Ynox

Sky Princess has Starlink. Working very well and a game changer for me.

I'm on Sky tomorrow. Interested to see given it's just out of dry dock whether it's got Starlink now or if it's still using SES (and probably SES geo, yay for 700ms ping knowing my luck). 

A few people on this thread seem to know what they're talking about (kudos to Mercruiser and Vibeguy). I'll have a laptop with me so I'll see if I can grab a speed test if it's Starlink - will be off the coast of France and Spain.

Tried going to https://www.cunard.com/en-gb ? I work for a German company so spend a lot of my time on a VPN where it looks like I'm connecting from Germany so the website defaults to German and EUR for currency. I manually go to the UK site and it works for me.

Back from the QM2 today (I was on the 5 night trip around the English Channel).

Again we drove to Southampton, parking using CPS. This was good, a little busy at Mayflower but overall good. Zero complaints.

I had an ocean view booked, but ended up getting upgraded to a sheltered balcony. Probably my best upgrade in 12 trips - we were in an aft starboard deck 5 cabin on stairwell D (although the wifi didn't work from my cabin - I used my loyalty benefits to get premium wifi for the voyage so this was pretty disappointing). Again we found this had ample room for our travel cot and stroller, although the stroller again didn't fit through the stateroom door. We requested a baby bath from the room steward and also had biohazard bags provided for storing nappies (diapers). A baby bath can fit inside the shower on the QM2 for storage, this is something a little better than on the Vista class ships where I had to store this under the bed when not in use.

Again for meals we ate breakfast and lunch in the Kings Court. The staff here were fantastic and we were easily able to find food suitable for my daughter. Dinner was in Britannia, we had a table on deck 3 near the door and the staff were great. A couple of nights we didn't quite finish dinner (my daughter was tired so we had to leave) but overall this worked well once again - my daughter ate chicken and vegetables for dinner each day (whilst watching cartoons on an iPad on silent to entertain herself).

Our daily routine was pretty similar to what we did on the QV, although we chose the Carinthia Lounge for morning coffee. This has a great layout for creating a small area to allow a child to play simply by rotating the table around if sat at a window. Worked well. 

We used the kids club again on this trip. On the QM2 under 2s have their own room (although again you need to stay). This had similar toys too on the QV, but also a couple of Cosy Coupe cars and a space hopper. The night nursery was offered but we decided not to use it this time (apparently none of the babies did, there were 8 on the ship this time).

In terms of ports, we visited Rotterdam and Le Havre, choosing to remain on board in Zeebrugge (we've been to Bruges a number of times and it's a hassle getting here from the ship involving 2 buses and a train). Our experience in Le Havre wasn't great - it took around 30 minutes to actually get off the ship at 1230 as we required an accessible gangway which was being used for people embarking the ship (we were asked to use deck 3, but this was a set of stairs - not possible to take a stroller down them!). I've raised this complaint with Cunard as I felt that this would also be a poor situation for a disabled person. 

Overall even with the non working wifi (not great at 4am when you want to look at stuff on the internet whilst settling a baby!) and the hassle disembarking at Le Havre it was still a great trip. The QM2 is showing its age in parts now but I do still enjoy it (even with its idiosyncrasies such as half decks!). 

Next Cunard trip now for me is the QV next year up to Norway. Before then though I'm 'cheating' on Cunard with Princess! It'll be interesting to see how it stacks up in comparison.

14 minutes ago, rsquare said:

Experienced Cunarders at my table on M236 agreed that the quality of the food has improved compared to previous crossings.  Seemed to me that we had one less entree to select from, but I can't swear to it.  And the low-sugar/sugar-free ice cream or dessert option has gone, although another CCer has said that they are still available on request.  

It's a personal opinion, but I'd agree that I think the quality of the food had improved on my last trip.

Over the years on Cunard I'd found the quality has gone up and down. 

On 11/24/2022 at 12:22 PM, addo said:

We have travelled on Cunard with both our children. One at 5 months and one at 1 year and they became very avid cruisers.  Cunard provided a travel cot, a playpen on deck as the Caronia did not have a children centre.  Nappies were also provided.  We left toys onboard between trips. We took a clip on chair for the table. We paid £10 per day per child.

 

As they got older they had an early 6pm cabin dinner then story time and bed.  It was a very relaxing holiday and great family time.

 

Our son  (32) stills cruises when his work allows it. He has spent 3 months onboard  QM2 and QE this year.  He has made great friends onboard and met so many interesting people.

 

Your review was extremely interesting to read. Long may you continue to cruise.

