richard_london

Yes, that was my thought too. According to https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/portugal/lisbon?month=5&year=2024 we get an extra three hours of daylight in the evening before dusk at 8.30pm and about 1 1/2 hours in the morning, so that would be much better. It's a shame we don't get to overnight in Lisbon but the extra port of call is appreciated. In the float out videos I could see where my cabin is for two cruises I have booked on board the Queen Anne so I allowed myself to feel a bit more excited about the prospect.

I always take one of these type of block adaptors that work fine on Cunard ships. Found this listing on Amazon which is quite similar (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-TESSAN-Worldwide-International-Countries/dp/B0BNB7F2FJ/) The one I have connects fine to the US outlets on Cunard ships and mine has four USB connections on the top. I charge my phone and multiple cameras at the same time (overnight) and have not run into any problems.

I would agree and emphasize this point - if you have large suitcases I would caution against using the train, especially if you get there with all the other disembarking passengers. If there are other ships disembarking on the same day then the station platform and trains will be very full. Check the Southampton VTS website to see what other ships are in dock when you are due to arrive (https://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/Live_Information/Shipping_Movements_and_Cruise_Ship_Schedule/Cruise_Ship_Schedule/) I live in London and it means the default option is to use the train but I curse it every time. Last summer coming back from a QV voyage was a nightmare because of cancelled trains, so two train lots of passengers on one train. It was horrendous. I try to travel light and use the overhead luggage racks but these will only take the aeroplane carry-on size, nothing larger. If you are after peace of mind, I would go with what options you can organise for Cunard. At least on the coach you are guaranteed a seat and there will be space for your luggage, whereas on the train neither is certain.

I went back and looked at all the quarterly reports to see what statements FOCL were making, and I have copied out the positive spin they have been putting into their reports. What strikes me is how repetitive they are, with the same text recurring in consecutive quarterly reports. But despite all these positive reports occupany as you point out is 66%. And I see they now have up to £500pp off on 58 cruises as part of the "Cruise Summer Sale" and then on some you can get an extra £150 off with their Coronation offer. I can't square the demand highlighted in the quarterly reports with the need to discount fares so much. I suspect many have cottoned on to Fred's pricing strategy and are just not booking and looking for last minue deals which are more realistic in terms of their pricing. Q2 2021: .....a substantial increase in demand for cruises. Q3 2021: From Spring/Summer 2022, and going forward, FOCL is experiencing substantial demand at normal prices for it’s [sic] cruises. Q4 2021: FOCL is experiencing good demand for cruises in 2022 and 2023. Q1 2022: FOCL is experiencing good demand for cruises in 2022 and 2023. Q2 2022: FOCL is experiencing good demand for cruises for the summers of 2022 and also for 2023 Q3 2022: No "positive" statements. Q4 2022: FOCL has seen improved booking numbers in recent weeks, with January 2023 being the best booking month ever. Q1 2023: FOCL has seen improved booking numbers in recent weeks, with January 2023 being the best booking month ever.

I wasn't sure if our question is about boarding, I looked back at records from my 2019 cruise and this is what I found. For Passengers of MS Queen Elizabeth • Complimentary Shuttle Service to Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal • Meeting Point：1F Lobby at Yokohama Information Cultural Center Access information: • From JR: Kannai Station south gate ‐ 10 min on foot • From Subway: Kannai Station No.1 gate ‐ 10 min on foot • From Minatomirai Line Nihon‐Odori Station No.3 gate ‐ 0 min (direct access) • Shuttle service starts from 11:15 am. Please avoid arriving too early. This was text copied from a Japanese PDF I found at the time, but I don't have the original. It is for 2019, so might not be accurate for 2023, but this was where they boarded us all on the coaches with our luggage. If it for going ashore during the cruise, while I was trying to find that PDF online when I did some Google searches Icame across this file. It is dated for 2023 so is current: https://www.cunard.jp/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/横浜港大黒ふ頭シャトルバスとドライブ＆クルーズについて.pdf If you save it as an image and run through Google Translate you get a reasonably good translation, which says the shuttle runs to and from Yamashita Park. I have attached the output that Google produces. Hope this is of help. Have a great cruise!

