3rdGenCunarder

For some of us, QA did not live up to our dreams of a Cunarder.

NO!!!!!!!! Please, please, please no! I am so happy to have QE as the North American Cunarder. She's my favorite. If they give us QA, I don't think I'd bother. Why should I spend Cunard prices when I can sail a HAL pinnacle ship for less? Or a HAL Vista, which would be even better. Does the UK market prefer the vistas? Most of the negative responses to QA here come from long-time Cunard fans like me. But what about responses from first-time Cunard passengers? I thought that would be the target audience, people who want to try a "fun ship" version of Cunard instead of what is viewed as stuffy. As for the US market wanting newest, largest, most modern, the people who chase the new and shiny are not going to want QA when there are new Behemoth of the Seas and other such monsters to get their attention.

If Clarendon can't make a sale on it, they won't be interested in knowing about it.

Even if there's a delay at the bank, you will receive and email confirmation from HAL right away.

I wonder if someone picked up your bag by mistake, then returned it when they realized it wasn't theirs.

Note that there's no signature or identifying plaque. I'm not sure any of the art was signed, other than the two Stephen Card ship paintings I found in the pub. Perhaps because the artists were minors and there's some law protecting the identity of children?

The wag could have been right. When I was a kid, we had a neighbor who worked at an ad agency on Madison Ave in NYC. He had a party for colleagues and neighbors, and the work crowd were all excited over Don's new contemporary painting. Mom said, "I think it looks like Nancy (one of their kids) did it." Later, Don told Mom she was right. It was the scribblings of the four-year-old.

I didn't find it. Couldn't find the Fincantieri plaque, either.

Another piece of art, the portrait of Queen Anne.

I don't know what that "English Tea" in PG was, but you're right, it wasn't English Breakfast. I did not like it. Maybe it was oversteeped or maybe it was an Earl Grey heavy on the bergamot. I couldn't drink it so I asked for Assam and was given my own china pot of that tea.

Found the picture! The letters were easier to identify if viewed from above. And I found the picture of the "brag wall."

I sailed the Chicago to Toronto itinerary with AQV two years ago. Although some cruises had problems (which I learned about on Cruise Critic), I was fortunate to have a cruise that went smoothly. I was very happy with the atmosphere and product that AQV provided. How will Victory be similar to AQV (other than the same ships)? How will Victory be different?

I've had that in restaurants, but can't remember that on Cunard, except sometimes in the grills. On QE last month in the grills they had a menu, you chose what you wanted, and it arrived on the tiered server. But on QA, they served as they do in the Queens Room, you choose from trays. Going back to QE2, I only remember the Queens Room with pre-set tables and waiters circulating with trays of goodies. Holland America serves tea on sea days in the main dining room. They do bring around the tiered server with sweets and sandwiches in place.

What a lovely story, and how thoughtful of Cunard to give you that little gift. My bits of QE2 china are related to my mother, too, but a very different story--dishes would seem to jump into her suitcase and be discovered when she got home.

It's the letters that spell CUNARD. I must have walked past it a half dozen times before I figured that out.

FANTASTIC NEWS!!!!! I'm glad that Cunard is investigating what happened. It does look to me like it's the fault of the TA for not forwarding the money quickly enough. But there is still a chance that it could have happened at Cunard's end, so good on them for looking into this.

Yes, Wedgewood (I won't ask how you came to own one). On QE2 it was Royal Doulton, but they moved to Wedgewood for QM2 and, later, QV and QE. The china on QA is William Edwards. I guess it's another move to something new. (Or as the Python boys used to say, "And now for something completely different")

You're so lucky to have sailed her early in her life. I didn't sail on her until 2000, and by that time NCL was running her on the cheap--some kind of foam covering on the promenade deck instead of teak. I suppose it was good for runners, but it crumbled and was patched and ugly. She still had her lovely dining rooms and Club International (I think that's what it was called) still ranks high on my list of most beautiful rooms at sea. My first was July 1978, Statendam to Bermuda. Back then, you could still have friends on for a bon voyage party. My parents and friends (who later became our cruising buddies, based on our tales of cruises!) came onboard to see us off. It was a VERY cozy party in our little inside upper/lower cabin. But hey, we going were on a CRUISE and we were happy!!!

I thought I had walked all the stairways to see the art, but I missed this. It sounds fun. Possibly, by the time I was getting that far down I was losing the will to live...

Yes, a pitcher is a jug.

Perhaps. The only relationship I can see there is two levels and the circular staircase (which came and went in the iterations of what became the Grand Lounge). Certainly not the furniture. And that lounge didn't have a stage until fairly late in its life.

I chatted with a crew member who was surprised when I said QA didn't feel like a Cunard ship. He said that the Queens Room was a nod to QE2's Queens Room. Sorry, but I sure don't see that! The furniture there is nothing like what I sat on many a time, both the old leather monsters you couldn't get out of AND the new furniture after a major refit. I mentioned the lack of ship paintings, which I'm used to seeing in the stairwells and around the ship. And why are there no little plaques to say who the artists are for the stairwell "artwork?" He said that the stairwell art "came from an art school," but didn't say any more. He sounded almost embarrassed, so I didn't ask anything more about it.

The person in the video seemed to struggle to spread the cream on top of the jam. That's why I do cream first. I forget which is Devon and which is Cornwall. Nice big china teapots on QE last month.

Where on QM2 did you go to tea? Were the scone and cream pre-plated, or they did they spoon the cream onto your plate from a larger container? I don't recall seeing scones pre-plated with the cream on the plate, but I suppose the buffet might do that. I have never been served tea from a large steel pitcher on Cunard. In the Queens Room, the waiters always carry china teapots (used to be Doulton, now Wedgewood). I have seen the box of tea bags brought around on other lines, but not on Cunard.