 

 

Thanks. I spoke with some fellow passengers on the QV trip who had taken their child on the QE2 back in the day. Their experience was somewhat different to what it is now! Nappies are available for purchase these days although we took our own supply. Children are however free under the age of 2 and there were ample high chairs on board.

After a couple of weeks at home to think back in retrospect on this, I still think the trip went pretty well and am looking forward to boarding the QM2 in a couple of weeks. If nothing else it'll be another break from work for me (and I can try to catch up on some sleep).

Unfortunately whilst I can pretty much work from anywhere these days, I require a pretty solid internet connection. So working from a cruise ship isn't possible for me! 

4 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

There is an age restriction on transatlantic.   I believe the baby must be twelve months old.  On cruises with frequent ports this isn’t an issue as there are medical facilities ashore for babies if needed.

Correct, 12 months for TA (and any trips with over 3 consecutive sea days from memory)  Fortunately I’m not on a TA this time!

Today I returned from a trip down to the Canaries on the Queen Victoria. As there's limited information out there on travelling with babies on Cunard, I figured I'd write up a post (I can also add to this next month as I'm on the QM2).

Taking a baby on a cruise ship is a somewhat contentious topic. However, my wife and I have enjoyed travelling on Cunard since our honeymoon back in 2015 (a once in a lifetime TA followed by a trip up to Boston - I'm now sat at 99 nights on board and we have 3 Cunard trips currently booked, including the Queen Anne maiden. Suffice to say we're addicted...). So, we like the product, and they allow babies? Great!

The trip started a little differently for us. Normally I'd get a car service to take us from our house in West London to Southampton. Due to requiring a car seat etc we decided this time to drive ourselves and park at the port. We had 4 suit cases and 1 suit carrier, plus the stroller and travel cot. Add to this nappies also and you realise that it's impossible to travel light with a baby. CPS provided a very slick service at a pretty reasonable price.

One 'issue' with travelling with a baby is that you need to have a stateroom that can have > 2 pax. This limits your options a little. I booked this trip on board whilst on the QE last year so was able to spend some time with voyage sales in order to find one which worked for our requirements. We took 6198, an aft Britannia Balcony. This had ample room to store our huge (Baby Jogger City Elite 2) pram and we brought our own travel cot (a Graco Foldlite - I seriously recommend this. Great bit of kit). A baby bath was provided by our room steward (on request) and nappies were put into a provided biohazard bag in our bathroom. 

For meals we tended to eat breakfast and lunch in the Lido (my daughter gets particularly hangry). This worked fairly well - allergens etc are well labelled and it meant we could easily grab suitable food quickly. Dinner was in Britannia - most nights we ordered my daughter either chicken and vegetables, or steak and vegetables. Baby food is available, but my daughter is doing baby led weaning so we didn't use this. In Britannia we had early (boo, but my daughter needs to eat earlier than I'd like to for dinner) dining on a fixed table - fortunately close to the door for the times we had to take her out of the restaurant due to making too much noise. The high chairs on board are OK, although we took an inflatable high chair pillow to help support my daughter.

In the days we got into a fairly happy routine whereby we would be up for breakfast at about 7am, eat, then grab a coffee in the Chart Room (rearranging the furniture a little (we made sure to move it back after however!) to allow for my daughter to play). After this it was her nap time so we'd either both nap, or one of us would go to the gym. After this, it was time for the kids club (on sea days it's open from 1000, although it's not open until 1400 on a port day). Under 2s can use the facilities, but parents must remain with them at all times. My daughter was the only < 2 on the trip so she had plenty of attention from the excellent staff - they formed a great bond with her and she really enjoyed being there. Kids club closed between 1200 - 1400 for a break so we'd go to lunch, nap (I'd grab an hour in the Golden Lion) before heading back to the kids club for an hour or 2 in the afternoon (Kids club closes at 1700). Then time for dinner (great fun getting ready in the dark!).

The night nursery was available on this trip (it can sometimes be unavailable due to staffing levels). On the Queen Victoria this is a room off the side of the kids club which has a couple of travel cots in it. This is available from 6pm - 11pm for children between 6 months and 2 years in age and the staff will provide you with a pager in case your child awakes (we were paged a couple of times). Your child must be asleep or very nearly asleep before taking them up there normally, but as we were the only  under 2 they did allow us to settle our daughter there. The kids club staff were *very* keen for us to use it and we were able to go for our first child free 'night out' since my daughter was born 9 months ago. The kids club staff really were fantastic and I'd recommend this service to any parents.

