QA British Isles Voyage

[alc13]

3 minutes ago, Mareblu said:

@Megabear2 thank you for the truly beautiful photos.  You’ve really captured the spirit of this haunting land.

we’ve discussed and debated the Grills Lounge many times, so for those who are interested, here are a couple of images

These are informative, thanks.  Very pretty.

[exlondoner]

Just now, Mareblu said:

Sorry, I duplicated a photo of the lounge, then was too slow to edit.

That’s all right. 😀 It just gave me the chance to think of more things I loathe about it. 😀😀😀

Incidentally, although I have no feelings either way about that (presumably fake) tree, isn’t it a bit of an odd thing to have in an indoor bar, particularly with those banquettes around it. They seem to have a banquette fetish.

[alc13]

De gustibus...

[Winifred 22]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Good morning, good morning to all.  Yesterday was another truly memorable day for me.  Apart from the company the Panoramic Lochs trip turned out to be far more than I expected- basically a coach trip around looking at the scenery.  This was far more. An hour and a quarter stop in the pretty town, another in a viewing point to see a Glen surrounded by hills and mountains added very much to the day and then a 20 minute ride on a ferry where it was possible to enjoy the spectacular views from the top on a viewing platform.  The surrounding scenery was beautiful, the water and sky were bright blue in the brilliant sunlight.  Just a lovely serene day despite being in the company of 50 or do fellow passengers from the ship.  Definitely another favourite for me.  

 

Today I'm ticking off one of the few original remaining items on the list I created 29 years ago as part of my cancer recovery program.  The Giant's Causeway.   The list grew over the years as I added things at each recovery stage and now because I've been so lucky over the years only a handful of things remain.  This therefore is going to be BIG so hopefully the sun will shine, the Irish mist won't roll in and I'll stay dry, not fall over or have any other of my usual mishaps!  Have a great day everyone - I'm going too!

Your bargain basement trip seems to be turning out anything but. Glad to read what a fun day you had and enjoyed the photos. Looking forward to today’s update. 

[Mareblu]

2 hours ago, exlondoner said:

That’s all right. 😀 It just gave me the chance to think of more things I loathe about it. 😀😀😀

Incidentally, although I have no feelings either way about that (presumably fake) tree, isn’t it a bit of an odd thing to have in an indoor bar, particularly with those banquettes around it. They seem to have a banquette fetish.

Yes, on that we agree.  It’s rather garish, and it seems to overpower the ambience.  The “banquettes” as you refer to them, are actually quite comfortable.  Rather a change from mundane tables and chairs.  I do not, however, approve at all of the long “wall tables” in the QG restaurant.  They afford no privacy at all.  We’re very grateful we have a delightful window table with an ever-changing view.

[Mareblu]

2 hours ago, alc13 said:

De gustibus...

Exactly.  Taste is indeed subjective.

[WantedOnVoyage]

Taste is subjective indeed and nothing is more satisfying that the preconceived notion that is proven in photo and comments.  That lounge looks.... simply awful!

 

I'll stick to QV and QM2 thanks very much and wish all who sail in QA many a happy cruise. 

[exlondoner]

10 minutes ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

Taste is subjective indeed and nothing is more satisfying that the preconceived notion that is proven in photo and comments.  That lounge looks.... simply awful!

 

I'll stick to QV and QM2 thanks very much and wish all who sail in QA many a happy cruise. 

Or you could avoid it by not travelling in the Grills. 😀 Actually, I’m amazed nobody has said this to me. Much of the rest of the ship is very nice.

[MylesS]

1 minute ago, exlondoner said:

Or you could avoid it by not travelling in the Grills. 😀 Actually, I’m amazed nobody has said this to me. Much of the rest of the ship is very nice.

I believe a few were surprised when I had said in my original posts onboard the maiden that I'd prefer to do a Britannia Balcony with speciality dining most nights over PG or QG. Though I still stand by the point 100% as far.

[Mareblu]

19 minutes ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

Taste is subjective indeed and nothing is more satisfying that the preconceived notion that is proven in photo and comments.  That lounge looks.... simply awful!

 

I'll stick to QV and QM2 thanks very much and wish all who sail in QA many a happy cruise. 

Gosh, now you’ve surprised us all.

