Megabear2

There's a strange unidentified yellow object in the sky up here in Newmarket! Strange rumblings and exclamations of excitement from the gathered ensemble in the breakfast room mixed with trepidation as to whether this could be an early sighting of the Death Star or a forewarning from the Emperor of his latest devious plan to bestow us with hail stones and copious amounts of freezing rain. The going is officially good, the forecast is for a dry and bright morning, turning to a cloudy afternoon with sunny spells with the threat of an isolated light shower. A small miracle - could it just be I might, yes really, not need that heavy duty raincoat this afternoon?

Very cold and miserable here at the home of racing. Took nearly 6 hours yesterday in torrential rain and today it continued. Who in their wit and wisdom decided to dig up the M25 near St Albans for two junctions in the run up to a bank holiday and to proudly announce it's until Summer 2025! All very depressing. For the first time in 50 years my packing for this weekend's racing consists of three winter weight woollies, two pair of boots, my Austrian winter hat and a heavy raincoat. Certainly no hope of glamour this year! On a more positive note the hotel has switched the heating on, Dutch Decoy is declared to run and the new super horse City of Troy has arrived from Ireland. I just have to not freeze to death or get washed away before the big event!

QA is 13sqm apparently around 145sq ft. This is actually slightly larger than P&O Arvia at 135sq ft and these are more than adequate as their layout is different. The one inside shown in the videos I have seen does not have a layout to make the small space feel larger in the way QE and QV has. This is all beside the point really, the fact is there is a big market for inside cabins on all cruise lines from Southampton which seems to get overlooked by posters on all of these forums. With rising interest in cruising many will choose an inside as a tester and these cabins will become that. The person to whom I replied was in my opinion a little flippant about those choosing inside cabins. My point was they aren't "cheap" when compared with other lines sailing from Southampton and no matter how good the offering is if new UK passengers - as suggested in the X comment two days ago by Cunard - are being tapped for this ship "designed for the UK market" it's best not to forget those people.

The QA insides are considerably smaller than the Vistas and Queen Mary. As for "cheap" as the ship has been built without any single cabins they will in a lot of cases be the only reasonably priced cabin for many solos. For 14 nights on 8 September that miniscule inside cabin is costing me £3508. Admittedly the 24 May late booking on late saver was only £2098. There are apparently 348 of these cabins which is a fairly large number on a 3,000 capacity ship. You mentioned P&O's Britannia back in your comparisons and she has 448 with no outsides and her insides are 170 sq ft minimum. These "cheap" inside cabins will need to be filled to ensure the ship stays profitable. Disregarding the people choosing them is a little short sighted.

Not much use to the OP as he's bought the park tickets as advised by p&O and presumably they weren't cheap.

Having seen it - I'm in a deck 7 inside just along from the one in the video - I've placed an upgrade bid in the hope that I'm lucky, I was prompted this morning I still coukd do so. The bathroom is nice but the placement of the television is the deal breaker for me. Being on the side wall rather than the wall opposite the bed seems rather silly and I can also envisage possible noise issues through the wall.

Looking at the inside there wouldn't be much room for the oars, but they do get the nice shower!

That looks absolutely tiny and yet the measurements state it is slightly bigger than an inside on P&O's Arvia. Could be the colours making it look so much smaller but there is a marked difference in size with the other queens as well. Just noticed the tv is to the left on the wall not in front of the bed which has the mirror. To me its inferior to Arvia's as the dressing table mirror is against the wall and the tv opposite the bed above the fridge. I personally disliked Arvia but her inside cabin seems a much better design with more thought. Disappointed.

Have any of these vloggers ventured into the cheap seats of the insides and ocean views?

I'd be worried about noise and shenanigans in the hot tubs if it was me allocated this. I note the OP doesn't seem to have spoken to P&O so it might be worth a word to see if there is an option to go elsewhere?

I love her. She was on QV with us for a deck party with her family and was the life and soul. The next morning QV broke down and we limped to Cadiz for repairs. She made an announcement that the lady drivers comments she'd heard around the ship would require any gentlemen so doing to walk the plank.

Is this Nationwide refusal since the new insurer?

The Queen's Room can be described as "functional".