Finally, as I commented earlier - taking a baby on a cruise ship could be thought to be somewhat contentious. On the whole we found other passengers to be pretty positive towards us. A lot of friendly comments and if people did feel negatively towards it (I'd not blame them, my daughter hated having her hands cleaned after eating and would scream!) they didn't tell me to my face. We were very, very, very apprehensive before going - we briefly discussed cancelling the trip. But between this and the awesome kids club staff, we actually booked another trip whilst on board for next year.

Hopefully my QM2 trip next month goes as well. I'll try to update this post with some comments about life on the QM2 with a baby in 2022 after it.
 

2 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

And, when she’s a grandmother, won’t your 9 month old have tales to tell to her grand children - before taking them on the latest transatlantic Cunarder.

Thanks - hopefully she will. She's got a few trips booked (including the Queen Anne maiden)! 

There was definitely covid on board. I saw some staff with FFP3 masks and aprons delivering food etc to rooms with positive people in them on my deck (6). Fortunately my wife, daughter and I have all recently had covid so I wasn't too fussed about being too near them. I imagine crew will be in/out of masks as covid numbers fluctuate over time. 

As for the fire, the burning electrical smell did hang around. A guess is maybe a water leak resulted in some electrical connectors arcing and then this ignited something else (or the water leak is a misnomer and it just went up without the leak). Definitely a fair bit of damage done by the amount of work that the required to fix this - it felt like they were working on it all day every day until it reopened yesterday. I was walking around the ship at the time of the announcements and didn't notice much in the way of panic (we headed back to our stateroom, but that was mainly as it was my daughter's nap time!). Definitely agree that using 'civilian' language to describe a fire is a bad idea though (and that we were lucky to be docked at the time).

Overall it was a good, if different trip for me. First one with my daughter (I'm the guy who brought his 9 month old on board - you probably saw me walking around looking half asleep). We were very impressed with the facilities on board for my daughter and the reassurance from the youth staff - we booked a QV trip for next year to Norway whilst on board. Off on the QM2 next month so it'll be interesting to see how the kids facilities compare.
 

It's a shame that there is a covid outbreak on board although thinking about it, there's no good way to prevent this really other than masks (pre-boarding testing would help, but what about at ports? Would every pax need to be tested multiple times)? Do you know if the Lido is self service too with these new rules or is it back to people being served (to be honest, I don't mind that having seen people touch bread rolls etc with their hands...)?

I'm on the trip leaving on the 30th. Hopefully things will have improved by then but if not, it'll still be a good trip and it's part of the risk of booking right now (although I was able to fly to Australia and back last month without wearing a mask - that said, I did catch covid on my return). It will be my first trip with my daughter so I'll be pretty obvious to spot (find the couple who look knackered with an 8 month old in a stroller).

Booked the maiden today.

We received one of the marketing packs (the card ones in a box) the other day which converted me from not wanting to do it, to booking it. Good investment from Cunard if it had the same effect on others!

Fortunately my daughter will just be under 2 when we sail, so she was free. Unfortunately the only balcony cabin I could get was forward, but I was happy to take whatever (you’re limited in choice if you need one for 3 pax). Will be on early dining (due to wrangling a very nearly 2 year old) but hoping to try the Indian restaurant on board.

Never done a maiden voyage and I suspect it will be a while until the next one as other posters have said, so I’m happy I booked it, even if it’s the Bay of Biscay in January!

Congratulations! My honeymoon (6 years ago now, time flies) was QM2 from Soton to NY and then up to Halifax and Boston. I just got off the QE today (my 10th trip).

A little late, but here's some comments in case for future reference. 

I live not too far from you and tend to take a taxi / car service to Soton. Smiths for Airports tend to be pretty reliable, South Coast Chauffeurs are also good (although I think they've renamed now) for future reference.

Drinks package wise, I had a drinks package for the first time on my trip last week. The wine measures were probably bigger than 150ml and the sommeliers were happy to keep them coming. I think the 15 drinks is a 'soft' limit rather than hard as long as you're not totally inebriated. It's a fair bit to drink though - I like a few beers and would struggle to hit the 15! On a sea day, I ended up drinking probably 2/3 coffees, a couple of bottles of water, 6 beers, 3 glasses of wine and a couple of cocktails a day - not sure I'd rush to do it again as even with this, the savings weren't _that_ good and a more intensive port schedule would have totally negated them.

