bluemarble

I'll offer a slightly different twist to our game for your consideration today. Here are two different webcam captures taken within 24 hours of each other showing two different Cunard ships at two different locations. The first image is showing a ship arriving at a port which is off the left of the image. The second image is showing a Cunard ship departing a port which is in the far distance toward the right. The twist is that both webcam locations are at beaches with the same name. There is also a popular beach in England with that same name. Please name the two Cunard ports associated with these images (we've seen them before) as well as the name of the beach shared by these two camera locations and a beach in England. I'll suspend our usual rule of one guess per day for this one. Instead, one guess per day for each part of the puzzle will be fine. If you can solve all three parts of this puzzle in one go, go ahead. Or if you'd prefer to solve only one or two parts of the puzzle, that's all good too.

The difference between the Q7 suites and the Q5/Q6 suites on QM2 is that the Q7 suites are wheelchair accessible. There are only 5 of them so they can sell out quickly. Plus you'll only see availability for the Q7's during the booking process on the Cunard website if you indicate you need a wheelchair accessible suite. The difference between the Q5 and Q6 suites on QM2 is location. The Q6 suites are all forward while the Q5 suites are midships and mid-aft. There are quite a few more Q5 suites than Q6 suites on QM2. That combined with the Q6 suites being less expensive probably accounts for why you are seeing more availability for Q5 suites compared to Q6 suites.

Here's a webcam capture showing QV departing Hamburg a few hours ago. This marks the start of QV's 2024 world voyage for those guests embarking at Hamburg.

In the US, we have what Cunard calls "Our Lowest Fare". Elsewhere it's known as the "Value Fare". That fare has a number of restrictions including a non-refundable deposit (unlike most other US fares). It's similar to a UK Saver Fare in that it does not allow selection of a specific cabin (i.e. it's a guarantee-only booking). I can't find anything in the terms for that fare that mentions dining arrangements though. I never book that fare. I'd be interested to learn if those who do book that fare in the US are able to select early or late sitting or are being assigned open dining.

Thanks for that bit of QM2 history. I was puzzled at first why Cunard would pick a crossing in May to celebrate QM2's 10th anniversary. But then I realized they were specifically celebrating the 10th anniversary of QM2's first eastbound transatlantic crossing from New York. QM2's first eastbound transatlantic crossing from New York was April 25-May 1, 2004. The May 16-23, 2014 crossing was the first opportunity to celebrate that 10th anniversary milestone on another eastbound transatlantic crossing. Here's a YouTube video from Cunard Line about their 10th anniversary celebration in New York.

Also there is the Carinthia Lounge for light breakfast and lunch options.

No, all of the "B" category staterooms are regular Britannia Balcony staterooms. You will be assigned to the main Britannia Restaurant as your main dining room. The "A" category staterooms on decks 12 and 13 are the Britannia Club staterooms which are assigned to the Britannia Club restaurant. You won't be able to use the Britannia Club restaurant if you have booked a category "BC" stateroom. I do agree it can be a bit confusing when the abbreviation "BC" is used to refer to Britannia Club. But that usage of the "BC" abbreviation is not referring to stateroom category "BC". Hope this helps clarify the situation.

I don't think we can pin down QA's arrival date to April 28th. The statement that QA will arrive in Southampton "during the last weekend of April" is not particularly specific. She may well be arriving Saturday, April 27th. I guess we will need to wait for more specifics from Cunard. I'm inferring they are planning a daytime arrival from the quote "Large crowds are expected to like [sic] the Solent to welcome in the new ship."

Interesting you should ask about the terminal. The Southampton VTS Cruise Ship Schedule has one cruise ship or another at each one of the five cruise terminals at some point from the last weekend in April through May 3rd. For the maiden voyage departing May 3rd, the Ocean, Horizon and QEII terminals have other ships scheduled at the moment. Of course those terminal assignments are always subject to change. As I mentioned previously, QM2 and QV will be in port on Sunday, April 28th (along with Arvia and MSC Poesia). It should be a very interesting celebration indeed to have QA in port that day along with two of her sisters. As the schedule stands now, City terminal is the available spot for QA on April 28th.

ITV News is reporting "Queen Anne is due to arrive during the last weekend of April and her maiden voyage will be on May 3rd. With several days in port every effort will be made to celebrate." Here's the link to the article. https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2024-01-08/long-awaited-cruise-ship-the-queen-anne-to-arrive-in-april

Thanks. You can probably anticipate my next question. Have they posted the dress code schedule for your voyage in My Cunard? If so, could you please let me know which evening is scheduled as a Gala Evening and does it have a theme?

