Charmaineluvsu

We were on this cruise from 11th Dec-23rd Dec no banging noises heard or shuddering felt but due to the Bay of Biscay we were given a day room on Deck 1 going out and a different one also on Deck 1 coming back. Initially on Deck 6 though.

Therefore reading the comments about no room available to spare for the bad smell seems strange. It was a pretty full cruise but I find it hard to believe this was for the full duration of the cruise as there are always passengers disembarking and embarking. Would definitely complain and ask for a partial refund.

22 hours ago, agathasmum said:

I made a guarantee booking in early Oct for a Nov sailing. I got the confirmation email and had already been assigned a cabin. I called Cunard and changed the cabin to one with a better location in the same category.

Hi Agathasmum,

did you book through a TA or direct through Cunard to be able to do this?

Thanks,

Charmaine

30 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

 

Here are the port timings I'm seeing for V334.

 

Dec 11   Southampton   Depart 16:30

Dec 14   Cadiz                Arrive 09:00   Depart 17:00

Dec 15   Malaga             Arrive 08:00   Depart 23:59

Dec 17   Valencia           Arrive 08:00   Depart 17:00

Dec 19   Lisbon              Arrive 09:00

Dec 20   Lisbon              Depart 17:00

Dec 23   Southampton   Arrive 06:30

 

Unfortunately I can't name specific travel agent/cruise booking websites. But I can offer a clue that Cunard's partner websites for Spain, Austria and Switzerland list the timings.

 

One secret I've mentioned in the past is that you can even find the port timings on the Cunard website if you know where to look for them hidden within the HTML code. Here's an excerpt from the viewing the page source for the V334 itinerary on the Cunard website which reveals the timings for Cadiz.

 

"arrivalTime":"09:00 AM","arrivePartOfTheDay":"Morning","departTime":"05:00 PM","departPartOfTheDay":"Afternoon","portDetails":{"id":"CA1","name":"Cadiz, Spain"

Genius, thank you!

On 7/2/2023 at 9:12 PM, bluemarble said:

While Cunard does not provide the actual arrival and departure times, they can be found on various travel agent and cruise booking websites, including several of Cunard's partner sites for other countries. Here are the port timings I'm seeing for your cruise.

 

Oct 09  Barcelona  Depart 23:00
Oct 11  Toulon        Arrive 07:00  Depart 17:00
Oct 12  Livorno      Arrive 07:00  Depart 19:00
Oct 14  Ibiza          Arrive 11:30  Depart 21:00
Oct 15  Valencia    Arrive 08:00  Depart 18:00
Oct 16  Barcelona  Arrive 07:00

Hi John,

I was wondering if you could tell me the same info for my cruise in Dec V334 QV or where to find the info as I’ve been on quite a few of the cruise selling websites and couldn’t find anything. Is it because it’s too far in advance?

Thanks,

Charmaine

On 6/14/2023 at 3:30 PM, Pushpit said:

I can see that this is very valid, and that some people would find it a bit fraught. I would be in the other group, who would be quite relaxed about it, we are all different thankfully.  So I'll put this here just to give the other, more adventurous point of view, even though it certainly isn't for everyone.

 

If you were able to get on the 08:30 train to London Waterloo, you should arrive at 09:53. If you then return from Waterloo at 13:35 returns to Southampton Central (a few minutes taxi from the cruise terminals) at 14:49 - and this gives some time for things going wrong. And you may be able to get on an earlier train. Different times on weekends, and Sundays would probably be too risky even for me due to engineering work possibilities.

 

This gives you 3 and a half hours in London. You could easily do your own walking tour or hire someone in to guide you. But my suggestion would be Waterloo - over the footbridge to Trafalgar Square, down Whitehall, Parliament Square, over the Thames on Westminster Bridge back to Waterloo. If you did this without stopping it would take under an hour (it's 2 miles), so you can see you have plenty of time to admire the buildings, take photos etc. You may be able to add in Buckingham Palace and St James' Park between Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, that adds another mile, 3 miles in all. Either option, in good weather, would give something to look at on every corner.

Totally second this, trains are relatively reliable in the UK (if there are no train strikes going on) but this can all be checked weeks before you arrive in Southampton so would really urge you to explore London this way. Just leave as much luggage as poss in storage and take comfortable shoes for discovering London.

I asked Cunard about this directly last week for the night nursery but guessing this works similarly for kids club- they said you can register 15 days before sailing through your cunard account. There’s a registration form to fill out and submit it, once on board they will confirm your place.

