More QM2 schedule changes and dropped ports.

[Emu]

On the Cunard.com website the intenary for the entire Eastbound South America voyage has been altered.

 

Here is a summary of the changes that I could work out:-

 

Depart LA 1 hour earlier (4.00pm)

Puerto Caldera 2 hours longer

Esmeraldas 2 hours shorter

Callao 1 hour shorter

Valparaiso 1 hour shorter

Puerto Montt same length, different times

Punta Arenas CUT from 12 hours to 7 hours

Ushuaia cut by 1 hour

Cape Horn 30 min later

 

Montevideo CUT from overnight stay to 11 hours (there goes the Iguazu Falls excursion):mad: Depart Fri 11.00pm instead of Sat 1.00pm

 

Salvador De Bahia SCRAPPED (now 5 day non stop run from Rio)

 

Barbados now 1 day earlier and 1 hour longer stay

St Kitts one day earlier and 1 hour longer stay

 

NEW PORT ADDED St Thomas Wed 13 Apr 11 hour stay

 

Fort Lauderdale SCRAPPED

 

Arrive New York 30min earlier.

 

Now I wonder when we will be told officially?

 

What information management lessons were learned after the Westbound problems??

 

And............ what (if any) compensation will Cunard make........ ????????

 

Let the "games" begin. Stay tuned;)

[curlyQ]

Oooo, my goodness!!!

[Olls]

Perhaps Cunard should fix the pod problem ASAP!!! Nothing is sure until they do!

[Bramcruiser]

Kinda curious. Why stop at St.Thomas? And what about the people departing at Fort Lauderdale? They have to get off in St. Thomas or NYC and find their own way back?

 

Anyway, I think its time that Cunard fixes the pod for once and for all and get things back to normal. Sooner rather than later.

[Blue Skies]

Could it be that St Thomas is a US Island and access is easy for large ships to dock. Also re stocking stores could be an issue as Fort Lauderdale has been scrapped.

[Aquarius2]

Hi All,

 

The Stop in St. Thomas will be on Wednesday, 12th April (not the 13th, as posted earlier).

 

And we will have to tender in....the QM2 can only dock in Barbados and St. Kitts, I think the other Ports in the Caribbean are unable to receive

her for docking....hope that I'm correct....

 

That's gonna be interesting, especially considering the Fact, that this will be our first US Port of Call, so Immigration will have to be done there...

 

We do all better plan to get up early...but after five Days at Sea after Rio we should have rested enough already....:D and the Activities in St. Kitts and Barbados can't be too exhausting...

 

Cheers,

Phil

[cusyl]

Would they be skipping Ft Lauderdale assuming there is a problem in the channel where they hit bottom?

[Blue Skies]

Hi All,

 

The Stop in St. Thomas will be on Wednesday, 12th April (not the 13th, as posted earlier).

 

And we will have to tender in....the QM2 can only dock in Barbados and St. Kitts, I think the other Ports in the Caribbean are unable to receive

her for docking....hope that I'm correct....

 

That's gonna be interesting, especially considering the Fact, that this will be our first US Port of Call, so Immigration will have to be done there...

 

We do all better plan to get up early...but after five Days at Sea after Rio we should have rested enough already....:D and the Activities in St. Kitts and Barbados can't be too exhausting...

 

Cheers,

Phil

 

Sounds like you have hit the nail on the head!

Probably an immigration stop so as not to hold us up in New York?

[snowshovel]

Montevideo CUT from overnight stay to 11 hours (there goes the Iguazu Falls excursion):mad: Depart Fri 11.00pm instead of Sat 1.00pm

Holland America does an 11-12 hour Iguazu Falls trip out of Buenos Aires. Here’s hope Cunard will tweak the trip so it’s still available. Bet their working on it.

The eternal optimist,

Snow . . .

[Bollinge]

Thanks for posting the news.

 

I'm not too bothered, as the Salvador stop was only from 7am-1pm, and Her Loveliness is "Not A Morning Person", and again the Fort Lauderdale stop was only half a day.

 

We have loads of friends and family on St Thomas, so we will spend the day with them.

[travel-to-go]

Would they be skipping Ft Lauderdale assuming there is a problem in the channel where they hit bottom?

 

Maybe the Commodore's a wanted man in Fort Lauderdale!~ <G>

And he dares not go back~!

 

I know that St Thomas is a special exception to the PSA, but since she is coming from a foreign port, I guess that is not germane here.

 

And of course, it allows Americans extra booze not subject to customs! <G>

 

Karie,

who would gladly go back to St Thomas, instead of sitting in this snowstorm!

[Emu]

Whilst we can all live in hope :( ............ I am somewhat doubtful that a 15 hour excursion can be compressed into an 11 hour port stay......(less disembarking and reboarding)

 

I imagine the Antarctica overflight from Punta Arenas will also not get off the ground once again due to the severe reduction in port time.

 

Once again it appears the mentality that "people are only on board because they want a long ride on the QM2" is the basis of management thinking............ WELL I for one did not travel half way round the world to go on a voyage where we get to miss things just over the horizon!

 

One could be forgiven for thinking Cunard is only interested in getting the ship to the next departure point to pick up more "guests" on time and with little concern for the passengers on board.

 

God only knows the effect an emergency diversion for medical purposes or the like will have........... as despite the over-confident ramblings of Ms Marlow, it appears obvious to me the ship is operating at or near its maximum possible speed on the remaining pods. The original schedule was designed, I would suggest, at or near top normal cruising speed and now there is nothing left in reserve at all!

 

I fear another debacle is about to unfold.

