tacticalbanjo

Great write ups. A Coruna and Lisbon are some of my favourite ports for relaxed exploring. Both are really accessible on foot. And there are many delights for anyone who likes to taste local flavours in both ports.

I agree with you that they should just fold it into the price like P&O do. Perhaps one thing Paul Ludlow could bring it that would go down well!

I suspect the grumbling is from people who probably will pay it but see the increase eating into holiday budget at a time when they're being squeezed from all sides as it is. The people who just won't pay probably never intended to pay the service charges anyway. I do feel a bit grumpy at having to pay full service charges for the toddler especially since we're using our own travel cot for her so the extra servicing in the cabin consists of an extra towel here and there. On land she would be eating from a kids menu and we would be tipping appropriately for that. It would be nice if we the service charge were discounted at the same rate as the fare for children. But we knew that it wasn't when we booked and we know we can self discount if we want to.

I'm sure it will be a lovely day in Liverpool but I can't help but wonder if whoever arranged it thought they were booking for P&O because Matt and Emma Willis don't seem like the right people for the Cunard demographic. And I'm also a little disappointed that she isn't being named ahead of her maiden voyage. It seems a little strange to me but I don't know how normal being named after the maiden is.

My toddler caught noro and at nursery in my haste to comfort my poorly child, I caught the 'illness' with my face. Guess who had noro the next day! She's given me gastric bugs three times now. I don't know when I will learn not to offer cuddles while she's afflicted.

Noro is always going to be a problem on cruise ships not just because there are grubbers who don't wash hands but because if you report symptoms then you are confined to cabin for at least 24 hours after your symptoms resolve. If you are on a shorter itinerary that's probably half your trip spent in your cabin. Or you can keep your mouth shut and carry about your business merrily spreading noro everywhere and causing a big outbreak. Even if you do isolate for the required time you are most likely infection for another 24 hours plus which is why UK protocol forbids gastro afflicted passengers from the buffet for 48 hours after the symptoms stop and recommend that guests stay away from the buffet for another 24 hours after that so 72 hours of room service meals plus the day or two that you are sick. Obviously passengers should isolate but I can certainly see why people don't want to volunteer to ruin their own trips.

According to the UK FAQs: While we do not encourage food and drink to be brought on board, we recognise that some guests with dietary requirements may need to enjoy your voyage and feel more comfortable onboard. You are advised to carry such items on board yourself rather than placing in your check in luggage to avoid any damage in the loading process. Although there are fridges in cabins, these are not temperature monitored and we cannot guarantee that they will keep foods at the correct temperature for safety. All items must be strictly for personal consumption, kept wrapped or sealed and not allowed to create any risk to health or likelihood of pest infestation in cabins or any other areas. Personal items may not be cooked for you on board, stored in the main stores or in any food room refrigerator or freezer. There is probably something similar in the US FAQs. Please be careful with the milk - you do not want to get sick on board because your milk spoiled.

I think this is what is great about all the cruise blogger on YouTube. Potential customers can see what they are getting before the commit. Cruise Monkeys (Millennial looking couple Gavin and Luke) seem to love Cunard and always look the part. And more importantly, they always look like they are having fun albeit a tad more ‘refreshed’ than I would be! We did our first voyage and first cruise ever with Cunard because I really wanted to do a TA back when I was just 27. It was supposed to be once in a lifetime but I’ll have 16 trips with Cunard done by the end of the year and not once have we been made to feel out of place. Well, except for that one time someone thought we were wait staff and tried to order drinks 😂 We love the relaxed atmosphere and just sitting watching the waves with a book. And we love that every night is an event. I did P&O and Princess last year as well as Cunard and while we enjoyed ourselves, we’ve got nothing but Cunard booked for the next two years.

Millennials actually travel more than Boomers do according to the CBI, Statista, and a few others. Hence travel companies trying to attract that demographic. Many millennials aren’t having children so are able to travel more at an age when their parents were in the midst of child rearing. Their travel priorities are generally about experiences rather and destinations but I don’t think that is incompatible with Cunard especially if they can get the messaging right about that formal evening experience making every evening being an event. At least that’s how it feels for this mid-thirties millennial.

In November on QV the sachets in the buffet had gone and were replaced with glass jars filled with unbranded instant hot chocolate powder. I can't say that the hot chocolate in the Commodore Club tastes much different. I suspect it's probably made with the same instant powder they provide in the buffet.

