lissie

The staff aren't stupid- they will know who is drinking the drinks! why not play smarter - you can carry on anything you want - drinking in your cabin are free - can you meet on each other's balconies for an early evening drink? If you are drinking wine- drink by the bottle not by the glass. Wine seemed to be totally over the top re price - we ended up drinking cocktails and beer as more cost-effective... The perfect serve gins are my favourite - over the limit for the package but the $13-$14 cost covered me for 1/2 the evening if i got one pre-dinner and took it into the dining room with me.

To clarify - they had to and did enforce masking policy for the majority of our days at sea. That is far more important than what someone wears in a bar. What they may have to look at is enforcing a no talking on your device rule. I had no choice but to listen to an older woman berating her poor travel agent for 20 minutes on speaker phone! This is normally not a problem because your chance of keeping a call is usually minimal - but the connection has improved so maybe they need to make formal what should be bloody obvious

What's Appassionata ? Not heard of that . The standard shows were Be our Guest, Palladium Nights, Top Hat (went to that one 2 or maybe 3x). The thing is they went through the same shows 3x on the first cruise and 1x on the 2nd so it was definitely getting repetative. Return visit - Maderia and Azores - always loved Portugal and the islands were gorgeous. Oh and Mallorca - not what I expected at all. Oh and Crete . I hardly ever repeat locations because so there is so much I haven't seen but Crete is probably going to return in a year or so

Excellent questions. I didn't want to come home until a few days ago. My partner was quite keen to get home. We got back yesterday afternoon - slept off the jetlag last night. Today we had to run around replacing a car, getting a rental car, picking up prescriptions, shopping and washing. I am very happy to have my own washing machine again - which is so much faster than the front loaders of Cunard and Europe! I'll start the next trip planning next week I should think. For the 1st cruise this year I did what I was told - printed out all the documents. Boarding in SF was a debacle - we arrived over an hour late as we knew on our pre-C cruise everyone got the same time. Even though we did that, plus not a huge number got on in SF - the line was out the door and not moving. This was partly US offiicals fault - partly Cunards for giving people all the same time. 2nd cruise in Barcelona - as we'd arrived there we knew it was a huge terminal. As we were travelling we had no ability to print anything out. I had the vaccine certificate at our test on paper - everything else was on my phone. The check in needed none of it - just my name - just like a plane ! Didn't bother uploading a photo as we knew from SF that the staff have to re-do it anyways (the systems don't communicate...) I've done longer trips - years ago - not cruising just travelling. My partner wants a shorter trip next - but we are both happy to have missed winter - so the point is under debate. Maybe re Cunard. I wouldn't do a trans-Atlantic - I've done 7 days and 8 days of sea days in a row this year - that's enough - 4 days in a row is long enough for me. I pick cruises on itineraries - Im looking at Greenland/Iceland and Cunard doesn't do that so that maybe HAL. We've booked a couple of Japan cruises in Mar 24 - Syd-Tokyo - then 9 days on our own and then a loop around southern islands and Taiwan. I'd say 50/50 chance that we will actually do those. At this point we know exactly what the shows and food will be (the shows haven't changed since pre-C - do they ever change?) The food is great - but is now repetitive for us now

