bbtablet

Many thanks for that, bluemarble.

On 9/11/2021 at 4:13 PM, bbtablet said:

We are on the Jan 14th 2022 Southampton to the Caribbean on QM2 and have asked for (and expect to get, as we booked within 5 minutes of the booking opening) a table for two in first sitting.

 

I think I have read that one of the changes to the old pre-COVID routines is that your reserved table in Brittania is reserved for all meals now, including breakfast and lunch, as opposed to the old system of being herded into the next available spaces by the waiters at these times.

 

Can anyone confirm this please? It sounds like a very sensible COVID move as otherwise there would be a lot of mixing of people every day who of course will not be masked during the meals.

Thanks to those who have replied to this.

I have now found where I had read it. It is on the page about the Queen Mary 2 (cruise-ships/queen-mary-2) at cunard.com:

Agree that BofB can be anything at any time of the year.

Us? - we are booked high up on Deck 11, very near the sharp end of QM2, and doing the North Atlantic both ways in the height of winter. What could possibly go wrong?

If we don't get a good chucking-about I shall feel very cheated!

We are on the Jan 14th 2022 Southampton to the Caribbean on QM2 and have asked for (and expect to get, as we booked within 5 minutes of the booking opening) a table for two in first sitting.

I think I have read that one of the changes to the old pre-COVID routines is that your reserved table in Brittania is reserved for all meals now, including breakfast and lunch, as opposed to the old system of being herded into the next available spaces by the waiters at these times.

Can anyone confirm this please? It sounds like a very sensible COVID move as otherwise there would be a lot of mixing of people every day who of course will not be masked during the meals.

We are booked on the Jan 14th 2022 Cunard Southampton to the Caribbean cruise. We are in our late 70s. We have mobile phones but they are not smart phones and cannot download apps or do emails etc.

In anticipation of the continuing requirement for passengers to complete a passenger locator form towards the end of the cruise I read the travelling abroad info at the gov.uk site with its frequent references to the use of smart-phones. Nowhere does it even mention the possibility that some travellers might not possess a smart phone, so I rang the Helpdesk.

Unfortunately I got through to a Geordie - not his fault - (sub-titles please!), who was young enough to be completely thrown by the (to him) incredulous idea that I don't have a smart-phone and he kept asking me over and over to clarify that I really did not have one. He clearly didn't believe me and said "Well how come your speaking to me then?", thinking he had caught me out. I then had to acquant him with the concept of a land-line!

His only advice to me was to get someone else to do it for me - he clearly had not been trained to deal with what must be a relatively frequent situation amongst shiploads of elderly cruisers. Very poor.

Apart from the obvious - buy a smart-phone - any recommendations of how to proceed as I am stumped!

Bernard.

1 hour ago, Smitheroo said:

and yet they are still advertising the jan 3, 2021 cruise NYC to Southampton which will most likely be cancelled.  Yet my balance is due in a couple of days and they will accept it knowing  the likelihood the cruise will be cancelled. The covid situation is only going to get worse by January. If  I dont pay my balance they get to keep my deposit. (guaranteed booking) $214 may not be much to one person but they will get a lot out of many in the same position. Not only that, the fare for the Jan 3rd voyage is higher than what I paid months ago (not too much higher but higher nevertheless)  Many  that could cancel without a loss most likely have.  

If Q. Mary does not make that trip on Jan 3rd, she will be in the wrong place for the to and from Germany then Jan14th Caribbean cruise from Southampton (which I am booked on). I too have to pay the final payment within a couple of weeks and if there is no further news I will pay it and get the full refund back some time next year if the cruise doesn't go. This is our third Caribbean cruise attempt and after two cancellations we are determined to stick with it until the plug is or isn't pulled!

This Cunard web-site says no, so which is it?!

https://www.cunardline.ch/en/good-know/onboard-regulations

Gratuities

Cunard will not automatically charge gratuities to the on-board account for passengers travelling. Passengers are free to tip cabin and restaurant stewards. Gratuities are welcome, but are not expected. If you still want to reward the entire hotel team on board with a tip, you will find a form in the cabin which can be handed in at Purser's Office on request.

The Queen Mary 2 Caribbean cruise starting in early January 2022 is currently showing most categories as fully booked.

