WillH

Yes I booked direct so the TA option wasn't going happen. Checking my personaliser every day for our transatlantic on 11th August.

Thascales

You will get an email from Cunard but I found that it was shown on the Voyage Personaliser a few hours earlier the last time we had a guarantee room. Enjoy your cruise.

Will

goodsailors

I noticed exactly the same thing on the P&O FAQ but on the Cunard FAQ it implies that the only option is to use the White Star service. I have asked quite a few Cunard staff (onboard sales when booking my World Voyage sector, Personal Cruise Specialist and the normal contact centre) whether it was possible to pre-board luggage or leave luggage onboard. The response that I got in all cases was that they had never heard of such a thing and that the info on the P&O FAQ was not correct.

This would be a really useful facility if it was offered.

I would also be interested to hear from anyone else with experience of this.

Thanks

Will

Chuck

Many thanks for confirming this.

Will

Many thanks for the updates.

I have one question that someone may be able to answer. Was the sun awning fitted on the Grills Terrace as well as Deck 9 ?. I know that it was planned to fit this on QV along the lines of the QE during the recent refit, but I haven't seen any mention of this since.

Many Thanks

Will

Hi Bob

Many thanks. I agree that it would be good if there was consistency of the Ts&Cs in the different markets. There doesn't seem to be any logic for some of the differences unless it is purely driven by differences in consumer law in each market.

Hope you enjoy your segment on QM2 next year - it looks like a good itinerary.

Cheers

Will

it is my understanding that the OBC that comes when buying future cruise credit can not be used for either a full or segment of a WC. When we paid our down payment for the Fort Lauderdale to Valpo segment, we were not able to use the FCC toward this segment. Of course, we could get the money back that we used to buy FCC if we wanted it, but we will almost certainly be booking other non-WC cruises before the 4 year time limit on FCC is reached.

 

Bob

Bob

There may be differences in how Future Cruise Deposits can be used between different markets. For UK passengers, you can use the FCD for segments of the World Cruise. I booked a segment recently of a 2016 World Cruise and my FCD was automatically applied together with the OBC. However, for UK passengers if you book a full World Cruise or Liner Voyage (2 or more segments of the World Cruise) whilst onboard you get a 3% reduction in the fare rather than extra OBC.

Will

Missgoatlady

The benefits of booking onboard for UK passengers are:

1) Lower deposit of £350 (or 10% if less than £350), when booking a cruise of 6 nights or more. This covers all the passengers on the booking. Normal deposit is 15%.

2) Onboard Credit:

Sailings of 6-9 days:

Suites $200 USD per person

Balcony $150 USD per person

Inside & Outside $100 USD per person

Sailings of 10 + days:

Suites $400 USD per person

Balcony $300 USD per person

Inside & Outside $200 USD per person

These benefits only apply to bookings at the Cunard or Early Saver Fare and not Saver Fares.

If you are not sure which cruise you want to book, you can purchase a Future Cruise Down Payment on board for £50 per person and this enables you to book a cruise within 12 months (the actual cruise may be later but the booking must be made within 12 months) and receive the same On Board Credit as above. The £50 is taken off the deposit that is due at the time of booking. If you do not make a booking in this timescale, you lose the Down Payment.

There is currently a 5% reduction in 2016 Cruises (after World Cruise) for World Club Members (for bookings made before 31st May), but as the cruise in June is your first Cunard cruise, you won't be entitled to this benefit this time, but will be a World Club Member after your June cruise.

Hope this helps.

Will

I was just looking at some photos of QE in Sydney from the other day, she looks just as new as she did the Queen named her! She's sparkling!

What's the latest theory on when we think the QM2 is to be dry docked? Or do we actually have confirmation now? I remember a few possible dates were being thrown around on these forums before I left to meet up with her.

In the perfect world, I'd love to see ships dry docked annually! (Never going to happen these days but one can still dream)

Melb1988

According to Cunard FAQs (ask.Cunard.com) the next refit for QM2 is December 2016.

"Queen Mary 2 is scheduled for refurbishment in December 2016. Queen Mary 2 was previously refurbished in December 2011.

