goodsailors

My wife is disabled and I have to agree with Victoria, we have sailed on all Cunards ships and have always felt welcomed by everyone working on the ships. We have always completed the medical questionnaire in advance disclosing my wife's disabilty and her need to use a wheelchair. We dont use an accessable cabin as we can manage in a normal one with the chair folded up.

A couple of examples of the help we get are, when leaving the ship at a port of call the assistance from the staff at the gang ways are second to none and without their help we would never be able to disembark at a port of call, especially up and down a steep gang way. Another example was our waitor on the main dinning room, meeting us at the dinning room entrance every night and taking charge of getting my wife to our table and again at the end of dinner taking her back to the exit, just couldnt have asked for more.

There are too many other instances to list here to show just how welcomimg Cunard and their staff make a disabled person feel and would not like someone reading this thread to think they are not welcome. The original posters experiance is unfortune but if you disclose your situation and needs in advance there shouldn't be a problem, well in our experiance anyway.

Thanks to everyone for all the replies, they have been most helpful. Looks like our cruising days aren't over yet!

Thanks for your reply. She has both, have spoken with the fire and rescue authority who have assured us that cylinders are safe and, for example. there is no issue with using then in the car on a long journey as they are extremely robust, thus I cannot see how use on a ship would be any different. Hence my question to get some advice from anyone who has the actual experience of using oxygen on board. Having said that I would not expect to need to use cylinders on board only a generator overnight. 

Has anyone experience of requiring to use oxygen on a daily basis on board?

My DW has been prescribed to use oxygen on a part time basis, ie overnight so would be grateful for the experiences of anyone who has such a requirement. 

3 hours ago, tartanexile81 said:

This is my genuine, recent first hand experience. I did the coach from Edinburgh to Southampton in September. In the past the coaches have been great,  provided by Ellison Coaches. We found them very comfortable and the drivers helpful. However there were lots of ships leaving Southampton the same day as us, so we ended up with a coach from Weardale Travel and we had a very unpleasant experience. The driver had never done the route before so it took ages for him to find the various pick up points (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Carlisle, Lancaster and a service station in the Midlands). We stopped for meal breaks at Norton Cane North of Birmingham and Cherwell Valley on the M40. There was no storage under the coach for luggage so we had to have a trailer and  the driver didn't communicate with us about times we'd stop or emergency procedures etc. We dropped off passengers at Britannia and Queen Mary before arriving at our ship Aurora at 3:45. And we met a couple on the same coach as us who'd lost a suitcase. NEVER AGAIN. However I have to say there have never been any problems with Ellison's

 

I cannot see the point of flying to Southampton. One of the joys of cruising is to take as much luggage as you want so when you fly, you're severely restricted.  IMO it's as stressful a way of starting a cruise as my coach journey! We usually get the train from Edinburgh to Newcastle then direct to Southampton. From Glasgow to Birmingham then to Southampton. It's very pleasant and relaxing especially if you go first class. 

We have flown on numerous occasions from either Edinburgh or Glasgow to Southampton the day before sailing, staying overnight in a Southampton hotel. We also send our luggage ahead to the hotel using one of the baggage transfer companies. So when we arrive at the hotel our baggage, as many cases as we choose, is there waiting for us. The next day the hotel provides transport to the dock and on return transport back to the hotel. We then leave our luggage with the hotel and the same company picks up our baggage that afternoon as we go to the airport and fly home. Baggage delivered home the following day.

Just what can be more hassle free, traveling at a respectable time of day, a relaxed overnight stay in Southampton and with no baggage to worry about. 

Full wrap around promenade deck with ample room for wheelchair users.

Commodore Club

Fixed dinning

Dress code

oh and keep the shower curtains!

I'm not familiar with Cullen Skink either, but Wikipedia came to the rescue.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullen_skink

 

I'm sure some of our friends from Scotland on this forum will be happy to assist with how accurate that Wikipedia article is and/or expand upon it.

We have friends who were on QE recently and unless they have changed how it is served since their cruise, it came liquidised a big NO NO.

It should come thick and creamy with chunks of smoked haddock and potatoes, you should certainly not be able to suck it through a straw! A good bowl of Cullen Skink is nearly a meal in itself and is truly delicious.

That's very disappointing - after 2019 another year of cold weather cruises only in the summer.

 

Well, I guess Carnival figures there must be enough people who like the cold.

For me, after having "frozen" on cruises to Iceland, Norway and the Baltics in the summer in the past, a warm weather schedule is much more preferable.

When we questioned the sales team on QV in June about the lack of Med cruises next year and the preponderance of Iceland, Norway and Baltic cruises we were told that was what the passengers had asked for. Would love to know who they asked as we haven't found anyone yet who has a preference for 'cold' cruises!

I received this email too and we do not have a cruise booked either other than a future deposit. But, more curious is that we also received the same email from P and O even although we have not sailed with them for over 10 years.

Can't say I am impressed with the entrees. Afraid I can't see how these are an improvement over the old ones. Disappointing that the salads are no longer a separate course. But guess I am in the minority, maybe even a minority of one!