OK so finally back home from 3.5 months travel which included 2 cruises on the QE SFO-Barcelona 24 Jul - 29 Aug (aka 1st 22 ) Barcelona-Singapore 10-30 Oct ( aka 2nd 22) We'd previously also sailed on her in Feb 20 Syd - PNG-Syd (aka pre-C ) so I do have the "before" view. The only other cruise we've done was a Heritage expeditions cruise to southern NZ in 2021. We are very well travelled 60/70 yo couple. I've chosen to focus on the features that matter to us - and differences we observed. We sailed all 3 cruises in an inside deluxe cabin (1068 and 1064) . Rather than doing yet another review - I thought I'd list some comparison points across these cruises Dancing We are ballroom dancers - that' why we chose Cunard over Princess back in 2020. Back then we danced most nights before late dining. Now this isn't an option. Both of this year's cruises featured recorded music from 6-7:15pm - this was generally poorly attended - in fact towards the end of the last cruise the helpful tech asked us what tempos we wanted! Also during the last cruise sometimes, we had to compete with the next act setting up and practicing. At 7:15 one of the duo or the guitarist would come on. Zero chance of doing any form of dancing at that point. After dinner if we weren't going to the show we'd go back to the Queens Room. All the cruises had the queen's room orchestra with a male and female vocalist. The pre-C cruise these were brilliant and every piece was in the correct temp and danceable. First cruise 22 - OK - the band was sometimes off time, the solo male was undanceable. The 2nd 22 cruise we gave up about 1/2 way through (and remembering that we had 8 sea days in a row it takes a lot for us to give up). The solo female (with a backin track) was the easiest to dance to. The band often announced the wrong tempo e.g. announced a rhumba - when it was actually a chacha. I noticed fewer and fewer dancers making use of the Queens Room. I have a distinct feeling that cunard is looking for an excuse to repurpose this space. The Entertainment director and team were there every night pre-C cruise. On the 1st 22 cruise they were there when they were allowed to be - once the laundries are shut for Covid clearly they were told not to expose themselves to passengers. The (solo) pro dancer also showed up often. The 2nd cruise (with far fewer covid cases and restrictions) - the entertainment director was never seen and I don't think I saw any of her team either. It was clear that the ballroom wasn't important to them. Sad. Bars During the 1st 22 cruise the staff were amazing - a waiter always came to you as soon as you walked into a venue. Everything appeared to be in stock, and every cocktail I asked for could be provided. Weird over supply of Fosters (beer) meant it was on special most of the trip. The 2nd cruise big difference. Staff appeared far less experienced. Plenty of items were out of stock from the start of the cruise. They even ran out of garnishes to make the Q. Mary Perfect Serve. Staff appeared missing from many venues- the Garden Bar was the worst - waited 40 min and never got table service in the Garden Lounge. Queens Room not staffed at all until around 7pm. Hard to get a drink in the pub before trivial @ 7:30. The 1st cruise had around 1400pax the 2nd 22 cruise had more - maybe 1800? This maybe part of the issue - but the crew just seemed less experienced. Lecturers Mixed bag - but all cruises seemed to have least one awful one. There was zero acknowledgement of the transit of the Suez Canal on the 2nd cruise - odd as it was why most of us were doing the cruise. No relevant lecturers prior, no commentary on the day, not even any detail on the timings in the daily programme, e.g. what time would we enter. The truly appalling seafarer lecturer on this cruise advertised a lecturer about the Suez (after the event) but it was only covered briefly. This was typical of this lecturer - he seemed to want to be a stand up comedian and didn't actually know how to deliver a talk reflecting the title advertised. If I'd gone to one more of his live lecturers I would have made a formal complaint about the insults against anyone who weren't white straight men , which he thought was funny. In total contrast the transit of the Panama Canal on 1st 22 was brilliant- several lecturers from an excellent engineer (would have been more if he hadn't had covid), who also did a 12 hour live commentary on the outside decks. The first cruise also had a great astronomer who did a fantastic series of talks and then attempted to do a late night outside talk on the aft Lido deck. Unfortunately, they only turned out a few lights so it was impossible to see anything with a full moon. If you want to see dark skys - the ship runs dark between the Red Sea and Oman - the so-called pirate zone. Very poor wording in the daily programme meant many thought you couldnt' go out on deck during hours of darkness. Only deck 3 was actually closed. You could go out on deck 10 - where the smokers were - it was pitch black and I got a fantastic view. Daily Program The programme is apparently set and produced by head office. You know the same people who do the website? They must be in charge of this. The format changed for our 2nd cruise 22. That was fine - except it was unreadable in poor lighting conditions. The font was wrong and information which people cared about e.g. the lecturers was now really hard to find. A fantastic talk about Japan given by a Japanese native with fluent English was barely advertised and never put the on the TV channel. I don't recall if the lecturers were broadcast pre C . On 