bluemarble

Which begs the question why we haven't heard about similar notifications triggered by CDC requirements for recent QE sailings. By most accounts of the COVID outbreak on QE during the latter portion of her repositioning cruise to Alaska, I thought it would have triggered notifications to those embarking in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver. Perhaps it did and I just haven't heard about it. I believe I've read where QE has had a mask mandate in place on recent sailings while QV (not operating in US waters) has not.

QV is in Visby, Sweden today. Here is a webcam capture showing QV shortly after she arrived a few hours ago. This image was captured from the Kryssningskajen camera hosted by webbkameror.se in collaboration with CMP (Copenhagen Malmö Port). The webcam is found at "www.webbkameror.se/webbkameror/kryssningskajen/kryssningskajen_1_1280.php". I am posting this image with the kind permission of webbkameror.se. Silver Moon has also arrived in port partially blocking QV in the current webcam view, so I went back through the image archives to find this earlier view from 7 AM local time showing only QV.

Some of what I have to offer here is speculative but I'll jump in anyway. Unfortunately the OP has not responded to confirm whether or not the latest notification from Cunard offered a refund. That would be helpful to know as an indication of how much discretion Cunard had with this decision to impose the mask mandate. The OP's screen shot does tail off with the first line of verbiage which has offered a refund in past notifications. I've previously mentioned that if the CDC is considering moving a ship from "Orange" to "Red" status, it will ask the cruise line to implement several steps including Require mask use by all passengers and crew indoors and crowded outdoor areas; Send written notification to passengers on the current, previous, and subsequent voyages informing them of the COVID-19 conditions and measures being taken to reduce transmission on board; Offer a full refund for the cruise to any passenger who decides not to sail on the subsequent voyage Previous similar notifications from Cunard have done all three of these steps. We know the latest communication from Cunard does at least the first two steps and perhaps all three. This tends to indicate Cunard is responding to CDC requirements and not imposing the mask mandate at its own discretion. In terms of the transatlantic angle putting Cunard at an advantage, I'm inclined to think it doesn't. As @moses0 mentioned in an earlier reply, other lines operating in US waters have the advantage of disembarking most if not all of their guests at the end of relatively short closed loop cruises. Cunard's scheduling for QM2 often involves combining a roundtrip crossing with other segments such as to Norway, the Caribbean, Canada or the Mediterranean. Hence many crossings are part of significantly longer voyages. Few if any crossings end with all or even almost all guests disembarking to start the next voyage with a clean slate so to speak.

You certainly won't get any argument from me that the "My Cunard" functionality leaves a lot to be desired. But I can help you find the dress codes (if they have been assigned for your cruise). The dress codes are found within each individual day's entry of the "Day" view within "Your calendar". Here's an example showing the dress code for one day in the lower right of the calendar view. Since you mentioned you are doing a portion of the QM2 world cruise on the other "Queen Mary Obstructed View" thread, the dress codes may not yet be assigned for your cruise. I do know the dress codes have been assigned for QV's 2023 world cruise but I haven't heard yet if they have been assigned for QM2's 2023 world cruise.

Interesting to learn that the views from some obstructed view cabins directly across from each other on QM2 are not mirror images of each other. I'd like to hear more about which cabins on the odd side have different views from the corresponding cabins on the even side. The "cruisedeckplans" website is a good source for cabin photos. Unfortunately they don't have any photos of cabin 8051. I did check all 20 pairs of obstructed view cabins on QM2 where that site does have photos/videos showing the views from cabins across from each other. The views from those 20 pairs of cabins all appear to be mirror images of each other. Hopefully someone on this forum can provide a photo of the view from 8051 so that we can find out for sure what the view looks like from that cabin.

Take a look at this view from 8052 which is directly opposite 8051 on the deck plans. The view from 8051 should be essentially a mirror image of this view. Cunard only supplies the views to the even numbered cabins with the proviso "Views from staterooms on the opposite side of the ship are similar".

@Bill_R, does that letter go on to offer you a refund if you cancel? That's been the case with some letters like this in the past because of CDC requirements. Just wondering if that's the case this time as well.

Ah, very good. I had a bit of difficulty at first making out the name on the stern. It's Silver Wind on what looks like a very interesting 18 night "British Isles" cruise from Lisbon to Reykjavik. Yesterday, Pembroke. Today, the Isle of Iona which I understand was the inspiration for the name of the new P&O ship. Thanks for the chance to do some ship identification once again. I do miss the "Where in the World?" thread.

