July1963

Thanks everyone for your input.

We booked Norwegian first time for July next year on the Joy. We have since found out that children are not allowed on the Sundeck. This would exclude us as a family from this whole area, our Son will be 14 when sailing, only child and behaves much as an adult. I did have an online Chat with Norwegian and they said to talk with Guest Services when onboard. 

Has anyone seen children in this area? This may well be a deal breaker for us to the extent we cancel.

I developed Covid on the first day so must have picked it up several days before. I was confined to a quarantine cabin on deck 5 forward. After speaking with several people who were also impacted they had a nickname for that are that I will not name here. I was confined for 8 days and it was a truly horrible experience that I would not wish for anyone. My wife and son had to test each day and had very limited access to ship for 5 days. They also had to eat in the cabin. Unfortunately she tested positive on Day 4. This meant I was confined in Quarantine. My wife was told to stay in her original cabin. The Quarantine area was well occupied so do not know if a room was available at that time. Our travel partners also tested positive at roughly the same time as my wife. They were confined to the Quarantine area. The silver lining with my Wife and travel partners is that the symptoms were not bad and had 2 clear tests after day 5 and were released. They still had to eat in the cabins. Our family missed most of the ports but we did manage to spend a couple of days all together at the end of the cruise.

I did speak with a staff member that stated they are having issues recruiting staff. He also stated that they had to sign up for a 10 month contract. Regarding service it was generally very good. I think a few instances when it was not what it should be was perhaps being slightly understaffed, lack of training/experience.

On the return trip my Covid symptoms took a turn for the worse, cough being the main issue. I pretty much went straight to the emergency room where they gave me an X-ray and some medications. The hospital staff mentioned that they are seeing a lot of people coming in after being on a cruise. They said for some people after the initial infection the secondary symptoms can very quickly take a turn for the worse and may need additional treatment as was my case.

We had planned this trip for a year and were so looking forward to it. It was our 6th voyage on QM2. For our travel partners it will the the first and last cruise. I know we will get future cruise credits but at this point I very much doubt we will ever cruise again. Maybe time will change that but the credits will have expired by then.

I think it is important for everyone to fully understand the impact of being quarantined while on board before stepping onboard.

My job now is to get over this Covid thing.

Thanks exlondoner, that's good to know it is not a showstopper.

We are getting an error when we submit our health declaration for my son and myself. My Wife completed without an issue. We are leaving on our journey to England this afternoon and hope to reach Cunard before then. I doubt we will have internet access when we arrive. Is this critical to complete before arriving at the terminal. Has anybody completed this at check-in? I hate this last minutes stress!

We have a boarding time of 3:15pm but we have to check out of the hotel by 12:00 noon. We don't want to be lugging our bags around for over 3 hours. Our hotel is near the ship. Can we drop our bags off first and then check in later?

Thanks Mumoftwo and David.

How many days before sailing do you have access to print the labels?

On 3/28/2022 at 3:19 PM, starquake said:

 

We had found the bartenders kept the machinations on how they achieved the goal of the package $12 limit to themselves mostly, once they spotted the "on package" stickers.  I fully suspect for some double gin and tonics they achieved the desired goal by charging for shots of gin (doubles) and charged the mixer as a solo (as a non alcoholic drink) 10 mins later.  But the staff never divulged this, as there was no apparent limit on amount of non-alcoholic drinks, and it was common for a bottle of water to also appear on table at same time as drinks.   We got no bill issued, and just got the drink we desired with little faff.   This was on QE at least.

 

 

So when on the package do you not sign for anything, they just bring the drink to you? . It seems that the bartenders/Sommelier's work the best deal for you from the package. My wife does not drink, so I will have to work out the total value to us as she would have to get the package as well. We also have our 13 year old son with us so will still have to sign for his drinks. Does anyone know if they change the price per day when the package is purchased onboard?

1 hour ago, LifeonMars said:

Any Lloyds Pharmacy nearby ? 

 

https://lloydspharmacy.com/pages/covid-19-lateral-flow-test?gclid=CjwKCAjw6dmSBhBkEiwA_W-EoDxYxJgJfCqeo8O6sRimgrFk-NSQCLO4q9nQ9lsuOvKkrulClQHiCRoCNYsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

Or get your sister to order kits in your names with necessary documentation to her address and you do the tests at  her home the day before and upload and get emailed the results

From Qured or Randox or Prenetics etc.

