WantedOnVoyage

Come back, Dennis Dawson, all is forgiven. You pay a deck chair charge (I think it was $10.00 a day at the end), you and Dennis pick out your favourite spot and he has YOUR chair, with cushion and steamer rug all ready for YOU in the same spot. Even tucks you in. Deck chair service, tray lunches and teas. All part of the service. And he'll move the chair in or out of the sun, too. Nary a worry in the world. This worked just fine for oh about 160 years with Cunard. Then someone decided to "improve" things. What do they call it again, "The Good Old Days"?? For all good reason, too.

Really? I not sure why one would aspire to spend longer in Barcelona or Palma which are the two most anti tourist ports in Spain? I still love Palma but you can keep Barcelona, thanks very much. The nice thing about this "anti tourism" fad is that some of us dislike being in some of these places as much as they do having us.

I have literally every single menu from some 65 voyages/cruises I've enjoyed in the last 50 years so happy to compare that of half a century ago in Classe Turistica on T/n RAFFAELLO with my most recent cruise, QUEEN VICTORIA in Princess Grill. On Italian Line, you got all the free table wine you wanted, at lunch and dinner, and this 16-year-old high school student thought that was wonderful and the food itself was mighty tasty... I still remember the mushroom ravioli. That on QV was varying degrees of exceptional but I think everything was better when one is 16 so I give edge to RAFFAELLO. BTW, don't try comparing today's Grill menus with those of QUEEN ELIZABETH 2... now that was something. But Cunard still manages to do a good job despite Carnival accountants' best efforts.

Sigh... I doubt we shall enjoy QM2 again as she was on our January 2022 Southampton-West Indies cruise, her first long cruise since reactivation after the Covid shutdown. We had... 1333 passengers (!) aboard for that and a full crew of 1200 and something. Delightfully deserted in spots and one could wander into the Chart Room at 6:45 p.m. and have a choice of 4-5 empty tables and stewards practically rushing over to take one's order. Princess Grill had two stewards and an assistant for each table in their station, too.

Oh dear... the "worse case" is having to wear trousers to dinner on Cunard. I do despair.

The only teens I've seen on the last 3-4 Cunard cruises I've taken have been the cadets. And any younger children have been exemplary in manner and behaviour and none, yet, have been seen wearing crocs with their formal wear, either. They will learn with the passage of time, no doubt....

I do like the "collared shirt" term which is right out of the Edwardian Era... when gentlemen wore "a shirt and collar". And the collar was celluloid and indeed separate. Today, like such much of the Cunard dress code, it is vague, confusing wordage that varies even where you access it on their own website. And yes... a "polo shirt" has a collar. As does a rugby shirt and some cycling jerseys. So anyone who thinks a "polo shirt" counts as "smart" let alone evening attire, should be free to wear a rugby shirt as well. And no doubt do. What's missing in the dress code is the essential: the phrase "ladies and gentlemen". Possibly for good reason.

I guess I considered anything that does not mandate a jacket let alone tie... more "Casual" than "Smart"!! But point taken. I will pack another tie for QUEEN VICTORIA departing in 17 days as penance!

Actually, "the polo shirt" finally appears to have relegated to the locker room... the wordage, at least on the Cunard website (US) is "a dress shirt" for "smart casual" for men. And is a "polo shirt" a "dress shirt". No.

Yes. Overall, we remain delighted with what we have received on QUEEN VICTORIA over the last four post Covid cruises and one in QM2. But yes... there are noticeable cut backs (experienced as travelling Princess Grill) Long waits (20 mins) for drinks in Chart Room and Commodore Long pauses (20 mins or more even) between courses in Princess Grill which suddenly crop up halfway through the cruise Very uneven deck service on the Grills Deck... ranging from superb and attentive to non existent Bed linen not changed nearly as frequently as before and sometimes to the point of having to request it. That should NOT be necessary. Ever. And the cutbacks in side of table presentation, dover sole etc. in Princess Grill which may be more market driven than anything else to increase the difference between PG and Queen's Grill. But there are indeed reductions here regardless of reason. Lack of live music in Yacht Club which we really missed... they have destroyed the atmosphere of this room alas. But... generally, it remains a superb product and especially it's the people on QUEEN VICTORIA that keeps us returning... indeed in, why in 17 days time! Not that I am counting

We're aboard in January 2025 ex-Southampton for 35 delicious nights to the West Indies and while the Boardwalk Cafe is hardly a deal breaker for us, we hope to at least get a whiff of chips (as do the occupants of the kennels below) during at least some of it.

