rakkor

We made the train with plenty of time to spare, and are now wending our way out of London heading South. Luggage provision First Class is a bit disappointing, My case which is the smaller of our two is safely tucked in the gap between two banks of seats, the larger one has taken up the two seats across the table from us.

It's more about making our connection at Waterloo, The train was a bargain, but my ticket is only valid on the reserved train - all will be good though, we're nearly at London Bridge. Plenty of time

That started well!

Very excited this morning, we're all packed and ready for our first cruise this year. A bit nervous about our travel arrangements down to Southampton as we're getting the train. It's only a 4 day cruise and we haven't many bags, so rather than drive, and the fact that First class return tickets are cheaper than diving it was an easy choice. We'll be arriving a bit early for our 14:15 boarding time so I think we shall grab lunch in one of the many restaurants near to the Station before heading down to the Mayflower where Victoria will be waiting. Let the journey begin!

D Hope you enjoyed it, we're certainly looking forward to embarking on our short one tomorrow.

This is the latest I have - Should be reasonably current but the wine selection will have changed probably Brochure Wine Package Cunard.pdf

Last September we were dropped where the Cruise Shuttle Stop pin is on google maps - I blogged about our experiences HERE morning traffic meant it was slow going to get into Livorno

We did a Brooklyn Brownstones walking tour (Urban Adventures) on our Caribbean cruise in 2019 - I blogged about it HERE excellent fun! I don't think they do the same tour anymore which is a shame. (Edit actually they still do it)

We didn't see any ranked taxis when we were on our cruise last September, but we had a car booked to take us from Terminal D to our hotel post cruise, so wasn't really looking out for them, but there wasn't an obvious rank.

If you're active we did the Urban Adventures walking tour of Lisbon - It was an excellent experience, and as with all Urban Adventures tours it was a gastronic delight, but while looking for a link it looks like they no longer seem to do Lisbon tours - Anyway I blogged about it HERE - Looking on the web there seem to be many tours that seem to offer pretty much the same as we had example EatingEurope The other fun tour we did was an e-Bike tour - effortless cycling around Lisbon and then out to Belem and return - I also blogged about that - HERE Neither blog posts are my best, but they may inspire.

Did you check your loyalty against https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/loyalty ? That will show you your past cruises and confirm if you are missing some? Handy to know if you are going call them back.

Sorry, I never though TA meant other than Trans Atlantic, my point was to get veterans discount you need to call Cunard and request it quoting your Defence Discount Card number if you book direct with Cunard, I'm not sure of the process if booked through a Travel Agent

I booked directly through Cunard and phoned them up to ask for it when I realised that it also applied to short cruises, you may have to go through your TA if booked otherwise - I will be taking my discount card with me when we cruise in September because I intend to book another while on board and they will add it directly then if I show them the card.

This isn't true in the UK, the benefit is there, but it needs to be validated by you having a Defence Discount Card (LINK) it's painless, but not automatic

I had always thought that the extra OBC was for 7 night cruises or longer, and was pleasantly surprised that our upcoming 4 night cruise has $50 shareholder benefit and $50 Military benefit added which should pay for the gratuities and maybe a livener or two

We did the 14 night version of this cruise last year (There's a write up in My Blog Link) We booked our own flights, I don't think Cunard offered an option. My biggest regret was jumping in with Easy Jet too quickly, as the cost of the flights, plus legroom and extra baggage took the cost above those of BA Club. I shall take more care next time!

We're back in with the rowers on our upcoming short cruise to Amsterdam, and I've requested a table for 10 for the second seating in MyCunard. This will be our first time in Britannia since the return of Fixed Dining and was wondering if it was still a thing as we've always enjoyed the ambience of a larger table. The only other time we've done a short cruise, QM2 in 2015, we had a large table but were on it all by ourselves, apart from a couple of strays that had changed dinner times because of excursions. The question is - Are there still large tables available or is my request going to go unheeded?

That's a pain to learn, We're taking the Train from London for our upcoming short (4 night) Amsterdam cruise in September, not much luggage and an excellent 1st class return price. Thank goodness we don't have much luggage to hump over the bridge.

Fixed Dining doesnt restrict you to only eating in the Britannia Restaurant, you can always opt to eat in any of the other restaurants or indulge in room service as you wish. Obviously, if you're sharing a table then it's nice to let your tablemates if you aren't dining with them, if only to prevent them waiting for you before ordering, but it's not compulsory to do so.

We've a short (Amsterdam) cruise booked on QV in September. I've already booked the train journey (£66 1st class return) for the pair of us from Waterloo which will be arriving at Soton at 12:20, so I'm hoping our boarding time isn't too late. If it is we can always grab lunch out somewhere. We need 3 days for diamond and this seemed like a good way of getting it and also we will have the option of booking the October Eastern Med cruise on board as well with the possibility of a deal.

If you're sailing Solo and don't want to dine alone, I suggest fixed dining and a larger table, 8 or 10, that way you will have the same dinner guests every night

We haven't done Open dining in Britannia since taking one of the 2021 cruises to nowhere, and that experience coloured my view of it. The inconsistency of service, caused by having a different set of waiters every night, along with our wine not arriving until well after our starters put me off doing it again.

I print them at 130% then trim off the two sides along the B/D dotted line and the C/A dotted line in HH's screenshot and trim off the grey bits above V225 and below the cabin number - I find when folded longways and then in half they fit the pouches perfectly

Here's my partial blog, unfortunately we contracted Covid on arrival at Tromso so missed out on the last 5 days, Tromso and Bergen https://blog.rakkor.uk/category/daily-reports/q208n/ Narvik - not Tromso

Here's my partial blog, unfortunately we contracted Covid on arrival at Tromso so missed out on the last 5 days, Tromso and Bergen https://blog.rakkor.uk/category/daily-reports/q208n/