[NE John]

47 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Or you could avoid it by not travelling in the Grills. 😀 Actually, I’m amazed nobody has said this to me. Much of the rest of the ship is very nice.

To me, the sweet spot of this new ship, as an armchair pax, is BC. Even with the BC’s less intimate dining room. The new balcony rooms look good with the massive upgrade of bathrooms and getting an Illy coffee machine. The next would be PG, even with smaller bathrooms vs other ships, the PG living space looks very livable. Not sure about the value of the QG premium on this one with a chance of sitting in those banquettes. 
I am sorry to hear about those suffering with the omissions to the accessible cabins; I hope it’s back to the drawing boards for Cunard to resolve this issue. 

[Victoria2]

1 hour ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

Taste is subjective indeed and nothing is more satisfying that the preconceived notion that is proven in photo and comments.  That lounge looks.... simply awful!

 

I'll stick to QV and QM2 thanks very much and wish all who sail in QA many a happy cruise. 

It isn't awful, it's different and to those of us who are used to QE/QV lounge, a tad disappointing.

 

However, a plus, the chairs are NOT uncomfortable, as I thought they'd be although a Senior Hoist ought to be on stand by for a couple of the sofas and the fact the lounge is full pre lunch and dinner shows it's popular.

Just not for us. Maybe next time.

[Victoria2]

13 minutes ago, NE John said:

To me, the sweet spot of this new ship, as an armchair pax, is BC. Even with the BC’s less intimate dining room. The new balcony rooms look good with the massive upgrade of bathrooms and getting an Illy coffee machine. The next would be PG, even with smaller bathrooms vs other ships, the PG living space looks very livable. Not sure about the value of the QG premium on this one with a chance of sitting in those banquettes. 
I am sorry to hear about those suffering with the omissions to the accessible cabins; I hope it’s back to the drawing boards for Cunard to resolve this issue. 

The snags will only be given attention if enough of us point them out. I am keeping my fingers crossed our resident accessible cabin member Selbourne will be keeping a list, checking it twice and will keep on at 'the managers' until he has had a meeting and has decent feedback, positive and/or negative.

 

Edit

Still think some kind of reminder that wheelchair spaces plus the seat adjacent are for wheelchair users and their companion should be given a [daily] slot in the daily programme!

Edited June 2 by Victoria2

[exlondoner]

24 minutes ago, NE John said:

To me, the sweet spot of this new ship, as an armchair pax, is BC. Even with the BC’s less intimate dining room. The new balcony rooms look good with the massive upgrade of bathrooms and getting an Illy coffee machine. The next would be PG, even with smaller bathrooms vs other ships, the PG living space looks very livable. Not sure about the value of the QG premium on this one with a chance of sitting in those banquettes. 
I am sorry to hear about those suffering with the omissions to the accessible cabins; I hope it’s back to the drawing boards for Cunard to resolve this issue. 

The joy of QG is the much larger cabins and extra light from the two sets of windows. Also ours had a nice long bath to read in. The banquettes, while silly, aren’t as bad as I had feared, providing one has an accommodating companion who is willing to share.

[exlondoner]

26 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

It isn't awful, it's different and to those of us who are used to QE/QV lounge, a tad disappointing.

 

However, a plus, the chairs are NOT uncomfortable, as I thought they'd be although a Senior Hoist ought to be on stand by for a couple of the sofas and the fact the lounge is full pre lunch and dinner shows it's popular.

Just not for us. Maybe next time.

The other thing is, given the number of Grills cabins, it doesn’t seem particularly large, though it was hard to tell in the gloom.

[NE John]

35 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

The joy of QG is the much larger cabins and extra light from the two sets of windows. Also ours had a nice long bath to read in. The banquettes, while silly, aren’t as bad as I had feared, providing one has an accommodating companion who is willing to share.

The Q4’s do look attractive and spacious. 

[Selbourne]

17 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

The snags will only be given attention if enough of us point them out. I am keeping my fingers crossed our resident accessible cabin member Selbourne will be keeping a list, checking it twice and will keep on at 'the managers' until he has had a meeting and has decent feedback, positive and/or negative.

 

Edit

Still think some kind of reminder that wheelchair spaces plus the seat adjacent are for wheelchair users and their companion should be given a [daily] slot in the daily programme!