Not sure if they will make the investment but yes, the old QM2 needs a makeover and there are features and facilities either underutilized or not working anymore. The Grills Terrace, the Verandah Restaurant and Boardwalk Cafe come readily to mind. She has always been a odd duck having the "lido restaurant" miles from... well... a lido or pools and a complete lack of bars etc on the upper open decks, etc. Me, I just love her for those acres of real teak decking and her high ceilings indoors. But... yes, some things just don't work. And it shows.

He is indeed.... so rare, one remembers his name, too!

It was open during our long UK-West Indies cruise in 2022 but sorry, it looked SO unappetising at first glance and smell that we avoided it. Big stainless steel trays of precooked and 20 times warmed over beef patties and sausages... even the mess deck of an wartime corvette had better grub than that, surely. Our crew mess sure did. And yes... it's often windy enough to discourage al fresco dining too... a little too much "fresco" and your rubbery sausage might fly off and put someone's eye out.

I've been sailing with Cunard since 1977.... and in the space of a few months, I find that I can be called "a Cunarder" (which once referred to the ship not those sailing in it), and now I discover I can also be a "Advocate". It sounds vaguely cult-esque and I think I have seen enough to forgo the $100 "OBC" thanks very much.

In the end, no one really cares (cruise line or travel agent) who you choose to book your cruise with. They really don't. Most travel agents have plenty of regular clients and all the cruise line wants in the end is bodies in berths. How they get there is of no consequence. You engage an outside professional to do stuff for you or to you as you choose. Although judging from this remarkable flurry of exchanges, it rather sounds more personal than that.

My wife is celiac and one of the reasons we stay loyal to Cunard is how well they accommodate her diet. It is exemplary and except for one glaring exception this May on QV in the Veranda Restaurant, she had never had an issue in being served the wrong food or not be being able to fully enjoy every single meal... including afternoon tea. Unlike many lines, the maitre d's know their menus and preparations and when you pre-order something, they can tell you on the spot if it can be served "as is" or specially prepared gluten free. Ensure that you (or your travel agent) advises Cunard that you are gluten free as that information will be passed on to the dining room staff in advance. If in Britannia, you might find opting for fixed seating makes it easier for them to accommodate you. Cunard does special diets "right"... no worries. Honest.

As a happily (and how!) retired "travel professional" (1979-2020) after 41 years, I "could not possibly comment" on this rather astonishing flurry of comments. Except to suggest the choice to forgo the services of a travel agent as one might choose to dispense with an estate agent, plumber, mechanic or doctor is always yours. It's why they invented the internet... the ability to "do it all" as long as Mr. Google tells you can. And you believe it, too.

Nope. It's the Japanese naval training vessel SHIMAKAZE.

Or indeed, if you wish to make individual choices as a customer. Carnival, like all lines mired in astonishing debt, will wring the last farthing out of you once aboard and at least if you "pay as you go" you just get a drink. With these welter of "packages" I feel I am being "gamed" at times by cold calculation to ensure you don't get value out of it. The more pax on packages, the fewer bar stewards or the $13.50 (let alone $12 (!)) limit doesn't get you want you'd want to drink anyway.

"Any time dining"... as long as it's their time, it's all good! No thanks. We disliked "open dining" on Oceania.... it was the old "make yourself comfortable at the bar" and the beeper like in some clinic. The old ways are invariably best. Set sitting, table and stewards. Not like booking a dentist appointment every single night. And not even magazines in the waiting room.

Hardly the same animal at least if originating from the UK.... QM2 in January 2025 (which we did in 2022) and booked as soon as it was released is my favourite Cunard itinerary since it's DIRECT from the UK to the West Indies with nine (!) glorious sea days in each direction and if 2022 is an indication, lovely and increasingly warmer weather en each en route. The other QM2 West Indies cruises are via New York so you have a winter North Atlantic crossing if originating from the UK plus the sometimes bumpy run south from New York, past Cape Hatteras, before getting into the Caribbean. We are already booked for QV UK-West Indies direct in Jan 2026 and if QM2, as rumoured here, is doing it in Jan 2027 we will book as soon as practical.

I am just glad they even have these public computers as I do not (and will not) possess a "smart phone".

I got "stuck" with the banquette seat on QM2 in Queen's Grill when it was all original (and in my opinion, much nicer looking, too) and it was perfectly comfortable and yes, for the reasons "exlonderer" suggests (good grief we agree!). What is on QA even looks otherwise. Like the seats in Second Class "slam door" South London carriage stock c. 1968. When an interior designer is left with a corridor by the architect to fashion into a restaurant with trolley service, "the up against the wall" concept is hard to avoid. Odder still, conceived for what should be the premier dining space in a vessel.

Actually, I love painting ship.... give me a sunny day at sea and a five-inch paint roller and I'd happily work off my bar tab. And get an ace tan in the process. Enjoy QV and mind the wet paint...