Oca

Just make sure when you go the afternoon tea in Queen's Room to tell your waiter or the head waiter -- whoever you may see first -- that you are gluten free and they will take care of you including, as was said above, they will also have a sandwich for you and another pastry as well as the scone.

And if you want to avoid Queen's Room tea on certain days, King's Court also has their afternoon tea and if you ask at the counter where the scones are served, they will give you a gluten free scone -- but that is one of the wrapped ones so if you don't care for them, I would not suggest going to KC.

It may just be that they have not made the hotel reservations available yet.  We are waiting for the hotel listings in Southampton for May, 2024 and were told Cunard has not listed them as of yet.  The woman I spoke to expects that they will list them in the near future.  

I don't think that it would have anything to do with being on a  World Cruise specifically but I certainly can't say for sure.

Ah, what a joy to see a Bear for 2023 -- even if he doesn't have a name, we will christen him with one when we bring him home.  We are going to be on QM2 in July and are eager to adopt him then.  We will bring him home to meet his sisters and brothers (most from Cunard but others from Princess and the Rocky Mountaineer).  I am attaching a photo of the family who are eagerly awaiting his arrival.

By the way, as you might tell from the photo I am attaching, today is my birthday so . . . thank you, bluemarble for posting this today.  It has made my birthday even more special!!

I have been meaning to ask the same question as our Cunard Bears are eager to greet a new family member!

We are booked on a World Cruise and see that the price of the cruise has come down.  We were told that if we want the new fare we would have to re-book and that we would lose certain perks such as hotel discount, complimentary transfers, wine, dining voucher,  and the World Club Discount.  We understand what that means in regard to hotel stay, complimentary transfers, wine package.  As far as the 'dining voucher', we believe that means that we would not be entitled to have a Veranda dinner during specific legs of the WC.  As far as World Club Discount, we are not sure what that refers to and wonder does it refer to Wi-Fi costs?  We are assuming that we would not lose the benefits of our Diamond status? but really do not kow for sure.

Can someone help us understand what we might be losing?  Thank you.

Hello -- This board has been very helpful to us in regard to dining questions we had as we are preparing to take our first Viking Cruise in January.  We have another question which you may be able to help us with as well.

We are booking our own flight home after the cruise.  We plan to leave on disembark day and are looking to book a flight leaving FLL at 11:15am.  We understand that weather, dock strikes, etc. can interfere with the arrival time of the ship but, assuming everything concernng arrival goes smoothly, do you think that an 11:15 flight time should not present a problem?

Once again, I thank you for your help!

Thank you all very much.  Your replies have been very helpful!  It is sometimes confusing when taking a cruise line for the first time -- we are looking forward to it and your answers have helped us feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about how things work.

My husband and I are booked on our first Viking Ocean cruise (Verandah cabin) in January.  When we booked the cruise, we were told (and it was written on the confirmation of the booking) that we could make reservations for dinner at The Restaurant beginning on October 10.  When we go to try to make reservations, there is no way to do that.  I see that reservations at Manfredi's and at The Chef's Table are not available.  For The Restaurant you can click on a button to see more but when you do, it does not take you to a screen to make a reservation -- it merely shows you a photo of the restaurant and shows you a sample menu.

We are wondering if one is able to make a reservation for The Restaurant or if you just show up when you would like to dine.

We'd appreciate any information you can give us.

Thank you!

Hi again --  I'm the original poster.  Just want to say thank you to everyone for your helpful responses.  I have researched the flights that we are interested in and shall follow your advice to call Air Plus and book without regard to their message saying it has to be within 60 days.  I shall let you know how it all works out for me.

My husband and I are on a cruise embarking in Rome in May 2023.  We purchased Air Plus with our booking. Per MVJ, we can select our flights through Air Plus from 310 days to 65 days prior to departure.  We are within those parameters.

However, when I called Viking Air, their messaging says, ‘reservations can only be made within 60 days of the cruise’.  Thinking this did not apply to Air Plus passengers, I used Live Chat on the site to clarify.  The Chat responder confirmed that Air Plus passengers now must wait until 60 days from departure to initiate flight reservations, adding that this is due to increased airline changes and cancellations.  When I repeated that Air Plus passengers are supposed to be able to book 310 days from departure, the response was:  

"Normally they can book at that time, and that was before the airlines started having major issues”

In addition to having more input in the process of selecting our flights, a primary reason we opted for Air Plus was the ability to book further in advance of the cruise. This enables a greater choice of flights, seating, types of planes, etc., all of which are important to us.  

Note that the airlines continue to allow flight reservations hundreds of days in advance, so limiting Air Plus passengers to no more than 60 days to book flights is a Viking decision.

Is anyone else having difficulty getting Air Plus to make flight reservations 310 days to 65 days from departure?  Does anyone have any suggestions re what we can do about this?
 

Hattie, can you tell me what capacity QM2 is currently sailing at?  We are due to board in 6 weeks and we're just curious.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bell Boy -- good to know!

We will be sailing Princess Grill for the first time on our upcoming New England/Canada cruise on QM2.  Is bottled water complimentary in the Princess Grill suites?  