1st22 - it was entirely random what was broadcast - and sometimes the same were on for days- while others were never shown. This was more consistent during 2nd 22 - but you still had no idea if a particularly lecturer would be replayed or not. I'm dyslexic and can't spell to save myself (thank you spell check) - but even I could pick up obvious typos in the new look programme. Including one day having the dress code as formal when we'd had a formal the day before. And getting the time change wrong ie the clocks will go forward at 1am with yesterday's date. The time changed were confusing enough without adding to it. Also one day a bunch of us showed up for sequence dancing at 4pm in the queens room to find the place set up for an art's lecture. Thinking I'd mis read we went to the yacht club - only other possible venue- nope that had something on too. My Voyager App 1st 22 about 1/2 the time I could view my daily account. 2nd 22 - they had added functionality that worked (shore excursion booking) and some that didn't ( sometimes the daily programme was there sometimes it wasn't. They still can't display the time that you bought a 24 hour internet package in the app (it appears to be GMT?) However in the 2nd 22 cruise they also had a list of mostly useful free website including the Singapore and Indonesia arrival forms sites. Internet and TV TV barely functioned on the 1st 22 cruise particularly across the Atlantic. Internet didn't work at all - I think everyone who bought access got it refunded without question if the asked at the purser's desk. Both had hugely improved in 2nd 22 cruise. The internet was functionally the whole way -a bit slow in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Ditto the TV and they even managed to show a lot of the Rugby world cup and a the T20 cricket. Dining and Food Pre-C late dining with a fantastic group of around 6/8 of us on a 10 seater table. Excellent service 1st 22 - had requested a large table for late dining - got given early dining. Had to wait for a few days to get a change to late dining (not sure why because with limited numbers on board there was no lack of space). Ended up with a table for 2 right next to (cm away from) 2 other tables. This was concerned as by then we were wearing masks - and even after the choir and laundries were closed down the tables were still nowhere close to 1m apart - again there was no reason for this there were lots and lots of empty tables. 2nd 22 was the first cruise with optional open dining. We dined on fixed late most of the time - had a fantastic table of 8 (one couple missing after 1 night) and competent food waiters. The wine waiter was useless and rarely refilled a glass - seemed over stretched. The optional open dining meant that we had the chance to meet up with others that we'd met on SM by booking a table in open dining. I think this is a very nice feature and hope they retain it. Those who went open dining only found that it was hit and miss with dining companions. My pick is that sociable people request fixed dining, so it tends to end up with a more engaged table. They now have a drinks menu in the Lido in the evenings - I hadn't seen this before - I think it's new. The Pub now does an evening meal 6-8:30 - which is a nice alternative - different menu from the lunch time one. State of the ship Pretty good - there were a few flooding problems in the shops area on the 1st 22 cruise - those seemed resolved by the 2nd. Both cruises had a lot of very hot weather - during the 1st cruise several floors of balconies (I think it 6 through 8 got very hot in the pm where outside it was over 30C . The Lido got stuffy, and the Garden Lounge was uncomfortably hot from the afternoon on. They had improved a lot of this in the 2nd cruse - where it was equally hot. On 1st 22 the Queens room was freezing most of the evenings - this seemed to have been fixed by our 2nd cruise. Our inside room on deck 1 never varied by a degree - we set the temp on the first day and never touched it again. If you want a balcony you should probably consider the principals of POSH when picking which side of the ship for your itinerary. Dress Code Slipping Standards etc Our pre-C cruise was the first season to have jackets optional for men on smart-casual nights. This is now standard. Pre-c I saw someone in the Commodore Club politely refused service as he had shorts on and it had gone 6pm. This year I saw people served wearing shorts (both sexes), T-shirts (men) in Commodore Club, Queens Room, and also allowed into the Theatre. On our 1st 22 cruise the crew had to enforce mask wearing for most of the cruise after the first few days. After Florida they had to insist on it as a bunch of new guests though the epidemic was over. One the 2nd cruise we were told in advance we had to wear masks for the first 7 days - later extended a few extra days - again the crew had to argue with people who were in denial. I think if management told them to fight about shorts and shirts they would literally walk of the jobs. As it was, there were persistent rumours with some supporting observation of the cruise turning around after leaving Oman to deposit one female with luggage (not ill) back to the port. And 2 others were rumoured to be detained pending forceable removal in Singapore. Future Cruise bookings The current offer is great - don't know if its permanent - $300pp (and the $ is your currency so NZ$ for us) - up to US$400 pp OBC depending on length of cruise and class - but we got $325 pp for an inside cabin. Fully refundable deposits up until 120 days prior to sailing - confirmed in writing