It was interesting to follow on marinetraffic how Cosco Virgo managed to get past Cosco Uranus that departed about an hour and a half ago. Cosco Uranus came to a stop toward the south bank of the river near the Airbus facility. She had three tugs assisting to hold her in place while Cosco Virgo passed on the starboard side with two tugs assisting. Looks like it could be another hour or so until Cosco Virgo is out of the way for QM2 to depart.

Just watched Cosco Shipping Virgo enter the Elbe on a couple of the Cuxhaven webcams. That's a monster container ship, no doubt about it! Edit to add: Sorry about the typo "Costco" in my previous post, it is of course "Cosco".

Looks like that container ship might be Costco Shipping Virgo. Length 400 meters, beam 59 meters, ETA Hamburg 00:00 local. Will be entering the Elbe in about an hour.

Hi, Laura. I'm curious, who told you or where did you read you needed to take your test for Southampton "24 hours" before? As far as I know, the Cunard website has consistently stated "one day" before for Southampton departures. Here is a quote from their "Preparing to sail - at the terminal" page. "Pre-cruise testing for voyages departing from Southampton. All guests aged five years and over will need to organize and purchase an antigen test to be taken within one day prior to arrival at the embarkation terminal." Good to hear they are adhering to that "one day" requirement. I just wanted to clarify that it's one day in case others are seeing 24 hours somewhere.

@sogne, did you stay up to see QV passing you on your way into Hamburg? I was watching vicariously on marinetraffic. It looks like the two ships passed each other about 12:15am local time east of Heligoland Bight. QV is on her way to Copenhagen. I think this is a first for the current Cunard fleet where two ships are/were visiting Hamburg on consecutive days.

Not that I really know one way or the other since I'm from the US, but I suspect contributors to this forum from Devon might have something to say about that.

I'm not entirely clear what the problem is but then I don't book flights through Cunard. It looks to me like the Cunard website is showing at least one of your flights. Is a return flight missing, is the issue that the seat assignments aren't showing, or is it something else? Since it's showing your record locator, I would have booked my seats online myself using the American Airlines website "aa.com". That website allows you to retrieve an existing reservation via the "Manage trips / Check-in" functionality. I know you started another "Airfare with Cunard" thread a few days ago indicating you were having difficulty. Now that I know your flights are with American Airlines, perhaps I can offer some further assistance with locating your reservation and verifying your seat assignments on their website since I book flights with American Airlines almost exclusively.

Glad to help. @frankp01's attachment indicates there have been some adjustments to the TV channels on QM2 since 2019 (not surprising). I note channel 26 is still listed as the "Classic Films" channel, but channel 51 is now the "Movies Then" channel with schedule provided. Perhaps you will have two choices for channels showing older (if not truly "classic") movies.

Perhaps it was unsold allocations from travel agents that were recently released for Queen Anne's maiden voyage. Hard to know for sure. Seeing all the availability today though, it does seem a tad misleading for the May 18th Cunard press release to have declared "The maiden voyage, a seven-night sailing from Southampton departing January 4, 2024, has sold out."

Queen Anne's maiden voyage is back on sale today. There is plenty of availability in all cabin categories from Inside through Princess Grill. So much for my earlier observation that the maiden voyage was sold out within 12 hours!

I have the in-cabin movie guide from one of my QM2 crossings in 2019. It lists a "Classic Films" channel on channel 26. I'm not sure some of these qualify as "classics" in the sense you are asking about, @kshannon5, but here are the movies that were on the schedule for that channel. These movies are not on-demand, but were repeated throughout the day and week. Of course different voyages will have a different selection of movies. I'm just providing this list to offer an idea of the sort of movies that were shown on the Classic Films channel back in 2019. Day 1: Planet Of The Apes, The Internship, High Anxiety, Paper Towns, The East, Carmen Jones Day 2: East Side Sushi, Say Anything, The Man from Snowy River, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The Turning Point, Big Trouble In Little China Day 3: Great Expectations, X2: X-Men United, Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Miss Potter, Planet Of The Apes, Say Anything Day 4: The Art Of Getting By, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, The Sapphires, The Midwife, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The Turning Point Day 5: Solaris, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Buena Vista Social Club, The Woman In Black, City Of Ember, Paper Towns Day 6: The East, Amber Earth, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Babette’s Feast, The Maze Runner, The Sandlot Day 7: The Turning Point, Carmen Jones, Miss Potter, Sour Grapes, Stuck On You, Romancing The Stone Day 8: Planet Of The Apes, Big Trouble In Little China, The Midwife, Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters, Hours, 23 Blast And if this helps here is the list of TV channels on QM2 from 2019. 23 - Entertainment Director's Channel 24 - Cinema Channel 25 - Contemporary Films 26 - Classic Films 27 - German Language Films 28 - Spanish Language Films 29 - French Language Films 30 - Japanese Language Films 31 - BBC World 32 - Sky News 33 - CNBC 34 - MSNBC 35 - Fox News 36 - Sky Sports News 37 - ITV Choice 38 - BBC HD 39 - Prime One 40 - Live Bridge Webcam 41 - Prime Journeys 42 - Sport 24 43 - RTL 44 - Destination Channel 45 - Voyage Information from the Bridge 46 - Arts & History Channel 47 - Cunard Insights Lectures 48 - Safety Channel 49 - Tour & Travel Information 50 - Discover Channel 51 - Ships Information (clock change/dress code)