Please note that these dates are subject to change."

We originally booked for the 2016 QM2 World Cruise but when I was told by Cunard in the UK that the refit was being pushed back a year, we cancelled and booked on the QV 2016 World Cruise instead. We just felt that QM2 already was feeling tired when we travelled on her in April/May last year and didn't want to be disappointed on our special trip.

Maybe there is a positive reason for the postponement in that a more major refurbishment is planned (we filled in a survey about big changes to Kings Court). We will certainly travel on QM2 again after the refit, as we do love the ship.

Will

Great to hear!

We have just been allocated our sheltered balcony cabin - 6186 so hoping it's not too noisy with the buffet above!

Gae

Gae

To reassure you, we were in 6200 for a back to back Transatlantic on QM2 at the end of 2013 and didn't have any problems with noise. This is just a few rooms aft of yours but should be the same experience. Most of the room is actually under the promenade deck and we certainly didn't hear any noise at night.

Have a great cruise.

Will

babs135

In 2013 on a back to back QM2 transatlantic (Getaway fare at the time), I was advised to enquire when I boarded about an upgrade to Grills from Britannia, as prices had dropped significantly after booking. At the time PG rooms were being sold at about the same price that I paid for a Britannia balcony. I contacted the pursers desk and they said that shoreside had to look at any upgrades and eventually at about 7:30pm, long after we had left Southampton they rang back to say that we could upgrade. However the cost to upgrade was about twice the fare that I had already paid for Britannia - ie about 3 times the price that someone could have booked the day before ! It appears that the upgrade cost was just the difference in cost between what I paid and the full fare PG price, with maybe a very slight reduction. Needless to say, I declined the upgrade ! The cruise was only about 70% full, so I presume that these PG rooms were just left empty, unless someone was willing to pay the hefty fee.

The situation may be different now if you have booked a full Cunard fare, but I suspect that any requested upgrade whether before boarding, or on the ship, is priced based on the full fare of the upgraded cabin.

Hope this helps.

Will

Hi Patricia

I hope that you didn't mind me quoting your Facebook query on here !

My wife and I are on the 2016 QV World Cruise (from Southampton to Singapore), hence my interest in this topic. I did see that there was another Facebook response from Cunard saying that they would post some photos of the refit, so it will be interesting to see them.

In any case looking forward to being on QV again next year. We were originally on the QM2 World Cruise but changed our booking when the planned refit was postponed until the end of 2016. We felt that QM2 was already getting a little tired when we were on the ship at the end of the 2014 World Cruise.

Will

Saw this question re Televisions on QV on Facebook and the response from Cunard.

"We'll be taking the QV's world cruise next year and wonder if the large flat screen TV's were installed during her recent refit. Thank you.

CUNARD Hi Patricia, yes, flat screen TVs were installed during Queen Victoria's refit! We look forward to welcoming you on board next year! Best wishes."

Very odd response, given the first hand experience of Poole Boy who is actually onboard . !

Cheers, Will.

Ednria

The 2017 schedule will be released about April 2016 (based on previous years) so some time off. The 2017 World Cruises should be released around September this year.

Will

rsquare

According to the Cunard website, the next QM2 refit is scheduled for December 2016. Details on this link https://ask.cunard.com/help/cunard/fleet/refit_schedule

Will

 

Edit: drydock pushed into 2016 according to a friend who is currently dancing onboard. Will let you know month when he finds out!

Wjm989

I noticed some weeks ago that Cunard posted on the FAQ that it will be December 2016 for the next QM2 Refit:

https://ask.cunard.com/help/cunard/fleet/refit_schedule

Cheers

Will

Hi foodsvcmgr. Yes, I agree - it's not a bad itinerary overall. But I do have a few concerns: primarily, postponing dry dock. Too often it seems that does work out well. For example, two CCL ships (ms Veendam and ms Sea Princess) have current problems which might have been detected during routine dry dock inspections. Penny wise and Pound foolish?

 

Yes, we've missed this itinerary. Many warm memories of QM2 cruises to the Caribbean in November in past years.Good times enjoyed with happy shipmates, which made the subsequent cold winter months so much easier to bear.

