BeachTunes

Thank you Winifred 22! I enjoy every item you mentioned! I've been wondering what the lunch menus look like in Britannia as they aren't posted here often so I will definitely look out for the lasagne. 🙂

Greetings From Canada! We are now a mere 5 nights away from departing for our first Cunard sailing! This Friday we fly from Toronto to Barcelona to spend 2 nights in the city followed by a 7-night cruise aboard the Queen Elizabeth. The anticipation is intense! 🙂 The next few days will undoubtedly drag on, even with a jam-packed work week ahead. With our impatience in mind, I'm hoping some of your might help us bide our time by answering the following question: What are your favourite drinks (alcoholic or not) and dishes (Britannia Class/Included/Specialty Restaurants) on Cunard? As mentioned, we're sailing on the Queen Elizabeth but I imagine many of the menus cross over. Thank you in advance for participating! 🍾🥩🍖🧀🦑🥦🍞

Regarding the price of the boxes, I might be wrong but I believe I once read that they are $60 USD per couple plus a 15% service charge. We are considering booking one during our upcoming sailing from Barcelona on October 9th. (The countdown is on! 🍾) I will be sure to share our experience should we book one!

Hi Roy, Thank you for your posts. I always appreciated your live reports on the Crystal boards and am happy to find you here as we will be embarking on our first Cunard cruise on October 9th! We're flying to Barcelona a week from today to explore the city for 2-nights pre-cruise. We are truly looking forward to our Queen Elizabeth sailing as I, at 47 years old, am a bit of an older soul in spirit. I love everything vintage, big band music, string ensembles, etc... I think we're really going to love the Cunard experience. 🙂 But enough about me! I'm so happy you're on board the QM2 safe and sound. Looking forward to reading about your journeys on both ships! Bon voyage!

This is a very sad and stressful situation for all involved. Thinking of everyone affected by this. I know clothes and belongings are just "things" but my husband and I empathize as we have a very specific cruise/travel wardrobe that we've curated over the years. Many are vintage finds and unique pieces. On a sailing with Cunard, most cruisers won't be losing easily replaceable T-Shirts and casual items but formal wear, gowns and other cherished attire. 😞 I'm gutted for everyone who will lose some prized possessions. Also praying for New Yorkers during the floods. Belongings aside, life itself is the most precious treasure and I hope everyone gets through this safely.

Thank you for the beautiful photos! We will be embarking Queen Elizabeth in just over two weeks. I will try to return the sunrise photo joy. That is, if I mange to be awake that early! LOL! Either way, I'll definitely share a post-voyage report. 🙂

I for one benefited from this sale. I originally rebooked a premium internet plan for our 7-night Queen Elizabeth sailing for $168 USD. When I spotted the sale on My Cunard yesterday, I canceled the original plan and rebooked fo $140. Not a huge amount of savings, but it will at least will cover one cocktail in the Commodore Club not included in our drinks package! 😉

@seivwrig Thanks for sharing your timing. Enjoy lunch on board! 🙂 And to everyone else I've bombarded with this trite woe: I've calmed down and have turned the glass from half empty to half full. 🥂 We've never been to Barcelona before and will be staying 2 nights pre-cruise. I've shortlisted more restaurants in the city than we could conquer in a week let alone 2 and a half days so adding one more lunch in Barcelona will be a treat! 🍖🦑🧀🍾🥩🥘

Thank you for the input Jack! That's helpful to know that if we arrive at 3pm we might get lucky and be on board a little sooner. I just can't wait to check out this beauty of a ship! 🙂 Our "New Ship Routine" is to head to the top deck and work our way down exploring all of the venues along the way. Worst case scenario: We will accomplish that on day 2, a sea day. And huge thanks for your recent live reports! You have helped us become even more excited about our first Cunard sailing! I'll be sure to return the favour with a post-cruise report! ⚓

Hello. We are on Deck 6 in a Balcony Stateroom. We were originally booked in an Obstructed View Balcony Guarantee but won our upgrade bid.

Hello! First of all, thanks to each of you for answering my plethora of questions over the past few months as we anticipate our first Cunard cruise aboard the Queen Elizabeth. We've reached the three week mark until embarkation which is very exciting, which also means we have checked in and received our boarding time. Alas, we've been assigned a very late check in time of 4:15pm. It is what it is but my goodness, that seems late! By the time we check in, go through security and reach the stateroom, we will barely have had time to go to our muster station, clean up and be ready for dinner. (Already have noted to pack evening attire in our carry ons.) Our typical boarding times on other cruise lines have been 2pm at the extreme latest which has allowed us to find our bearings, unpack at our leisure, explore the ship, have a snack/bevy and get settled in. We will be in Barcelona for two nights pre-cruise so we'll just have our hotel store our bags while we enjoy another lunch in the city. Not a terrible problem to solve and a first world problem at that, but I have to confess we're a bit disappointed. I've read that others say to "Show up whenever!" and all will be fine but I don't want to mess with the system. We'll likely arrive at 3pm and hope for the best. I know this has been discussed at length so I hesitate to post but am a tad bit downtrodden and am looking for a pep talk! 😉

Thank you! I have actually pre-purchased an onboard WiFi package from our cruise line for around $160 USD for evenings and sea days. I was thinking about using the eSIM for port days but if it will also connect to the ship's WiFi, even better! More savings! If I need both the eSIM and ship's WiFi to cover sailing time, no worries. Thanks for helping this "47 year-old who thought she knew about tech but doesn't" out! 🙂

Thank you for sharing this! We will be spending 2 nights in Barcelona followed by a 7 night cruise next month. I'm thinking about purchasing an Airola plan for our pre-cruise Barcelona stay and port days. Seems too good to be true! 🙂 We racked up a hefty cellular bill last year using maps to "Roam in Rome". LOL! I'm assuming, though, that the Airola app won't work while at sea? Thanks again!