No, you are not doing anything stupid. That's the website acting up. I see now that's one of the "odd things" I mentioned earlier had been happening to me during the booking process the past few days. I'm finding this is a particularly odd issue since it's intermittent for me. Here's what I got after selecting my fare about an hour ago. This is the incomplete voyage summary page that shows "0 Room 0 Guest(s)". As you've found, once you've reached this page it's a dead end. One clue that I am going to run into this issue is when the buttons on the previous pages that should read "View fares" and then "Book now" to select the fare are just a solid red color without the text inside them. A short time ago I started over and after selecting my fare I got this complete voyage summary page showing "1 Room 2 Guest(s)" and a "Continue" button in the right hand column that turns into a "Checkout" button after I have confirmed reading the important information. Once you get to this page you should be able to continue the process to check your FCC. All I can suggest is keep trying. This is another one of the numerous frustrations with the Cunard website (and I think this is a relatively new one).

I'll speculate based on what the standard transatlantic dress code and theme schedules have been for 2022. Those schedules are as follows. Westbound Crossings (Southampton-New York) Day 1: Smart Attire Day 2: Gala Evening (Black and White) Day 3: Smart Attire Day 4: Smart Attire Day 5: Smart Attire Day 6: Gala Evening (Masquerade) Day 7: Smart Attire Eastbound Crossings (New York-Southampton) Day 1: Smart Attire Day 2: Gala Evening (Red and Gold) Day 3: Smart Attire Day 4: Smart Attire Day 5: Smart Attire Day 6: Gala Evening (Roaring Twenties) Day 7: Smart Attire This mirrors the schedules the last few years prior to the shutdown and what was scheduled for 2020 except that Day 4 used to be a non-themed Gala Evening. Now Day 4 is Smart Attire. Also, the Red and Gold theme used to be called the Royal Cunard Ball back then but that was essentially just a name change. The Masquerade theme has been replaced on voyages so far this year, presumably because a theme involving wearing masks was not deemed appropriate. But as far as I am aware, the Masquerade theme is scheduled to reappear in August.

I don't think Balmoral actually diverted from Flam. The Balmoral itineraries I'm finding indicate this was the planned itinerary for her current "7 Night Norwegian Fjords and Mighty Waterfalls" cruise. 15 June: Newcastle 17 June: Eidfjord 18 June: Bergen 19 June: Olden 20 June: Andelsnes 22 June: Newcastle Balmoral's past track indicates she departed the dock at Bergen approximately 6:00pm yesterday. There is a lengthy diversion in her track where she started slowing about 7:45pm and then turned back about 9:30pm. After sailing slowly back toward Bergen, and getting to within about 8 NM of Bergen, she altered course back toward Olden around 12:30am.

Sorry to hear you are having problems with the website. I have been having some odd things happen during the booking process the past few days as well but it's working for me now. For reference here is what I am seeing when I reach the "Your payment options" screen on the Cunard US website after entering our guest information including both of our Cunard World Club numbers. If we had any available FCC (which we don't), that is supposed to appear as credit amounts on separate lines to the right immediately beneath the "Guest 1" and "Guest 2" lines respectively.

Excellent summary provided by @sfred. Since your profile doesn't indicate where you reside, all I'll add is that if you happen to have booked directly with Cunard under the standard terms and conditions for North America, your final payment date for a 13-night voyage will be 120 days prior to departure.

We just received our invitation for the Queen Anne cruise I booked on May 24th. It arrived in today's mail via "Jersey Post Priority". So I can confirm they are being sent to the US. I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw the last line of our address was printed as "United States of America (The)". I see now that's one of the ISO standard ways to refer to the US. Just can't say I'd seen it written that way before. Anyway, nice touch, Cunard!