Came off a cruise today in Singapore . Everyone including those continuing on had to fill in a simple online form or use the sg app to upload their id derails, arrival and departure info and health status . You could do it with free WiFi on board . Detailed info was provided in print and on a TV channel. Still saw a couple being taken to a back office because apparently they hadn't done. I think its safe to say that the days of travelling without a smart phone and knowing how to do the basics are over. Indonesia has a similar requirement as does nz

Just booked a Cunard relocation from Sydney to Tokyo for Mar 24 and a southern islandz/Taiwan with 9 days to do our own thing in between. Want to spend mors than a few hours in places like Kyoto

I didn’t keep a copy of the list - we did the 15 hour Luxor trip and also a tour in oman - where there are few options .

Yes but since covid I think they isolate some crew in the insides - you can tell with the laundered uniform shirts hung outs side

They seem to be using a lot of insides for staff accommodation so you got lucky - we love inside deluxe

Were they for others - you are definitely not discriminated on board at the moment

You are not wrong there. There are lots of people on board very resentful that they have to fill in online forms for Singapore and Indonesia. Horrified that they may be expected to have a device each to display a successful code. None of this is Cunard's fault - they dont' set those rules. I am gobsmacked that people think that nothing has changed - there is no way in hell you can realistically travel without a smart phone these days and know how to use it! Cunard on the other hands have discontinued the hands-on IT sessions they used to do and have lumbered the poor librarians with fixing people's internet connection issues. They could do a lot better in this area, educating and helping rather than just picking up the pieces. How answered a few questions online can be terrorising for people is beyond me- but it is. And for the record - Singapore allows you to make one submission for the whole group so only one phone is needed, and ndonesia allows you to print stuff out , I assume Cunard can do printing.

Caveat I’m a New Zealander , but Cunard got us Egypt and oman visas for free - haven’t heard of any nationality having a problem so us, uk, Australian are all ok . Singapore doesn’t require visas there’s an online health form to do a few days prior to arrival - similar for Indonesia I think - there is a change for Indonesia - but Cunard arranges all of it on board

That’s my guess too - I’m on an iPhone using chrome sometimes safari and on my laptop mainly edge. Make sure that the link is just myvoyage.Cunard.com - nothing after the com - If it hangs on an internal page it can’t clear the cache properly - calling it an app is a stretch - it’s a poorly developed intranet page

True - but different conditions apply when booking ON BOARD as well - its clearly noted in both our cover letter and the general notes on the reservations that the deposit is refundable. They aren't normally in New Zealand bookings either . Also in NZ we NEVER get more than about $100 pp cabin OBC!

Sounds right - we are on the Bcn-Sin leg of that trip and its 4 galas in the 20 night trip. No themes thank goodness except for b&w which makes it heaps easier

I can confirm those as advertised and booked on board the QE There is a low deposit of $300 pp booked on board (for us that was NZ$ , for others it was A$) which is fully refundable up until 120 days prior. We got $325 OBC PP on a repositioning Syd-Tokyo in Mar 24 and $150 pp in April 24 for a 9 days southern japan islands cruise . We may or may not actually take the cruise but there is no risk to booking on board and quite a lot of benefits

Don’t assume that qe is currently in Oman heading to Asia and Australia. For a long cruise I’m surprised that they are allowing guests to not wear masks this week

Or go around 5pm 2 out of 3 machines available the first floor I tried

On the cruise now . They kept our passports on checkin and returned them after Greece with the stamp out of eu plus the Egypt one day visa . We have to give the passports back tomorrow for Oman to stamp us in / out which is the next stop . the out date from eu was accurate but we were stamped in days after we arrived - not until Barcelona having been to azores Madeira and Cadiz!

You’re missing the fact they don’t need your boarding passes , they will retake your photos, and you don’t need to download baggage labels . We showed up with passport , vax card and test results that’s all they actually needed - oh and our cabin number for the porters to tag the bags

Travel will do that to you- he started losing on board our first cruies to Europe and its accelerated jumping off buses and trains around the Balkans. Unfortunately his suit is in storage in Barcelona and we won't see it again until we get back on board in October - so tailoring isn't an option.

I counted wrong - 4 nights - but still surprisingly few.

Why not just go with fixed dining then? To me the whole advantage is that we can just show up when we want to

My partner has lost a lot of weight and I just checked to see how many formal nights we have in a 20 day cruise - 3 nights. He's going with the baggy look!