After a whole load of emails and many, many hours on the phone we have got our issue resolved and do not have to pay for the toddler to go on the Queen Anne maiden. It was a very stressful few days worrying that I was either going to have to come up with an extra 25% of the fare rather unexpectedly and have a real fight to get it back or risk getting my trip cancelled because the contact centre staff couldn’t guarantee that Guest Relations would even look at my email before their 28 day max response time. I really had to push for the problem to get escalated. The contact centre staff did not want to put me through to a supervisor. It’s like they are told to just get you off the phone at all costs. The staff member I was speaking to just kept repeating that she couldn’t put me through to a supervisor, the supervisor would have the same answer anyway (to pay up, email in and no they couldn’t escalate) and they couldn’t help me further. I kept reiterating that I wasn’t getting off the phone without speaking to the supervisor. Eventually the staff member capitulated to opening a complaint and escalating it to a 48 hour call back. I kept insisting on speaking to a supervisor and sometime later, after making absolutely clear that I was not going to hang up, they put me through to the apparently only supervisor on shift who definitely wouldn’t be taking any calls. The supervisor was immediately much more helpful, promised to look into the issue personally and personally give me a call back by the end of the next day. She called late afternoon today with the good news that the problem has been looked at and our fare reset to the fare as detailed in our original booking confirmations which we had fully paid. We have a reissued booking confirmation to say that we’ve paid in full. I’m still a bit nervous that the issue might pop back up without us noticing because we don’t know exactly what went on in the first place. The amount of hassle this has caused has soured my relationship with Cunard a bit and taken the shine off a trip we had been looking forward to since we got that slick card marketing pack. No one likes to feel ripped off and the fact that the contact centre staff completely refused to help and wouldn’t put us through to someone who could help until I’d made a total nuisance of myself makes me totally let down. It’s so far from the levels of service you get on the ships. I don’t think we will be booking directly again and instead book through our usual travel agent so that they can enjoy being a pain on the phone instead of me.

We’ve already emailed the exec correspondence address as well as the normal email address (not that we’ve had a confirmation of receipt for either) but will try the presidents too for good measure. And maybe messages on LinkedIn plus ringing the call centre every day just in case someone can help us.

I now have a great 'booking direct can suck' story. We booked for the QA maiden directly and despite paying the bill back in November, they emailed today asking for more money. Almost certainly this is because our daughter would have been 1 for the January sailing but is now 2 and thus chargeable and to the Cunard computer system this probably looks like a huge discrepancy. But our booking confirmation for the rescheduled voyage confirms that she is free which is as it should be because it is not our fault that the voyage was moved back. The call centre say there's absolutely nothing they can do and to email in. But we all know the email response time frame is much longer than the week we have to get this resolved before our voyage is automatically cancelled because we've missed final payment. Having a travel agent to resolve this would be saving us a lot of stress right now.

I'm on the maiden and also have a trip booked for 2025. I'm happy to wait until I get on board to judge. I expect the renders to bear little resemblance to the finished product. And actually, a lot of the things I like about Cunard are to do with the service and formality of the evenings rather than the actual decor.

Don’t go away, I’m only poking fun. I’m here chatting about Cunard because I can’t stop thinking about being on board even when I’m not too. And I want people to have a good time on board just like I do. Even if their fun is sometimes different to mine we all get that same thrill when we see a Queen waiting for us at the port

Because I love them. It adds to my enjoyment to know everything is going at home today. And it goes both ways - my parents want to know that my kiddo is having a great time on holiday. And really when you think about it, it's the same thing as you chatting about Cunard endlessly when you aren't currently on a Cunard ship! Ideally, Carnival Corp would consolidate a lot of the back end stuff as central functions shared by all the cruise line groups in its portfolio. Money saved in the long run and you only have to pay for one white label app and turn functions on and off according to which line. But we both know there's no change whilst the bean counters rule all. They won't spend unless they have to and nothing escapes their cuts.

Or if you could message another passenger then you could do that and avoid walking round half the ship trying to locate your other half who is probably trying to find you and effectively hiding. I suppose at least you get your steps in your way. The problems caused by having digital documents were because, as you point out, there were not stored in a way that was easily accessible. I also saw people struggling to find papers in their unorganised heap. Being able to upload a photo and my card details during an online check in process is in essence organising your documents and has sped up check in times in my experience. We must be talking to some people like you or we wouldn't get respondents saying that they never use those things. But the point is that fewer and fewer people are saying that. And more and more saying that they use these things daily or weekly. How long does Cunard wait before bringing in a real app? Do they wait until their regular passengers start saying that an enforced digital detox is off putting or do they anticipate that change so they can attract new guests before the current regulars churn either to other lines or to the great beyond? And you must know that a lot of people want to keep updated with what their children or grandchildren are up to especially if they are used to hearing from them often. Crikey, I want to be updated on what the dog's doing when I'm away!

