maina

I'm now able to log in just fine too. First time I tried I got the P&O page, but then I tried again and got Cunard's. Interestingly, it went to P&O when I clicked on the voyage personaliser link at the upper part of the "already booked" page but went to Cunard when I clicked on the one on the lower part of the page. Ah the varies of website programming!

I think there may be a temporary problem with Cunard's website or server. I just tried and it took forever for the voyage personaliser log-in page to come up. After entering my information, it went nowhere and I got a "problem loading page" screen which has the message "connection was reset" which is often due to the server taking too long to respond; on the bottom tool bar it says"waiting for vp.cunard.com". :( We've paid in full so I'm sure that's not the issue. Best to wait and try later I guess.

We'll wave at you all on the QM as you go by (though most likely you'll be to far out to sea for us to see you). :) We live year round in Maine and have a summer home on the coast where we are now--Midcoast region, northeast of Portland. My husband says outbound from NY-Halifax you'd definitely be too far out for us to see, but on the Halifax-Boston leg you might be in closer so we could possibly see the ship. (We're doing westbound Southampton-NY on October 8th and can't wait.)

I'm absolutely no expert, and am not sure how many days you are willing to spend on transatlantic, but I did a quick google search and came up with the following for April/May, 2015 that avoid Cunard and its dress code (I'm sure there are others too):

Princess: April 25 - 14-day Transatlantic from Fort Lauderdale to Southampton, visiting Bermuda (Apr 28), Greenock (May 5), Dublin (6), Cobh (7), in Southampton on May 9 – prices from $1300 pp.)

http://www.repositioncruises.com/princess-repositioning-cruises/

Royal Caribbean from Boston, departing April 24. Makes stops in Cork, Ireland (May 1) and Portland, UK (May 2), not sure if you can debark there, however; goes to several other places, eventually ends up in Copenhagen (May 9). Prices from $1229 USD pp

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/cruiseDetails/itinerary.do?packageCode=SR15T051

You mentioned Queen Victoria, and I can't find a Queen Victoria eastbound transatlantic from the U.S. in April/May 2015, except for the last leg of the world voyage which indicates stops in NY and Southampton on voyage V508B from Los Angeles to Southampton via Panama Canal. Is that what you are looking at? Do they sell the leg just from NY to Southampton as a separate voyage? If you need to travel faster than the typical repositioning cruises on other lines, Cunard, especially Queen Mary transatlantic, may indeed be the best bet, clothing code or not. Frankly, I do find it strange that someone should be so terribly unwilling to wear a suit or jacket for a few nights, especially since you own them and have apparently worn them in the past. But I'm obviously not in your shoes.

P.S. Have you asked your wife how she feels about dressing up for a few nights? Maybe she doesn't share your feelings and might enjoy doing so.

DWhit--

MANY thanks for the information. Just called Cunard and they are emailing the early ticketing request form. It can apparently be scanned and emailed back to them as well as faxed, which will be easier for us. Cunard rep. said Delta should have the information by 72 hours after we send the form to Cunard. At that point, we should be able to go in and select seats (at least that's how it's supposed to work, said the Cunard rep.). Too bad we weren't told about this at the time of initial booking.

Ann

We just booked through Cunard air (Boston-Amsterdam; return NY-Boston), and got an excellent fare--in fact about $45 less per person than Cunard had quoted us several weeks ago. :) The flexible option was less expensive by far than the "fixed" option. We paid in full, so the price is locked in, but the Cunard rep explained the flights could change. However, she said they guaranteed the dates and implied it was unlikely the flights would change.

On the downside, we were unable to book economy comfort seats through Cunard. The only other economy option she had was "premium economy" and I have no idea what that is. She also said that if we called Delta directly, they would not have us on record yet. As she explained it, Cunard has arrangements with various airlines to hold blocks of seats on certain flights. These seats are not assigned by passenger name until later (presumably at the 45 days out point?), so if we were to contact Delta, they would not have us on record. However, when I checked on the Delta website with the booking number given us by Cunard, there we were. The seat selection option was not available. A pop-up window said that this option was generally not available until 24 hours after the reservation is made, but it's now over 24 hours and I'm still getting the same message. Unfortunately, if we can't get seat assignments until 45 days out, it's likely those economy comfort seats may all be booked. I sure hope the excellent pricing through Cunard doesn't mean we'll have the worst seats on the plane! :( We've found that paying extra for the economy comfort seats on long flights is well worth it, especially for my tall husband.

Nostalgia sells I think. Cherbourg seems to be another one of the "nostalgia ports" for transatlantic voyages. We checked into costs for the transatlantic that starts from Cherbourg (Oct. 7) and then leaves from Southampton (October 8). Based on the cost per day, the price for the same sheltered balcony cabin grade cabin if leaving from Cherbourg was almost double what it was from Southhampton. :eek: Needless to say we booked from Southampton!

