sfred

From memory, the Cunard shuttle for port-day passengers went to City Road in Southbank.  I've not used the shuttle myself, preferring the 109 tram, so can't say where precisely the bus drops off.

Sorry everyone,  didn't mean to divert this thread into a canal discussion.  But perhaps some interesting info on why QM2's 2022 world voyage doesn't go around the cape and back up the west coast of South America like QV often does.  Thanks Underwatr - good data and references.

That would definitely be worth a video!  Maybe they could load a few extra cases of Pol Acker and double up the rations on the deck 7 Kings Court to temporarily increase the draft!  🙂

I see in your signature line that you are off on the Caribbean Christmas trip in a few days.  Best wishes!  The wife and I are doing that trip next year 2020, and counting the days already.

Thanks Underwatr.  Yes, that's my understanding also, that the limitation is the Bridge of the Americas.  The dimensions I've seen are:

QM2 height from keel to top of funnel:  72 meters

QM2 draft:  approx 10 meters

Resulting height from waterline to top of funnel:  62 meters

62 meters = 203.4 feet

Stated clearance at high tide of Bridge of Americas main span:  201 feet

So I imagine that at low tide, QM2 could scrape under (perhaps literally).  Maybe Cunard will give it a go sometime.  By comparison, the stated clearance of the Verrazano Narrows bridge in NY harbour, a key factor in QM2's design, is 228 feet. 

6 hours ago, Bedruthen said:

Anyone else think this is a strange itinerary? We were hoping for a trip around South America, to include the Panama Canal, for us not enough ports of call in South America for us to consider this particular one.

Unfortunately QM2 cannot fit in the Panama canal.  Only QE and QV. 

Thanks again for your reports, and safe travels home!

Hello bazzaw.  On the May 2019 QE port call at Anchorage, we docked at the Port of Alaska facility, just to the north of downtown.  There was a short 15min shuttle bus ride provided to Town Square Park.  Much closer and easier than either Whittier or Seward.

My thanks also kmerlin.  The wife and I were on QE's Tokyo-Vancouver the previous month, in May.  Your reports and program guides brought back a lot of good memories.

Per the Cunard web site https://www.cunard.com/en-au/the-cunard-experience/staterooms-and-suites/grills-experience

Princess includes:

Queens is Princess plus the following:

Hi rakkor.  My thanks also for the excellent recaps of your QM2 crossing.  i'm looking forward to the Caribbean portion of your trip.  The wife and I are booked on the NY-NY Christmas voyage next year 2020, and I'm already counting the days.

The Canadian folk duo was on our QE Alaska voyage this past May.  They played almost every day in the Garden Lounge on deck 9, and we greatly enjoyed their music.  Glad to read that they have been "promoted" to the QM2 and the Royal Court.

Thanks Bell Boy.  The wife and I will be on QV that day, on our first sea day out of Rio Brazil.  I'll watch for the news.  I wonder if there will be an announcement onboard?

In my experience, I've always been asked for the eticket by security when entering the cruise terminal.  Whether they would accept a different credential, I don't know as I've always had the printed eticket to show them.  Passports are needed at the checkin desk once inside.

There are several good hotels within a short flat walk to the Overseas Passenger Terminal.  The Park Hyatt is wonderful, and the wife and I have stayed there occasionally.  It is a great experience to see your ship arrive at daybreak, and then stroll over to board later that day after a nice breakfast.  It is rather expensive, though.  More reasonably priced, but still very good quality, are the Holiday Inn at George St. and Mill Lane, and the Pier One (a Marriott autograph property) in the restored original shipping terminal just on the other side of the Harbour Bridge. 

Hi lissie.  The etickets are needed to get past the security guarding the entrance of the cruise terminal, and commence the checkin process.  Also in some ports with priority queues, your cabin class or Worldclub status printed on the eticket gives you access to the separate queue.  After that, the etickets are never needed again, and they are not commonly used at all by the checkin agent.  Whether port security would accept an eticket shown on a phone is a question I've never hazarded to attempt.  Much easier to just print the eticket.  

You do not need luggage labels for any luggage you are carrying youself onto the ship.  Luggage labels are needed only for bags being checked at the pier prior to checkin.  You can bring on anything you can carry, but caution also that carryons need to go through an xray scanner, so a bag too big to fit through the scanner should be checked in with a luggage tag.