I had a meeting with the Customer Service Manager yesterday. I had called at the Pursers desk again to express my disappointment at having heard absolutely nothing since requesting a meeting with him two days earlier. I declined further attempts to be palmed off to more junior staff, and we both got the distinct impression that he was a bit irked at having to see us.

 

Regarding the lack of drop down grab rails, he said that he was aware of this issue as other guests had also raised it. He couldn’t give any guarantee that this would be addressed prior to our next booked cruise on QA in November. I’d rather that he was honest about this than promised us something that he couldn’t guarantee though, and I will take this up with Cunard when we return home. 
 

I also mentioned the fact that older ships in the Carnival stable have far better accessible features, such as P&Os Iona which, as well as sensibly located grab rails, has automated cabin and balcony doors and such features as a height adjustable wash basin (the fixed ones on QA are too high for full time wheelchair users). His explanation was that they are different shipbuilders, but I would have thought that the company ordering the ships (Carnival in both these cases) signs off the specification?
 

Yes, I did mention the totally inadequate signage for the wheelchair user and companions seats in the theatre that a number of us have raised, and he said that he’d speak to the theatre manager. I won’t hold my breath on that one. 
 

Finally, as it had taken two days to get to see him, I was also able to question why we had not been following the advertised itinerary on this cruise and had received no explanation as to any reason why. Much to my surprise, he was completely unaware of this fact and had to look up the itinerary on the Cunard website to see what I was referring to! As previously mentioned, Thursday had been advertised as “Isle of Skye Sail By” when, in reality our ‘sail by’ was late in the day when the light was fading and, even had it been sunny weather, we were too far away to see anything. More significantly, Friday had been advertised as “Scottish Isles Scenic cruising” but had ended up being an utterly pointless sea day to nowhere, where we didn’t see a speck of land from sunrise to sunset. These two days were one of the major reasons that we chose this particular cruise, as the scenic cruising aspect really appealed to us. 
 

No explanation was offered, and I was told that nobody else had raised it. I resisted the temptation to suggest that might be because it’s very difficult to get to see him, but I did make the point, which I’m happy to repeat here, that Cunard are very fortunate that they have such loyal and dedicated customers that they can sell them one product, deliver something different and the customers are prepared to completely gloss over the fact. I cannot think of many other service industries that would get away with this. We all understand that ports can be missed due to weather or other issues, but there is no justification whatsoever for what happened on Friday. 

 

I am conscious that I was speaking to a ship based middle manager and not someone who makes the decisions centrally, so I will pursue all of this with the Presidents office after the cruise, but they are sure to ask if I’d raised these issues on board, and I now have. 

 

[exlondoner]

16 minutes ago, NE John said:

The Q4’s do look attractive and spacious. 

They would be even nicer if the wood were painted a lighter colour and if they didn’t have that silly partition, but they are still jolly nice.

Edited June 2 by exlondoner

[mrsgoggins]

15 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I had a meeting with the Customer Service Manager yesterday. I had called at the Pursers desk again to express my disappointment at having heard absolutely nothing since requesting a meeting with him two days earlier. I declined further attempts to be palmed off to more junior staff, and we both got the distinct impression that he was a bit irked at having to see us.

 

Regarding the lack of drop down grab rails, he said that he was aware of this issue as other guests had also raised it. He couldn’t give any guarantee that this would be addressed prior to our next booked cruise on QA in November. I’d rather that he was honest about this than promised us something that he couldn’t guarantee though, and I will take this up with Cunard when we return home. 
 

I also mentioned the fact that older ships in the Carnival stable have far better accessible features, such as P&Os Iona which, as well as sensibly located grab rails, has automated cabin and balcony doors and such features as a height adjustable wash basin (the fixed ones on QA are too high for full time wheelchair users). His explanation was that they are different shipbuilders, but I would have thought that the company ordering the ships (Carnival in both these cases) signs off the specification?
 

Yes, I did mention the totally inadequate signage for the wheelchair user and companions seats in the theatre that a number of us have raised, and he said that he’d speak to the theatre manager. I won’t hold my breath on that one. 
 