 

BTW, no one in the Cunard Australian office even knows anything about the amended schedule............. I told them to look at the parent website......... So much for keeping everyone informed!:mad:

[Emu]

Regarding the cancellation of the voyages in April & November as mentioned on another thread, I feel there is a good chance now that most voyages will suffer some sort of disruption.

 

Cunard PR & administration is going to have to rapidly improve to counter what has the possibility to turn into a corporate and financial crisis.

 

If the publicity gets bad, bookings will suffer and so will the reputation in general.

 

Let's wait and see them in action!

[snowshovel]

EMU

 

While perusing the 2007 WC I found another possibility. Perhaps you spotted this already, but thought I would at least point it out. Looks like they’re planning a 2-night trip similar to the Machu Picchu excursion. The Iguazu Falls tour would leave the QM2 in Montevideo and pick her up again in Rio De Janerio. Check out this 2007 Cunard link: http://www.cunard.com/WC2007/QM2/default.asp?Active=tours&fFrame=1 The price is nearly double though.

 

Anyway, I hope they get-er-done. This is a “world-renowned” site. It would be a felony to substitute a wicker-basket shopping trip for an Iguazu trip.

 

Why do the Antarctica flyover? Well, you could see something like this.

[Rob.London]

I'm on the Rio to NY leg and only found out from a tipoff from http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zqueenmary11feb11,0,983375.story?coll=sfla-business-headlines this morning. I called Cunard in Southampton to confirm it and they went on to tell me about Salvador been cancelled, my (November confirmation confirmed Salvador 0800-1800) as well. I asked if this was the definitive schedule as a result of the pod accident and the rep said 'oh no this was changed 3 months ago!!!!!.

 

Well excuse me here we go again i now find that i have an overnight in Rio and a 5 night voyage to the Caribbean. The point; this is a signifficant change and will change the feel of the cruise to a voyage and if i wanted a voyage i would have booked the trasatlantic again, the last time i did that was in September 05 or booked a Carabbean cruise.

[Bollinge]

I phoned my travel agent in England this morning to ask if they were aware of the changes, and they had no idea.

 

They said they would phone Cunard to check if the details posted here were correct.

 

They then phoned me back and said Cunard were anxious to know how I knew of the alterations as the decision to cancel / curtail was "only made last night".........!

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4712566.stm

[mufi]

They then phoned me back and said Cunard were anxious to know how I knew of the alterations as the decision to cancel / curtail was "only made last night".........!

 

]

 

You couldn't make it up. P...ss ups, breweries and great disorganisation all come to mind.

 

David.

[BrookCat9]

My husband and I had booked the trip to the Falls, and we are sorry to find out that we will not be able to see them. But, our main goal was to take a voyage from L.A. to NYC via South America on QM2, and that's what we will be doing. We will pick out other tours when we get onboard. Still eagerly anticipating the entire voyage. Some people would love to have our problems. :) We booked early, directly through Cunard and have had only the best of experiences with our contact at Cunard.

[metrowon]

Perhaps Cunard should fix the pod problem ASAP!!! Nothing is sure until they do!

Yes they should fix the problem, but CUNARD is owned by Carnival Cruise Lines. NUFF SAID. Metrowon

[2moose]

Perhaps Cunard should fix the pod problem ASAP!!! Nothing is sure until they do!

i guess it is too much to ask cunard to have one or 2 spare pods in stock for just such a situation as this??? They would rather spend thier time and effort limping along ,changing schedules and p###ing off thier customers!!!!!!!!

[metrowon]

Kinda curious. Why stop at St.Thomas? And what about the people departing at Fort Lauderdale? They have to get off in St. Thomas or NYC and find their own way back?

 

Anyway, I think its time that Cunard fixes the pod for once and for all and get things back to normal. Sooner rather than later.

But whose cruise should they{CUNARD} cancel, or shorten? Yours, mine, or everyone else's besides us? METROWON

[metrowon]

i guess it is too much to ask cunard to have one or 2 spare pods in stock for just such a situation as this??? They would rather spend thier time and effort limping along ,changing schedules and p###ing off thier customers!!!!!!!!

This pod is not something that is on a shelf in the warehouse, its a huge electrical engine. Probably the size of a greyhound bus! It's a big drydock problem, that's not going to be solved quickly. Just for your info. Metrowon

[metrowon]

Regarding the cancellation of the voyages in April & November as mentioned on another thread, I feel there is a good chance now that most voyages will suffer some sort of disruption.

 

Cunard PR & administration is going to have to rapidly improve to counter what has the possibility to turn into a corporate and financial crisis.

 

If the publicity gets bad, bookings will suffer and so will the reputation in general.

 

Let's wait and see them in action!

This pod repair is not an overnight fix it, it's drydock time, non scheduled! Sometime in the near future, the part,or parts needed, to make the repair will be re-manufactured, and ready to install. It's an unfortunate situation. In the meantime, Good Luck! Metrowon

[metrowon]

Perhaps Cunard should fix the pod problem ASAP!!! Nothing is sure until they do!

This is to inform you that because of the repairs needed to the QUEEN, your cruise has been cancelled. Someone is going to get this type of letter. What date are you sailing? Good Luck, this is an unfotunate situation. Metrowon

[2moose]

This pod repair is not an overnight fix it, it's drydock time, non scheduled! Sometime in the near future, the part,or parts needed, to make the repair will be re-manufactured, and ready to install. It's an unfortunate situation. In the meantime, Good Luck! Metrowon

it is really two dry dock times of 5-6 days each if they had a spare it be only one visit to the dry dock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!