bluemarble

Thanks, Roscoe. I tried, apparently in vain, last year to document the CWC number formats for each region. I thought I had previously read Australia/New Zealand numbers were as you described (the same format as my 2005 North America CWC number with nine digits and a letter). But then I heard Australia/New Zealand CWC numbers were ten digits. So it now appears the formats for both Australia/New Zealand and North America CWC numbers probably depend on when the numbers were issued. Perhaps both regions started using the ten digit format about the same time a few years ago.

Thanks. This has we wondering if Cunard have implemented a system in North Anerica in the last several years which involves the addition of a check digit (rather than a letter suffix) to a base nine-digit number. That would explain why your two CWC numbers are sequential nine-digit numbers (ending in 8 and 9) followed by a tenth digit which might serve as a check digit to confirm the validity of the numbers. Just a theory. I would need several examples of real ten-digit CWC numbers for North America to test that theory. Of course I couldn't ask anyone here to divulge their CWC numbers for security reasons.

All very strange indeed. I do hope you are eventually able to get this mess straightened out. I see no explanation other than a major screw up on Cunard's part. As we know Cunard IT can present challenges to put it mildly.

That's very interesting. So is your Cunard World Club number nine digits (without a letter at the end)? Australia/New Zealand numbers have been ten digits without any letters.

@resistk, just as a sanity check, let's make sure the Cunard World Club number you have used in the past is in fact a North Anerican number and not a UK number. It doesn't seem likely you could have booked your previous cruises in North America using a UK number, but let's make sure. Does the Cunard World Club number you've used in the past consist of 9 digits followed by a letter? If so it is indeed a North Anerica number. On the other hand, if it starts with a letter, it is probably a UK number. Assuming we are able to verify that your previous Cunard World Club number is in the North America format, then what Cunard have told you about your previous World Club record being with the UK doesn't make sense to me. Cunard will need to explain why they can't find your previous activity on that North America number. On the other hand, if it looks like you may have been using a Cunard World Club number in the UK format, that would explain the problem you are experiencing. Then the mystery becomes how you could have made North America bookings using a UK World Club number.

Here are some images of QM2's arrival Saturday I captured on my phone from the "New York Harbor Waterfront Museum, Brooklyn NY USA" YouTube channel while waiting in our hotel to board later that day.

Very much looking forward to the first meeting of QA and QM2 in Southampton on 23rd June. Available itineraries indicate QA will be arriving at 6:00am (at Mayflower) while QM2 will be arriving at 6:30am (at QEII). So perhaps that won't pass each other on the way in. Likewise, QM2 may be departing at 5:00pm and QA at 6:00pm. Nevertheless, I will endeavor to get a good look at QA that day while both ships are in Southampton.

On board now. We were originally assigned a 2:00pm arrival time. The two hour adjustment meant we were requested to arrive at 4:00pm. My plan was to arrive around 3:30pm via the NYC Ferry. Because of long queues and delays on the ferry we actually arrived at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at 4:15pm. It took 45 minutes to get through security at that point and another 35 minutes in the priority check-in queue. So, all-in-all it wasn't too bad of a check-in experience today. We've had worse experienes in the past in Brooklyn for sure. Now it's time to sit back and relax for the next 14 nights on board QM2 to Southampton and back to New York.

I received this email from Cunard a few minutes ago. Important information about your voyage Booking reference: XXXXXX Dear Mr ------, We are looking forward to welcoming you on board Queen Mary 2 tomorrow. Unfortunately, Queen Mary 2’s arrival into New York will be delayed by approximately four hours, and it will not be possible to embark at the original embarkation time. Guests will need to arrive two hours later than their allocated arrival time displayed on their boarding pass. We kindly request that all guests observe this change to the embarkation time and please do not arrive at the terminal early. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding. Kind Regards, Cunard

I have some of the dress code and theme schedules for early 2025. Looks like they have been released for voyages through about March-April 2025. That includes QA's 2025 World Voyage, QV's 2025 South America voyage, QM2's early 2025 Caribbean and Canaries cruises, and QE's 2025 Australia season as well as some of her early 2025 Japan season. I've started documents for 2025 and may post the pieces I have so far in a few weeks. As far as the bulk of the dress code and theme schedules for 2025, based on prior years we might expect Cunard to release those schedules sometime around the October-November timeframe.

