QE2 - January 3, 2006 - Six Day Crossing

[eroller]

Same here for Cheryl and me. Hopefully Cunard Care cover clothing purchases in the shops if the luggage is lost!

 

We leave Cincinnati for Chicago and switch planes there for Heathrow. Our estimated time of arrival is 0650 GMT. We're hoping that Cunard has a hospitality suite set up for us jet lagged Yankees, or somehow we can find the Duke of Wellington in Southampton and fortify ourselves for the voyage ahead with a lager and a shepherd's pie!

 

 

I'm also going through Chicago. All the non-stops from Atlanta on Delta were sold out in the class Cunard can book in. Somewhat inconvenient but at this price I'm not complaining. I'm on AA from ORD / LHR. I don't get in though until after 9am (which I am happy about - hate sitting around).

 

Ernie

[dougnewmanatsea]

when are you all "wheels up" for the U.K. ???

Cutting it close here - flying out night of 2 Jan, getting into LHR at 0900 GMT morning of 3 Jan. We have a nonstop on AA out of JFK.

 

I actually would rather have had an earlier flight but alas of the 18 nonstops a day between JFK and LHR this was the only one Cunard would book us on.

 

Space on the ship is W - I - D - E open!

Good, then I can slip £50 to the check-in person and have them move us to a nicer cabin ;) .

 

Hopefully Cunard Care cover clothing purchases in the shops if the luggage is lost!

I don't know about that - but I do know that weather is not covered. If your flight is cancelled due to weather and you miss the ship, you're out of luck... Even with Cunard's insurance.

 

I researched a lot of independent insurances and surprisingly while most of them provide some coverage for weather, it's very little. A lot of them require "complete cessation of services" for something outrageous like 24 hours - in my case this would mean JFK being completely shut down because of weather for 24 hours which has probably never happened in my lifetime!

 

We're hoping that Cunard has a hospitality suite set up for us jet lagged Yankees

From the pre-cruise booklet, it looks like if you arrive on an early flight and you pay for a transfer, it's a "hospitality transfer". It remains to be seen if this is the same transfer, though, that one gets included in one's airfare.

 

Either way we aren't taking the transfer as a friend who lives near LHR is driving us down to Southampton by car... This gives us "control of our own destiny" if you will, rather than being at the mercy of Cunard. I would much rather be able to walk around Southampton for a few hours, than be cooped up in a terminal or a hotel ballroom all day...

 

Had my friend not kindly offered to do this, I'd probably have tried to go down to Southampton by coach, especially if we were arriving early in the morning as some of you are.

[Calliope]

then I can slip £50 to the check-in person and have them move us to a nicer cabin ;) .

 

With the "Flash Fares" Cunard is offering, give them a call and see how much a legit upgrade costs. With lots of space available $50.00 might get you a room that has always been a Columbia and Caronia Restaurant room. It seems to me as if one of the Winter Crossing Club members posted that they got an upgrade to a C1 room for around $50.00.

 

For the heck of it, I enquired into a Princess Grill upgrade from the Caronia Restaurant, and with a $1,000.00 per person price tag we decided a C2 room is just fine!;)

[Calliope]

Calliope,

 

In the land of warm beer, are you sure we can't tempt you with some bitter?;) There's lots of different ones to try....at a recent Campaign for Real Ale they had such winners as Landlord's Wit, Moondance, Village Elder,Trusty Servant, Nelson's Blood and Pale Rider.......

 

Peter

 

Oh, go on; twist my arm and see what happens.......Barkeep, another pint o' bitter for this gentleman from the Commonwealth of Kentucky! And, yes, I am a member of The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels.

[Ken_W]

Out of curiosity, for those that are flying from North America - when are you all "wheels up" for the U.K. ???

 

4:15PM (GMT -8:00) on the 26th out of SFO, wheels down at HTR at 10:30AM on the 27th, Lord willing and the creek don't rise....

 

Were we to find ourselves in such a situation, I'll be right there with you - sobbing, crying, making a nasty scene !!!

 

Tom, I've been practicing my "banshee wail", so if the occasion arises I'll be ready. It's not terribly authentic, but it can be very attention getting. Is there an official Cruise Critic Cry of Agony? Should we rehearse?

