Neuhoftraveler
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Posts posted by Neuhoftraveler
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Bigmike -- Thanks for the link, it works fine for QM2, but substituting QV (in both places) only brings up the dreaded Error 404. If you can bring it up, I'd appreciate a link.
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3 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:
The Q5s on all Queens are much nicer than the Q3/4 penthouses on QE/V, it's a pity that on QE/V there are no Q5s midship.
@Windsurfboy: Would you mind elaborating on why you prefer the Q5's? We are currently considering a change from a category guarantee Q6 to a specific Q4 on QV. Our only experience with any of this is a Q5 on QM2 last year.
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The main Cunard (US) website includes detailed color-coded deck plans. But I cannot find a legend explaining what cabin category each color represents. What am I missing?
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Another top-class tour operator is Alla Tours. They created a two-day custom tour for the two of us (including two Hermitage visits) at a very reasonable price. There are several others that also get lots of favorable reviews. This can include an evening opera or ballet, for which you can even buy your admission tickets online in advance, at a great saving as well as being able to choose your own seats. (Do not be fooled by anyone who tells you that you need a visa to go ashore unless you take the hugely overpriced ship's excursions. I don't know whether Cunard engages in this form of sleazy deception, but plenty of other cruise lines do, even the "luxury" ones.)
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1 hour ago, theavonb said:
So if we were wanting a taxi to take us to LaGuardia does it matter which one we use? Approximate cost from the cruise terminal to the airport?
Thank you
As I wrote in a prior post, be sure you''re getting in a metered yellow (or green) actual taxi, not one of the "car services" that will be hustling for your business as you emerge from the terminal. The actual fare will vary depending on time of day and day of the week (much lighter traffic on weekends, especially Sundays).
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9 hours ago, Bigmike911 said:
I avoided the dreaded (in my mind) Q3.
Having only one TA under my belt (in Q5), but planning for more, I'm impelled to ask, what is to be dreaded about Q3? (Comments invited from anyone, especially as Bigmike is already at sea.)
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On 9/12/2019 at 11:33 AM, princeton123211 said:
Bermuda sends drug sniffing dogs onboard ships in port trying to find marijuana when the drug was actually legal in the US port the ship left from.
Just to clarify, on a point collateral to the OP's specific question but potentially important to some: Contrary to apparently fairly widespread belief, marijuana is not "actually legal" in any US port (or inland location, either). Some States have enacted legislation purporting to authorize marijuana possession, use, or dealing in specified circumstances (medical and/or recreational), within that State as a matter of State law. But all possession, use, and dealing in marijuana, for any purpose, anywhere in the United States, is still illegal as a matter of Federal law. For a few years prior to 2016, Federal enforcement policy was to refrain from prosecuting conduct authorized by State marijuana laws. That enforcement policy was officially, and with great fanfare, rescinded by the current Administration (although there does not appear to have been any significant wave of enforcement action against State-authorized conduct)..
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19 hours ago, Underwatr said:
The cars licensed to pick up in outer boros like Brooklyn are bright green, not yellow, so don't panic if that's what's there when you reach the head of the queue.
Just to clarify, the green "boro" or "outer boro" taxis are licensed to pick up only in those areas (e.g., Brooklyn), although they can take you anywhere you want. But the traditional yellow taxis still can pick up anywhere in NYC, including Brooklyn. So don't panic if there's a yellow taxi waiting for you at the head of the queue. (The green taxis were created because the traditional yellow taxis preferred to cruise mid-town and lower Manhattan, leaving the outer boros without much taxi service.) In fact, you might not see too many green taxis in the line, and if one is the next up when you get to the head of the line, the driver might ask you to take one behind him, because they know they can't pick up a fare in Manhattan for the return trip. This would be illegal, of course, but sometimes illegal things happen. Even in NYC.
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2 hours ago, Cosmic Rays said:
Taxi/Limo companies are wanting upto $100 for this!!
Last December, our taxi from the QM2 pier in Brooklyn to Penn Station in Manhattan was $38.30, including the customary NYC 15% tip.
When you come out of the cruise terminal, you will be harangued by swarms of "car service" operators to get into one of their high-priced cars. Ignore them. Look to your right, and you will see a taxi line of yellow NYC-licensed ("medallion") metered cabs. That's all you need, unless perhaps you have an unusual amount of baggage.
Tell the taxi (or other) driver to take you to the Penn Station entrance on the corner of 8th Avenue and 31st St., not to dump you at the so-called front entrance on 7th Avenue , which is a long slog through dismal underground shopping corridors before you get to the actual station (or even near the so-called taxi entrance half-way between 7th and 8th, which is now closed to taxis anyway). Go into the station via that corner entrance, take the escalator down, and there you are in the main hall, such as it is. The Amtrak lounge for Acela and business-class (and sleeping-car) passengers is to the immediate left of the escalators, and the seating area for everyone else is just across the main hall.
Bon journee.
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12 hours ago, eire015 said:
Perhaps this is an IT issue. The rep said that in the past that they just put a made up number in this spot for the computer to accept it, but the UK immigration control will not let them do this anymore.
My thought (not based on any relevant experience) is that this is a US Homeland Security/anti-terrorism issue, and that Cunard have been ordered by the US (or by British Immigration at the behest of the US) to obtain the alien registration number for anyone traveling out of the US on a non-US passport. My suggestion may sound like overkill, but you might ask for help from the constituent-services staff in the office of your representative in the US Congress.
