My wife and I boarded Queen Elizabeth in Barcelona on 30th October 2023 and sailed for Fremantle, Western Australia - a 28 night cruise. On the first day at sea my wife wasn't feeling well, and was diagnosed with Covid. Being in the same Stateroom, I caught it a day or two later. Between 31st October and 16th November, we visited the Doctor in the Medical Clinic four times, and we also consulted with the nursing staff there on several occasions, often to get our Shore excursion tickets stamped so that we could then cancel the excursions we had booked.
As we were initially isolated and then incapacitated by fatigue for 21 of the 28 days at sea, we had to cancel three shore excursions, and each time we had to go to the Clinic, and then to the Excursion desk. I had lost around 7.5 kg in weight (I.e. over 16 lbs) and I had to hold my trousers up with one hand to avoid them falling to the floor. I also became completely deaf in my right ear, and registered only about 50% hearing in my left ear. All this added to the extreme difficulty we had in moving around the ship when we had to. We were on Deck 5; the Medical Clinic on Deck 1, as was the Shore Excursion desk - but about 80 metres from the Clinic.
We had to cancel three shore excursions, and each time we had to go to the Clinic, and then to the Excursion desk. Cunard in their wisdom refunded us in full for the first and third excursions, but not for the second one - because we had not given enough notice!! The two refunds were credited to us whilst we were still on the cruise, but since arriving back home on 27th November 2023, we have been battling to get the second excursion refund.
We apparently only staggered down to the Excursion desk 24 hours before the second excursion started, instead of 48 hours! No mention of this problem was made when we visited the Excursion desk.
After many emails and a few phone calls, we understood that a refund of the second tour had been approved, but that was over almost two months ago, and nothing has happened. It is now over 21 weeks since we returned home, and Cunard has stated that "we will get back to you" as soon as they get an update from the Support Team! Why not just process the refund?!! In the circumstances you, dear reader, can make up your mind about Cunard bureaucracy.