 

Does anyone know why there are so many connecting cabins on 3 Deck? I've been assigned 3113, and I remember when I was on 2 Deck once before I could here every word being spoken in the next cabin. Even though I was traveling alone, I coughed a couple of times to let my neighbors know that sound would carry, and they switched to their quietest indoor voice mode (and I kept the television sound down as well, trying to be a good neighbor). Anyone have any inkling on sound insulation around that area?

[dougnewmanatsea]

With the "Flash Fares" Cunard is offering, give them a call and see how much a legit upgrade costs.

We're already booked at the lowest (current) flash rate so at least as of a few days ago, an upgrade from C5 to C2 would have cost $300, or C5 to C1 would be $400. Not worth it IMHO.

 

one of the Winter Crossing Club members posted that they got an upgrade to a C1 room for around $50.00.

Indeed. That was when I had my t/a call Cunard and ask. They wouldn't budge since were already booked at the el cheapo flash fare.

 

I enquired into a Princess Grill upgrade from the Caronia Restaurant, and with a $1,000.00 per person price tag we decided a C2 room is just fine!

As I recall, you were booked as a C5 and then assigned a C2 cabin. If so, that is right on the dot as at the current rates a C5 is $999pp and a P3 is $1999pp. So it looks to me as though they are charging the real difference (in actual fares, not brochure fares).

 

I wish I knew the secret of whoever it was (I forget who) who got that $50 C5 to C1 upgrade. There are actually a few C2 cabins that don't look great (the ones that have one bed and one sofa bed) but all the C1 cabins look quite nice. Most if not all are basically identical to the Princess Grill cabins (P1 through P3).

 

It's interesting to see how cabins changed grades over time. I have a 1993 brochure and at that time they were still sticking to the original grades. That is, almost all the C3 through C6 cabins were still "transatlantic class" (which I always thought was a very silly name four tourist class). At the time, there was only one category for tourist-class outside doubles with shower - that means that all the current C5, C6, M1, M2, and M3 cabins were the same category! Pretty amazing.

 

There were really very few Columbia cabins at the time - since most of the first-class cabins had been raided for the Grills, and they hadn't resorted to moving tourist-class cabins into Columbia/Caronia yet, I can only presume that at the time there must have been many more seats in the Columbia restaurant itself than there were Columbia cabins. After the refit in 1994, they rectified this by replacing Columbia with Caronia on Upper Deck (previously and currently Mauretania), and moving Mauretania down to the larger former Columbia on Quarter Deck. Then a few years later someone had the brilliant idea of moving Caronia down to the old Columbia and Mauretania back up to its original location, so they could suddenly create all those new Caronia cabins - the C3 through C5 grades - and get more money for them. Shrewd move on Cunard's part!

 

Actually, on paper, the 1994 setup was quite well-designed as it preserved the original cabins (no Caronia cabins that used to be tourist-class), and it also coincided with the creation of the entrace to the Princess and Britannia Grills in the Crystal Bar. This meant that the Crystal Bar was the presumed before-dinner spot of Caronia, Princess and Britannia pax. Today the Caronia people get the Chart Room theoretically to themselves while Princess/Britannia pax are expected to share the Crystal Bar with the proles from Mauretania. (Of course all this is just the way it's "supposed" to work, assuming that all pax simply choose the watering hole nearest to their restaurant, and not taking into account personal preferences of any sort...)

 

Unfortunately I didn't save any brochures/deck plans from that period just after the 1994 refit. I have a big gap between 1993, before the big refit, and 1998, by which point the current grades were already established (very few changes since then, except the superficial changes Princess made this year in creating P4, C6, and M7 for "loss leader" purposes). One thing that's completely slipped my mind is what they called the four different "classes" in the 1994-1996 period. I remember that Caronia was "Deluxe" and I think Mauretania might have been "Economy" but that's it. I think it was in 1996 or 1997 (whenever they moved Caronia and Mauretania to their present locations) that they finally retired the whole idea of "classes". Anyone out there have a brochure of the correct vintage to find the verbiage in question?

 

4:15PM (GMT -8:00) on the 26th out of SFO, wheels down at HTR at 10:30AM on the 27th

Ken, HTR is Hateruma, Japan (heaven knows where that actually is, and please nobody say "Japan"...). I suspect you are flying to LHR, that is, London Heathrow :) .