A random note about the $70/day drinks package for 5+ night cruises.. Considering that the package INCLUDES the 15% gratuity, in theory, the daily rate is about $61 per day before tax. When factoring this, it definitely appears more economical. For us, the value is there: 2 x $5 bottles of water + 1 x $4 specialty coffee + 1 x $13 pre-dinner cocktail + 2 x $12 glasses of wine with dinner and 1 x $13 post dinner cocktail = $64.00 before the 15% gratuity or $73.60 after tax. (And we admittedly will be enjoying more bevies on sea days!) Another consideration is that our ship will be in 3 Spanish ports during our 7 night cruise which might add another 10% Spanish VAT tax on drink purchases while docked, making our daily "ritual" ring in at over $80/day if we didn't have the package. To each their own, though! 🙂

Thank you for sharing this info and website image. We're 5 weeks away from our first Cunard cruise so this is very helpful! Question: Does the Onboard Dining section show MDR evening menus? Just curious. Thanks again!

@sucramdi Thanks for this! I think I'll call back and share our pre-cruise Barcelona hotel info just to cover all of the bases! Thanks everyone for all of your input on this. Sounds like we're set. I was told by the agent that everything was checked off and good to go in their systems so I won't fret.

FYI, for anyone sailing on the October 9th sailing from Barcelona and is curious about our new October 12th port times, I just spoke with a Cunard agent and we are currently scheduled to be in La Spezia from 7am to 7pm with an all aboard time of 6:30pm. Lots of time to explore!

Thank you for the reassurance! I called Cunard again to be safe and the agent said everything looked good on her end so it must indeed be an IT glitch. I did notice that the option of including our province wasn't on the address form so I added that beside our city just in case. 🙂

@Pushpit It is for a cruise departing from and returning to Barcelona that also visits France and Italy. We are Canadians.

Hello, Our first Cunard cruise is now excitedly less than 6 weeks away. 🙂 On August 11th we received an email from Cunard titled "Missing Immigration Notice". I called Cunard and the agent told me nothing was missing as our passports, contact info, etc were all uploaded correctly. She didn't know why the email had been sent. On August 26th I got the exact same email. I'm planning on calling Cunard again but am expecting the same scenario as two weeks ago. Has anyone received such an email before? My fear is that something is askew and we won't be allowed to board on October 9th. Thanks for your input!

UPDATE: I just used YYZ Express this morning for a domestic flight. I chose a time slot of 6:30am which allows 15 minutes on either side. In theory, it was valid from 6:15am-6:45am. Because I had to wake up at "Ridiculous O'Clock", I ran late leaving the house and got to the line at 6:55am. I told the Express agent that I was a bit late for my time slot and she kindly let me through anyway. Not sure if that's the norm but I was so relieved as the regular security line would have taken at least 25 minutes while I was through in less than 5 with Express! 🙂 Happy Travels!

I believe it's worth it! It doesn't take much time to book and can save quite a bit of time in the potentially busy "public" security line. I booked it for a domestic flight in March but the regular security line was short so I was directed there. Because of that experience I didn't bother booking it on a domestic flight last month and regretted the decision! The Express line was virtually empty while I had to spend about 20 minutes in the regular security clearance line. (Admittedly, 20 minutes wasn't the worst of wait times but it was 5am and I wanted coffee! LOL) The Bottom Line: It's free and easy to book plus you won't be penalized should you end up going the regular route! 🙂

Hello! We will be cruising on the Cunard Queen Elizabeth this October with a stop in Toulon. We have booked the ship's "St Tropez on Your Own" excursion, a 7.5 hour tour that departs Toulon at 8:30am. It ends with a stop in Port Grimaud before the bus transfer back to the ship. Just wondering if anyone (on any cruise line) has taken a similar excursion? I'm mostly curious to know how much time is actually spent in St Tropez so we can make appropriate lunch reservations. I almost wish they'd scrap the Port Grimaud part and just let us explore St Tropez town and a nearby beach longer but it is what it is. I have shortlisted several St Tropez restaurants for lunch so input on where to have a nice or unique experience would be appreciated. We know this area is pricey so we're "budgeting to not budget" that day! LOL! I haven't heard many reports from Cunard cruisers or other lines about this tour so any input is appreciated! Thank you! 🙂

Thank you for this! Our plan is to do exactly that... Get ourselves to Pisa by train to see the tower followed by a pizza lunch. (Because both of us have dreamed of having pizza in Pisa since we were kiddos! LOL!) I'm happy to read it won't be much of a hassle getting there and back. While we'd love to combine Florence or Lucca with Pisa, we're going to keep the day simple to allow us more time on the ship that afternoon as it will be our first Cunard experience. We'll save Florence for a longer land-based stay. 🙂

Thank you for the Livorno shuttle information! This is definitely helpful as we plan our day! :)