I chose one on my last QM2 specifically because of the bulkhead for the same reasons. I have in the past in the standard cabins had noise, but I am a light sleeper. I would choose one again. The only thing I would say is that with a metal fronted balcony and one slightly deeper, it can make the cabin a bit dark when it isn't a bright day, but that isn't an issue for me.

You have to set your permissions in your Cunard account to receive the survey invites. Other family members who cruise with Cunard who have opted out don't. If you are logged in click on where it says Hello and your name and then click My Prefences. Then I imagine under the one that says the following, you would need to tick the box: Cunard would also like your permission to contact you from time to time with communications that we feel will be of interest to you, such as our Cunarder magazine and information about our services, news, updates and promotions. Our communications may also include offerings of exclusive benefits, privileges and personalised offers including those within search engines, third-party sites with adverts, and on social media.

I had a survey invite at the start of March. I thought, "here we go", the usual survey questions (like about dress code and dining choices) but this was one i've not done before. It was about cruise affordability and whether I was going to spend more or less on cruises in the coming years. I persisted with it, but this wasn't the typical questions. The previous surveys seem to be trying to see if there is justification for diluting the dress code and adding extra costs for speciality dining, this one seemed to be checking that if prices went up would I still cruise with Cunard (probably not is the answer, they have gone up enough already). Did anyone else get this one?

You are quite right there, that is how it feels sometimes. WIth the "new" ships it does feel like they are saying it more, since we know (and they must know) that they aren't small ships (because they can't replicate the itineraries of the Black Watch and Boudicca). After reading your post I came to a realisation about FOCL. I know things change, and the pandemic has caused many changes in the cruise industry, but of all the cruise lines that have survived, I think FOCL is the one most changed in terms of its hard product. I know Carnvial Corp and RCCL shed ships from various brands, and we lost CMV etc but Fred dropped half its fleet and now we know the Braemar will never return to service, just the Balmoral remains from before Covid. That is quite a revolution in terms of the product, but I'm not sure the HAL ships are are better than the vessels they replaced. They are bigger, but therein lie the problem. They aren't Fred's ships as they don't fit the ethos of small cruising. They are HAL ships that have had a change of soft furnishings basically. They don't look like part of the family. Balmoral and Braemar were both cut in two and extended and extensively refitted when they entered service with Fred and the two older ships have been refitted many times. There was a familiarity and family feel across them, and now that has gone. Gone too are the itineraries the smaller ships could do, so the pre-Covid product from Fred is not the product we have now. The Kiel Canal transits that could be done have vanished from the schedules, there are a few for the Balmoral, but I guess the war in Ukraine accounts for the small number of Baltic itineraries, French river cruising seems now to be done only with the Balmoral now that the Braemar has gone. Braemar did her Corinth Canal transits and cruises around Greece and the Adriatic; those are all gone from the schedules. Not that I could have afforded it, but the Braemar based out of Havana has been dropped. All of these were great small ship itineraries that were distinctive and what made Fred stand out at their price point. If I wanted to do these cruises now it would be with cruise companies I can't afford (even Fred's increased prices were already a stretch). It is impossible for the Balmoral to do the work of her and the Braemar, and with the new ships limited by their size I feel the choice of cruises on offer is worse. Also, four ships down to three also means less choice. So worse choice and less choice, is not an attractive offering. Most other lines have reverted to what they were doing before the pandemic, Fred can't do what they did before the pandemic. The fleet is incompatible with the idea of small ship cruising, so they Olsen Way is a meaningless slogan because the product has changed so fundamentally and I don't recognise it. Why is it that change always seems to make things worse? From my own experiences with other cruise lines and from hearing other people's experiences (friends and on this forum) since Covid there has been a drip-drip-drip dilution of the cruise experience in a negative way, that makes it seem worse than before, Unforunately for Fred it has been more a deluge than a drip and the product is not what it was, which is a terrible shame.

