mariposa777

No experience of it with Cunard however for the occasional time this has happened to me I have had success sorting it out directly with the vendor.

I am reluctant to use charge back as the first recourse as it can have negative implications for the vendor and feel they should at least have an opportunity to rectify the program.

Nb I am in Australia and our charge back rules differ somewhat from the US and it is less commonly used.

Thank you so much for this review - really useful info !

Great pictures.

I'm glad you enjoyed the Herbie Hancock show .. I gather there was a fair bit of "long format" material that some didn't find enjoyable …. I must admit I tend to get a little twitchy about 20min into a single piece. My jazz loving man says I just need more practice :-)

Well....the film is in German but amazing impressions from the remastering In Hamburg and it has just been on the German TV today - unbelievable job in 3 weeks! http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/2785182/Schoenheitskur-fuer-Queen-Mary-II?bc=svp;sv0

Thanks for posting that- excellent video.

I would miss the aft area on deck 12 - one of my favourite spots on board.

I do concede that the dog exercise area needed to be larger though.

You will have a wonderful time - we did a May crossing in 2014 for TheMr's birthday - just before we left we decided to get married so it turned into a honeymoon as well. It was fabulous - and the reason I still look at cruisecritic almost daily just to get my Cunard fix.

My experience is getting dated - May 2014.

We had one lunch and one dinner in Todd English and enjoyed it very much.

The food was great and the service was fine.

The sommelier, Tatiana I think, was just excellent. She really made it a special meal.

I would eat there again … there was a chocolate dessert that was extremely yummy.

The Bennelong restaurant in the opera house does a very nice pre- theatre dinner from 5:30 pm ... Just in case you decide that the buffet doesn't cut it ;-)

Exxy but makes for a special evening.

Hello to all:

 

We will be on the QM2 in Sydney when it overnights there on Thursday March 10. We are planning to buy tickets for a concert with 7:30 pm start time at the Sydney Opera House but are currently on the 6 pm first seating, so will likely have to skip the MDR. Anyone know the time that dinner in Kings Court buffet starts? We would like to be off the ship by 6:30 pm.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

The insurance company could not understand that I had no access to either a fax or the internet and a printer .. said they could do nothing for me .. all claims have to go by registered mail for approval so at the time of the emergency they provided no help at all

 

.......

 

Regards

John

This is pretty alarming to me - I pay a lot of attention to the promise of emergency assistance made by my insurer and it does seem that it rarely plays out as advertised.

Assuming that you have one of their standard policies i would have expected the kind of help listed on the page below to kick in and assist you with travel arrangments etc. One would expect to be able to access this without having to initiate a claim process.

http://www.insureandgo.com.au/travel-insurance/24-hour-emergency-assistance.html

There was a thread some time back about a solo cunard passenger put off in Belgium after suffering a stroke - her emergency assistance did get her home but it took a couple days for them to have someone on the ground to bring her home. She had to pay quite a large hospital bill up front.

I do have travel insurance , when I rang them in Sydney all I could get from them is send us a fax and fill in a form we might pay you in three months time:p

 

 

I was in need of someone to assist me , Princess Cruises say there was supposed to be a caree team to look after me , I knew nothing about this nor did I get ANY contact phone numbers , also Princess Office in Australia were closed and not contactable

 

 

Regards

 

John

Good to see you are feeling a bit more cheerful today - it certainly appears the port agent/Princess has dropped the ball.

Ideally one would hope when a passenger is deemed unwell enough to put off the ship that the ship's shore reps would hand off to the passenger's insurance emergency company. The passenger should not be left to fend for themselves, especially if the rest of their party is still onboard.

Was it the 24hr emergency insurance contact that gave you the brush off or the claims number? (who should have known to redirect you to the international assistance org).

We have done a trans atlantic on Cunard - the main dining rom is very much NOT a fallback!

We ate in the MDR for most meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and two meals in a specialty restaurant in 8 days.

