bluemarble Posted October 29, 2023 #1 Share Posted October 29, 2023 It appears the Cunard FAQ is having issues today. When I check the FAQ on the Cunard US website at https://www.cunard.com/en-us/frequently-asked-questions, I only see these 10 questions. (Q) Can I order photos after my voyage? (Q) Do you offer videography? (Q) What is included in the Weddings or Commitment Ceremony at Sea package? (Q) What is included in the Renewal of Vows package> (Q) What is included in the Engagement package? (Q) What added extras can I add to our Celebration at Sea with Cunard? (Q) How does the Ceremony Specialist support planning my big day? (Q) What happens prior to my wedding day? (Q) What could my wedding day with Cunard look like? (Q) What is the difference between the Cunard Upgrade program and the complimentary upgrade I opted into at the time of booking? The Cunard UK FAQ goes one better with a total of 11 questions. The UK FAQ has this additional question. (Q) What is the process for ceremony/special event photography? When I hop over to the Cunard website for Australia, I'm seeing no questions at all in their FAQ. I know I shouldn't be surprised about an issue with Cunard's websites. Anyone else seeing more than I am on the Cunard FAQ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Kynance Posted October 29, 2023 #2 Share Posted October 29, 2023 I’m seeing what you’re seeing for Cunard’s UK site, Blue Marble. Maybe they removed most of the questions because they realised members of this forum do a much better job of answering the questions?! 😉🤣 3 1 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Victoria2 Posted October 29, 2023 #3 Share Posted October 29, 2023 14 minutes ago, Kynance said: I’m seeing what you’re seeing for Cunard’s UK site, Blue Marble. Maybe they removed most of the questions because they realised members of this forum do a much better job of answering the questions?! 😉🤣 Another dilemma, to like or to laugh!! 🙂 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfred Posted October 29, 2023 #4 Share Posted October 29, 2023 Yes, apparently nobody in Australia/NZ is frequently asking any questions this morning. Maybe asking why there are no FAQs today should qualify as a frequently asked question? 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 57eric Posted October 29, 2023 #5 Share Posted October 29, 2023 The question I frequently ask (myself): Do any other cruise lines have a website as bad as Cunard's? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exlondoner Posted October 30, 2023 #6 Share Posted October 30, 2023 10 hours ago, 57eric said: The question I frequently ask (myself): Do any other cruise lines have a website as bad as Cunard's? Or ships as calmly serene? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maggielou362 Posted October 30, 2023 #7 Share Posted October 30, 2023 No, there seem to be no questions being asked or answered either frequently or rarely by any Australians. Does Cunard think we colonials know all the answers perhaps? As Kynance said, no need because all the questions I have had so far have been answered succinctly and expeditiously by the venerable forum members here. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfred Posted November 3, 2023 #8 Share Posted November 3, 2023 FAQs are back on the Australia site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemarble Posted November 3, 2023 Author #9 Share Posted November 3, 2023 16 minutes ago, sfred said: FAQs are back on the Australia site. They're back up on the US and UK sites as well. Naturally all three sites have some differing content in their FAQs to cover country-specific topics. But I've noticed in the past the UK FAQ is significantly larger than the US FAQ. And now I see the Australia FAQ beats both of those handily. US FAQ: 268 questions UK FAQ: 408 questions Aistralia FAQ: 639 questions 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maggielou362 Posted November 3, 2023 #10 Share Posted November 3, 2023 Maybe because we colonials DON'T know much about classy and tasteful voyages! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exlondoner Posted November 3, 2023 #11 Share Posted November 3, 2023 3 hours ago, maggielou362 said: Maybe because we colonials DON'T know much about classy and tasteful voyages! Surely that would mean the US site had most questions. 😀😀 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techteach Posted November 3, 2023 #12 Share Posted November 3, 2023 5 hours ago, exlondoner said: Surely that would mean the US site had most questions. 😀😀 Ouch! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfred Posted November 3, 2023 #13 Share Posted November 3, 2023 14 hours ago, bluemarble said: US FAQ: 268 questions UK FAQ: 408 questions Australia FAQ: 639 questions A question running through my mind is what all these additional questions in the Australia FAQ could be? Surely Cunard IT is not equal to the task of actually counting the incidences of all the questions posed in incoming customer contacts, setting some arbitrary definition of how many are needed to qualify as "frequently", and then publishing both these questions and their answers for each geography? Downloading and manually comparing the questions contained in each geo's site would be rather tedious, and require a particularly rainy day to justify the effort. I'll try to think of an automated way to compare the text. