exlondoner

Only on our last voyage did I manage to find that little bar, though it is mentioned in the Daily Programme for several of our voyages.

Or you may find a nice cabin but at a vastly increased price, which would be infuriating.

But far, far, better on a Sunday afternoon was Beyond our Ken, later Round the Horne, which, amazingly, my parents allowed me to listen to. I certainly didn’t understand a lot of the jokes, fortunately. I can’t make up my mind whether they did.

I think I would rather have tender priority than access to a windowless room, in fact. But our next two voyages don’t involve tendering luckily. I’m afraid that the 2024 brochure does not mention iPads as a perk. Perhaps they reckon everyone brings their own anyway.

For our round UK cruise, the booking blurb said Q1-4 would have priority tendering. We didn’t get our tickets. When I remonstrated, Sandra, the wonderful Concierge, said it was now only Q1-2, but they would of course honour what it said. The tender tickets duly arrived, but I had Covid, so didn’t use them. I wonder how many other Q3s and Q4s didn’t get them at all. The latest brochure still says priority tendering for Q1-4. So booking blurbs aren’t terribly reliable, unless you are on the ball.

By our final QE2 voyage in 2008, the QG lounge was described as ‘exclusively reserved for our Grills guests’, so at some point in her later years it changed. ,

If you are sailing in September, perhaps it would be worth waiting and booking on board, to get low deposit and extra credit.

How odd. I have just checked the stuff for our QM2 TA in 2006, and the Grills Lounge seems to be for all Grills. Can’t find anything about the deck. Don’t remember getting any service there at all, not like recently on the Vistas.

I think the European air traffic controllers are likely to cause cancellations. Nothing actually to do with the UK as such, but could still be very disruptive. Cunard might at least be more interested in getting you to the next port. Which is not a lot of help on a TA, I admit. I certainly wouldn’t want the M25 between me and Southampton.

You must be very young. When I was a child, it was the Third Programme that was replaced by cricket, then R3, then eventually R4, but only the long wave version. I too loathe the idea of participating or, indeed watching, any sport, except for listening to the cricket.

I don’t think there are any midship Q6s.

If you’d watched the Lord’s test, you might also have seen several MCC blazers. Now that is a thing.

And, of course, at all-inclusive resorts, unless you drink very heavily yourself, you are simply paying for others to do so, while you are more moderate.

The lifts go up the outside of the ship near the front, one each side, and you can see an excellent view. You can access them from the Library among other places. Have you found the bridge viewing area?

I imagine Cunard get through a lot of their cheaper wines. The more likely problem seems to be running out of some types rather than it getting old.

I must say I have found people at the other end of a telephone at Cunard universally pleasant and helpful if not always highly proactive. Why one should refer to them - or any other human being - as ‘the Blob’ I cannot imagine. As to refunds, when we had one, because of Covid, an amount equivalent to the deposit was returned within ten days to me by cheque, although the cheque we had paid by was my husband’s. It took months of pressing via our TA to get the rest, and that came via our TA. A mysterious process indeed.

I think we must resist the temptation to think that Cunard and Carnival have never had a new ship before, and therefore haven’t a clue what they are doing. You might not like their products but they are a major shipping company: I dare say someone there has realised that waiters need to move around restaurants, particularly as the ship is an adaptation of others currently in service.

I can’t decide whether this is worse than the MCC tie or not quite as bad.

We tend to have our pre-dinner drinks on the cabin balcony, but if we wanted to go to a bar, I don’t think we would choose that one, unless the plan is very misleading.

🙂🙂 That’s certainly working, as far as I’m concerned. Nonetheless, despite the carping, I am looking forward to my voyage on her.

They do indeed. And in the QG restaurant, almost everyone has a good view. It will be very interesting to see how it turns out.

I’m sorry I misunderstood. I thought by check in, you meant at the counter in the terminal where you show your passport etc. Having said that, I don’t think we’ve ever received them that early in the voyage, but I can’t remember too clearly. What do you do with them?

Excellent.

Would you expect them at check in when they are so busy? I think we’ve received pins in our cabin during the voyage.

Thank you, HH.