Finally, as it had taken two days to get to see him, I was also able to question why we had not been following the advertised itinerary on this cruise and had received no explanation as to any reason why. Much to my surprise, he was completely unaware of this fact and had to look up the itinerary on the Cunard website to see what I was referring to! As previously mentioned, Thursday had been advertised as “Isle of Skye Sail By” when, in reality our ‘sail by’ was late in the day when the light was fading and, even had it been sunny weather, we were too far away to see anything. More significantly, Friday had been advertised as “Scottish Isles Scenic cruising” but had ended up being an utterly pointless sea day to nowhere, where we didn’t see a speck of land from sunrise to sunset. These two days were one of the major reasons that we chose this particular cruise, as the scenic cruising aspect really appealed to us. 
 

No explanation was offered, and I was told that nobody else had raised it. I resisted the temptation to suggest that might be because it’s very difficult to get to see him, but I did make the point, which I’m happy to repeat here, that Cunard are very fortunate that they have such loyal and dedicated customers that they can sell them one product, deliver something different and the customers are prepared to completely gloss over the fact. I cannot think of many other service industries that would get away with this. We all understand that ports can be missed due to weather or other issues, but there is no justification whatsoever for what happened on Friday. 

 

I am conscious that I was speaking to a ship based middle manager and not someone who makes the decisions centrally, so I will pursue all of this with the Presidents office after the cruise, but they are sure to ask if I’d raised these issues on board, and I now have. 

 

 

Another excellent post by you.  I am following along mostly because I am incensed on your behalf about the inadequate provision for disabled passengers and the fact that they would trot out 'different shipbuilders' as a reason is shocking.  But as you point out, you were dealing with a middle manager in the operation and you really need to be addressing this higher, which I am pleased you intend to do.

 

 

[molecrochip]

Most of these points are governed by the US ADA rules, as these are generally the benchmark on accessibility adaptations. @Selbourne following points are my understanding.

 

21 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Regarding the lack of drop down grab rails, he said that he was aware of this issue as other guests had also raised it. He couldn’t give any guarantee that this would be addressed prior to our next booked cruise on QA in November. I’d rather that he was honest about this than promised us something that he couldn’t guarantee though, and I will take this up with Cunard when we return home. 

This is an oversight I believe and based on the previous class builds before the current ADA legislation was introduced. I expect this will need to be rectified before she ever begins an itinerary from the US.

 

24 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I also mentioned the fact that older ships in the Carnival stable have far better accessible features, such as P&Os Iona which, as well as sensibly located grab rails, has automated cabin and balcony doors and such features as a height adjustable wash basin (the fixed ones on QA are too high for full time wheelchair users). His explanation was that they are different shipbuilders, but I would have thought that the company ordering the ships (Carnival in both these cases) signs off the specification?

Frustratingly, different builders have different design standards and if you want to deviate from them then you need to pay. If you compare Iona (MW in Germany) and Britannia (Fincantieri in Italy) in the P&O fleet, you will note that the standard door width on Iona is somewhat larger than Britannia (the Royal class has some of the smallest modern suite doors at sea).

 

That said, modern standards should insist on automated doors in accessible cabins. Even Sun Princess (Fincantieri as per Queen Anne) still doesn't have automated doors. It has been suggested previously that its not currently an option offered by Fincantieri - that I can't confirm/deny.

 

31 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, I did mention the totally inadequate signage for the wheelchair user and companions seats in the theatre that a number of us have raised, and he said that he’d speak to the theatre manager. I won’t hold my breath on that one. 

The signage is ADA compliant however its up to the staff to police the use of these spaces. As I understand it, the law does not allow for discrimination between someone in a wheelchair and someone who considers themselves disabled by virtue of a limp. Therefore it is very difficult to police. Essentially, if someone sits in that dedicated space (next to wheelchair spot) the the crew can't actually ask them if they have a disability/entitlement to use that seat. They can ask if they would mind relocating but cannot enforce.

[Megabear2]

47 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I had a meeting with the Customer Service Manager yesterday. I had called at the Pursers desk again to express my disappointment at having heard absolutely nothing since requesting a meeting with him two days earlier. I declined further attempts to be palmed off to more junior staff, and we both got the distinct impression that he was a bit irked at having to see us.

 

Regarding the lack of drop down grab rails, he said that he was aware of this issue as other guests had also raised it. He couldn’t give any guarantee that this would be addressed prior to our next booked cruise on QA in November. I’d rather that he was honest about this than promised us something that he couldn’t guarantee though, and I will take this up with Cunard when we return home. 
 

