. It’s just weird and doesn’t show Cunard in a very good light.

 

There is an ongoing problem with the My Cunard calendar. The titles indicating where you are going to be each day in the "Day" calendar section are listed one day earlier than they should be.

 

For example, I bet you are seeing your "Day" calendar says you will be in Stavanger on November 10th when you are actually going to be in Alesund on November 10th and Stavanger on November 11th. It probably also lists November 12th in your "Day" calendar as your "Disembarkation day" when you will of course be disembarking one day later on November 13th.

 

Hopefully you are seeing what you have booked for each day on the correct dates. That is, presumably your excursion for Stavanger is listed correctly for November 11th even though the title for that day incorrectly states "Sea day" rather than "Stavanger".

 

I concur that's just weird and bugs such as this don't show Cunard in a particularly good light. As long as what you have booked is showing up on the dates you are expecting them to appear (ignoring where the titles for each day in the "Day" calendar incorrectly claim you are going to be on those dates) you should be fine.

Edited October 27, 2022 by bluemarble

[sucramdi]

I called Cunard last weekend to ask about a glitch on my boarding pass, their reply was “… yeah, we need new website people”. At least their customer service is super easy to reach by phone and very helpful. 

[Covepointcruiser]

I have not had a problem yet with the Cunard site for my 12/3 cruise although we are not yet able to do luggage tags or boarding passes.   It’s been fine for booking excursions, spa, etc.   Are there any cruise lines with satisfactory WEB sites.

[LB_NJ]

The Calendar is all wrong on the website for our cruise?

 

We depart June 20 however, when I log in the website calendar has embarkation for June 19 and June 20th as a sea day.  It also has the wrong dates for the cities.

 

Has anyone else encountered this?

[Host Hattie]

It's been discussed a few posts earlier on this thread 

[TheOldBear]

I've noticed onboard that the 'myvoyage' site  loads on my phone - but does not display any content after logging in [login form, with saved info, login, and landing page only has the page frame , Cunard logo - and our room number.

 

There is a fundamental problem with the website's design - there is no reason to have public postings like the daily schedule restricted so login is required to [in theory] view them. A modern web site design would use some of the current HTML5 'offline storage' tricks so each device only needs to download the schedule once - that would east the load on their apparently overburdened server. The server is likely Microsoft IIS - and that is a resource how compared to common alternatives.

 

Also, the Ship's intranet apparently does not host a local time server [ntp] - that way most devices would have their time updated automatically when connecting after the ship's clocks are changed.

[sogne]

On 10/16/2022 at 12:14 AM, lahore said:

In my dreams....but I guess that could explain their thinking. 🙂

If you can do a search for Cunard's Spanish site port arrival and departure times are given

[sogne]

On 10/16/2022 at 12:14 AM, lahore said:

In my dreams....but I guess that could explain their thinking. :)

https://www.cunardcruceros.com/cunard/searcher.html   

 

there is an English option on menu find your cruise and click on map  pop up appears with arrival and departure times  or least  it does in UK

[sogne]

On 10/27/2022 at 12:59 AM, bluemarble said:

 

There is an ongoing problem with the My Cunard calendar. The titles indicating where you are going to be each day in the "Day" calendar section are listed one day earlier than they should be.

 

For example, I bet you are seeing your "Day" calendar says you will be in Stavanger on November 10th when you are actually going to be in Alesund on November 10th and Stavanger on November 11th. It probably also lists November 12th in your "Day" calendar as your "Disembarkation day" when you will of course be disembarking one day later on November 13th.

 

Hopefully you are seeing what you have booked for each day on the correct dates. That is, presumably your excursion for Stavanger is listed correctly for November 11th even though the title for that day incorrectly states "Sea day" rather than "Stavanger".

 

I concur that's just weird and bugs such as this don't show Cunard in a particularly good light. As long as what you have booked is showing up on the dates you are expecting them to appear (ignoring where the titles for each day in the "Day" calendar incorrectly claim you are going to be on those dates) you should be fine.

the calendar is correct for our Northern Lights cruise  on 1st Nov in My Cunard and for our 3 cruises in 23 at least in the UK

[bluemarble]

53 minutes ago, sogne said:

the calendar is correct for our Northern Lights cruise  on 1st Nov in My Cunard and for our 3 cruises in 23 at least in the UK

 

Thank you for that. It appears the issue with the Day Calendar titles being off by a day may be confined to the US version of My Cunard then. The five people I've noticed who have commented about that particular bug are located in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey and Iowa. Both of the voyages we have booked (one later this year on QM2 and one in 2024 on QA) show that bug within the Day Calendar in our US version of My Cunard.

 

Just to document the issue further, here is what our Day Calendar looks like for Nov 26, 2022 in our US version of My Cunard. We will be in Bridgetown, Barbados that day and the calendar shows we have a Cunard excursion booked for Barbados that day. But the calendar would also have us believe we will be in Castries, St Lucia that day which is actually where we will be one day later on Nov 27, 2022.

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by bluemarble