The problem is not so much booking flights within the U.S., since I think it's entirely feasible to book one way flights at decent prices. And, if you are doing a back to back transatlantic or other cruise that leaves and arrives at the same U.S. port, it would be a round trip booking from your home city to that port. As Jimsgirl notes, it can often be more advantageous in terms of price and routing to do the booking yourself for domestic flights. I think the situation where booking through Cunard may help is when you need a one way flight to or from the U.S. from overseas. Only Icelandic and Aer Lingus have one way fare options, and both airlines require stopovers (in Iceland and Ireland, respectively) so they do not have direct transatlantic one-way flights to other places, either in the UK or Europe.

We were quoted a good price by Cunard on airfare, departing from Boston, even though we're going over 3 weeks before the transatlantic we're on, and even though we are going to Amsterdam and not the UK to start with. Haven't booked yet, but will in the next day or so if the price is still good. Our other options are Icelandic, which is one of the few airlines that offers one-way fares between the U.S. and Europe. That's a longer trip as it involves a stopover in Iceland. And, we'd have to book on another airline to get us back from NY when we disembark.

Is anything else available through Cunard if you book airfare through them, e.g. transportation to the airport?

DWhit--see you on board. From your rollcall posting I see we're on the same trip.:)

Ann

I do know there were more staterooms available when I called to book through Cunard than what were showing when I tried booking on the site. It's worth a call.

Ann

Kerry--

I thought that in the new pricing system deck 8 obstructed view cabins are a lower grade than deck 11, no matter where on deck 8 they are (assuming you are talking about the Queen Mary). If you are in the guarantee category for deck 11 (fore or aft) deck 8 obstructed view would be a downgrade as I read it.:confused:

Ann

From our "vast" experience (one eastbound transatlantic, on QM, two years ago), I'd say I really liked Britannia. We had early seating, at our request, and our table were all "colonials"--my husband and I (Americans), a couple from Canada, and one from Australia. We got on famously and had a really good time at dinner. I obviously can't speak for the food and service in the Grills, or about the Grills cabins, but the Britannia space on the QM is spectacular, in my opinion, and way more attractive than the Grills dining areas. In the Grills you are not looking directly out at the ocean but have the promenade deck in between, with people walking by so not so private. Britannia food was good--some of it excellent--and we had very good service, though I gather that can vary.

If someone offered us free passage in a Grills cabin we wouldn't turn it down :D, but if we had a lot of our own money I'm still not sure I'd go for the Grills. (If we had more money I might choose to spend it onboard on other things, e.g., spa). But, I obviously can't really be a good judge since we haven't had the experience. Britannia Club might be a good compromise in terms of cabin locations, dining experience, and cost, but that may not be available for the trip you want.

Not sure if this is too late for the one day stop over in NY, but thought I'd chime in as a former New Yorker. Since time is so limited, it would be best to confine yourselves to a relatively small area with the most attractions visitors tend to want to see. This could be the area between Broadway and 5th avenues, from say 42nd St. up to the lower part of Central Park (Central Park starts at about 59th St.). You could start downtown, see the Broadway area/theater district (not particularly interesting to me, but good to see at least once); then go up 5th Ave. to the upper 40s to see the famous stores, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Rockefeller Center; go up Top of the Rock for a great view downtown (toward Empire State Bldg.) and uptown (toward Central Park). You can book ahead for a time slot and don't need to print tickets as they will have your name on file. Then, head on up to Central Park for a taste of some greenery and possibly a visit to the zoo, which is is at 64th St., on the 5th Ave. side of the park.

For food on the go, NY has food carts selling everything from excellent hot dogs (with sauerkraut if you so desire) to middle eastern food, so you can have a brief lunch stop without taking time out for a sit-down restaurant meal. Not sure what your activity level is, but this is largely walkable. However, given the time constraints you might want to use the buses or take a cab between some of the places (e.g. from Times Square over to the 5th Ave, shopping district). There are 20 blocks to a mile going on the avenues (e.g., if you walked on 5th Ave. from 42nd-62nd streets it's a mile); the blocks are longer between the avenues, and vary somewhat in length depending on how far apart the avenues are.

Pepper--Seeing your photos is almost like being there. Sounds (and looks) like a wonderful and special trip. It's fun to see the view from your 4th level cabin as we'll be in one of those (aft, port side, unless we're upgraded) on the October 8th crossing to NY.

Ann

P.S. Your photo sets should be required viewing for Queen Mary "newbies." I certainly enjoyed the sets you had up at the time of our first transatlantic on the QM in 2012. I liked being able to get at least a little oriented ahead of time.