 

At least you haven't given in to whatever philistines decided that GMT is too Anglo-centric and that we now should have this thing called UTC or Coordinated Universal Time (don't ask me why it's not CUT, but it isn't). It's the same thing of course, but in non-Anglo-centric language. No doubt UTC will eventually be replaced too, since "Coordinated Universal Time" is, well, English...

 

Does anyone know why there are so many connecting cabins on 3 Deck?

Most original first-class cabins on QE2 are connecting. In some cases, two cabins could be combined to form a suite (most of these are what are now Q3 cabins on One and Two Decks) but otherwise I think they were designed this way to accomodate families travelling together as no first-class cabins were able to accomodate more than two people.

 

There are very few original tourist-class cabins that are connecting, mostly larger ones on Four Deck (like mine, 4154).

[stowaway2k]

 

Out of curiosity, for those that are flying from North America - when are you all "wheels up" for the U.K. ???

 

Tom

 

Virgin LAX-LHR Dec. 23

XMas in Dublin, Hogmanay in Edinburgh

[Ken_W]

Ken, HTR is Hateruma, Japan

 

Well, that explains the plane change in Nagoya....

[BrianBoru]

BUF-IAD-LHR on 31 Dec/01 Jan. Plastic cups of champagne at midnight, anyone?

[juliecat]

PDX - SFO -LHR

Arriving January 3 at 6:55 am.

 

I've taken advantage of their early arrivals hospitality suite in the past. We did end up on the same coach to Southampton as the people whose flights arrived around 9 am.

 

No tickets yet,

Julia

[greatam]

PHX/ORD/LHR-arrive noon, Jan. 2

 

Then to the Dolphin Hotel, but I still have not figured out how we will get there. It will now be a DIRECT trip to the hotel, so it will probably be the Heathrow Express bus. My DH' much beloved Iowa Hawkeyes will be playing the Florida Gators in the Outback Bowl at 5:00PM on Jan 2. So we will be searching Southampton for a TV that has US ESPN.

[Transatlantic Tom]

4:15PM (GMT -8:00) on the 26th out of SFO, wheels down at HTR at 10:30AM on the 27th, Lord willing and the creek don't rise....

 

 

Tom, I've been practicing my "banshee wail", so if the occasion arises I'll be ready. It's not terribly authentic, but it can be very attention getting. Is there an official Cruise Critic Cry of Agony? Should we rehearse?

 

Ken:

 

While waiting for your connecting flight in Nagoya, be sure to have a Kirin at the airport bar for me !!!

 

Speaking of your "wail", I'm hoping that I might persuade you -after a beverage or two- to give us all a sample of it at one of our WCC (Winter Crossing Club) meetings !!!!

 

"...Attention crew members, Code 95, there are reports of loud screaming coming from the vicinity of The Chart Room...!!!"

 

Tom:D

[Allis154]

We leave from Halifax at 9:20 pm on January 2 on Air Canada, and arrive at 8::25 am in London on January 3.

 

Getting really excited now. Bought DH his tux on Saturday!

[guernseyguy]

This is cheating slightly, as in truth I'll take the train from Waterloo on the 3rd......however, between now and then I'm doing SYD-CHC-SIN-LHR-LGW-GCI-LGW.......

 

Peter SYD

[BrianBoru]

however, between now and then I'm doing SYD-CHC-SIN-LHR-LGW-GCI-LGW.......

 

 

Oy gevalt, Peter! I sure hope there's a layover in there somewhere, perhaps during the LGW-GCI-LGW leg?

 

BTW, I will also take the train from Waterloo. Anyone else?

 

Chris, near snowy, bitter BFD

[eroller]

This is cheating slightly, as in truth I'll take the train from Waterloo on the 3rd......however, between now and then I'm doing SYD-CHC-SIN-LHR-LGW-GCI-LGW.......

 

Peter SYD

 

WOW Peter,

You're are flying more than I do .... and I'm a flight attendant! I don't envy you for a minute. I make a terrible passenger.

 

Ernie

[guernseyguy]

WOW Peter,

You're are flying more than I do .... and I'm a flight attendant! I don't envy you for a minute. I make a terrible passenger.

 

Its not quite as bad as it looks....I'm stopping off in CHC, SIN and LON....and the long haul CHC-SIN-LHR is on SQ Raffles Class - so decisions, decisions....the Krug or the Dom.......;)

 

Peter

[eroller]

....and the long haul CHC-SIN-LHR is on SQ Raffles Class - so decisions, decisions....the Krug or the Dom.......;)

 

Peter

 

 

Well that certainly helps! ;) Even so, I don't care if it's Raffles Class or BusinessElite .... I don't enjoy flying as a passenger. I feel like I should be getting paid. :)

 

Ernie - who tries to avoid airports like the plague when "off-duty".

