MylesS

100% agree, although in my case "Virgin Points". Perhaps not the place given we're on a cruise forum, but I'm now moving away from Avios due to my lack of wanting to fly with BA anymore. The yearly Disney World trips combined with business + occasional trip to meet QM2 in NYC has racked me up a comparable amount. Even with the taxes, I'd suspect they are a lot lower than perhaps what Jack has been quoted for full fare flights. Unsure. In regards to economy, as someone who tries to avoid it, if needs must, then so be it!

Unsure of if this will apply to you Jack, so apologies if not, but a suggestion for yourself and maybe others in the same situation. Is it possible you have air miles or points with an airline, or perhaps a credit card (ie American Express) where you can transfer them? If so, that may help reduce the cost of your flights significantly. We were in a similar situation last year, a flight from LHR to JFK was £4,000+ one way. Luckily I had points and was able to secure the same seats for only £400

Some more pictures from Micky Arison

Looks like she's bunkering fuel at the moment, so I'd imagine she'll be leaving in the next day or two?

From my understanding it's loading items onto the ship. I'd assume this means things like furniture, bedding, etc. There was also posts on the weekend of them loading one of the sets for the upcoming shows.

Interestingly, the press release put out by the shipyard (below) says she will arrive at Southampton on the 27th. "Queen Anne, the 249th ship to sail under the Cunard flag – and the third built by Fincantieri – will now set sail for Southampton ahead of her seven-night maiden voyage to Lisbon on 3 May. She will arrive in her homeport on 27 April." https://www.fincantieri.com/en/media/press-releases/2024/cunard-officially-welcomes-new-ship-queen-anne-with-ceremony-at-fincantieri-shipyard/

We went on for a day after her refit and had a look. It is much much better than when we were onboard in the summer. It looked like there was a lot of work done.

That's interesting, as in our check-in email it was mentioned that Cunard will not be able to offer priority check-in due to the large amount of Diamond & Platinum members. Are you travelling Queens Grill? That could explain why your boarding pass mentions priority.

If I'm understanding what you want correctly, yes, just a one way transatlantic. QM2 isn't like other ships which do 1 or 2 crossings a year, she does 15-20 (sometimes more or less) throughout.

This is what annoys me the most. I'd switch the voyages if given the chance. Happy to be proven wrong, but I don't think we'll be given much in comparison, even given the premium we paid.

I'd like to hope we'll recieve some small commemorative gift for being on the maiden voyage, but I don't want to set myself up for disappointment. We shall see! We'll be going down on the 28th to see Queen Anne with her two sisters as well, which should be a nice day out at least.

I'd imagine we'll be able to use them anywhere, though how much benefit it will bring I'm unsure. Those of us on the maiden voyage won't be able to use this perk though as there is too many of us!

This is the restaurant we've been looking forward to the most, as we're big Japanese food eaters. Menu looks interesting, I'd be interested to see how the Wagyu compares to what we've had in on-land restaurants and in Verandah in the past. I'm a little worried this menu doesn't have a drinks offering like the others (unless I'm just completely blind, I can't find it on My Cunard either) - I'm hoping they'll have some Japanese wines, beers and spirits.

Captain Hall seems to be getting all the "excitement" or rather interesting events on QM2 recently. He took over from Captain Hashmi when we arrived late into NYC in the summer, dealtt with the snapped mooring lines in Italy, and then when we had a fire on the way back to Southampton from a Mediterranean cruise.

As someone on the maiden, this did concern me a bit too. However, I do have a little faith. A lot of the pictures of large areas, such as the restaurant, bars, etc. look empty because there is just no seating yet - something very easy to bring on (maybe even brought on in Southampton later this month?) It's not hard to imagine that there will be thousands of people working on the ship right now, and probably 50 to 100 hundred people working on these venues, most of which are probably on a lot of overtime pay right now. With that many, I think a lot of work can be done fairly quickly. That being said, while I do believe she'll be "ready" on time, we'll continue to see work going on to some areas during our cruise. That is the thought we had in the back of our mind when booking though, so we're prepared & won't be disappointed if that's the case.