Queen Elizabeth cleaning hull

[LittleFish1976]

1 hour ago, sfred said:

 

My sympathies @LittleFish1976.  I hope that the Cunard call centre is able to get you onto the new itinerary.

 

I see that QE will be coming to Brisbane on the 18th.  I think this will be her first time back since 7 April 2020, when she stopped in for provisioning after departing Gladstone to head to Manila during the covid shutdown.

 

You're very kind @sfred. I have had an exhausting afternoon - been on the phone for the last 6 hours trying to organise exactly that. Outcome - unsatisfactory.

 

The call centre for Australia is off-shore, in the Phillipines apparently. One fellow I spoke with just after receiving the email fobbed me off that they would send me an email during the day - of course nothing has eventuated from that.

 

Then I spoke with a brilliant woman in a travel agency who went in to bat for me but they told her (after 2 hours on the phone) that they couldn't complete the booking through her as I made the original booking directly with Cunard - no matter that it's a new booking.

 

The second Cunard employee at the call centre I spoke with for the last hour and a half was well-meaning, I'm sure, but totally lacking in authority or ability to access information beyond what any of us can see on the public website, nor had he the ability to make this new booking. He has emailed the UK as I pressed him to resolve it and I will have to wait until Cunard Uk starts work in an hour and gets around to my problem, then emails Cunard in the Philiipines call centre who are now closed for the day. In 14 hours when Cunard call centre in the Phillipines re-opens it may be too late to make the booking and get me on the ship which sails in 22 hours from now.

 

I haven't had a holiday in four years. I've got the dogs being cared for for a couple of weeks at the kennels at huge expense and a suitcase packed and ready to go. To think that the ship will sail tomorrow with empty cabins and I will miss this much-anticipated break just because the computer says 'no idea', is really so very disappointing.

 

What is the point, seriously, of Cunard's direct sales centre for Australia if they are unable to make a booking? Anything simple we can all do ourselves on our home computers. The fact that the call centre can do those sorts of bookings ONLY is pathetic.

 

 

[Victoria2]

I am so disappointed for you    LittleFish1976   and have my fingers crossed  Cunard will resolve your re-booking issues. It's not good PR for them, to say the least.

 

As an aside, it  adds to our determination to always book flights, especially long distance, through Cunard. Cruise/port cancelled and our flights? Our problem. Cruise/port cancelled and flights booked though Cunard? Their issue to sort out. A bit simplified, I know and the angst involved will still be  unwanted but at least we know that somehow, we'll get to the destination we need, be it a new port or home etc.

Toes crossed as well for you.

[ScotsLady]

57 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

You're very kind @sfred. I have had an exhausting afternoon - been on the phone for the last 6 hours trying to organise exactly that. Outcome - unsatisfactory.

 

The call centre for Australia is off-shore, in the Phillipines apparently. One fellow I spoke with just after receiving the email fobbed me off that they would send me an email during the day - of course nothing has eventuated from that.

 

Then I spoke with a brilliant woman in a travel agency who went in to bat for me but they told her (after 2 hours on the phone) that they couldn't complete the booking through her as I made the original booking directly with Cunard - no matter that it's a new booking.

 

The second Cunard employee at the call centre I spoke with for the last hour and a half was well-meaning, I'm sure, but totally lacking in authority or ability to access information beyond what any of us can see on the public website, nor had he the ability to make this new booking. He has emailed the UK as I pressed him to resolve it and I will have to wait until Cunard Uk starts work in an hour and gets around to my problem, then emails Cunard in the Philiipines call centre who are now closed for the day. In 14 hours when Cunard call centre in the Phillipines re-opens it may be too late to make the booking and get me on the ship which sails in 22 hours from now.

 

I haven't had a holiday in four years. I've got the dogs being cared for for a couple of weeks at the kennels at huge expense and a suitcase packed and ready to go. To think that the ship will sail tomorrow with empty cabins and I will miss this much-anticipated break just because the computer says 'no idea', is really so very disappointing.