The "Southampton Transfer Booking Form" I have from this past September is more cautious about the earliest flight time for the coach transfers. That form states "All Heathrow motorcoach transfers - For flights 2:00pm or later only."

Now that we've started a new page for this thread, I'll repeat the links to the documents for easy reference. QM2: QM2 2024 Dress Code and Theme Schedule QV: QV 2024 Dress Code and Theme Schedule QE: QE 2024 Dress Code and Theme Schedule QA: QA 2024 Dress Code and Theme Schedule

The 2024 Dress Code and Theme Schedules are now complete! One caveat is that I don't believe the schedules are correct for the two new 7-night Queen Elizabeth cruises Q434N and Q434P to Tasmania which were added to replace the 14-night cruise Q434 to New Zealand. It looks like the dress code and theme schedules for those two 7-night Tasmania cruises were simply carried over from that 14-night New Zealand cruise. I have made note of that in the margin of the Queen Elizabeth document. If you are on either of these Tasmania cruises and are seeing updated schedules which differ from what I have documented, please let me know which evenings are scheduled for gala evenings and what themes (if any) are scheduled on those evenings. Q434N: 27 Nov-4 Dec 2024, Tasmania Q434P: 4 Dec-11 Dec 2024, Tasmania

Oh, yes I remember now reading about that reduction in the Platinum and Diamond internet credits to $54 per person published in the daily programmes for the recent QM2 3-night cruise to Cherbourg and Portland. Seems to be some question as to whether that reduction was actually implemented though. Looks like you may need to wait until you are on board your Keil to Southampton cruise to see if you will have a similar reduction in your Platinum internet credit, @Yoshikitty. I do not see documentation anywhere on Cunard's websites stating Cunard World Club Internet credits are reduced for shorter voyages.

Platinum level in the Cunard World Club means you should each receive $80 of Internet Credit. That means you can each purchase the Premium Plan for the full three night voyage at 3 x $24 = $72. The internet credits work great on short voyages such as yours. Edit to add: Just curious which voyage you are on. I don't see any 3-night voyages on QA's schedule, in July or otherwise.

I have just learned voyage V426N (30 Oct-3 Nov 2024) has a Black and White gala evening scheduled for 31 October. I am now only missing the dress code and theme schedule for this voyage. V430: 5 Dec-16 Dec 2024, Atlantic Coast Adventure If you are on this voyage, please post which dates are scheduled to be gala evenings and what themes (if any) are scheduled for those evenings. You can find that information in the daily calendar section of your booking in My Cunard. Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide.

Thank you very much for this update indicating Cunard have finally posted the dress code and theme schedules for the voyages that were added to fill a gap in QV's original schedule. Is anyone here on either of these two other QV voyages? These are the only two voyages for which I do not yet have the 2024 dress code and theme schedules across the entire fleet. V426N: 30 Oct-3 Nov 2024, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam V430: 5 Dec-16 Dec 2024, Atlantic Coast Adventure If you are on one of these voyages, please post which dates are scheduled to be gala evenings and what themes (if any) are scheduled for those evenings. You can find that information in the daily calendar section of your booking in My Cunard. Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide.

I can answer the second part of your question. Cunard do offer post-cruise transfers from Southampton to Heathrow. Their coach transfer to Heathrow is priced at $90 per person. You can add this transfer to your existing booking by calling Cunard customer service or your travel agent. Or you can wait and book the transfer on board via a form from the Tour Office.

I don't think there's any way to pre-purchase an Internet plan through My Cunard if you have an Internet credit from your Cunard World Club status. Here's what my "Voyage internet plan" page looks like on My Cunard. Note where there would be a button to begin purchasing a plan, this page states "Use your credits to purchase internet on board."