I'm sure you know by now, but there's no dancing in the Yacht club on these voyages due to covid measures. Instead they're being used as another bar with Amethyst and the John James Trio playing in it. Masks are mandatory in the theatre and no drinks can be brought in. I think you can get them on board, but I just picked up a load from Amazon.

Tips are incredibly contentious. Personally, the staff haven't been working for the last 2 years or so, so I gave some pretty hefty tips in cash (GBP) in addition to leaving the auto gratuities on. 

1 hour ago, BigMac1953 said:

Normally it's a bottle of champagne for sail away, but given my wife is pregnant I'm not sure drinking an entire bottle of champagne on my own before going to the Commodore Club for pre dinner drinks is the best idea!

 

Amateur!

🙂

You've maybe convinced me otherwise!

1 hour ago, Host Hattie said:

Or a half bottle ?

Half bottle is one option, but it means going out and picking one up, as opposed to just grabbing one from my stash here in my garage. 

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

 

He may be concerned about exciting spousal jealousy.

That's a good point. I don't think my wife would be that happy if I drink 6 glasses of champagne on my own whilst she looks on enviously. Maybe if it was 6 glasses of Pol Acker it might be different though (she'd probably pity me 😁)! 

I've taken on board gin, mixers, beer, champagne and wine before. No problems. Also picked up some in port occasionally - once in Kiel I had the staff at the port try stopping me, but a quick check with a Cunard employee and I was good to go.

I think it's a fair policy. I still spend a lot in the bars on board, but I also quite like picking up local beers / wines in ports. All these are strictly for stateroom consumption though (it's kind of trashy behaviour to go and fill up your glass from your in room stock whilst being sat in a bar on board!).

I'll be taking some beers with me on Tuesday I think. Normally it's a bottle of champagne for sail away, but given my wife is pregnant I'm not sure drinking an entire bottle of champagne on my own before going to the Commodore Club for pre dinner drinks is the best idea!

9 hours ago, LadyL1 said:

For any of you reading this, who have a staycation booked for the next few weeks, you have a lot to look forward to. Fear not of the new protocol, it is just great to be able to cruise again.
Thanks to all the crew on this voyage.
Home now and looking forward to the next cruise in January: maybe even sooner!
 

Thanks for your trip reports! Boarding on Tuesday - looking forward to it!

55 minutes ago, david,Mississauga said:

We have never purchased a drinks package. Considering what little we drink and the restrictions it wouldn't be worth it. For the first time Cunard has given us a drinks package for our next voyage.

 

This may seem a silly question, but is the mix (an extra $3.30 for Fevertree tonic) included with the meagre one ounce drink which will in total be under the $12 limit? Or will I have to order the gin and then wait the required 10 minutes before ordering the tonic if it is considered a separate drink?

From my (and my wife's) memory, we think it may come with a mixer from the soda gun included in the price of the 1oz. Not Fever Tree though. 

I'm a little on the fence about having a drinks package next week. The savings are marginal for me so I wonder if it's more of a pain than not having one (case in point, wanting a Fever Tree mixer and not having to pay twice for it!).

1 hour ago, techteach said:

Thanks for the menu rakkor. I’m surprised there aren’t more single malts scotches. Is the Commodore Club the best place to find them?

Yeah, I'd say so. I can't think of any other bars with a bigger scotch collection from memory.

I've sat down and ran the numbers on a drinks package a few times. Usually I can't make it work as my wife likes cocktails over $12 (I tend to mostly drink beer then wine with dinner and the odd gin). 

Back on board on Tuesday. This time we're thinking we might go for a drinks package (we're only planning on disembarking in 2 ports), although only if they'll allow me to have the alcoholic one and my wife the premium soft drinks one - she's pregnant so no pricey Commodore Club cocktails this time! If there's no leeway in this then we won't bother as it's not a great deal (a quick calculation worked out it'd cost me $250 extra over paying as we go).

15 hours ago, exlondoner said:

For those coming from abroad, presumably including the OP, the issue will be what colour list their country is on, not progress with U.K. unlocking.

Very good point. I was thinking this from the summer cruise perspective for the UK pax.

BBC News have leaked that restrictions are likely to continue until 21/7. It's anyone's guess as to how long people will have to quarantine etc when coming into the UK. I'd hope we'll see some improvement on that though (I'm fed up of border closures, supposed to be in Melbourne in December for my brother's wedding which I've now accepted won't be happening!).

Whilst nothing official has been said, I think it’s likely that the 21/6 will be postponed. 
 

Would this necessarily impact the cruises though? My understanding is we’d remain at the same state as we are now, and MSC Virtuosa is sailing (although they couldn’t dock in Scotland).

