Planning to cruise

I think your agent is probably right. After sailing on QA we decided to cancel a further long booking on her. I would have been happy to have the deposit back for other things but DHs suspicions that it was lose the deposit competely or transfer it to something of the same or equal value was correct. We transferred a booking onto QM2.

I have a friend who now lives on Orkney. We visited her when on a cruise call. She says whenever a cruise ship is in port the locals know to keep out of town and avoid the buses.

Or like many museums in most European countries closed every Monday?

As openings of royal palaces varies for operational reasons next years dates may not yet be definitely available. A tour company may simply not yet be taking bookings.

@Rob749 I have only just noticed that your location is ours too when it comes to pricing travel options.

Not showing up also takes plane seats from someone who might need them.

A few years ago I worked out that the cost of parking in Southampton plus a hotel stay the night before embarkation (sometimes a park and stay package) and factor in fuel and the added meals in that time was no saving on a chauffeur car both ways from home to the dock. We now book a car. My DH who drove certainly finds it less stressful.

We are booked on QV Madeira and Azores in Oct 25. Madeira should be OK, we have had many land hoidays there including in October, and December, January when the weather is still fine and not too hot. We booked hoping to visit the Azores which will be new to us. The weather, sea conditions can be uncertain at any time of year. @Bell Boy, we were on that QV cruise. We were denied entry to Cartagena, Columbia also because of covid precautions. If memory serves, that was replaced by Curacao. Then after disembarking American pax at FL it was straight across the Atlantic post haste to get to the UK with no further port calls, omitting NY and the Azores and terminating at Southampton from where German pax and others had to fly home instead of continuing by ship to Hamburg.

We did a heli glacier trip in Valdez. It was scheduled for the morning, I have forgotten the time. On arrival at the heliport they said the weather did not permit flights then but may happen later. The tour returned in the afternoon and we were good to go. The briefing included assigning speciifc seats.

Short sleeeves in N Europe waters at this time of year may be ambitious.

Or as it was printed in May , the Gelatria. Spelling jumps out at me, I hope on QA they have also sorted the Wellness printed menu that shows smothies being available and the programmme advertising Archey at sea. Pedantic, moi?

Queen Anne seems to appeal to and is very much liked by many. Others like me and my OH, lots of people I spoke with on board and some posters here dislike her very much. It appears to be personal taste and whether it provides what you are looking for on a ship. Another factor is the grade of cabin you book. Reading posts on CC I get the impression that Grills, particularly QG, is a better experience and more space.

Most people in the Netherlands, certainly with any tourism contact, will speak English. In Amsterdam, the car is not your friend. Roads are narrow and busy, the huge number of cyclists affect traffic flow. The road system is dictated by the numerous canals that intersect the city. Canal boat trips are a popular way of sightseeing. I have always walked in Amsterdam, often the quickest way, or used the tram. A car could take you to Delft town although it is also accessible by train.

Understood. I think what we are all trying to say is that the proposed journey is still a big ask. Your time may be limited if you are tied to a car return time, unless it is hired overnight. I agree with post #7 that there are other worthwhile closer possibilites such as Loch Lomond or the Trossachs. I do hope that you enjoy your visit to Greenock (pronounced Grenuck) but keep looking and researching before you finally decide what to do.

Im sorry to be so blunt but I do not think that there is any way you could do a return car trip between Greenock and Fort William during the time of a cruise ship call, plus car pick up and return. Scottish roads, even the main A roads, are windy, have parts where overtaking is impossible and are busy with tourist traffic, often including slow moving caravans. Scotland does have fantastic scenery, but that route is not a day trip. We drove from close to Greenock to Oban to catch a booked timed car ferry to one of the Scottish islands. We thought half a day was more than ample. The journey took longer than we anticipated thanks to winding roads. We just pulled up at the pier in time. Fort William is further north again. I would not want the stress of returning in time for cruise ship departure.

On an Indian Ocean voyage on a small ship our calls included both Reunion (where we visited volcanoes) and Mauritius and also Mayotte in the Comoros Islands, Zanzibar and Madagascar - where one of our number was bitten by a lemur!

QA Balcony Club cabins are identical to Balconies, just in better postions. We were in BC. Storage was abysmal. Having done a world cruise on QM2 I cant imagine where luggage for such a voyage would go on QA. I agree about the impractically of the wall hooks, the configuration of the hanging rails, and the uselessness of the bedside stands. Being short I found some rails and shelves difficult to reach. We measured the inside width of the wardrobe next to the bed. It is 9 inches. The rail takes a couple of jackets and one pair of mens shoes (side by side) fits across the floor. My husband is reasonably slim and his jackets and shirts could hang properly in the main wardrobes but I did hear of one large gentleman who found the depth of the wardrobes insufficient to hang wider garments.

I dont eat lobster

Whenever we have had a pre booked taxi we have had to call them from the terminal to say we are there and often are required to say where we are standing. The vehicles dont pull into a rank to wait.

Clearly in respect of food you get what you pay for (as in any shoreside eaterie). QV v QA? This seems to be personal preference and choice. I would very happily be on QV again. QA is not for us. QA has its fans who would argue otherwise. We are not dancers but from what I have seen and read, if ballroom facilities are the main criteria of choice, then its QV. However, QM2 has the largest ballroom.

I think the larger TA companies take block booking options. Hence (in the UK) their ubiquitous advertising in the weekend press. What is unsold sometimes comes on stream later. We once came across the "booked" scenario. When trying to book our favourite / regular area of cabin for a long cruise we were constantly told that it was unavailable, a whole run of rooms. We ended up elsewhere in what turned out for a number of reasons to be an unsatisfactory room. Our preferred rooms changed occupancy weekly with groups. We have found that another situation with availability ambiguity is when trying to book an advertised itinerary it is reported as unavailable because of someone booking just one sector. For example, a Med cruise may be Southampton to Southampton but there may be advertised cruises within that changing over say at Rome, Barcelona. We gave up trying when booking opened for a round trip as the cabin class was taken for the odd shorter run.

A QV March TA is likely to be the last leg of the world voyage? We did FL to Southampton on QV in March 22 - when the ship had to return to the UK post haste because of covid and the start of lockdown. Further planned ports including NY were omitted, it was a straight run. The weather was fine, good enough for walking out on deck but not for sunbathing in swimwear. A warm top layer would be advisable. Depending when in March, weather as you get closer to Europe will vary. The beginning of the month is likely to be still a little wintery with winds, later may be better and feeling more spring like. We usually opt for deck 7 but further midships. The even numbered rooms will be on the north side but as you are aft you should also get any later sun from the west.

We sailed along the Amazon as far as Manaus on a Fred Olsen (ocean) ship some years ago. It was our only time on Fred, we booked for the itinerary. I dont know if the line still does this. It was a great experience.

Not a million miles from you Hattie. Yep, welcome back to the usual weather.

1st QM2 for all the reasons given so far. 2nd / 3rd QV / QE, the order varying as we change from one to another. At present QV tops the pair as QE has been off the radar with its itineraries in the last couple of years. I still like these ships, but if comparing, prefer the extra space and grandeur of the QM2 liner. 4th, and way down the pecking order QA. We will not sail on her again.