Thanks, I have tried all of the above with no success.:o

Me too just not working for me using IE. Changed to Firefox and can see them no problem.

Hattie, can't see the pics - is it just me?

No not just you, I can't see them, either on iPad or laptop. Sorry Hattie.

 

I missed the stars of the month feature too - but I wonder whether its omission, together with that of the top sailors, has anything do with the new safeguards introduced by the Data Protection Act 2018 - it is something we are wrestling with in connection with the use of staff photographs where I work.

 

That said, I think replacing this content with an advertising feature about stationery shows a total lack of imagination.

.

Would one way around issues with the Data Protection Act 2018 be to obtain the permission of the star of the month to use their photograph.

So far as the actual magazine is concerned thought it was a very poor read, poor content with no substance.

Here's a question:

 

Are you retired or still at work ?

 

I'm still at work, so arriving the day before would mean:

 

a) Another £150 expense

 

b) More importantly, an extra day taken of my annual leave allowance.

 

Why should I, and plenty of others, have to incur extra costs and lose a days holiday ? No thanks.

I wonder if you will think that way if you are ever so held up you miss the cruise. £150 seems a small amount to safeguard the £5,000 or so that the cruise costs. Although now retired, when working we always travelled down the day before even using a day of my annual leave.

I will believe a story printed by multiple sources over your "I heard" silliness.

So there is someone in this world who believes everything they read in the papers, guess there had to one. Such silliness.

She was stupid and drunk. Stop with the false narrative.[/quote

 

As you seem to know everything about everything, prove it.

She must be a very good actress because she didn't look that stressed out or trumatized in front of TV camera and those pictures in the news article.

My comment that you used as a quote was not referring to this current NCL person who went overboard but to one a couple of years ago on the QM2.

It wasn't reported that way:

 

A search for a British woman thought to have fallen overboard during a cruise on the Queen Mary 2 ocean liner has been called off.

The woman, aged 74, was on a tour of the Caribbean which left New York on Thursday.

December 24, 2016, The Telegraph

 

A passenger on a cruise ship is believed to have died after falling overboard about 100 miles southeast of Atlantic City, according to reports.

December 27, 2016, Bergen County Record

December 23, 2016, The Independent

None of the accounts even mentions a suspicion of foul play. The ship did not return to port in NY and continued on down to the Caribbean.

You believe what you want to believe, I will believe what I heard from a passenger on the cruise that the husband pushed her over board and was charged with her disappearance.

We were on QV in June with a 12.30 boarding time. We stayed the night before in a Southampton and arranged for a taxi to get us to the terminal for 12.30 and were allowed to board immediately we arrived. Others who had been at the same hotel and left sometime before we did were still sitting around waiting to check in when we arrived. Also, as we got out our taxi we just happened to bump into people we knew, their boarding time was 1.30. We walked into the terminal together, they were given the lettered card and not called to check in until their allotted time.

Don't know if it was only our cruise but it certainly seemed that day they were keeping to the allotted boarding times. Confirmed I think by the numbers sitting waiting to check in.

Just my observations.

When are you going to respond with any reports supporting that "a good percentage of those going overboard, do so at the hands of others"? Frankly, I can't find any examples. But you must know of some or you wouldn't have made that statement.

There was one on Queen Mary 2 Christmas cruise two or three years ago.

I understand from friends on board that they also missed a port in Iceland as a result of the thruster issues it is experiencing. No mention if they are still going to Belfast though. Appears they got a complimentary bottle of wine for the missed Icelandic port!

As has been said, you cannot guarantee a port destination on a cruise especially a tender port. You just have to grin and bear it, annoying as it is. We missed Minorca on our cruise in June as the sea was too rough for a safe tender. Have to say never heard a bad word on board about it. People just got on with it and enjoyed the cruise.

Pity they couldn't have stopped at Greenock instead, but with thruster issues it might not be possible to make a port docking.

I would choose June for both the weather and the itinerary. As has been said the long hours of daylight in Scotland in June makes it worthwhile, though not sure why another comment states Oban is rough around the edges. It has a fabulous position on the west coast and is surrounded by wonderful scenery, well worth a visit.

Edinburgh in August will have a buzz about it because of the festival BUT, will be so busy it detracts from the enjoyment of the visit.

Also, they will bring out the pipe band to play you off when you leave Greenock and, from the cheers one hears from the ship it always seems to be appreciated.

Just got off the Q.V. last Friday and was in Britannia Club on deck 8.

It’s still the same. Noisy from moving loungers around. Not a good location for club cabins.

Surely not a good location for any cabin whether Britannia Club or just plain ordinary Britannia.

Cafe de Paris is a wonderful spot in good weather to sit and people watch but just be aware of prices before you order as the prices are extortionately expensive even for a drink.

Drinks maybe a bit more expensive than a back street café but still only a fraction of what you pay for the same in a café in St Marks in Venice, that is what you call extortionate if not day light robbery!

How long before someone on board says:

 

"for the amount I've paid for this cruise, I feel like I-ona" :D

 

 

 

 

 

I'll get me coat....

Just shows the old jokes are the best jokes. I knew a lady many years ago who named her house in the Scottish Borders 'Iona House'.