I found the other day that the online booking site doesn't always work correctly when you put in world club number or a discount code available to world club members. Over the weekend, one time when I tried a dummy booking it worked, and a half hour later when I tried again it did not, and only the full listed price came up. We did get the discount when going through a Cunard agent on the phone. The agent was able to look us up readily with our names and other information, even if I'd not had our world club numbers. If you want to find out your WC number, you might check any mailings you receive from Cunard. When we receive any literature in the mail or in emails from Cunard, our world club numbers are included either on the mailing label or referenced in the email.

When we did a transatlantic on Queen Mary in 2012 (June) RADA had a resident company on the ship and we enjoyed 2 very well-done productions by them (abbreviated versions of "Merchant of Venice" and Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"). I think they did some acting classes as well. Can anyone tell me how to figure out what might be in store for us on the October 8th westbound crossing, or at least who is doing productions in the Royal Court theater? Are the Cunard singers and dancers all there is? And what are they doing lately for shows? (I realize it may be too early for any specifics.)

Thanks Salacia for the very useful explanation (at least for Americans). I, too, used American Express for the Cunard booking and also live in one of the states where cc surcharges are forbidden.

I'm in the U.S., and a couple of days ago booked a transatlantic for October directly with Cunard, using a credit card, and there was no mention of a credit card fee in our conversation or in the conformation I received. I tried booking online, but the system didn't seem to be able to take into account the discount code I put in, and kept coming back with the full listed price. Since Cunard (or any other merchant) is charged a fee by the cc company, I don't see why it would make any difference if you book online or with a Cunard agent. Very strange.

As a postscript, the Cunard agent's database showed additional available cabins in the grade we wanted that did not show as available in the online booking process. He was also able to put in notes that we'd be willing to be upgraded, but if so, preferred the port side.

MCC Retired--

I can't find promo rates for this October 8th QM sailing from Southampton on the Cunard website. I'm also not sure what you mean by the initials "RDC and RDT." Could you explain? Thanks.

Ann ("Maina")

Thanks for the prompt reply. Cherbourg has a "historic" interest for me personally, as my mother and her family sailed for the U.S. from there on the Berengaria, then a Cunard ship, in the 1920s when they left Hungary. But as you say, it's not worth that much extra!

We are hoping to do the transatlantic crossing on QM in October, which has departure from Southampton on October 8, but also a day earlier from Cherbourg. We'll be in the Netherlands, so thought it might be nice to depart from Cherbourg. From Cherbourg, the only Britannia balcony cabins left are in the BA class (mid, high deck) at a cost of US $3,468. From Southampton, the price for same class is $2,299. If I'm doing the math correctly, that's over 50% higher for one extra day. On a per-day basis, it would be $519/day from Cherbourg vs. $287/day from Southampton. Can anyone explain the strange price differential, or is just one of those imponderable Cunard pricing peculiarities?

We'll likely try for a lesser-priced cabin class and leave from Southampton. On our one and only previous transatlantic, from NY, we were happy with a forward sheltered balcony cabin (now in BD category I believe), to which we'd been upgraded from ocean view. I'm kicking myself that I didn't book several weeks ago when there was a sale on. I've been watching the available cabins in ED, BC, and BD for the last 10 days or so, and there doesn't seem to be any change in which ones are available. Probably too much to hope for another sale in the near future, however. :(

Hi Jan in Maine--

Congratulations on your son's wedding. I think you and I live in the same city, so have access to the same "bricks and mortar" stores. I had pretty good luck shopping in Macy's for mother of the bride dress when our daughter got married, and at JC Penney when our son got married. How formal is the wedding? That may in part determine the range of appropriate dress styles. If the mother of the bride has already bought a shorter dress, then most likely you should stick to that length as well (or at least not long). And keep on eye on TJ Maxx and Burlington Coat Factory, as they often have nice dresses and other outfits. I've recently bought a dressy top (red, satin-like) and a long black, slightly sparkly skirt as one of my formal outfits for our upcoming transatlantic crossing on the Queen Mary 2, which will be our first-ever cruise.

I have just read through this entire thread, and just want to thank all those who have made such detailed, helpful, and informative contributions. We've always made all our own arrangements, never use a travel agent, but have been considering doing so this year as we plan a transatlantic trip (Queen Mary 2, eastbound from NY). Cunard customer service person said they could only do air if we return to US from England, which was not our plan, and I now understand a lot more about how cruise-air operates. We were contemplating backtracking to fly from England, perhaps via Eurostar, if the airfare through Cunard was significantly less expensive. However, as greatam notes (above) with regard to flights from JFK, there are also somewhat reasonable one-way flights to Boston, closest big city to us, from Paris by both Icelandic Air (stopover in Reykyavik) and Aer Lingus (stopover in Dublin).