I also mentioned the fact that older ships in the Carnival stable have far better accessible features, such as P&Os Iona which, as well as sensibly located grab rails, has automated cabin and balcony doors and such features as a height adjustable wash basin (the fixed ones on QA are too high for full time wheelchair users). His explanation was that they are different shipbuilders, but I would have thought that the company ordering the ships (Carnival in both these cases) signs off the specification?
 

Yes, I did mention the totally inadequate signage for the wheelchair user and companions seats in the theatre that a number of us have raised, and he said that he’d speak to the theatre manager. I won’t hold my breath on that one. 
 

Finally, as it had taken two days to get to see him, I was also able to question why we had not been following the advertised itinerary on this cruise and had received no explanation as to any reason why. Much to my surprise, he was completely unaware of this fact and had to look up the itinerary on the Cunard website to see what I was referring to! As previously mentioned, Thursday had been advertised as “Isle of Skye Sail By” when, in reality our ‘sail by’ was late in the day when the light was fading and, even had it been sunny weather, we were too far away to see anything. More significantly, Friday had been advertised as “Scottish Isles Scenic cruising” but had ended up being an utterly pointless sea day to nowhere, where we didn’t see a speck of land from sunrise to sunset. These two days were one of the major reasons that we chose this particular cruise, as the scenic cruising aspect really appealed to us. 
 

No explanation was offered, and I was told that nobody else had raised it. I resisted the temptation to suggest that might be because it’s very difficult to get to see him, but I did make the point, which I’m happy to repeat here, that Cunard are very fortunate that they have such loyal and dedicated customers that they can sell them one product, deliver something different and the customers are prepared to completely gloss over the fact. I cannot think of many other service industries that would get away with this. We all understand that ports can be missed due to weather or other issues, but there is no justification whatsoever for what happened on Friday. 

 

I am conscious that I was speaking to a ship based middle manager and not someone who makes the decisions centrally, so I will pursue all of this with the Presidents office after the cruise, but they are sure to ask if I’d raised these issues on board, and I now have. 

 

So all in all not very successful.

 

I recall you mentioning lack of a chair to sit on and this jogged my memory that when traveling with my mother in accessible balcony rooms on QE and QV there was no chair in those rooms either save a dressing table type chair just inside the door.  Ive never sailed QM2 inan accessible cabin but wonder whether this is fleet wide below the Grills?

 

Has anyone told you if the Princess/Queen's Grill suites have anything different to offer for those requiring bars, automations etc?

 

Regarding other ships you sailed on last year which i recall.being Aurora, Ventura, QM2 and  Iona (the latter of course fairly new) perhaps you could mention when taking the issue further what these considerably older vessels offered that made things easier.  It is natural to assume a newer ship will offer better facilities.  

 

Chatting to a guy yesterday he mentioned although Queen Anne is a new ship her design is now quite old with the first Pinnacle ship being delivered in 2016.  Obviously adapted, made bigger etc but basically an older design. Perhaps it might be interesting to ask on the HAL board if the passengers on the other Pinnacle ships have these problems or whether it's just bad planning and provision by Cunard.

 

Did you get an answer to your other question about the Liverpool celebration arrangements?  I have received my pack now and it seems to be that less standing than envisaged may be necessary than we thought.  (Letter below).

 

 

Edited June 2 by Megabear2

[King Amo]

Selbourne, you're absolutely spot on about how lucky they are to have such a loyal customer base. 

 

There are certain things that don't surprise me in what he said about the accessibility changes. Automating the patio doors won't be simple and won't be quick to do, so I doubt there will be any change before the first session in dry dock. However, there is much more within their control. Additional grab rails may not be there by the end of your particular cruise, as I imagine they would need to look very carefully into the bathroom pod construction before drilling in willy nilly, particularly given it needs to take some very serious weight. I can't believe it will be insurmountable, however, so with a bit of work either at the manufacturer, or by investigating within a crew bathroom, it should be a matter of weeks rather than months to solve. The signage or management of the theatre seating area is solvable immediately though, so I would expect to see a visible difference tonight, be it through some manner of temporary signage, or a member of staff being asked to oversee the area. It would be such a quick win to make a legitimately unhappy guest feel like they have been heard (or if you were cynical, to paint this manager as wonderful and prevent a more serious complaint). 