There is a 2020 bear and his name is Percy.  I think there must have been a glut of Percy Bears as 2020 cruises were halted in March of that year.

I think there are NO 2021 bears that were  bred -- am I right?  If there was a 2021, please let me know as our home is always open to Cunard bears searching for just the right family.

We are eager to welcome Arthur to our family of Cunard Bears.  We plan to adopt in September!  And actually The Cunard Bears are from an Indonesian Breeder.  

Thank you for your responses.  I have found them all very helpful and feel totally comfortable proceeding with our booked voyage -- and also excited to be going on Viking Ocean Cruises!

Hi Everyone -- My husband and I are in the process of booking our first Viking Ocean Cruise -- a lengthy one -- and are very excited about it.  We have mainly cruised Princess and Cunard in the past.

I have allergies to gluten and lactose.  The Viking (sales) person we spoke on the phone said food allergies are handled well onboard but I thought it would be best to check with those of you who also have certain food allergies or alternative eating preferences to learn how your Viking experience has been in that regard.  I don't want to find my range of choices so severely limited that the trip isn’t enjoyable. Can you let me know how you have found your experiences on Viking in regard to dietary restrictions.

And a second question:  is there one or perhaps several places onboard the Viking ships to get lattes and cappuccinos throughout the day?

Thank you for your help!

Thank you fourmile.ranch.  I am finding your onboard experience very helpful for our decision making.

Two more questions, if you don't mind:

1.  Were there any guest speakers?

2.  Were the laundry rooms open and, if so, were there any restrictions as to how to use them?

Thank you!

Hello --
DH and I are booked for the 19-night NYC round-trip cruise on QM2 in March 2022.  We are trying to clarify Cunard’s responsibility for handling passengers with Cunard Air arrangements for travel at the end of their cruise – in the event the cruise is terminated or passengers are required to disembark due a positive COVID test. 

We were on QM2 in March 2020 when she was terminating her world voyage and disembarking all passengers.  At that time, Cunard made flight arrangements for those passengers who, prior to boarding, had booked Cunard Air at the end of their cruise; passengers who did not have Cunard Air hand to handle booking their own flights home.  

Was this process followed on the recently terminated Caribbean cruise on QM2? Does anyone know if there is a Cunard policy such that, if the cruise were terminated by Cunard and/or we were required to disembark due to COVID test results, Cunard would handle making our air arrangements home, provided we had booked Cunard Air before boarding?  

Perhaps there is someone on this thread who was on the recent QM2 Caribbean cruise and/or others who know if this is the case.

Thank you.
 

Jacki --

Thank you for your kind offer to send a 2020 bear Percy to us.  It is true as someone above said that Cunarders are some of the nicest people on the seas and definitely on the boards. 

Percy is already a member of our bear family.  As a matter of fact, we picked Percy up when we were on QM2 in March, 2020 just before everyone had to debark the ship in Australia due to COVID.  That was certainly an adventure for all of us!

Thank you, everyone, for your replies.  What you have all surmised makes perfect sense to me -- that there will be no 2021 bear 🙁 but, Bell Boy, if you find that there is such an animal (ha-ha) on your cruise next week, I would appreciate your posting it here so we will know for sure.

Thank you all again!

Hi All -- 

We have been avid collectors of Cunard Teddy Bears since 2014, when our first grandchild was born and are wondering if there is a bear for 2021.  If so, I would assume they would be for sale on Queen Elizabeth at the present time.  Does anyone who has sailed on QE after the recent restart of cruising know?  I would appreciate your letting us know. 

Unfortunately we are not planning to get back on board until March, 2022 and figure (and hope) that there will be a 2022 bear.  We are planning on buying one to bring home to our happy menagerie.  But we are also interested in a 2021 if one is available.

Thank you for any help you can give us.

My husband and I are booked on the 2022 world cruise on QM2.  We have been reading about other cruise lines and how they are preparing to get back to sailing.  We notice that many lines have instituted methods of 'contract tracing' so that if someone onboard comes down with COVID, the ship can trace others with whom the infected individual had contact and quarantine all of them rather than quarantining all passengers onboard and terminating the cruise.

Also we see that other lines have set up arrangements with the different countries they are going to stop at allowing the cruise line to disembark the infected passenger and arrange for them to get medical care at that specific port.  

Does anyone know if Cunard has initiated doing either of those 2 things?  It would seem that a world voyage would be difficult to undertake if they don't follow these sorts of guidelines.

We got Oscar (2014) and Edgar (2016) the years our 2 grandsons were born.  We fell in love with both of them (the boys, of course, but the bears as well!)  and missed them after we gave them to the boys so we collected all the bears since then -- Charles (2017), Chef Albert (2018), James (2019) and Percy (2020).  We also adopted the Teddy Gilet bear in his red vest and named him Wells (after our Captain on that crossing).  We are wondering if there is going to be a 2021 bear?  Does anyone know?  If so, we would love to add him to our growing family but will not be back on board until January 2022.  Do you think that would be too late? or is there another way to purchase a bear if not on board?