Thanks for your helpful assessment of the latest report as always. Looking at occupany over the year, Q1 was 47 per cent with Bolette and Borealis only, Q2 was 73 per cent with Balmoral back then Q3 and Q4 were 73 per cent and 64 per cent. Not encouraging unfortunately. I was suprised to read in the report it said "Borealis was 16 days in dry-dock, Bolette 56 days in lay-up and Braemar was 92 days in lay-up". We know Braemar wasn't used at all so 16 and 56 is 72 days, so not far off equating to one ship out of service for the quarter. I didn't find the outlook positive. After all, previous reports have trumpeted "great" sales figures yet the occupancy rates tell a different story. So given what you said about vessels out of use not figuring in the occupancy figures the figures are 64 per cent of two ships, not three? That's not many passengers sadly. Still think dropping the Braemar is a big mistake. The Corinth Canal transits were a differentiator for the brand, now the itineraries are nothing exceptional, especially with the current pricing model.

From looking at the 2024 itineraries it seems that Cunard is just using the Queen Anne for visiting Flaam (your cruise) and Geirangerfjord (e.g. H419). With the Victoria in the med, the QM2 is visiting Norway but just keeping to the bigger coastal ports rather than heading into the fjords. The last cruise I was on the QM2 in the summer, she was emitting black smoke on start up and that is one of the things that is being targeted in the fjords (see https://dieselnet.com/standards/no/marine.php). So I would definitely expect the Queen Anne to be a cleaner ship emissions-wise compared to the QM2, otherwise Cunard would not be scheduling her to visit the fjords.

I guess it is the same as the did for the Borealis back in November https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2022/11/fred-olsens-borealis-undergoing-drydock-in-england/ According to the article, it is work on the hull, props and shafts. When the ships were up in Rosyth I'm not sure they were drydocked so she must be overdue some work.

The larger balcony does mean the cabin can be a little darker inside than those with the shorter standard sized balconies.

Ambassador have delayed the entry of Ambition (AIDAmira) into service to house temporaririly house refugees. But yesterday one of the UK's Government ministers said they hadn't ruled out using more cruise ships to house refugees, so there is a very small chance these ships might end up used for that. If that were the case I imagine the Government would wait for a company to buy them first and then hire out the ship rather than buy the directly.

I sailed on her in September and I had a look at what I posted about her after the cruise. I noticed quite a few issues, but specifically about my cabin the balcony was poor with lots of rust (it was a sheltered balcony on 5 deck), particularly the underside of deck 6 above (with all the pipework). The area around the door handle on the outside was uneven with thick, multiple layers of repaint. Inside my cabin the door to the balcony was rusty, with peeling/missing paint. Handles (on the desk drawer and one of the wardrobe doors) were broken/hanging off. The sofa was dirty and worn. The bathroom smelt of the shower curtain (I think they all do). I have added a couple of photos. Beyond this, there were lots of issues around the ship which did detract a bit, but she is a hard working ship. There was a lot of painting going on, but I think they are fighting a loosing battle so she does need a good refit soon.

When I saw your photo it struck me as very poignant, dark skies, the Bolette tied up on its own and unlit, looking quite folorn. It made me feel very sad. At that moment it did seem to sum up the predicament that I see FOCL in. Ships are meant to be used, not tied up for months on end but this is the situation unfolding before us. The optimism you refer to is definitely there for the rest of the cruise industry. Black Friday mammoth bookings, companies reporting sales above pre-Covid levels, record bookings for new ships due to enter service. FOCL seem to be an outlier in the sector and things for the company aren't improving, but as you point out are getting worse. It does seem that many cruisers have seemingly fallen out of love with Fred's product, including many previous loyal customers. It is clear from the comments in this forum there is dissatisfaction with FOCL's pricing strategy, and regret and sadness about the fleet changes. But the management seems to disregard this and wants carry on in this direction, which risks disenfranchising previous Fred cruisers even more. My worry is that, with the company going in a direction many of its previous guests aren't happy with, how can this reconcile itself in a good way that provides a sustainable future for the company?

