Thaxted

On 5/6/2024 at 1:40 PM, Host Hattie said:

Usually the last formal night

Has this changed since open dining was introduced? On our crossings last summer on QM2 there was no parade coming or going. 

On 1/2/2024 at 4:03 PM, Patria21 said:

Ah, Cunard. I received the survey based on my April 23 crossing on the QM2, which of course never happened because the ship was laid up in Southampton. The first question asked was why did I cancel - to which I answered I didn't, you did. The survey then proceeded to ask me the same hypotheticals shown above. One other tiny oddity/annoyance with which probably only other board members who live in Washington, DC can empathize: The survey asks which US state you live in, but doesn't list the District as an option. It's not a big deal, obviously - but you kind of expect a large company to get something like that right on an internet survey.

I empathize. Which state did you claim as your own? I chose Maryland, but next time I'll look for something more exotic. American Samoa sounds about right.

On 12/6/2023 at 8:09 AM, Mudhen said:

Too many bubbles??!! Most certainly didn't mean any disrespect....

Not many Americans are familiar with British bubbles, basically because we just don't get it here.

Will look forward to testing it in December.

I've certainly never seen English sparkling wine in shops in our neck of the woods, but you can find a bottle or two in some places in New York; e.g., Astor Wines. Some online retailers offer a larger selection at more reasonable prices.

11 hours ago, terry&mike said:

We noticed a definate decline in service from our last sailing (August 2022). Things like repeatedly having to ask to have our water glasses refilled, pouring our own wine multiple occasions.

Since you mentioned your less than stellar service in Britannia, I thought I should add we too noticed that service in the dining room was not as good as it has been in the past, especially at dinner. We had asked for a table for two for this year's July 6 crossing, but were seated at a table for four. The maitre d' quickly found another table for us, but our waiter seemed distinctly unhappy to see us. He never smiled and even the simplest requests, like coffee at the end of the meal, were met with a sour face, grumbles, and an occasional complaint. By a stroke of bad fortune, when we sailed home on August 11, we had the same waiter with the same attitude! Fortunately, his assistant was more pleasant and obliging. To be fair, the dining room seemed a bit short of staff, and anytime dining may have made it more difficult for waiters to keep track of their tables. 

5 hours ago, sandjango said:

Our opinion is ...we like to see the younger generation on Cunard ships...they are the future of Cunard..we are oldies and dont want a ship full of oldies like us 🙂 we like the mix of young.. less young and older

I agree. We were delighted by how many young people and families were on our August 11 crossing to New York. As far as we could see, they were well behaved, appropriately dressed, and having a wonderful time.  

By all means, toast the crossing. Then cheer as the ship passes under the Verrazano Bridge. It's an unforgettable moment.

Our Cunarder arrived yesterday. We like the way the Jag Sihara illustrations on cover recall the travel art of years gone by.

Just to supplement Port Royal's video link, if you look here, you'll find a photo of stateroom 5033 set up for three people. https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/stateroom-details.php?ship=Queen-Mary&cabin=5033. As you can see, it will be a tight squeeze for the four of you. 

I'm very sensitive to motion, but I've never been seasick on any of our 14 crossings. Even on the crossing when we had two days of rough seas and one night of very rough seas, I suffered nothing more than a slight headache. Of course, the Atlantic can get even more boisterous, so I bring some meclizine (Bonine) with me just in case. 

We've had atrium view cabins a few times. They're perfectly acceptable, and some people prefer them. But like majordomo and TheOldBear, we didn't think that they were any better than a standard inside. The view is singularly uninspiring and, in our opinion at least, not worth the added expense. My advice would be to book an ordinary inside cabin or, as we now do, bite the bullet and get a cabin with a view of the sea. 

There are Mah Jong sets on QM2. I believe that they are American, but I'm not sure. The sets come with English instructions.

I'd recommend sticking with the upgrade as well, if only to see if you like the atrium view cabin. Many folks do. Much to our surprise, we discovered that we preferred no view to peering out at the atrium and the cabins across from us (whose shades were discreetly closed, I'm happy to report). When we were on Deck 6 there was some thumping from above that we could have done without, but it wasn't a serious problem. These days we always book a balcony cabin. We find gazing at the ocean much more relaxing than looking at the atrium, although the view does come at a price. But however you travel on QM2, you'll have a wonderful time. 

We're Diamond as well. After the COVID hiatus, we made two crossings on QM2 last summer. We thought that the food in Britannia was as good as ever. Service at dinner was a bit hit and miss. Our wine steward, who may have been a new hire, seemed unprepared and overworked. The laundromats were complementary and soap was included. We're not great fans of the Cunard production shows to begin with, and we were less impressed last summer than we usually are. We thought that most of the lectures were not as good as they have been, although this too is a matter of taste. Internet was spotty and slow. The so-called premium plan didn't deliver premium service. We could never connect with the internet in our stateroom for more than two or three minutes. But all this said, we were very happy to be onboard again and we had a wonderful time. 

I got the survey and I too spoke up for dressing up and timed dining. But I've done so on every survey I've filled out, thus far to no effect. 