[Victoria2]

There is, or was theatre signage, no issue about that. However the signs could do with being more prominent with 'reminders' in the daily programme that they are reserved for wheelchair users and their companion.

 

Edit

I would add arriving early to make sure of being seated in the appropriate areas is nothing new as we have been doing this for years on Queen Victoria. The problem really arises for those who don't have the facility to dine at a time to facilitate early arrival.

 

On the 10th May cruise we were quite surprised at the number of wheelchair and scooter users and also, the infirm. We haven't come across so many on our previous Cunard cruises and to give Cunard their due, not all wheelchair users can be accommodated but it would seriously help if non wheelchair users didn't take up the companion spaces given.

Edited June 2 by Victoria2

[Selbourne]

13 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Most of these points are governed by the US ADA rules, as these are generally the benchmark on accessibility adaptations. @Selbourne following points are my understanding.

 

This is an oversight I believe and based on the previous class builds before the current ADA legislation was introduced. I expect this will need to be rectified before she ever begins an itinerary from the US.

 

Frustratingly, different builders have different design standards and if you want to deviate from them then you need to pay. If you compare Iona (MW in Germany) and Britannia (Fincantieri in Italy) in the P&O fleet, you will note that the standard door width on Iona is somewhat larger than Britannia (the Royal class has some of the smallest modern suite doors at sea).

 

That said, modern standards should insist on automated doors in accessible cabins. Even Sun Princess (Fincantieri as per Queen Anne) still doesn't have automated doors. It has been suggested previously that its not currently an option offered by Fincantieri - that I can't confirm/deny.

 

The signage is ADA compliant however its up to the staff to police the use of these spaces. As I understand it, the law does not allow for discrimination between someone in a wheelchair and someone who considers themselves disabled by virtue of a limp. Therefore it is very difficult to police. Essentially, if someone sits in that dedicated space (next to wheelchair spot) the the crew can't actually ask them if they have a disability/entitlement to use that seat. They can ask if they would mind relocating but cannot enforce.

Thanks for picking up on this @molecrochip It’s reassuring that a Carnival insider is reading these posts and responding. 
 

I fully appreciate that these shortcomings aren’t the fault of the ships staff and as I made clear to the Customer Service Manager yesterday I don’t expect the staff to have to police theatre seating and receive the abuse that I did the other night. The solution is seat back covers that clearly state “Wheelchair Companions Only”. If I recall correctly, on Iona these were orange and it would take someone who is not with a wheelchair user some real front to ignore those! The current signs on QA are minsicule and invisible. 

[Selbourne]

20 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

So all in all not very successful.

 

I recall you mentioning lack of a chair to sit on and this jogged my memory that when traveling with my mother in accessible balcony rooms on QE and QV there was no chair in those rooms either save a dressing table type chair just inside the door.  Ive never sailed QM2 inan accessible cabin but wonder whether this is fleet wide below the Grills?

 

Has anyone told you if the Princess/Queen's Grill suites have anything different to offer for those requiring bars, automations etc?

 

Regarding other ships you sailed on last year which i recall.being Aurora, Ventura, QM2 and  Iona (the latter of course fairly new) perhaps you could mention when taking the issue further what these considerably older vessels offered that made things easier.  It is natural to assume a newer ship will offer better facilities.  

 

Chatting to a guy yesterday he mentioned although Queen Anne is a new ship her design is now quite old with the first Pinnacle ship being delivered in 2016.  Obviously adapted, made bigger etc but basically an older design. Perhaps it might be interesting to ask on the HAL board if the passengers on the other Pinnacle ships have these problems or whether it's just bad planning and provision by Cunard.

 

Did you get an answer to your other question about the Liverpool celebration arrangements?  I gave received my pack now and it seems to be that less standing than envisaged may be necessary than we thought.  (Letter below).

 

 

Yes we did cruise on all those ships last year. They were all different and some were better than others (accessibility wise) but none were as problematic as this cabin has been, as grab rails are absolutely critical for my wife. I must have forgotten to say that the deck manager got me a chair and foot stall from the library, which I have thanked him for as I can now sit in comfort. I will ask for the same again if we return in November. 
 

I haven’t seen the latest letter re Liverpool yet but we have decided to stay on the ship during the ceremony and take our chances with what we will see.