Winchester Ranger

So the thinking is that it’s a bid against a cabin that is already booked by someone else, in the eventuality that they cancel - interesting.  My first ever cruise with Cunard was an eastbound TA from NYC (many years ago) and I do remember Cunard selling off unsold cabins at the last minute for heavily discounted prices, a balcony cabin could be had for just $500 and that was for single occupancy.  I recall that so clearly because I called Cunard customer service to moan about paying nearly 4 times that for my balcony cabin and noting that I had the option to cancel and then rebook for $500 and a supervisor promptly plonked $500 into my OBC account which made the call worthwhile.  The bid system sounds like a much better idea.

So we are booked to sail on QM2 on 2nd June heading to Norway on cruise M415 and we just received our upgrade offers.  When I last cruised with Cunard on a TA I don’t recall being offered the option of bidding for stateroom upgrades but for me it’s an interesting new wrinkle to the booking process.  With that said they are offering various bids for upgrades including one to a Queens Grill (minimum bid £2,700 per couple max bid £6,300) and one into a Penthouse Suite (minimum bid £5,340 per couple max bid £12,460), so out of curiosity I looked at the website and Penthouse Suites show as sold out.  Just wondering if anyone has the logic behind this, I get the logic behind upgrades in general but offering discounted rates for staterooms that are not available for full price reservations seems odd.  Any thoughts on the logic, and also any thoughts on upgrading?

The latest update is that you book the drinks package first and then decide later if you want to add the cruise as an optional extra.

Excellent thread - thanks to all.  I confess I am disappointed that Cunard are not transparent with exactly what their drinks packages offer, poor marketing IMO.

As has been stated previously QM2 was specifically designed to “shoot the rapids”.  She has a higher quality of steel than regular cruise ships and a much higher freeboard, favourable metacentric height and rolling moment combined with a finer ratio and flared bow - all this means she cuts through the biggest waves and doesn’t roll around in the swell, the downside is that she cost more to build per tonne than any other cruise ship afloat at that time.  The only thing I ever noticed was the occasional “bang” as she tames a wave that would have lifted a lesser ship.  She is one of a kind, maybe even the last of her kind, but definitely the ship for those poor unfortunates with queasy tummies.

Self and DW are currently doing the merry dance of choosing a drinks package for QM2 and I have seen mention of a “Captain’s Drinks Package”.  Is this an optional top-shelf package, and are there other drinks package options not listed on Cunard’s website ?

Thanks in advance.

Something with more jail cells for the 3 day cruises.

Self and DW are sailing on QM2 next year and I’m looking at the drinks package option.  We both tend to enjoy champagne more than most other drinks but it looks like the cheapest glass on QM2 is $16.  With the drinks package maxing out at a paltry $12 max per glass would we be wasting our money taking it out if we stayed with our usual tipple ?

Any advice appreciated.

In my opinion only cash prizes are worth the resultant tax bill in the US.  The American tax code is sufficiently complex and oppressive to the point that it actually encourages under-reporting.

So per Cunard’s website the next TA leaves for New York on June 9th, and they are still selling staterooms as I type.  Personally I cannot even remotely imagine that this cruise will actually happen, but here’s my question....
 

The official UK government website regarding COVID restrictions states the following:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advice-novel-coronavirus

If you are in the UK you should not travel abroad. Under current UK COVID-19 restrictions, you must stay at home. You must not travel, including abroad, unless you have a legally permitted reason to do so. It is illegal to travel abroad for holidays and other leisure purposes.

So assuming there is no change in the law during the next 14 weeks anyone traveling on that cruise who is not returning to the US as a permanent resident or who is traveling for essential business reasons is by definition breaking UK law - which must be 90% of the passengers.

What am I missing here ?

So is anyone here actually booked on that cruise, and is it just a case of hoping the rules change before you sail ?

Just curious, COVID seems likely to be with us for some time, certainly all of 2021 based on the latest assessments.  So is anyone sufficiently optimistic to actually part with money on Cunard ?

There will certainly be world cruises - they just won’t stop anywhere.

I just can’t fathom the mindset of people who are still jumping at the first chance of a cruise right in the middle of a worldwide COVID pandemic.  Doubtless they will all be complaining about being stuck on the ship in quarantine while they would all rush back home and infect yet more people given half a chance.  

Give up your cruise addiction for a year and let this thing pass !