Kalos did it first, Sir! Honest .... but have you seen Edge's tenders - our disability friends couid really do with these so I make no apologies for wanting them!!!!

Oh dear, looks like I'm bringing it with me as I go east then!

Is the payout still £150 per missed port though? £27 per cruise is quite high compared with others in the open market where it is still possible to buy an annual add on. For those who do large numbers of cruises per year it will probable break even with the likes of Sttaysure and Avanti. Unless there are major complex medical conditions there won't be much in it for multi cruisers.

Awake all night with the thunder and lightning accompanied by torrential rain, they really weren't exaggerating! At one point the storm was directly overhead and the flashes were literally seconds apart. Today the long drive to Newmarket for the next three days. I'm just hoping the roads are okay and not too congested, the joys of the M3, M25 and M11 await!

So a vote on No.26 which was Ventura's arcade to bribe the kids?

Well this is a day of mixed blessings! Beautiful sunny morning, 8.30 dentist appointment told everything is perfect and a bill of £26.20 for a quick clean up. Email received from Cunard telling me I've got an upgrade on Queen Anne which was a surprise so all was right in my world. Then an hour ago the sky went dark, huge clap of thunder and rain started. Now I've had a local update email telling us we have a yellow weather warning and to expect torrential rain and thunderstorms overnight. I'm travelling to Newmarket tomorrow so rain is not welcome particularly as we need drying weather for Dutch Decoy on Saturday. Also just found out I'm going to have to drive as the train journey home would require SEVEN, yes really seven, changes into buses and various disrupted trains ... So much for life being good, I should have guessed!

Oh and while I'm nicking from Edge can I have her luxury tenders, pretty please?????

If we are stealing from other lines we could have Celebrity Edge bathrooms, now they are fabulous. And a big yes for Cunard room service from me, plus in room dining from the MDR restaurant on Celebration nights.

Reading this you do have cover presumably for $500,000 for medical and evacuation which is sufficient for your use in the event of emergency? I assume this policy is accepted by other tour companies you may use worldwide. That being the case it is most likely the best you can do. Realistically all P&O want you to have is enough cover to meet any onboard medical expenses and evacuation. Once you leave the ship you would no longer be their problem and if you have sufficient cover to pay any onboard bill and evacuation actually off the ship you should be amply covered and I'm assuming this is why the agent is saying the £2,000,000 requirement does not apply. There has been some debate on this issue on other threads and it seems to be confirmed any airlift from the ship to land is provided by the coastguard of the country involved for free. Your financial obligations would therefore seem to be for P&O's medical bill and land based transportation, medical care ashore and repatriation. Based on this as long as you are happy your $500,000 cover would meet all these costs you will most likely be fine with your current cover. You do not state where you are sailing to but realistically and medical costs in a European country or the UK will be comfortably met by this sum. Your booking through your US agent presumably has a cruise personaliser, and if there is an emergency insurance contact number required your travel agent should be able to assist with filling it it. Only once have I ever been asked to show my policy and that was not read just nodded through. So long as you have the $500,000 cover and have double checked with your insurer it will pay medical, evacuation and other associated Bill's I doubt you can do much more.

Having seen all three in the flesh I'd say definitely better than HAL to look at, though seriously is any modern cruise ship anything other than a wedge of boxes? Compared with the Prima class or the Virgin ladies the QA and HAL ships look like throwbacks to a different era! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder though and I personally think for a modern off plan ship she could have been far worse. The Cunard hull in dark blue with red and white offers classier exteriors. QA looks the part which is important, as I say the real story will be her interiors which from the odd photos released do look very good. Moving away from tradition though I must confess to absolutely loving the pale blue of the Oasis class RCI ships.

Yes I'm aware of that but she is longer than the HAL ships for the reason they didn't want her to be too boxy like the other Pinnacle class ships. She will carry 3,000 passengers in her "stretched" body. Passenger to crew ratio is still superior to most lines. Apparently the cabins are smaller as there's quite a lot of discussion about the Grills suites. No doubt we shall be hearing a lot on Friday when the first passengers go onboard. Apparently the maiden is extremely busy with Diamond Cunard club members bring told there's too many of them to have their free club lunch.

It was a great to be out there on the water. I thought the boat crew were excellent as well and made it really enjoyable. I'm glad you enjoyed it as well.