:)

Cheers,

Salacia

Hi Salacia. We likewise have fond memories of these Winter cruises. Our first ever Cunard cruise was the 2007 trip to the Caribbean and then went back for repeat Caribbean trips in 2009 with the Transatlantic first. All great holidays that we often talk about.

I queried Cunard re the dry dock and was told that this is currently scheduled for Nov 2016. Beginning to wish that we had delayed booking our World Cruise on QM2 until

2017.

Thanks,

Will

Axelskater. I think that for multi segment cruises like this or a world voyage, where the cruise can be sold in multiple ways a limit of the number of cabins is set for each of the voyages that can be booked. So this explains what you are seeing - ie. Cunard don't want to sell so many of the short sectors at the expense of selling the longer voyages. By using this approach all cabins can be made available for all the voyage combinations with the only limit being on the number that can be sold. Presumably Cunard might release additional cabins for a sector which is why cruises go from being sold out to available again.

I might be totally wrong as I have just deduced this from what I have seen when booking a World Cruise.

Will

BlueRiband - Thank you so much. Really impressive.

You can't help but be impressed when you see QM2 filmed so beautifully.

Will

Many thanks Scrapnana. One less thing to worry about. We now just need to decide whether to stick with our QM2 2016 World Cruise booking or change to QV as it now looks as though the next refit on QM2 will be after the 2016 World Cruise!

Will

Hi , in my experience during the world cruise sectors, the MDR is open for current passengers and is not meant to be utilised by embarking passengers.

Roscoe39 - many thanks for that. It sounds as though we won't have to brave the crowds in Kings Court at the embarkation ports.

I wonder if someone who has been on a Cunard World Cruise recently could help me.

I know that on a normal voyage, the MDR is not open for lunch on embarkation day for Britannia/Britannia Club passengers, though the Grills restaurants are open. However, on a World Voyage where there are many ports where passengers embark/disembark, does this same closure of the restaurant at lunchtime happen at each embarkation port ?

Many Thanks

Will

Details of new November 2015 cruises on Cunard UK website. So this is now official. Not sure if link below will work outside UK.

https://ask.cunard.com/help/cunard/latest_news/Cunard_newcruise

However, no confirmation of new timing for QM2 refit.

Will

I have just seen that the new November 2015 cruises for QM2 and QV have appeared on a couple of travel agent websites in the UK. The QM2 schedule is exactly as indicated previously so it does look as though the QM2 drydock is indeed postponed until 2016.

Will

Queen Victoria was originally booked to have a refit at the same time as the Mary but now she is having to refit before her next World Cruise, So the refit for the Mary will still be November 2015.

Thanks Zider

The latest Cunarder Magazine confirms that there will be additional cruises on QM2 in November 2015 "Queen Mary 2 will cross the Atlantic before exploring the Caribbean and returning to Southampton". Another member also had insight from their Travel Agent that additional cruises of Southampton to New York, New York to Caribbean to New York and New York to Southampton were showing on their system, covering the 28 days gap in the schedule in November 2015.

So unfortunately it does look as though the refit definitely will not be in November 2015. When it will be, is still unknown.

Thanks

Will

Having just booked on the 2016 QM2 World Cruise I am following this with great interest.

We did make the choice of QM2 in the belief that the ship would have been through its major refit in late 2015. Having been on QM2 earlier this year, we did find the issues that have been highlighted here and in particular found the strong sewage smells (presumably from leaking plumbing) around the ship to be very unpleasant. The bathrooms are also starting to show their age, though not sure how they go about refurbishing them as they are integrated pods.

If the refit is to be delayed until after the 2016 World Cruise, we will seriously consider cancelling and swapping to one of the other ships, as much as we do love QM2. Looking at the 2015 schedule, with the 175th Anniversary celebrations in June/July, it is difficult to see how the refit could be brought forward in 2015. From a cost point of view, I am sure that Cunard/Carnival will be looking to push out the refit as long as possible.

Hopefully we will get clarification on this soon, but I fear that we might not official confirmation for a long while. It would be great if someone on a Behind The Scenes tour on QM2 could try to get information.

Thanks

Will