If you have privacy concerns then I suggest you don't cruise at all. Pretty much every inch of every ship is covered with CCTV and with facial recognition plus data from bars etc it would be very easy to track you around the ship. You even give them a nice image for facial recognition when you check in. It is already in use on a number of lines for embarkation/disembarkation and contact tracing and Cunard even makes mention of holding biometric data on you in their Privacy Policy. They say it is for security and safety purposes but, hey, everyone is safer when you know exactly where they are on your ship at any given moment so don't think that this doesn't give them leave to use facial recognition to track you. Plans change. Sometimes you get to a bar at just the wrong time and find you can't find a seat. Sometimes the talk isn't to your liking and you leave to do something else. You might wake up from your nap early and want to meet your partner rather than wait for them to return to the room as previously arranged. It really does make me laugh how much people object to other people having more choices. On Princess you don't have to have the medallion. Cruise cards are still available for people unwilling or unable to have a medallion. You don't have to do anything on your phone if you don't want to. Part of my job is researching usage trends for phones and tablets and every year we ask real people in a bunch of different countries about how often they message, use social media, video call and a bunch of other stuff. More and more retirees in Cunard's key markets are coming back saying that they use their phones for messaging every day. They video call at least weekly. They're sharing photos on social media regularly. They're on messaging apps so they can see family photos and videos. Where would be the harm in Cunard accepting that their core market's habits are changing and allowing people who want more technology to use it if it doesn't impinge on people who don't want to use that technology? But given that even Cunard's tv system is laughable I doubt anyone here should be worried about having to use an app any time soon.

I’ve remembered something else I liked about the Princess app. I could buy photos in the app and download them directly to my phone. On Cunard the only option was a USB stick which none of my devices take because they’re all USB C. So I couldn’t even check the stick before I got off to make sure it worked correctly. I’m definitely not saying that the Princess app is bug free or that it should be mandatory but it would be nice to have some smarter options available for those who want them. I know the remote door opening is much mocked on here but I often wear clothes without pockets and I’m not joined to my husband at the hip so being able to wear a medallion on my wrist made my life so much easier. I could deposit him at a bar and head off for activities that suited me without having to carry my card and worry about losing it.

Even if they didn't roll out the medallion to all brands, having just one app with features enabled and disabled depending on brand probably would have been cheaper than rolling out a bunch of different apps and having to test and support each of them separately. But not if you already have as many different back end systems as brands! I doubt that the current stage of technology was ever envisioned when some of these ships were fitted out and now it's going to be expensive to harmonise even if it would save costs in maintenance and improvements simply because you don't have to pay for the same thing a bunch of times.

From the outside it seems like the big thing is that it costs money. The other major thing is that Carnival Corp appeared to have allowed each brand to do its own thing IT wise rather than just having one system that works across all brands. So deploying one app across all brands isn't possible unless they spend even more money on harmonising both shore side and ship side IT operations. I doubt the bean counters think that is worth it even if it might reduce ongoing costs. I'd like to see something like Princess's solution across all brands. I was impressed by it when I tried Princess last year although it does have it's bugs too. But having an app shouldn't mean a reduction in staffing or forcing everyone to go down the app route if they don't want to. But I'd love to be able to order a drink from any sun lounger and have it find me without having to wait someone to come and take my order. And if they could allow you to use your phone or smartwatch as a cruise card, that would be ideal!

You jammy swine! Have a great time and keep her safe for the maiden.

It sounds like the Princess of Wales will be out of action until at least Easter which is end of March this year. So still a possibility for end of April but she might not immediately pick up a full schedule of engagements. They haven't yet said how long it will be before the King resumes public engagements. Hopefully both the King and the Princess of Wales recover well from their respective surgeries.

Maybe there should be a rude people club so we can contain all people who can't behave themselves properly and commit such horrors as shouting at other passengers, touching the bread in the buffet and, crime of all crimes, wearing jeans in the evening.

And yet despite all of the blather, nothing concrete was ever done to fix a title that wasn't Queen. A change to royal titles and styles would have required agreement from all Commonwealth countries as required by the Statute of Westminster. What was said as a sop to Diana fans was just smoke and mirrors to keep them quiet until the inevitable happened. The Government blocked a marriage to Wallis Simpson because they knew she would automatically be Queen and she was, for a number of reasons none of which apply to Camilla, deemed unsuitable. Even the divorce issue was sorted by 2002. And when the Government goes against the Crown, unfortunately our unwritten constitution says that the Crown must give way. If we knew the date QA was being names we could probably do some exciting detective work!