This past summer, we were able to make arrangements onboard to ship our luggage from Red Hook to our home in Washington, DC. But unlike previous years when, as Roy wrote, the purser took care of this, we had to contact Luggage Forward ourselves. And because the wifi on QM2 was slow and unreliable, it was only with the librarian's help that we were able to jump through the hoops necessary to get everything settled. The ship will almost certainly not weigh your bags. In our case a rough estimate was all that was required.    

On 10/25/2022 at 9:49 AM, Bigmike911 said:

 

 

In the late 50's with rapid Trans Continental Air travel, teams moved from the east to the west coast. The Brooklyn N.Y. Dodgers to Los Angeles, and the New York Giants to San Francisco. The Boston Athletics moved to Kansas City, and then to Oakland, CA. The Boston Braves moved to Atlanta. At the same time new Teams were chartered in places like Houston and Dallas. The Astro's were originally called the Colt 45s after the famed pistol, but when the Harris County, Texas Domed Stadium was built in 1965 It was called the Astrodome, and the Baseball Team that played there was renamed the Astros.

I think you meant to say that it was the Philadelphia Athletics who moved to Kansas City before settling in Oakland.

9 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Did you try the balcony? Strangely, that was the only place it worked in our cabin on Deck 9.

We did but with little success. It would pop on for a minute or two only to shut down again. We had better luck in July when we had a cabin on deck 8, although even then the connection wasn't reliable.

7 minutes ago, tv24 said:

Sorry to report that on the QM2 in June the service was terrible.  We bought the upgraded service and it was seldom useable, especially in our PG stateroom.  We tried all over the ship, often sitting or standing directly under a router and still bad.  The problem was that it kept cutting out, in the middle of an email, reading something on-line, etc.  I hit rock bottom when I tried to use the internet while sitting in Connections while the ship was docked in Southampton and most of the PAX were off the ship.  Still did not work.  And the staff had trouble as well.  My husband needed to send a time-sensitive legal document and was unable to do so with his own device.  He got a kind concierge in the lounge to help, and she was unable to assist with a project that would take a minute or two at a hotel on land.  The concierge enlisted further help and finally after 30 minutes or so they were able to electronically send the document.  So, to sum up, lower your expectations.

We had a similar experience in July and things were worse in August when there was absolutely no reception in our balcony stateroom on deck 11.

2 hours ago, moses0 said:

Just got my letter the 4th we sail the 8th 

what to do what to do. 

We're in the same boat, literally and metaphorically. We don't know the number of cases onboard—it would certainly help if we did—but given the CDC's low threshold for code orange restrictions, it could well be that the risk on QM2 is no more than, and perhaps less than, the risk at the moment on these shores and on the other side of the pond. Of course, viruses do spread in confined spaces. Many of us have come to accept this in our daily lives, others stayed masked and avoid indoor settings whenever possible. No one can decide for someone else what to do under the circumstances. We're going ahead if we can, double boosted and masked. A virologist friend reassured us with a lesson he learned in medical school: "Take the necessary precautions, but remember that rare things are rare."  

Sport coats are no longer mandatory on non-formal nights. As the Cunard website explains, "Smart attire simply means a dress shirt and trousers, skirt and a top, or a cocktail dress." 

Thank you for your report. It was very encouraging as we prepare for our July crossing.

3 hours ago, Jack E Dawson said:

I just tried to call Cunard (US) and got a recording saying that there offices would be closed Christmas and New Year's weekends and have reduced hours the week in between. It goes on to say that those individuals currently traveling to board a Cunard cruise and call an emergency number if they need immediate help. Following that recording the line is automatically disconnected. I tried the emergency number and got the same  recording and the line again disconnected. 

Has anyone had any luck reaching the Cunard this week? Does anyone know what the specific "reduced" hours will be?

Thanks

Jack

The Cunard website lists the hours as follows: 

December 27 - 31: 6:00am - 12:00pm PT (9:00am-3:00pm ET)
January 1 - 2: Closed

Should you encounter any issues when our office is closed during these special holiday hours, and you are on route to one of our voyages, please call (800) 865 6594 and a representative will be able to assist.

We couldn't be more excited. Our 2020 summer crossings were cancelled as were two significant anniversary crossings in 2021. We're keeping our fingers and toes crossed in the hope that our third try this coming summer will be the charm.

On 8/19/2021 at 12:38 PM, alc13 said:

Hi everyone!

Things here are fine, except for too many mosquitoes.  Oh, and the delta variant is flourishing in Maine.  But it's outside weather, and not difficult to maintain distance from other people, so it's not as bad as the mosquitoes.  ( hope I don't end up regretting that bit of flippancy.)

I saw the following in a collection of good sentences from recent newspapers - it comes from the Guardian.  It made me laugh out loud, and I thought this group might enjoy it -

 

“Johnson’s hair, always ridiculous, now seems to have reached animal rescue stage. The PM resembles one of those Old English Sheepdogs that charities put on sad-music fundraising adverts, with a voice saying: ‘When Boris came to us, his coat was so matted he was effectively blind.’”

I'm sorry to read about Delta and the mosquitoes. We were fortunate that the our two weeks in Camden this July came after the brown tail moth menace had ended and before mosquitoes arrived. Last year we had hopes of a transatlantic crossing this July (no danger of moths or mosquitoes), but that's another story. At least the description of Boris Johnson raised a smile. 

We've never been disappointed with the laundry or dry cleaning services.