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On 9/1/2019 at 7:23 AM, grotbags said:
Hi
Cunard do have coach transfers that cost £4O per person .
I believe the coach rates have doubled this year ($70 to Victoria Station and $80 to LHR), at least for US bookings.
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On 9/1/2019 at 8:31 AM, Adammara said:
Just read the brochure. Just wondered if anyone has had a liveried flukey carrying their cases for them? We found that they were the photographers trying to con you for a picture!
Boarding Queeen's Grill on QM2 in Southampton last December, a red-liveried flunky (looking like someone out of an old Philip Morris cigarette ad) carried our cases from the on-board boarding lobby to our cabin. No photographers were visible, nor did any subsequently appear with such a photo.
As to off-menu ordering, can anyone top our observation one night (in QG) of an entire roast suckling pig (apple and all) being served to a convivial table for eight? I am not making this up.
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2 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:
The EU has declared that airlines cannot charge passengers who do not use their return tickets.
Interesting. I wonder if the EU rule protects US residents who buy a RT ticket EU-US-EU in order to return home from a cruise (assuming the airlines will sell a US resident such a RT ticket in the first place).
The US once had enforceable legal protections for airline passengers against "unfair and deceptive practices" (Section 411 of the Federal Aviation Act, for those who are curious). Too bad those days are gone now.
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12 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:
If you are sailing from home then just book flight in opposite direction.
You can then not use return. The airlines frown upon this, so don't do it to often.
Four comments:
1. I believe that buying an RT ticket and not using the return is viewed by the airlines as fraud, i.e., the RT ticket is sold under specific contract terms that include the obligation of the passenger to use the ticket for the return trip (as opposed to, e.g., QM2). I don''t have any information on how often the airlines enforce this, but if they have your credit card number they can easily do so if you don't show up for the return flight, simply by charging your card for the difference between one-way and RT. (If you don't show up for what was booked as the outbound, they simply cancel the entire ticket, leaving you high and dry for the inbound.)
2. I'm not sure if a US resident can book a US/Europe RT that commences in Europe.
3. If you have frequent-flyer miles on the airline in question, you can use them for a one-way for 1/2 the number of miles for an RT.
4. Cunard quoted us a price for a London-Washington business class seat that was only a little more than 1/2 the same airline's RT for business class.
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Today's edition (8/22) of the US Public Broadcasting System (PBS) "News Hour" program has a segment on the cruise industry, reported from Southampton and featuring various visuals of QE and QM2 among other ships. The focus of the segment is on recent moves in various ports to limit the number of cruise ship visits and on environmental concerns with cruise ship emissions. The segment is being or shortly will be streamed on the PBS website, www.pbs.org/newshour.
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Amazing. Thank you. One would hope this is disclosed somewhere on the Forums website. I will confess that I did not attempt to read the instructions.
Now if only I can remember it.
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This is for Host Hattie: With lengthy threads like this one, it would be nice if Cruise Critic would improve its software so that a reader logging in can go directly to the first post not yet opened by him or her. Trip Advisor does this. Can CC?
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17 minutes ago, Tonopah said:
They definitely provided this this service at one time...
That is one of the truly great posters. Those were the days. Thanks for sharing.
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I don't know about "offers," but apparently there can be "negotiation." Last year we were booked in PG on a westbound TA on QM2. A couple of months before sailing, the Cunard website-advertised price for PG dropped considerably. We asked our agent to refare or rebook. Cunard came back with an offer to upgrade us to Q5 if we stuck with the superseded price. Of course we said yes. (And QG was a terrific experience. We are hooked for life.)
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2 hours ago, esrs said:
I'm not bothered going without it but he is due to a previous experience and thus he won't get off the ship in Dublin.
You may already have thought of this, but would he be comfortable carrying a photocopy of the passport?
Without knowing what and where the previous experience was, it's hard to know the likelihood of something similar happening in Ireland. Perhaps some more detail might elicit responses here that would sufficiently reassure him.
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Assuming the Cruise Connect coach is the coach service offered by Cunard, I would deem that the most sensible choice for traveling to the port on embarkation day. Presumably the ship will wait for the Cunard coach to arrive even if there are road delays (which I understand can occur even in the UK as well as being endemic in the US).
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No one else has reported this here, so let me call attention to a story in this morning's Guardian. As the good ship Britannia was returning to Southampton from a week's cruise to the Norway fjords, a riot broke out in the buffet at 2:00 a.m. after a "black-tie evening," when a passenger who had "specifically booked a cruise with no fancy dress" became "upset" when another passenger appeared dressed in a clown suit. Passengers resorted to furniture and plates as weapons. Six people were assaulted. A number of people, including a crew member, sustained "significant" bruises and cuts. An ITV personality who happened to be on the cruise reported "there was blood everywhere." The black-tie evening had been preceded by an afternoon of "'patriotic' partying on deck." Two passengers were confined to quarters until disembarkation and then arrested by Southampton police.
Dress code warriors, take note.
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22 hours ago, Underwatr said:
I'm not within 330 days yet.
Couldn't you still call Cunard and ask the general question?
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@wordzz: Thanks for this very informative response. We are in the US, where the one-way TA fare eastbound does not include return air. Cunard has quoted a couple of air fares, but I'll now ask them about other flights and fares on the day we plan to return. What you've told us will be very useful, I think.
Interpreting Deck Plans
in Cunard Line
Posted
Bluemarble, once again you have come through with the authoritative answer. Thank you. My wife, a native Cedarrapidian, would say it's only to be expected from any Iowan.