 

Thank you LifeonMars. I found one in Sainsbury's only 2 miles from my sisters. It is 29 Pounds so a lot cheaper. I will need to confirm the information they include on the certificate conforms to Cunard requirements. Thank you again.

29 minutes ago, Pippa04 said:

Where are you staying in Southampton?  There's a same day testing clinic in the West Quay shopping centre .  I think it's called the regenerative clinic.

Hi Pippa04, we are staying with my sister in Basingstoke. We will look for a place locally. I note the Government list only list by region, not town.

Update, I did find a Govt approved site LocalPCR in Hook less than 20 mins travel. They can do an Antigen with certificate. Expensive 55 Pounds.

I made a mistake, We are actually arriving 2 days before we sail. It gives us a bit more time but still a hassle and expense. I just spoke with Cunard and they advised going to an approved testing center for the test. The lady I spoke with said we could have had issues with the at home/verified kits and it is safer to go to a facility. We will be staying with my sister in Basingstoke so will find somewhere nearby and go out on the day before. I did clarify the term "day before" with Cunard and it is any time during the day before. We are sailing on the 15th so we can test anytime on the 14th, even 4am if we wished!

We will be sailing from Southampton July 15th. Flying in from the USA the day before. We will have limited Internet access and transport. How do we arrange this? It does not seem possible given the test has to be within a day of boarding. If we had know that we cannot test at the terminal a few weeks ago before final payment we would have cancelled. Not happy!!

When we last travelled on QM2 4 years ago they provided distilled water and an extension cord for my CPAP machine. It was a medical need so would not imagine they would stop that.

We are booked into 5002 (front of ship) in July. Does anyone have any experience of this cabin? I understand it is larger than a standard P1/P2. I would be interested to hear if you have stayed in a standard P1 as well and what you prefer.

I see the same thing Bluemarble. I checked through most decks/areas for a sheltered balcony Transatlantic July 14th from Southampton. I also could only see 10 available in each area. I was hoping to get a feel of how booked out the ship is but that is not possible with this system, probably by design.

I have not been in QG before but would go with longest time on ship. 2 nights or just a 1 day is not long enough.

Thanks for the info bluemarble and everyone else.

I have not been able to find this on the site. I am in the USA is it a different policy? If anyone is able to post a link to the page that would be great.

I cannot speak of the nursery but we did travel last year with our son who turned 7 while on the crossing. They had a small birthday celebration for him that was nice. We typically put him in at 9 am after breakfast and picked him up at 12 for lunch and the rest of the day with us. He had a wonderful time in the Play Zone and the staff are wonderful.

We are on the crossing next week 24th out of New York. When we booked the trip our son expressed a wish to spend more time in the Play Zone so I think that sums it up.

We have 2 cabins booked for four of us, 2 in each cabin on a eastbound 7/24 then westbound 8/1 crossing on QM2, separate bookings. It is considerably cheaper by thousands of dollars for us as Jacqueline mentioned. I monitored the bookings over a period of 5 or so months and at no time did the differential in price even come close. I would think it would be more cost effective for Cunard to make the round trip booking the cheaper option.

Thanks for your help everyone.

Thanks for the information pmb1. It seem like it will very easy and I was overthinking it! I will be sure to speak with the cabin steward and purser.

Thanks again.

Hi Everyone,

We are traveling on QM2 New York to Southampton July 24th to August 1st and then return to New York. It is 2 separate bookings with 2 different cabins/decks on each sailing. It was actually considerably cheaper to do it this way compared to the round trip booking.

Do we have to leave the ship, collect our bags and re check in or can they be left on board for removal to our new cabin? If left on board what is the process? If the bags can be left on board do we still have to check in on shore to obtain our new room key/account?

We would like to spend some time in Southampton so it will be useful to know how much time we will have. I did ask at time of booking but they did not know.

Thanks for your help.

Last year we booked the air fare through Cunard. I think we paid less than $600 for JFK to Heathrow for an economy ticket. Cunard have some very good deals on airfares that would be difficult to beat.