We do not like buffets but the buffet is available for all meals if that is what they prefer.

MDR and buffet are included in the fare and there is a modest supplement for the speciality resaurants.

We did not use the nightly speciality restaurants that are sectioned off from the main buffet area but someone will come along and explain them any minute now :-)

You will be pleased to know that with all your advice and encouragement, I have managed to close the suitcases. Perhaps I was panicking because the first three times with the small suitcase, it ended badly!

 

Anyway, all's well that ends well - and thank you for all your support.

It always takes me a while to get used to a new bag.

My travel suitcase is like this one

Mine is a 25 inch - the formal gear went in the top (section with the mesh zipped cover) in a large bundle such that it bulged a bit when zipped up.

Everything else for a 6 we.ek european tour including TA went in the bottom, mainly contained in packing cubes (mostly Tom Bihn brand) - the back was full but not jammed and the lid contents acted like a sponge layer to hold the bottom stable.

Putting the formal gear in the top meant that I only had to open that section for the ship (and to get out a dress for the Jules Verne restaurant in Paris .... cue chocolate dessert memories ..... Mmmmmmmmm)

Keeping the wheel end very slightly heavier is helpful in making it stable - but not so much that you can't carry it briefly by the side handle if needs be.

The design of the spinner really mandates the almost symmetrical base and lid setup so the wheels are anchored to a solid part of the bag.

(Yes i have pictures somewhere - do love my luggage:)

It does look good. Our focus group saw the proposed serving area but didn't see details for the seating area.

 

Just about anything would be an improvement. The first meal most new passengers have on the ship is embarkation day lunch. And the old Kings Court had the ambiance of a crew mess. Not a good way to start one's voyage on the flagship of the fleet.

Absolutely - i was wondering what the heck I'd gotten us into. Our crossing was a present from me to my husband for his birthday and also - as it turned out - part of our honeymoon, so a big deal for me.

Luckily we gave up and found the golden lion and a nice english beer. And did not go back to KC for the remainder of the trip.

Will be interested to see how the new setup is received.

Carinthia Lounge picture here:

 

http://www.cunard.co.uk/cruise-ships/queen-mary-2/remastered/carinthia-lounge/

 

During the day, the Carinthia Lounge will serve light breakfast and lunch dishes, speciality teas and coffees, delicacies from the new patisserie counter and a special champagne afternoon tea.

 

...The spacious venue will also feature a wine wall, vertical metal Art Deco-inspired screens, and a dark walnut timber dance floor.

and

When the sun sets, the atmosphere will evolve into an inviting evening spot with premium wines, small platters and relaxed entertainment.

I think this would be a great thing - esp late at night - we found it difficult to find a spot to have a nightcap after the late show - it would be nice to spread the crowd a little.

I was just thinking myself whether this means changes in Sir Samuels.

Hopefully they're different enough to have both - I like Sir Samuels, despite the fact that the coffee machine was out of order for 6 days of our crossing :-(

It is very beige ... Not a fan of these pale colour schemes ... Oh well.

I can't promise a "Live from " but I will try and post when I get chance.

We stayed overnight at the Montagu Arms as part of their Cruise & Stay package and had a taxi to the Ocean Terminal.

We were onboard by 12.30 and we're the first customers in the Golden Lion for lunch. I'm not a big fan of buffets so it was good to have an alternative.

There seem to be a few people with the included drinks package (not us unfortunately! ).

Love the montegu arms! We stayed there before our TA last year ( not part of a package, didn't know there was one!)

They keep sending me special deal emails .... So sad I'm so far away.

Enjoy your cruise!

We did a TA last year - our first and quite possibly our last as we have to travel half way around the the world to do it. We were dressed more formally than some and less than some … we felt pretty comfortable.