Not with Cunard but:

1. Jamaica - a truly nightmarish place.

2. Mexico - any port

3. Southampton - just dismal

I love optimists but quite honestly you would have to be out of your mind to book a cruise on any line right now, even with a guaranteed refund.  These cruise lines and their associated airlines are likely to fail financially over the next 12 months, the smart thing to do is to wait until there is some stability both with the spread of this highly contagious disease and financial stability with the cruise lines.

Just my opinion, ultimately it’s your money and your health, I just encourage you to consider the risks before deciding.

Hopefully the Carnival ships will be scrapped with the passengers still on them.

Just kidding !! 😉

I used the spa on both TA crossings I have completed, most recently in 2017 and found it to be in a poor state of repair on both occasions.  Tiles were missing on the jacuzzi, a ceiling tile was falling down, one of the showers was broken, and some of the optional settings on the other didn’t work (rainforest, summer shower etc).

The hydro pool on the other hand is really nice but definitely not for swimming in.

I recall that my First Class one way ticket from London to Chicago was $1,600 back in 2017.  I found Cunard’s airfare prices to be extremely cheap.

At a time when there is a global pandemic the last thing you need is a floating Petri dish with thousands of seventy plus cruisers merrily infecting both each other, and every country they visit.

Sadly the cruise industry along with the airlines, hotels, and restaurants must bear the brunt of this, it just makes sense to limit travel.

However, I doubt that all the prophets of doom who are predicting the end of cruising will be correct, but sadly 2020 is definitely going to be a write-off.  Personally I think more about the financial well-being of the low income crew members than I do about inconvenienced passengers.  This is going to be very hard on them.

Having lost not one but two work colleagues to “fresh oysters” their absence from menus on QM2 was never a disappointment for me.  They aren’t worth the risk in my honest opinion, and no I’ve never seen them served on either of my crossings.

Cultural relativism is always interesting and thorny in equal measure since it is so subjective, but I will (nervously) add in my own 2 cents to the discussion, it’s a bit of a journey down memory lane so bear with me.  

When we sailed on Carnival Miracle back in the days when I was poor and she was brand new, we snagged a balcony cabin for exactly $1,000 for 2 adults sailing from Baltimore to the Caribbean for a week, yes Baltimore !  Carnival back then (2004 I think) didn’t have the bargain basement reputation it seems to have acquired now, and we only got our cheap tickets courtesy of DW being a travel agent.  We fell in love with Miracle when we were invited aboard for lunch and a cabin tour as part of DW’s job selling vacations on her, and they said we could sail all inclusive for $500 each if we wanted to - so it was a yes !!  Our fellow passengers were an absolute delight, fun to be around and very well behaved, perfect travel companions actually.  We made friends with our MDR servers, a girl from Romania and her young assistant from Latvia, gosh I wonder where they are today, and I remember asking them about passenger behavior.  The Romanian girl (who was very professional) told us that they loved the passengers sailing from Baltimore but that they were all dreading the impending switch to New York, as the NYC passengers were known to be very rude and demanding (who knew !).  My point being that cultural differences don’t need international lines of separation, they can even occur between ports of departure in the same country.  I will however add one thought on the “spitting” sidebar discussion.  Spitting is a cultural phenomenon in China as has been mentioned above, and it has to be understood in that light as disgusting as it is.  Perhaps the worst experience I heard about was from a friend of mine who had to catch an internal flight between Chinese cities while on business, and was treated to the sight of his fellow passengers using the seat back pocket as their personal spittoon.  So never ever reach into there to retrieve the in flight safety card on a Chinese airline, best advice you will hear today 😊

I should have called this the spitting thread 😂

Thanks for the responses - most of you have confirmed what I have seen commented on elsewhere, many thanks it helps set expectations.

Great information - much appreciated !

On 3/30/2019 at 5:57 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

I think you will love the Haven. Be prepared to leave any and all future interior cabins in the dust. After being in the Haven there’s no turning back...!

cm

Four years ago I would have agreed 100% I absolutely loved the Haven experience, in fact that photo of me to the left of this post was taken in the Haven restaurant on Getaway, but NCL have ruined the Haven experience for me with their ridiculously inflated prices - even for a regular Courtyard Penthouse Suite.  The Yacht Club on MSC offers so much more than the Haven and it’s only half the price.  NCL lost me on cost alone I’m afraid.

Wow - so the Premium Selection IS included, passengers can really drink as much Remy Martin VSOP as they want for the entire cruise ?!?

That’s astonishing.