Yorkshire Mike

We booked a future cruise on QA whilst on our last QV cruise, only because Cunard have ended the future cruise downpayment scheme and now require an actual trip to be booked, and only after being given an explicit undertaking that the booking was transferable on the same conditions as many times as we wished. The trip we booked was for April 2024 so has now been cancelled due to whatever issues have delayed the new ship. Reading the notification email sent by Cunard suggested we would get a refund of the 350 dollar onboard deposit plus onboard credit to the value of 10% of the monies paid when we re-book. That sounded like 35 dollars of onboard spend gained, offset by the rather larger loss of onboard spend gained by booking onboard. So I rang Cunard to clarify. The call was taken by a very pleasant lady named Andrea who didn’t know the answer but undertook to find out and call me back, which she did. After speaking to someone more senior, she was able to confirm that should we re-book we will receive the onboard credit applicable had we made the booking onboard, and told me she had made a note to that effect on our account, but refused to confirm that in writing, and also that the onboard deposit level would not be honoured and we will need to pay whatever the going rate is if we do re-book. Simply moving the original on board booking and maintaining the commitment made to us on board is not possible as Cunard have cancelled the trip booked. If you are in the same situation you may like to call Cunard for yourself.

At least you’ve enough time to research a day’s activity 👍

The chap in Voyage Sales gave us sizes and passenger numbers to ‘prove’ it would when we asked that very question. However, half as many passengers again on a ship not really much bigger than Queen Vic/Liz? As you say, only experience will tell. On the other hand, I’d happily bet the food will be as good, it simply has to be, poor snap is probably the easiest way to alienate your customers. Service? Who knows, presumably Cunard will shift some experienced crew across to teach newbies, and enforce ‘Cunard way or gangway’, as one waiter once explained Cunard’s HR policy to us, but they will still need to recruit and train/retrain a lot of new staff. Not that it matters to me. Not booking on owt that ugly.

Pointless waste of paper.

I tend to agree that Cunard are struggling with identity. The Cunard image is refined and elegant (Or old-fashioned and stuffy, depending on how you feel about it), but the reality is almost as casual as like, except for a very few nights per cruise, and even then you don’t have to join in. They’re no different from, for example, Fred Olsen, in that respect. Now, especially with a new and bigger ship coming into the fleet, they’re clearly trading on past glories and reputation and trying to attract a new demographic to sell bed-nights whilst desperate not to lose revenue from a loyal following that doesn’t want change. Tricky. I worked for an international blue-chip grocery company that destroyed a major part of their own business in similar circumstances. For us, things like the evening entertainment and daytime activities and photographers and visible officers are utterly irrelevant, but the feeling of calm and spaciousness throughout the ship is fundamental, and if that changes we’d look elsewhere. Clearly others have different priorities, and that makes Cunard’s job even harder. At base, Cunard need to decide what they are and what they offer their guests, communicate that offer very clearly, much more clearly than their current TV ad does, and make sure what they actually deliver is the same as they promised to deliver. At the moment they’re tending toward neither fish nor fowl.

We had one cruise where the speakers included Jeffrey Archer and another with whatsisname Digby Jones, both well-known names, like 'em or not, and neither was publicised pre-cruise so good luck finding out who the 'ordinary' speakers are. I spent time prior to our last cruise trying to do so, and even rang Cunard with no success. If you do get to know early, I'd be delighted to find out what you needed to do to dig up the info!

I always think the only 'trick' to cruising is to find a cruise line that offers the things you like. If wearing black tie or not affects your enjoyment pick your line accordingly. Dress code isn't kept secret. It's like complaining that the drinks are too expensive or the daily gratuity should be included in the fare. Right or wrong, it is what it is.

Refused, in our experience, with the Maitre d' being very apologetic but saying that Cunard were imposing this to mark a more significant difference between Queen's and Princess because people were booking Pricess and expecting Queen's perks. That said, our assistant maitre d' was happy to do crepes suzette and some other bits and bobs, but lobster thermidor was a definite no.

Three different ties rather than three different suits? Personally, I've always thought of the Gala Nights as Formal Nights, so just wear black tie.

There aren't really many gala nights on any trip, so it might not make any odds to you, but if you're thinking of compromising your on-board experience by not going with the dress code, why not travel with a different line? Unless there's a reason for the Cunard trip, of course, itinerary, destination, whatever.

Personally, I think PG is Cunard’s sweet spot. Allocated table in the restaurant, freedom to dine when you like, subject to opening times, and a near-identical menu to Queen’s. No, you can’t go off menu as much in Princess, but we rarely do in Queen’s anyway, and on Queen’s Liz and Vic the PG restaurant is a far more pleasant space than the QG restaurant, which always puts me in mind of a school canteen it’ so tight-packed.

We don’t often ’do’ afternoon tea, maybe once or twice in a fortnight. Wasn’t impressed by the menu on our August cruise, or the victuals when they arrived, but do prefer the quiet of the Princess Grill venue.

As a newbie to folding bikes I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the on and off-road capabilities of my ten year old and low-end-of-the-market-even-when-it-was-new Falcon Nimbus. In Akureyri it rode happily on smooth tarmac, loose gravel, grass tracks and a 20% uphill to the church.

No, sorry, we were slightly later getting on board and it was a really warm, sunny day so we didn’t walk around inside at all, just up to lunch then unpacked then went for a stroll around deck 3 before retiring to our balcony for the sail out.

They also allow disassembled (Their word from the FAQs) bikes, so with a decent toolkit you can indeed take any bike, they don’t specify a disassembled size. I have bikes that I could disassemble but didn’t have a folding bike, so had the perfect excuse to buy a new bike. Not a new, new bike, as previously noted, where’s the fun in that?