3rdGenCunarder

On Eurodam this winter, the man had a very nice voice. The woman tended to screech. Between that and the overall volume, I didn't last long there.

Yes! That's it. Thank you for checking on it. My QE is red and QM2 is black. Looking forward to adding to the collection.

A friend who lived in Buffalo NY said they had two seasons, winter and the 4th of July.

Rutherfurd is wonderful. My first was Sarum. I started it on the plane to London and finished it on the QE2 going home. In between, we toured around the south of England, and on a whim, stopped in Salisbury, which was perfect timing for reading the book.

I'm looking for an empty journal. I don't keep a diary/journal at home, but I do when I travel. It's fun if the book matches the destination. I have five of the old Ocean Books journals, plus the cheap spiral QM2 and the little aqua and gold journal. More recently, a red QE and a black QM2. Now that I'm trying QV, I hope to find QV journal to add to the set--and one for QA when I sail on her.

Happy to hear that it's a good day. I hope your hands heal quickly. Shopping question. Does the ship sell any kind of Cunard journal, maybe with the ship's name on it? I very much miss the Ocean Books journals with the wonderful pictures. For a while after they were gone, the journals that were available looked cheap. But the ones I've seen more recently on QM2 and QE are pretty good. They're red or black with the ship's name on the front. Anything like that?

@vswan, you have a VERY lucky grandson! I bet your daughter has reminded him to make sure you have a good time and to be ready to give you therapeutic hugs. Yes, the paperwork drags on. Some of it is ridiculous. One insurance company asked me to fax an original death certificate. I wanted to ask them if they knew that what comes out of a fax machine is NOT an original. But you reach a point where it's just kind of "yeah, whatever" and you let it go.

I got it, too. I'll have to ask my TA about applying it to my next cruise. If HAL says no, I'll wait. I have until July 2027 to use it.

All of the "spa" cabins are forward so that they are "just steps away from the spa." I had an aft cabin on Eurodam this winter, and my cabin was MANY steps away from the spa!

It's summer, so kids are on vacation, which means a lot of cabins with 3 or 4 passengers, not 2. I think of that as "sold out plus." That adds to steward and waiter workload.

Yes, taking a call during dinner (or any meal) is rude if it's any longer than "sorry I will call you back," and then only if it's an important call that the person had been waiting for. I agree about the endless selfies. Worse are the narcissistic young women who take each other's pictures. Not a quick "stand there and I'll take your picture," but tossing the hair and striking a pose like they think the picture is going to end up in Vogue. But I have no problem with food porn. That has become a part of travel in my family. Come to think of it, not only travel. We text "look what I made for supper!" pictures when we try new recipes. For us, it started during Covid when we couldn't get together for meals.

Ahh, guess they got tired of all the phone calls.

@AryMay, that's definitely a croc. Look at that smile!

I find it hard to feel sorry for someone with "only" 620 nights on Cunard!

I'll be on QV for the first time in October. I haven't sailed out of Southampton in 5 years, and I don't remember which terminal it was. Possibly the Princess terminal, which I've always disliked. It looks like QV will be at Mayflower Terminal and two MCS ships at city terminal. Will three ships with the same access route cause traffic issues? Also, will there be priority boarding for WH diamond and platinum?

Ah, yes, white bags in the elevators are a sure sign of rough seas.

Wow, what a disappointing experience! And not to doubt the OP, but my cruise on Eurodam last winter was not like that at all. The ship was always clean. I had breakfast at the Lido most mornings, and I did not see detritus from the previous day. I do agree that waiter service by the Lido pool was slow, but I just went to the bar to get drinks instead of waiting for a server to be available. Service at the Explorations coffee bar was less than wonderful the few times I went there. But I discovered that I could get my mid-morning coffee treat at one of the midship bars (Pinnacle Bar, maybe), where the service was better. Beef portions at dinner were very large. It was the fish portions that were small on my cruise.

I have one of the oversized QE2 plans, bought on ebay. I would love to have one from the Norway! I think those were given to travel agents so that they could tell their clients the details of the cabins. Years ago, there was an online agency that had QE2 deck plans with the square footage of each cabin. My first cabin on QE2 was on 5 deck forward, upper/lower and only 98 square feet. And that's when we had the roughest crossing I have ever experienced. It's the only time I've been seasick and it was my own fault--I looked at the view from the bridge on the TV, and that only reinforced the up and down motion!

oops, error!

The current flag pins look cheap. I think the nicest pins were the crests. I have a Platinum one (yes, it's real platinum, don't tell me it isn't!!!), and the even nicer Diamond pin, which is black with a diamond on it. (Do not tell me it isn't a real diamond. 😜) Mom gave me her collection of blue and gold pins and I dumped out mine, and I managed to make two matching pairs. I had cufflinks made for DH and earrings for me.

On the HAL page it says "when booking your next cruise," which sounds like new bookings only. Too bad, I have two cruises long enough to qualify for $200. I don't see "new bookings only" in the "fine print," although that does end with "Other restrictions and exclusions may apply,"

I think the need to scan or photograph the card is because you may not have an online account. I noticed when I dug out my card, the "create an online account" sticker was still on it. It took about 4-5 minutes for it to be verified from the photo.

I've been sailing with Cunard since 1988. Back then all we got was a pin--very pretty gold lion on a blue background. I don't even remember if it was called World Club, and if there were levels, we were too lowly to know about it. Then there were levels--bronze, silver, gold. I think gold was 7 voyages. Whatever it was, when they set the levels, we were already at gold. I don't remember WC parties from then, but there may have been. I do remember that gold got a bottle of Dom for sailaway. I think Silver got Perrier Jouet or Veuve. I remember we took a cruise with my parents, who were only Silver, and we enjoyed comparing our champers. Over the years, the levels and pins and perks changed, but we always had enough voyages and days to sit in the top level. My goal is to have 365 days on Cunard. I'm getting close.

Having been far forward in rough weather on a crossing, I'll happily take low and midships. I like that I can get fresh air any time without being blown around by the wind. And the price is good.

I did the same thing. I tend to book early, so there's no problem getting the upgrade I want. As a solo, I would have paid double the difference in fare because of the single supplement, but CO does not have a single supplement. One of the few bargains for a solo!