This is embarrassing! I've just learned the earlier gap in QV's schedule from Oct 30 to Nov 15 this year now has voyages scheduled. Previously there was a gap between voyage V425 ending Oct 30 and V427 departing Nov 15. There was no voyage V426. Now we have these two new voyages sailing out of Southampton. V426N: Oct 30-Nov 3, 2024 (4 nights); Bruges and Rotterdam V426P: Nov 3-Nov 15, 2024 (12 nights); Canary Islands It's probably been this way for a while now but I just never noticed. All the cruise booking websites seem to know about these new voyages. Anyway, I'm off to update my "QV 2024 Dress Code and Theme Schedule" document to remove the gap labeled "(Drydock?)" and fill it in with these new voyages. Anyone booked on either of these new voyages?

@Zeg, Cunard have not posted any guest speakers on their website for your voyage M403. You can tell that since there is no "Guest speakers on board" section on the voyage information page for voyage M403 itself found at https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/find-a-cruise/M403/M403. Unfortunately that's the case for most voyages these days. It's mostly just special event cruises such as the "Literature Festival at Sea" and some of the Alaska cruises where Cunard post the speakers ahead of time on the website. I suspect you are looking at the general "Guest speakers on board" page which @Host Hattie mentioned. Many of the entries found on that page are out-of-date. I you are using a desktop browser and hover over the "View voyages" links for the speakers listed on that page, that will indicate which voyage the speaker was on. Here are the voyages (which have already sailed) indicated for the guest speakers you mentioned. The Bootleg Beatles: Q315 (Apr 19-28, 2023) Michael Roux: M329E (Sep 22-29, 2023) - That was the "Festival of Food and Wine" crossing Bear Grylls: Q320 (Jun 8-20, 2023) Sally Gunnell: Q313 (Apr 3-19, 2023) When the "View voyages" link is for a past voyage, that link will cause all future voyages to be displayed instead. That's probably how you came to the conclusion those guest speakers were going to be on your voyage M403. Hope this helps explain what's going on. Edit to add: I now see your follow-up post where you indicate what you were originally seeing for the speakers on your voyage has changed. I suppose that was some sort of glitch. Glad to hear it's been resolved. Hopefully my post was of some use anyway, at least to indicate when those speakers you mentioned were actually scheduled to sail in the past.

There is actually conflicting information about the cutoff date to apply for the shareholder benefit as listed in the latest "Carnival Corporation & plc Shareholder Benefit" document found at https://www.carnivalcorp.com/static-files/bc1b7f04-a3e8-4176-91ac-a529290fe45d. That document begins by stating "Applications to receive these benefits should be made at least three weeks prior to cruise departure date." Then later on it states "Please provide ... no later than 4 weeks prior to your sail date ...". I suppose they honor the three weeks cutoff date. Just mentioning this since the document is confusing on that point. The "Carnival Corporation & plc Shareholder Benefit" document does not mention anything about how early applications will be accepted. However, there are versions of application forms for the benefit which state "Shares certificate and brokerage statement should be dated no earlier than 3 months prior to cruise departure date."

I've learned there has been a very recent change to the theme for the Gala Evening scheduled on QE for January 25, 2024. Instead of the previously scheduled Masquerade theme, that evening is now scheduled with Burns Night as the theme. That's a return to one of the themes routinely scheduled on world voyages in the past. Good to see they are adding at least a little variety to the themes being scheduled. This may be the first departure from the standard themes (Black & White, Red & Gold, Masquerade, Roaring Twenties, plus Ice White on QE Alaska) since they scheduled an Oliviers Gala during the 2022 London Theatre at Sea crossing on QM2.

Introducing the Queen Anne 2024 Dress Code and Theme Schedule document. I'll add the link for QA to the list of links for the other ships to have them all in one place. 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 Of course at this point, the QA document is still very sparse. If you are on a QA voyage that I don't already have listed please let me know what you are seeing for your dress code and theme schedule in the daily calendar section of your booking in My Cunard. I just need to know the dates of your voyage, which dates are scheduled as gala evenings, and what themes (if any) are scheduled on those gala evenings. Also, additional dress code and theme schedules have now been posted for QE. If you are on a QE sailing departing March 10th or later please let me know the schedule for your voyage as well. And of course there are still quite a few gaps in the QM2 and QV documents. Please let me know the dress code and theme schedule for your QM2 and QV voyages if they aren't already listed in these documents. As always, thanks for any assistance you are able to provide with this project.