Enjoy your trip!  Sydney is a great port to commence journeys.  Roaming the decks in the afternoon, with views across to the Opera House and the Harbour bridge, are wonderful.

You're very welcome.  Thanks for asking about the fires.  We live in the Brisbane CBD so are quite safe, but folks out in the country have been doing it very tough and have some challenging days still to go.  I hope they will be okay.

A couple of additional items about Japan that I forgot to mention in the earlier posting:

o    In Aomori, the cruise terminal is on the Shin-Chuo wharf, square A3 on the pdf map.  The main shopping street is called Shinmachi Street, and has several department stores, a fish market, and coffee shops.  The municipal onsen, in case you wanted to have an authentic Japanese bath experience, is on the road marked highway 7, map square B1.  A bit of Japanese language skill helps here - the onsen attendants did not speak English, but again you could point to a "menu" of services to select what you wanted (bath only, towel, amenities kit, etc.).  The main train station has lots of restaurants and cafes.

o    In Muroran, the web site I mentioned which talks about the coastal walk suggests a city bus to Cape Chikyu.  We walked the route easily from the Muroran train station in only 20-25 minutes or so, and made it part of our coastal hike.  Muroran was our last port call before starting our eastbound transpacific to Alaska, so we wanted to stretch our legs while we had the chance.

o    If the Queen Elizabeth docks next year at Otaru rather than Muroran, you'll have a very different set of options for the day.  Sapporo is much closer to Otaru, only a short train ride, and the town of Otaru is much more interesting than the steel mill of Muroran.

https://otaru.gr.jp/wp-content/themes/otaru/pdf/eng_1.pdf

Hope you have a wonderful time!  We sure did on our cruise in May.  I'd say it was one of the best Cunard trips we've ever done.

Hi Erniebernie.  We did our own thing in both Aomori and Sapporo.  While English isn't as widely spoken as in Tokyo, it is still easy to get around.  I used to go to Japan frequently on business, and know enough Japanese to get by, but it isn't absolutely necessary.

In Aomori the pier and brand new cruise terminal is adjacent to the city; no need for shuttle buses.  Directional signs are in both English and Japanese.   We walked around the main shopping streets, went to the city municipal onsen baths, and the city parks which had cherry trees still in blossom (the cherry blossoms had already gone in Tokyo).  Cunard had excursions available to the outlying onsens and shrines. but we were completely happy with the things doable on your own by foot from the pier.  We had a very tasty and inexpensive lunch in a Japanese restaurant near the train station, and if you did not speak Japanese you could easily order by pointing to the items you wanted on the menu.  There is a great tourist map available on the internet in pdf which shows the location of all the city sites. 

https://www.en-aomori.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/aomoricityguide_en.pdf

In Sapporo the ship docked in the industrial town of Muroran, and a free shuttle bus went into town where you could catch a train to Sapporo.  The biggest feature of Muroran is a large steel mill, but there is a very scenic coastal walk to the town of Noboribetsu that I can definitely recommend if you like that sort of thing.  It is a full day's hike, and hilly at times, but has beautiful views along the rocky coast.  If you didn't want to do a big walk, just going to the lighthouse at Cape Chikyu is worth the time. 

https://en.japantravel.com/hokkaido/the-amazing-coastline-of-muroran/46422

Otherwise, a ship excursion would probably be the way to go, as the area's national parks and volcanic hot springs are all a bit remote from Muroran, and a train to Sapporo would have taken several hours.

I recall reading something about how Cunard is going to dock at a different place, closer to Sapporo, in future years.  There is also a town called Otaru, northwest of Sapporo, where many cruise ships go.   I don't recall the details.  It is probably worth checking your itinerary to see. 

Free and very fast wifi was also usually available, and we had no problems connecting our phones.  You probably know also that there is no tipping in Japan.

Hope this helps - let me know any questions.

erniebernie, as Bluemarble says, this past year 2019 the QE went from Australia up to Japan, then to Alaska and Vancouver, and then returned to the UK via the Panama Canal and the Atlantic. 

