David Owl

One other consideration for us is the location of the cabin. We like to have a sheltered balcony and easy access to the higher decks.

Anyone done the British Isles tour and visited Edinburgh? Do you know if Cunard provide a free shuttle bus from Newhaven port to the city centre?

 

I see from the excursion info that they offer "Edinburgh on your own" which as far as I can see is just a 15 minute coach ride to the city ..... At a whopping $55 or £83 per person.

 

The distance is just 5km and a private taxi fare for two people is just $21 or £16 return.

 

So for two people $110 dollars excursion, or $21 taxi.

 

Or hopefully a free shuttle bus!

Assuming that we dock at the same place as a couple of years ago there was a normal bus which took about 10 minutes and cost a couple of pounds. That was to Princes St. it may be that the shuttle takes you to the Castle, but that’s only a 15 minute walk from Princes St.

By the way, have you picked up the right costs $55 is around £40, not £83.

Only weigh ours if we are flying. Joining the ship in port I figure if I can pick it up (I will be 71 in August) then I think the strong lads at Southampton can as well!!

 

Peter

Our porter was a young girl last year and she picked our cases up like they were a couple of balloons.

You really don't want to be going into any boats, unless the ship is sinking.

 

Under no circumstances should you change currency on board. The rate you will get is exceptionally poor. We always take plenty of USD, but if it's for tips, the crew will accept anything but blows.

 

Stewart

Don’t necessarily agree with your comment about changing currency.

We use cards for virtually everything ashore, so find its better just to change a few £’s at a time on the ship (for the odd coffee) so that we are not left with a load of foreign currency that we have to change back when we get home.

I write this post not to complain per se, but to perhaps help people who are causing issues for others but don't realize it.

 

My pet peeve with other passengers is those who let their cabin doors slam. The doors are heavy and on too many occasions I have had the displeasure of being next to (or across the hallway) from passengers who exit (or enter) and let the door slam behind them. On a recent cruise, this was particularly annoying as we are early to bed/early to rise and our next door neighbors regularly came back to their cabins around 2:00 in the morning letting their door slam each time. Ugh! Woke me up many a time. The mean part of me wanted to do the same when I left my cabin at 8:00 am the next morning but I resisted, preferring to think they were doing it without realizing the noise it was causing.

 

I am writing this hoping some who read this have been doing it and just didn't realize it was causing their neighbors a problem.

 

Anyone else have any similar issues to address? Please don't even bother mentioning chair hogs. From what I have seen on these boards and experienced onboard they are well aware of inconveniencing others and just don't care. This thread is meant for people who are well-meaning but......

I have to confess that I may have been a bit guilty. We were recently on a Northern Lights cruise and it was so cold outside that we had to keep dodging back to the room from about 8.00 to 10.30 to warm up, and no matter how careful we were in closing our door we couldn’t stop it from making a noise. The alternative would have been for us to miss the Northern Lights which was the whole point of the trip. We apologised the next morning but they didn’t look too happy.

If you are reasonably mobile it is walkable from the shuttle drop-off (I thought 30 minutes, my wife says 45) and is a decent flat walk through town and across the bridge.

Whilst it was quite busy there wasn’t much of a queue for tickets, although it took a long time to get served in the cafe. Well worth a visit.

Just finished Northern Lights on Aurora. The main problem that I had with the cold was my hands. I was trying to take photos of the lights with my iPhone and used thin gloves that could operate the touchscreen, but could only manage for 10 minutes at a time. We had some gel hand warmers (from Go Outdoors) that were excellent. Also a hat is essential.

Just a quick word for anyone staying at the Premier Inn, West Quay in the near future. There is some building work happening where the drop-off is and it looks as thought it’s closed. In fact it’s still open with access on Harbour Parade just outside the multi-storey, but it is no longer a drive through.

Today we cancelled our September 2019 cruise on Celebrity Silhouette and changed to the similar cruise on Britannia, an extra 3 days and considerably cheaper than we were due to pay on Celebrity (albeit in Aqua Class).

 

We have only ever sailed Celebrity, with our next cruise in August this year, which unless prices decrease might be our last.

 

Any comments or tips appreciated on what we can expect from anyone who has sailed on both.