[Transatlantic Tom]

Peter:

 

I see that as of a day or two ago there were waves heights of up to approx. 22 feet associated with a weather system in the North Atlantic.

 

I think this is a little more in my range of prediction than the one you made...however, my cards may have been played too early - so just watch us have smooth seas, with you enjoying a "winner's Martini" in The Chart Room compliments of Transatlantic Twit !!

 

Tom:o

[guernseyguy]

I think this is a little more in my range of prediction than the one you made...however, my cards may have been played too early - so just watch us have smooth seas, with you enjoying a "winner's Martini" in The Chart Room compliments of Transatlantic Twit !!

 

There's many a slip twixt cup and lip! IIRC my bet was 'no winds stronger than Force 8' - so wave height does not really come into it....a strong swell and a following easterly can be very bumpy!

 

Peter

[CruiseDirect]

My sister was on the QE2 , and she did the transatlantic crossing , she was booked into a c3 cabin , :

 

She told me that the dining was next to none in the caronia restuarant , the food was outstanding,

 

She was also telling me that the waiters serving afternoon tea are fantastic, very professional , silver service and a must see

[Allis154]

Has anyone heard about documents yet? I am trying to be patient until Friday, but with the week I have had so far, it won't be easy!

[greatam]

Just got a phone call from the TA. Do I want to upgrade to a P2-2045? For free??? Yes!!!

 

Don't know what prompted the upgrade, but I am ECSTATIC!!! I have to go into a very difficult negotiation at 1:00PM and was kind of glum all morning. Now, I can smile and just say yes, yes, no, no with NO hesitation. Thanks, Cunard!!!!

 

I can't sit still I am so happy. And wouldn't you know it-DH is out of cell phone range, so can't share the good news.

 

Gina

[eroller]

Just got a phone call from the TA. Do I want to upgrade to a P2-2045? For free??? Yes!!!

 

Don't know what prompted the upgrade, but I am ECSTATIC!!! I have to go into a very difficult negotiation at 1:00PM and was kind of glum all morning. Now, I can smile and just say yes, yes, no, no with NO hesitation. Thanks, Cunard!!!!

 

Gina

 

 

Gina,

Congrats on the upgrade! Enjoy Princess Grill.

 

Ernie

[transat]

With the "Flash Fares" Cunard is offering, give them a call and see how much a legit upgrade costs. With lots of space available $50.00 might get you a room that has always been a Columbia and Caronia Restaurant room. It seems to me as if one of the Winter Crossing Club members posted that they got an upgrade to a C1 room for around $50.00.

 

For the heck of it, I enquired into a Princess Grill upgrade from the Caronia Restaurant, and with a $1,000.00 per person price tag we decided a C2 room is just fine!;)

 

I am the one that got the upgrade for $50, but I booked in August on a guaranteed single rate so was not on an original flash promo price structure. I was assigned a C5 cabin and simply called when I read about all the reduced prices on this board and asked nicely if I could upgraded to a C1 (which is the category that they gave me last year when a also booked in August on the same guaranteed single rate). I like the C1 cabin because of the walk in closet and dome above the bed which gives added ceiling height and makes the cabin feel more spacious. So they came back with an increase to my fare of $56 (but no cabin assignment) so I took it. I called this morning since I too do not have tickets or a cabin assignment and they told me that the tickets are being prepared this week and that I should receive them next week. Good news is that they upgraded me further to a P2 cabin 3099, so I guess the crossing really is not very full. Anyway, I am really looking forward to dining in a Grill room. Hope it is the Princess Grill. Just wondering what the prospects are for a single person there; hope they have a few tables with large groups.

My schedule to Southampton has me leaving LA on Dec30, Virgin Atlantic (thank god for lay flat beds) then British Airways on to Stuttgart (visiting family) then on the 2nd of Jan., the night train Stuttgart Paris to get Eurostar for Waterloo and a 9am arrival in London on the 3rd. A half day of shopping and sightseeing in London before the 2:05 from Waterloo to Southhampton. Looking forward to meeting all or you.

 

Chris