The pricing listed in My Cunard for the Essential Plan that I'm seeing is as follows. Essential Voyage Plan $18.00pp per day 24-hour plans are available on board: $24.00pp per day The first rate quoted here is the $18.00pp per day rate if you purchase the package for the full voyage (or more precisely for all remaining days of the voyage at the time of purchase if you wait to purchase until on board). The second rate quoted here is the $24.00pp per day rate if you choose to purchase individual segments of 24-hours at a time once you are on board. You can't purchase individual days at $18.00pp. Since you have a $45 Internet credit from your Gold Cunard World Club status, you can't purchase an Internet plan prior to your voyage. But you will have the same pricing options to choose from once you are on board. You may choose to purchase a full voyage Essential plan at any point while you are on board for a cost of $18pp per day for all remaining days in your voyage. Or you may choose to purchase individual 24-hour segments of the Essential plan at a cost of $24pp per day. Since you mentioned wanting to purchase individual days, your $45 Internet credit will allow you to purchase two of the 24-hour plans once on board (for 2 x $24 = $48) with a net charge of $3 to your onboard account. Hope this helps.

Yes, it does. Again from the terms and conditions. "• The Specialty Hot Drinks Option may be pre-purchased up to 4 days prior to boarding the vessel and is offered on board on the first 2 days of your voyage. If you opt to purchase your Specialty Hot Drinks Option on day two, you pay only for the remaining nights of the voyage." This means you effectively have these two viable options for purchasing the Specialty Hot Drinks Option in your scenario. 1) Purchase prior to your voyage for $15.75 per person per night = $141.75 per person for nine nights. 2) Wait until the second day of your voyage and purchase the package on board for $17.50 per person per night = $140.00 per person for eight nights. It's essentially a wash. You'd end up saving $1.75 per person by deferring your purchase to the second day on board. And you could use your on board spending money that way. But you'd also be paying as you go on day one which would eat up those savings with a single drink purchased on day one.

Here are the passenger and crew counts QA reported to Southampton VTS. Queen Anne - June 7, 2024: 2,694 passengers; 1,235 crew

I can confirm what others have reported for QA's first scheduled meetings in port with QM2 and QV. I wasn't expecting to see a meeting between QA and QE but there is one on the schedule while QA is on her 2025 world voyage and QE is between Australia and Japan. QA and QM2: June 23, 2024 - Southampton QA and QV: August 5, 2024 - Civitavecchia QA and QE: March 19, 2025 - Hong Kong In addition to several other dates when QA will be in Southampton with QM2 or QV, there are also these other meetings with QA on the schedule. QA and QV: November 7, 2024 - Funchal QA and QV: December 12, 2024 - Lisbon QA and QM2: April 24, 2025 - Cadiz I'm not seeing any "Three Queens" meetings on the schedule (involving QA or otherwise). In fact, here is the only date I'm finding where QM2, QV or QE are scheduled to be in port on the same day in the itineraries released so far. QM2 and QV: October 24, 2025 - Southampton

We were on last year's NSO crossing (11-18 September 2023) and enjoyed it very much. Here are playlists I transcribed from the three performances during that crossing. Playlist from "The First Night of the Cunard Proms: An American Evening", Anthony Inglis and the National Symphony Orchestra. 1) "The Star-Spangled Banner" 2) "The Carousel Waltz" - Rodgers and Hammerstein 3) "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (guest pianist Captain Hashmi) 4) "Liberty Bell March" - Sousa (guest bell ringer/conductor Captain Hashmi) 5) "Rhapsody in Blue" - Gershwin 6) "Maple Leaf Rag" - Joplin 7) Medley from "South Pacific" - Rodgers and Hammerstein Playlist from "Last Night of the Cunard Proms", Anthony Inglis and the National Symphony Orchestra. 1. "God Save the King" 2. "Patience: Overture" - Gilbert and Sullivan 3. "Aircrew on Parade" - Haywood 4. "Romance for Violin and Orchestra" - Inglis 5. "Pop Looks Bach" from "Ski Sunday" - Fonteyn 6. "We'll Meet Again" - Lynn/Parker/Charles 7. "Hornpipe" from "Fantasia on British Sea Songs" - Wood (guest conductor Captain Hashmi) 8. "Rule Britannia" - Thomson/Arne 9. "Jerusalem" - Parry/Blake 10. "Land of Hope and Glory" - Elgar/Benson Playlist from matinee performance "An Afternoon of Strings" with the Strings of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Harmony String Trio under the direction of Anthony Inglis. 1. "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" - Mozart 2. "Serenade for Strings" - Dvorak 3. "Adagio for Strings" - Barber (a tribute to September 11th, the departure date from New York for this NSO crossing)

Cunard have posted this 15:30 highlights video of the Queen Anne naming ceremony on their YouTube channel.