You will see from the list below that we travelled on P&O and Celebrity quite a few times and whilst there is not a massive difference we prefer Celebrity for the following reasons :

The flexibility and lighter options of Aqua class, with access to the Relaxation room and other perks

We had the drinks option a couple of times, which is not available on P&O

We enjoyed the Q’zine and Tuscan grill, although the posh restaurant on Azura was very good (sorry, can’t remember the name)

Advantages of P&O :

More imaginative destinations

Limelight Club (on Britannia)

More of a British theme

Having said all that, there is not a lot to pick between them and with the right intinerary, price etc I would be happy with either.

David

We were on a table for 8 and I was sat at one end (I suggested rotating but some of the others didn’t want to) As I don’t hear too well it effectively meant that I was on a table for four. Additionally, the meal goes at the speed of the slowest and can take far too long. I’m happy to chat with the people on the next table but request a table for two every time.

Could be Queen Camilla by then.

We did a British Isles trip a couple of years ago and as far as I remember it was only Liverpool where we docked close enough to see any of the sites. (Cohb is easy but there is not much to see). The better news is that only Guernsey needed a tender.

The best scenery can be from the early-morning sail-ins so you would be best having warm clothes. Get on deck by about 6.00 from the best views when there are not too many people about.

I am trying to find out who the guest speakers will be on our British Isles trip in July, but the Cunard website only goes as far as April.

I’m pretty sure that in the past the list has gone out about 18 months.

Am I looking in the wrong place ?

I would never put my address on a luggage label - why tell everyone that the house might be empty.

I know there is quite a detailed spreadsheet for Celebrity but I have never found the equivalent for P&O. Would be very interested if there is one though, especially for Aurora.

Just checked the ininerary on the personaliser for the Round Britain trip in July and have to say that the captain will have his work cut out.

We are scheduled to travel from Rotterdam to Edinburgh with Cruise-bys at Flamborough, Buenos Aires and Isle of Man.

I think you had a lucky escape getting Dean Andrews instead of Jacki Graham. Her singing is ok but she is very “gushy” between the songs. We’ve also seen Dean Andrews a couple of times and really enjoyed his shows.

Mixed replies then. What do people wear on deck by the pool ?

By the way, although I'm from the north I won't be wearing the knotted hankie.

Excellent. We had afternoon tea on Britannia and even though it cost extra and was "designed" by some famous chef, we weren't impressed but I have seen good reports of Cunard's

Feel better about the dress code now.

Thanks for all that and for replying so quickly.

David

We are on QE in a couple of weeks. Fairly experienced cruises but new to Cunard and have a few of questions that I hope someone can help me with :

I know that Cunard is more formal than P&O and Celebrity, and I have no problem with dressing up in the evenings, but is it acceptable to wear football shirts on deck or in the lounges during the day. I may go to the gym or in the pool so that would be more comfortable for me.

Can someone enlighten me about afternoon tea.

Is it necessary, or possible, to book ?

Is there a charge ?

Dress code ?

We are in Britannia club and know that the table in the restaurant is ours for the whole trip. We have asked for a table for two, but how are they allocated? Whilst we would love a good view from the window, I would hate it if we were in the full sun at every meal for up to 9 nights.

Anything else I need to know ?

The drawers only take up part of the space under the bed, there is still room to store suitcases.

Thanks Hattie.

I remember that on a couple of our cruises the life jackets have been stored under the bed in baskets so I suppose that would be similar.

I might just tell my wife that she can only take one suitcase anyway.

Having previously cruised on Princess, P & O and Celebrity we have always stored our empty suitcases under the bed.

I seem to remember reading that Queen Elizabeth has drawers under the bed and whilst this storage would be useful I wonder what we have to do with our cases.

If my understanding is correct, will the steward take the cases away to be stored or do we have to find somewhere for them ?

David

I actually enjoyed Rotterdam over Amsterdam. We were on the NCL Getaway transatlantic cruise and stopped at Rotterdam overnight in May. It was very easy to navigate. Here is what we did on the full day we were there.

Thanks for that. It certainly looks an interesting place to spend a day. Not sure if we will have time to do the boat trip but will check it out.

We thought Amsterdam was a bit scruffy and got tired of trying to dodge the bikes.

You should ask this on the western Europe board http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=233

Good idea.

We are enroute to Norway but you are right that Rotterdam will also feature on Western Europe.

Thanks