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exlondoner Posted November 3, 2023 #14 Share Posted November 3, 2023 1 minute ago, sfred said: A question running through my mind is what all these additional questions in the Australia FAQ could be? Surely Cunard IT is not equal to the task of actually counting the incidences of all the questions posed in incoming customer contacts, setting some arbitrary definition of how many are needed to qualify as "frequently", and then publishing both these questions and their answers for each geography? Downloading and manually comparing the questions contained in each geo's site would be rather tedious, and require a particularly rainy day to justify the effort. I'll try to think of an automated way to compare the text. I wonder if some, at least, of the Aussie questions are repeated or repetitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemarble Posted November 4, 2023 Author #15 Share Posted November 4, 2023 8 hours ago, sfred said: A question running through my mind is what all these additional questions in the Australia FAQ could be? Surely Cunard IT is not equal to the task of actually counting the incidences of all the questions posed in incoming customer contacts, setting some arbitrary definition of how many are needed to qualify as "frequently", and then publishing both these questions and their answers for each geography? Downloading and manually comparing the questions contained in each geo's site would be rather tedious, and require a particularly rainy day to justify the effort. I'll try to think of an automated way to compare the text. If by any chance you figured I just might take up the challenge to compare the contents of the three Cunard FAQs, you would have been correct. It was largely a manual process to copy the questions from each of the three FAQs and then compile them as side-by-side columns in an Excel spreadsheet sorted on the text of the questions. Total effort, about 5-6 hours. Because of the manual nature of the process, I'm expecting there will be a few glitches here and there. There are duplicate questions in each of the FAQs which I have left in the spreadsheet to assist with evaluating the amount of duplication in each FAQ. Here's my Cunard FAQ Comparison spreadsheet as an attachment. Cunard FAQ Comparison.xlsx 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfred Posted November 4, 2023 #16 Share Posted November 4, 2023 Wow - an extremely impressive effort, thanks @bluemarble! Yes, this is the "manual" comparison I was thinking would occupy the better part of a rainy day to download and line up the various questions in an Excel table. I was semi-confident that I could figure a way to automate the process using PowerBI's text analytics -- I use that software to run my "Where in the World" model -- although I was a little concerned that British/US spelling differences and minor syntax differences might cause some false outcomes and that the cleanup might occupy as much time as the manual approach. It does appear that there are a few duplications in the Australia questions (as a quick example, rows 245/246 asking about cots or rows 252/253 asking about airport hotel bookings), But for the most part the Australia FAQ looks like just a longer and more comprehensive set of questions. Very interesting, and thanks again! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winifred 22 Posted November 4, 2023 #17 Share Posted November 4, 2023 Very interesting thank you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemarble Posted November 4, 2023 Author #18 Share Posted November 4, 2023 9 hours ago, sfred said: It does appear that there are a few duplications in the Australia questions (as a quick example, rows 245/246 asking about cots or rows 252/253 asking about airport hotel bookings), But for the most part the Australia FAQ looks like just a longer and more comprehensive set of questions. After adjusting for duplicate questions in each of the FAQs, here are my counts of the number of different questions in each FAQ. US FAQ: 268 different questions UK FAQ: 403 different questions Australia FAQ: 602 different questions This does not attempt to account for similar but differently-worded questions. For example, both the Australia and UK FAQs contain these pairs of questions which are essentially asking the same thing. "Can I take my bicycle on a cruise?" "Can I take my bicycle on board?" and "Can I take my own furniture or bedding on board?" "Can I take my own mattress or furniture on board?" There is at least one question on the Australia FAQ which is obsolete. "Can I pre-register for the Summer 2020 programme?" However, many of the questions unique to the Australia FAQ would be useful on the other FAQs such as these questions just to mention a few. "Are flights included in the cost of my cruise?" "Are coat hangers provided in the wardrobes?" "Are newspapers available during my cruise?" "Can I cancel or change my booking?" "Do I have to wear the suggested attire for the theme nights?" "How can I make a booking?" "How many Gala Evenings will there be?" "How much are the drinks on board?" "When do boarding passes become available?" Then there's this popular question only asked on the Australia FAQ. "How much should I pay for tips?" However, tipping is also discussed in these questions which are not unique to the Australia FAQ. "What type of service will I receive and how is it rewarded?" "Can I send a gift to a member of crew?" 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Host Hattie Posted November 4, 2023 #19 Share Posted November 4, 2023 That's an incredible amount of work, thank you so much. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techteach Posted November 7, 2023 #20 Share Posted November 7, 2023 @bluemarble I don’t like that I’m limited to one comment response to your post. It deserves the trophy because it’s so amazing, it deserves the heart of course, but I also just broke out in a smile, because of course you would do the comparison. Thanks for all you do for us. - S in Seattle 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MrsPeel55 Posted November 7, 2023 #21 Share Posted November 7, 2023 I see this was posted last week, in the UK site just now, I get this and another 41 pages of questions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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