I sail with Cunard and no one else because for the experience and the standard of comfort and service. If they are going to start adding extra charges on top of the cruise price for additional things (which is the route P&O has followed) I would have to think again. So many of the questions were about whether I liked the formal evenings as has been pointed out above. I just fear a slow watering down of the Cunard experience and more additional costs on your cruise statement at the end of the voyage.

Yes I too got one this morning which was surprising since the feedback on my last cruise in September was poor. I'm not sure what they do with the answers or whether they just ignore the results and carry on regardless but to me there is a slow walking back of the traditional aspects of a Cunard cruise, which is disappointing. I do worry when I see questions about asking if I want to pay extra for comfort and service. I am happy to pay extra for a QG suite but the retreat type concept on so many other cruise ships is somemething that I would not want to see on a Cunarder. I like that The whole ship is open to me whatever grade (except the grills and grill lounge which is perfectly fine). The wording of many of the questions makes me thing they are considering going down the route of paying extra fees for more things, so more things like the Verandah grills. I just hope I am wrong.

Calling it a French river cruise and then you not seeing any when that is the whole point of the cruise is beyond belief. Your sense of disappointment is completely understandable and I feel sorry for you to have been let down so badly by FOCL. Unfortunately when things go wrong on an FOCL cruise any benevolence or generosity on the part of the company immediately evaporates. Gone is the friendly Olsen family image they market themselves as, instead they do refuse to even consider your point of view. It strikes me as pretty ruthless and the not the way to treat loyal customers. I am not surprised you want nothing more to do with them.

There was an event in the week that is being reported https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/refurb-interiors/queen-annes-art-and-interiors-inspired-cunards-past-designed-future I am not sure it tells us much more but suggests the QA will be featuring lots of new contemporary art, so quite a departure from the current ships. Modern art can be quite polarising, I do hope it will still play on Cunard's heritage. I think stepping aboard the QA after being on board any of the existing Queens will be akin to going from Queen Mary or Eiizabeth to the QE2 in 1969 (something radically different).

That is my fear too. I am waiting for the 2024/25 cruises to come out but a little bit of me thinks she isn't going to last that long unless the fortunes of FOCL improve.

Thank you for sharing your lovely photos. It makes me wish I had sailed on her before the pandemic, how different things were back then. I notice Fred have put out a press release on their website: https://www.fredolsencruises.com/amendments I notice two things - passengers can get a full refund, transfer to another cruise or Fred are saying they can hold on to your money in exchange for a FCC for 12 months. So they are hoping passengers will opt for the second or third option and not the refund and they don't have to refund everyone. They are choosing not to compensate as other some cruise companies have done with refund plus FCC. However, those Braemar itineraries, the Corinth Canal ones particularly - not possible now as the fleet is too big to transit the canal - and the Cuba cruises that were planned only seemed possible due to the Braemar's size. So, will passengers be able to find an alternative that suits? I wonder how many passengers are affected by this? The total potential funds to be returned to passengers must be a lot, but presumably much less than the cost of reactivating the Braemar after so long in lay up. I think that might be the true motive, that reactivation costs are too high given the financial situation you explained. Then also the press release says "While we are always looking for opportunities to grow and evolve as a business, we will continue to operate for now with three ships within our fleet – Bolette, Borealis and Balmoral. It may be that, in the future, we will find another ship who will fit perfectly within the fleet, but this is not a priority for us just now." So they don't have the money for a new ship, and given the age and size of the Braemar the money they would get for her would sadly not put much of a dent in those debts. It seems quite a worrying situation for Fred. I do hope they hold onto the Balmoral but I guess it all depends on occupany rates into 2023 and beyond.

They seem to announce them later and later each year.

If you got the email today and following the link there is a heading for each ship. For the QE it says: Join Queen Elizabeth and explore the unique wilderness of Alaska in 2024. Sail past unforgettable scenery, from sparkling glaciers to untamed national parks, not forgetting an abundance of wildlife. A selection of remarkable Alaska itineraries will be announced in the coming months, so please check back soon. So we have to wait even longer to find out what she is up to in 2024.

Sorry for your cancelled cruise, I would have loved to do the Corinth transit too.