The Mr chose the dark suit option as we come from a (sadly) very casual culture/lifestyle and we are unlikely to sail with Cunard again in the near future. A very nice, good quality, fine light wool suit will get multiple wearings (and did on the land segments of that trip) whereas a dinner suit would not. As a larger gent he likes a well cut suit which will not too get hot like a synthetic cheap one might. A good dinner suit would have cost a pretty penny for little wear (He did try one and I'm a bit sad we don't travel in the circles where it would get worn.)

Cunard is unique in that it offers a formal cruising product not only in the black tie/dark suit code but the fact that it is an all night code covering a large part of the ship. It seems (from my reading at least) that other lines have a dress code for the dining room which is discarded after dinner … change for dinner, then change again for later.

Enough people book with cunard for the formal product to support it's continued offering. It was a large part of our reason for taking the TA - although our wardrobe was tempered by the needs of long distance air travel somewhat.

The number of people wanting to travel casually is presumably less and mostly met by the buffet offering .. you can bet if this balance shifts that the formal/casual balance will shift.

Luckily (for the fans of formal) there are a lot of frequently sailing formal fanatics here.

In 2011 we stayed at the Royal Maritime Club and found it affordable and convenient (not pre cruise, specifically for the museum)

In 2014 we stayed at Beaulieu in the new forest which is an easy drive from Portsmouth (we did a day trip) and Southampton (this one was pre cruise)

I suspect i was the subject of many a disapproving glance with my wrap hanging over the back of my chair in the MDR ...

Sometimes the temperature problem is not an ambient one ...

(The Mr did keep his jacket on though - boarding school indoctrination)

We sailed into NY in pea soup fog - the bridge was invisible until it was literally over the bow, we saw the feet of the statue of liberty vaguely through the murk ...

It was totally amazing.

Wow that's impressive! I always struggle with packing [emoji12]

 

 

For the non-cruise part the key is to dress in layers - and sink washing pretty much every night.

My day wear on the ship was the same as I wore for walking around in London or New York. Travelling in cool/moderate weather helps.

Nice to be able to pull out the little cocktail dress for dinner on the eiffel tower too !

I must admit that I'm a little worried about the dress code. We've sailed on Holland America many times but this is our first Cunard cruise. I don't want to pack half my wardrobe, travelling from Australia and visiting other places as well as this cruise may cause problems with weight allowance as we try to restrict our luggage to one large suitcase each rather than cart multiple ones in and out of hotels and airports. Can someone give me an idea 1-10 of how stiff it really is? Thanks in advance.

 

 

We did 7 weeks in Europe/uk/US from Australia last year (may-june) including a TA with a 25 inch case plus carryon each. I had two formal dresses plus a couple suitable for informal nights and just styled them a bit differently when repeating. The Mr wore a dark suit for formal - he seriously considered a dinner jacket/tux but just has no need for one here.

There were four formal nights.

We have done one TA which was part of our honeymoon trip - we requested a table for 6 and our tablemates were lovely.

We dine at tables for two in restaurants at home almost weekly so dining with strangers was part of the adventure for us.

The traditional large table in the MDR was part of the experience we wanted and we would do it that way again.

It's good that the ships can cater for various needs and desires.

We had problems with the first iron we tried - it spat muck on the mr's shirt so we just sent shirts to the laundry service after that. A problem on embarkation day of course.

Somehow I didn't mind spending several hours in a laundromat in London or New York but couldn't bear to waste a minute of my qm2 time in a windowless box with a washer.

We felt unless you were of an intermediate level then the dancing was not for you other than on party night where anything went. A shame really. I saw a lot of other couples saying the same. I wish people wouldn't make it so intimidating for mere mortals like us who can't dance but want to still enjoy a nice dance with our partners.

This is the same observation we made on our TA last year, although we didn't really get close enough to check for poor manners on the floor. It just seemed to be 'not for us'. That's ok - if we are lucky enough to sail on QM2 again we might try the lessons and perhaps venture onto the floor.

We had a wonderful crossing and it wasn't a big deal.

I'm not sure the themed evenings really deserve the title "ball" though … perhaps I have a fairy tale idea of what a ball should be … glass slippers and all that :-)