Does that mean that every cabin in these categories is occupied, OR does anyone know whether Cunard are still applying their stated policy of sailing with less than full capacity as one of their responses to the COVID issue, meaning that at least a percentage of the cabins will in fact be, and remain, empty, in the interest of passenger safety?

4 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I'm booked on 14 January sailing with payment due 22 September. If I pay this in full before knowing what I'm locked into I understand I cannot move the cruise?  I assume I am therefore locked in to possibly sailing around for 28 days!  Surely someone will be looking at these points soon 

We are booked on this one too and also hoping for more clarification by our final balance date - a little sooner at September 18th - but we are getting bloody-minded about it now, having had two previous Caribbean bookings cancelled and getting frailer by the month, and we are determined to go even if we have to drive the thing ourselves (I've had a dayboat on the Norfolk Broads - nothing to it!).

If it comes down to sailing around for 28 days in the north Atlantic winter storms and never getting off, what's not to like? - and it will at least be something to tell our grand-kids!

We've also booked and paid for all our Cunard Port Tours, (although, worryingly, St. Lucia's tours are not available yet), so really going for it - fingers crossed! 😀

Cunard are advertising a Southampton to the Caribbean and return cruise for Jan/Feb 2022 going on sale next Wednesday (28 nights). The cabin for two will be about 6k for a balcony, but the cheapest insurance quote for us on MoneyS is £4,142, and the third cheapest is £16,315.

We ar in our 70s with the usual tablets for blood pressure but no issues, and I have Type 2 diabetes, so nothing for insurers to panic about.

How can I book at these prices?!

21 minutes ago, zap99 said:

When I was a kid in the 50's my dad's factory motoring club used to organise day trips out. When you start looking at UK gems to visit I can recommend.............Leysdown. Not too far for you😁

What a great idea! - P&O could put a cruise on from Southampton to the Isle of Sheppey!

If we all wait until it is safe to go out, we will never go out.

Life has always been full of risks and now there is one more to manage - each person must decide, within the guidance offered, what they will do regarding venturing back into the world and then have the courage to go for it.

One thing is for sure - if we never venture out again we will all die indoors.

Statistics show that the bed is the most dangerous piece of furniture in a house - most people die in one.

The word AVACTA may soon be on all our lips, and it might be the way forward for ensuring a virus-free cruise by enabling a cheap, quick and binary proof one way or the other of whether we have the virus at the moment of boarding, not only at Southampton but also at every port of call.

20 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Not clear of your meaning.  If you are referring to having to cancel any cruise you had booked prior to the COVID problems (before 18th March for our insurance), then you should still be fully covered for that (those), if you keep and, if neccesary, renew an annual insurance which covers that.  It is newly booked cruises which will not be covered, though should a vaccine or good treatment become available then insurance should cover it as a matter of course and will not be a high risk.  Yes, some price increases still expected though, but how much remains to be seen. 

Thanks for this. We had a cruise already booked and insured before March 2020 but have had to transfer it to 2021 and so new insurance taken out that states no cover for repatriation etc if caused by COVD19, and they have re-confirmed that to me. So I will need to buy specific COVID 19 cover to tack onto that one. The other cruise in late 2021 we have not taken any insurance out for yet, but expect the premiums when we do to be even higher than usual for the Caribbean, perhaps astronomically so.

Presumably, in future all passengers will want to/be required to have travel insurance cover for corona virus, but the insurance companies will not cover it at the moment.

When they do, we fear the extra cost is likely to be so expensive for me and my wife, both in our 70's and with notifiable medical conditionsl, that it will be out of all proportion to the cost of the holiday and we might have to cancel. Do others see it this way? 

Bernard.

25 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Interesting to see what their insurance actually covers.

After my heart attack in December I was quoted £2000 for worldwide travel insurance after our company instantly cancelled our current insurance when we informed them of the HA.

I waited 3 months after my HA and got the insurance for £650 from a different company.

Would you be so kind as to let me know which that insurance company was. We have a Caribbean P&O cruise booked for late 2021 and have not yet taken out insurance (we tend to leave it until the final payment) and we are expecting horrendous quotes as we are both in our 70s with the usual blood pressure etc, and Type 2 diabetes.

Many thanks,

Bernard.