Thank you for this contribution. Could I please ask you to double-check one of those dates? 22 December is a turn-around day in Southampton. I'm guessing that's actually meant to be 23 December, the sea day after departing Southampton, for your Red and Gold gala evening. I'll list the date as 23 December for now since that makes the most sense. It might also be 25 December though since they sometimes like to schedule a Red and Gold gala evening on Christmas Day. In any event, please confirm for me the date you are seeing for that Red and Gold gala evening. Thanks.

Now that the dress code and theme schedules have been posted for QA, I'll start creating a master "Queen Anne 2024 Dress Code and Theme Schedule" document. And now that additional 2024 schedules have been posted for QE, I'll add to what I already have for QE. If you are on a QA voyage or on a QE voyage departing March 10, 2024 or later, please let me know what you are seeing for your dress code and theme schedule in the daily calendar section of your booking in My Cunard. I've created this separate thread to help generate some initial activity for this topic since many of you on QA or later QE voyages may not have noticed your schedules have been posted in your My Cunard calendars. I'll start things off here by quoting what @TowandaUK posted in the "Dress Code and Theme Schedules for 2024" sticky for QA. Feel free to post what you find either here or on that other thread. "Queen Anne, 14 nights, May 10th to the Canaries. 3 gala nights May 11th Black and White May 16th Masquerade May 21st Roaring 20s." As you see, what I need to know are the dates of your voyage, which dates will be Gala Evenings, and what the themes (if any) will be on those evenings. I'll assume all other evenings are Smart Attire. Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide for this project of mine to document the dress code and theme schedules for QA and QE.

Thanks for the follow-up comments about the possible April19th date for QA's naming ceremony. I'll temper some of my skepticism about that date now. The post found elsewhere on social media mentioning that date was from a group moderator which might tend to give it some weight.

I updated my previous post when I saw the Southampton VTS Cruise Ship Schedule has now been updated through the end of May and QA isn't on it yet, even for her scheduled May 3rd maiden voyage and subsequent voyages in May. So I backtracked about using that schedule as any indication of the date for the naming ceremony. Not sure why QA isn't on that cruise ship schedule yet. Edit to add: There is room in Southampton for QA most dates through May. April 28th will be especially busy with QM2 and QV both in Southampton along with two other ships.

I'll jump in to help with this one. There's a post stating QA will be named on April 19th in Southampton and her sea trials are rumored to start February 2nd. I see a possible issue with that date for the naming ceremony though. Recent tradition has been for the naming ceremonies to be no more than a few days before the maiden voyages. QM2's naming ceremony was four days before her maiden voyage. QV's and QE's naming ceremonies were both the day before their maiden voyages. It would be a departure to have QA's naming ceremony a full fourteen days before her maiden voyage on May 3rd. Let's just say I'm skeptical.

I suspect you are not alone with that opinion. Just to clarify, the standard Grill Suites Offer in the US includes a drinks package (for drinks up to $12) and pre-payment of the Hotel and Dining Service Charge ($16.50 per person per day for Grill Suites). It does not include a WiFi package.

In addition to using My Voyage for dinner reservations, I have used it to book planetarium shows. That feature worked well and I think it's a welcome replacement for the old system of queuing for tickets at the ConneXions desk. Actually, I should say it worked well as long as My Voyage was functioning. There was one day on our most recent voyage where the system was down for several hours. And there were other cases when I simply had connectivity issues. Hopefully the recent wi-fi system upgrades have resolved those connectivity issues.

I hear you. Our booking on the cancelled April 30 crossing was the first of three consecutive bookings on QM2 (eastbound crossing, Norway, westbound crossing). We ended up flying to England to salvage the Norway and westbound crossings). So yes, the options about taking earlier or later crossings were irrelevant to our situation. But I played along and chose the options that would have been the most appealing to me without regard to the other circumstances. Generally for me the most important of the options presented was to have a refundable deposit. I always picked a refundable option over non-refundable one. And when both options presented were non-refundable I made sure to select "No" when asked if would have booked the option I selected. I do hope those of you in the UK will eventually be able to choose fares with refundable deposits as we enjoy in the US. Perhaps this survey is a step in that direction.

I may have missed the teeny-tiny print naming the survey company. But I can tell you the URL for the portion of the survey asking general questions such as demographics indicates the survey company is Borderless Access ("survey.borderlessaccess.com"). The URL for the portion of the survey presenting different cruise options to pick from changes to "eu.surveyme.online".