3 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

I didn't try on QV but I've done it on QM2. The TVs are Samsung. 

Ok thanks

45 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

What is mirroring?  Sorry I have never heard of it.

When you use your tv to view the same screen as on your mobile/iPad. TV’s need to be of a certain spec/generation to be able to accept this technology wise

1 hour ago, frankp01 said:

I mirrored to our cabin TV from my laptop on QV in January. I had carried onboard an HDMI cable, thinking that's what I'd use. The TV was anchored too solidly to the wall to be able to reach the HDMI input, however. That's when I switched to mirroring. And the TVs are also Samsun on the QV.

Thanks Frank! Music to my ears

Hi all,

apologies if this has been asked before but I can’t seem to find any concrete information on this.

Would like to know if it’s possible to activate mirroring on the tv using our phone, if you can confirm if you’ve actually been able to do this as opposed to assuming it works would be great. Otherwise if anyone knows what make and model of tv are in the balcony cabins that would be super helpful for us to look this up.

Thanks,

Charmaine

Most definitely Colin, but thanks for the kind reminder

Thanks Victoria, me too. You would’ve just thought it’s a quick system amend that would save everyone a lot of time in the long run especially if they plan on welcoming more kids on board (or not) 😂

If it was a few dollars I’d be fine but it’s almost $50 for something that should really be an issue

Just to update you I received the response from Cunard- at least there is a ‘work around’ however long winded it is. 🙄

Thank you for your email. I am pleased to hear you are joining us on board Queen Victoria for your 12 night holiday. 

I've had a look on your My Cunard and can see that the Soft Drinks option automatically pulls through for Sebastian. Unfortunately, we are unable to alter this. We advise that in order to secure your drinks packages as this price, please purchase them on My Cunard prior to embarkation and then request a refund for Sebastian's package once on board. Whilst we appreciate this is a lengthy process, My Cunard is unable to make acceptions for guests regardless of age and automatically adds the package on for all guests in the room. There is more leeway once your are on board however, if you were to purchase the drinks package on board it would cost $12 pp per day as opposed to the $10 being offered prior to embarkation.

I hope this information has helped to answer your enquiry and we look forward to welcoming you on board Queen Victoria. 


Kind regards,

Amelia
Guest Support 
 

20 minutes ago, Riggy84 said:

yeah it’s really bad that we get penalised for them having a crappy system and have to pay more on the day 

I’ve emailed them directly so will let you know if they come back with anything different

It’s a shame they can’t just figure out a small error in the system instead of doing the work around 🙄

Thanks @Host Hattie lots of good useful insight gathered!

@wolfie789 re night nursery thanks for the potential heads up as need to manage my expectations. Glad everything else went well though!

On 6/18/2023 at 10:20 AM, Host Hattie said:

Which package are you trying to buy for yourself? The rules are different for each package, for instance for the Soft Drinks package -

• The Soft Drinks Option is charged per person, per day. 
• Each guest assigned to the same stateroom, with the exception of infants aged 3 years and under, must purchase the same Drinks Option. Sharing is not permitted.

Despite the terms it doesn’t allow me to purchase the soft drinks package for just me and my husband. I also have to purchase one for my infant which just makes no sense at all. Need to contact Cunard to see if there is a work around pre cruise.

If the original poster can also let me know how they get on with speaking to Cunard or their travel agent pre cruise and also once onboard that would be great as I cruise in Dec.

Thank you,

Charmaine

Thank you for posting, we’re heading onto the Queen Victoria with our little one in Dec who will be 23 months old by then and there has been so little guidance or help given by Cunard even when requested. For example we didn’t really know what the night nursery was nor do they expand on the website, everything is just quite generic so thank you for the detail. Ours is quite a light sleeper so not sure we will be able to transport him to the night nursery if our cabin is far away (as this is currently unallocated as yet). How did you transport him? In a pram, in your arms or a baby carrier?

I know you mentioned there were only a certain amount of balconies available for 3 or 4 persons, can you tell me which specific rooms these were if you know.

Thanks,

Charmaine

Great post- thanks for putting together!
 

QV V334

11th Dec Smart Attire

12th Dec Gala Evening Black & White

13th Dec Smart Attire

14th Dec Smart Attire

15th Dec Smart Attire

16th Dec Gala Evening Red & Gold

17th Dec Smart Attire

18th Dec Smart Attire

19th Dec Smart Attire

20th Dec Smart Attire

21st Dec Gala Evening Roaring Twenties

22nd Dec Smart Attire