If you search this has come up a few times.

I was 30 when I took my first trip (6 years ago now) for my honeymoon. A westbound transatlantic followed by a trip up the eastern seaboard to Halifax and Boston.

6 years later I've done 8 trips on Cunard if I remember right, with a 9th now booked (a UK circumnavigation in September on the QE). This would have been higher if it wasn't for the covid situation!

My favourite thing to do on board is to hang out in the Golden Lion with my kindle or ipad, reading with a few beers. My wife occasionally drags me to Hemispheres / The Yacht Club / G32 also. Lectures can be hit and miss personally - seen some incredible ones (A POW, a Concorde pilot, D-Day veterans), and also slept through some not so good ones. As someone who lives in jeans or shorts and tshirts, it's also nice to have an excuse to wear more formal clothes!

Edit - the drinks tastings can also be excellent. Martini Mixology is well worth going to, as is the Gin tasting (this has descended into chaos if fun the 2 times I did it with everyone getting fairly inebriated in the afternoon) if offered. Also the vodka tasting and the beer tasting. Only one I haven't done is the whiskey one! (there's a theme here...).

Also Cunard have no problem with you bringing on drinks for stateroom consumption. I've had some port staff get dodgy occasionally but a quick ask for them to check the rules and it's been fine.

On the subject of the Chart Room - I quite like it for a post dinner drink. Before dinner has to be the Commodore club on a vista class ship usually though. On QM2 it's the Golden Lion for the quiz before dinner.

On 10/16/2020 at 3:49 PM, Host Hattie said:

Happy Friday again, our local lockdown has been extended for another week at least and our First Minister talked about a 2 or 3 week circuit breaker which might be announced on Monday. All rather depressing .....

We'd already booked to go to the pub for dinner tonight, might be our last chance for a while.

 

As a Welsh expat and a lot of friends and family down in Cardiff and the Vale still, I kind of feel sorry for you all. Coming from England it does feel as if the WAG has to be seen to be doing more than Westminster, regardless whether it's the right choice (for which I'm not entirely convinced lockdowns are personally).

I've heard rumours that places in Wales will be closing at 6pm on Monday, but nothing concrete nor from a reputable source.

On a better note, my wife (who also posts on here occasionally!) has successfully taken our puppy through the first round of his puppy training, and I've got a new bike so getting back into mountain biking. Got to somehow fit into my suits and dinner jacket by June next year for a TA (NY to Soton) we have booked!

Next trip is going to be a TA in June next year, so it'll be a pint of Sierra Nevada in the Golden Lion most likely.

22 hours ago, Germancruiser said:

Thanks for all the recommedations- I will book a TA in 2021 too- if it goes- I will use either transportations - BUT NOT Southcoast Chauffeurs- if they still exist. Major Ripe off the last time i used them. I was just a bit travel weary otherwise I had argued the point. ( Adding charge for the use of a credit card)

Kind of surprised at that. It's now illegal to charge for using a credit card, but I found SCC to be pretty decent. Sure, they're not the cheapest but they have a great fleet of vehicles (nice S class Mercedes) and the service was overall good.

I tend to use Smiths for Airports predominantly instead as I can get a car with more luggage space than an S class (we travel heavy!) and they're a little cheaper. You probably won't get an S class from them though, but otherwise they also provide exceptional service. I've used them a load of times.

I'd probably avoid the train. Did it once to Soton for a 5 night cruise before Christmas and found it to be such a pain with baggage that paying out for a taxi makes sense personally (I live near Heathrow).

On 8/21/2020 at 10:04 PM, mcloaked said:

 

Many companies unfortunately rely on Windows servers, as well as Windows desktops for staff - Windows is the most vulnerable operating system to cyber attack - if Carnival's companies were using Linux servers they would have been hugely less vulnerable.  Sadly this has not been taken on board by a lot of companies and organisations. Those companies who invested in Linux systems and expertise are in a much better position than those who have not.  Either way I do hope that Cunard is not the brand impacted in this event, but I suppose information will emerge in due course - and hopefully the significant number of Cunard customers have not had their personal data exposed to the possibility of further attack at a personal level. It does take time for companies to try to recover from cyber attack events - hopefully it won't be too long - but in some cases (eg the recent Blackbaud exposure) it can be a month or two before information is released - hopefully in this case it will be a lot sooner!

Agreed. From memory Carnival UK's IT systems are on Windows - they're a Microsoft place. I saw a solutions architect role advertised that I was kind of tempted to apply for but my experience is more on the Java / Linux side than MS.