The wife and I were on the Tokyo-Alaska-Vancouver voyage, in May 2019.  Port calls were Tokyo, Aomori, Sapporo, Kodiak, Anchorage, Juneau, Skagway, Hubbard Glacier, Icy Straight point, Sitka, Ketchikan, Victoria, and Vancouver.  We has a wonderful time, and the Alaska scenery was amazing.  Sea conditions throughout were surprisingly calm.  While the Alaska inside passage was typically flat, we were expecting some big waves on the eastbound transpacific crossing.  But each sea day was calm and quite cold (mid-single digits C), especially by Australia summertime standards.   The Alaska ports were a little warmer, 10-12c or so, especially further south.  Vancouver and Victoria were both high teens, low 20s.   

The stop at Hubbard Glacier was breathtaking.  It was a sunny day, and the ship did several turns around the face of the glacier to give both sides of the ship good views.  There's an aerial photo currently featured on Cunard's facebook page.

I don't know what September 2020 in the westward direction will be like.  You can see forecast sea conditions a week or two in advance on several web sites.   Do a google search for Ventusky, magicseaweed, or passageweather, all of which have sea state and weather forecasts. 

Let me know any other questions, and happy to help if I can.

No worries.  Have a great trip!!

willjan,  the excursions I've bought through voyage personaliser (now called "manage my booking" on the Cunard AU web site) are charged in US$ and incur currency conversion fees if you use an Aussie credit card with a surcharge.  Cards like 28degrees or Bankwest zero have no fee for foreign transactions.  Anything you buy from the Australia call centre on 132441 is processed by Cunard Australia, in A$, and therefore without surcharge.

HI willjan.  As BigMac says, anything purchased onboard is in US$.  Unless your Australia credit card is free from foreign currency surcharges, you'll incur a currency conversion fee.  Anything purchased prior to your cruise through the Australia call centre (for example, wine packages or the cost of the cruise itself) is in A$ and does not incur currency conversion charges.

I share your disappointment, MelbTone.  The only straightforward payment method (card) is the one that attracts surcharge. 

Are you able to share the BSB/account info you received from Cunard?  How do they associate the funds transfer with your booking?  Booking reference number?

On 9/26/2019 at 8:14 AM, Underwatr said:

Americans are charged gratuities, it's just that in many booking promotions it's charged and refunded.

 

Aren't many Australian fares gratuity-included? 

In my experience, it is relatively rare for Australia fares to include gratuities.  There is the occasional sale promotion that is gratuity inclusive but only on selected voyages that Cunard is particularly flogging.  Even then Cunard IT can interfere.  I took two short 3 and 4 day QE trips in Australia earlier this year, both booked at the same time on a gratuity inclusive promotion deal.  Upon disembarkation on the 3 night voyage the gratuities were appropriately credited back (ie, charged to my account and then paid back by Cunard), but on the other 4 night they were charged as usual with no corresponding Cunard credit.  I asked at the pursers office before getting off, but they had no record of my promotional fare and had no ability to apply a credit other than removing the gratuity entirely.  I did not want to disadvantage our cabin steward, who was very good, so I left the gratuities in place.

I concur with the general sentiment in this thread that it is unfair to have one policy for some geographies and a different policy for others.

As of today 25 September, there is no change to the gratuity policy on the Australia site:

"From your waiters and stateroom stewards to the many more people supporting behind the scenes, every Cunard crew member puts their heart and skill into ensuring you experience Cunard's legendary White Star Service.

To ensure crew in these areas are rewarded for the service they provide to you, and to eliminate the need for tipping, a hotel and dining service charge is added to your on board account and every dollar collected goes directly to the crew members.  There is no administrative fee.  Of course, should you wish to individually reward any other crew member who has made your time on board particularly memorable, please feel welcome to do so."

North West Newbie is correct.  Last year on the 4th of July 2018 cruise the shuttle was also at Clinton St/Surface Road adjacent to the Dock Square car park and Faneuil Hall market.

I don't know about this year, but we were aboard last year in 2018.  The excursions were the usual Boston activities; nothing unique to Independence day.  We watched the fireworks from the Cambridge side of the Charles  river near Kendall Square, and made our own way back to the ship afterwards. 

Hello AzureGreen23.  In my experience, the Victoria and Elizabeth have European UK and US sockets, but the Mary has only UK and US. 

And none of the Cunard ships has Australia/NZ sockets.  Perhaps on the new ship....