 

What is the point, seriously, of Cunard's direct sales centre for Australia if they are unable to make a booking? Anything simple we can all do ourselves on our home computers. The fact that the call centre can do those sorts of bookings ONLY is pathetic.

 

 

I feel for you.

 

we came to Australia 2 weeks ago from Scotland. We have had 2 amazing weeks in Uluru, Melbourne and the Great ocean Road but the main purpose for our trip was New Zealand . We are devastated to hear what is happening.

 

we booked back to back cruises so when ship returns to Melbourne we were staying on to do the cruise to Perth. We would then stay 4 days in Perth and fly home. 
we do not want to go to east coast Australia as we have been there. We spent thousands of pounds on this cruise to see New Zealand and not sit on a ship.

waiting to hear from our travel agent in U.K. if they will refund us for the second cruise so we can book with Celebrity and sail to New Zealand on 16th Feb. I thought if you booked back to back it would be  ok but looks like I may have been wrong.

[need_a_holiday]

1 hour ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

You're very kind @sfred. I have had an exhausting afternoon - been on the phone for the last 6 hours trying to organise exactly that. Outcome - unsatisfactory.

 

The call centre for Australia is off-shore, in the Phillipines apparently. One fellow I spoke with just after receiving the email fobbed me off that they would send me an email during the day - of course nothing has eventuated from that.

 

Then I spoke with a brilliant woman in a travel agency who went in to bat for me but they told her (after 2 hours on the phone) that they couldn't complete the booking through her as I made the original booking directly with Cunard - no matter that it's a new booking.

 

The second Cunard employee at the call centre I spoke with for the last hour and a half was well-meaning, I'm sure, but totally lacking in authority or ability to access information beyond what any of us can see on the public website, nor had he the ability to make this new booking. He has emailed the UK as I pressed him to resolve it and I will have to wait until Cunard Uk starts work in an hour and gets around to my problem, then emails Cunard in the Philiipines call centre who are now closed for the day. In 14 hours when Cunard call centre in the Phillipines re-opens it may be too late to make the booking and get me on the ship which sails in 22 hours from now.

 

I haven't had a holiday in four years. I've got the dogs being cared for for a couple of weeks at the kennels at huge expense and a suitcase packed and ready to go. To think that the ship will sail tomorrow with empty cabins and I will miss this much-anticipated break just because the computer says 'no idea', is really so very disappointing.

 

What is the point, seriously, of Cunard's direct sales centre for Australia if they are unable to make a booking? Anything simple we can all do ourselves on our home computers. The fact that the call centre can do those sorts of bookings ONLY is pathetic.

 

I think their UK call centre is going to be snowed under as well as there were a lot of British passengers booked on the Queen Elizabeth.  When I did the previous NZ cruise there were dozens who had booked a fly / cruise / train package.  

 

I think most of the delays will be caused by IT systems that perform updates overnight so the cancellation of the NZ itinerary and the creation of the Queensland trip could be coming through by 8:30am UK time and appearing in their systems and on their website over the next few hours after the Singapore call centre has shut.  

 

You could try sending an email to Cunard UK through the contact us on the UK site and explain the Australian support team cannot help you:

Contact us | Cunard luxury cruises

 

[amp-qld]

Just to fill in about Cunard's attempts to clean the hull in the last few days. We were on the Burnie cruise and the email we got has already been published in this thread. Instead of taking a day and two nights to get to Burnie, we raced down there and got in position overnight. However, the wind was 28 knots so we did those holding pattern rectangles for 24 hours. Unfortunately, by then, the wind had been up to 44 knots (a strong gale) so we did get to go to Burnie, the cleaning couldn't be done and we didn't get our OBC or FCC, much to lots of peoples' disappointment.

 

My sympathy goes out to the passengers due to leave to NZ today.

 

Let's hope some better methods are found to deal with this recent problem/requirement.

[amp-qld]

19 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

You're very kind @sfred. I have had an exhausting afternoon - been on the phone for the last 6 hours trying to organise exactly that. Outcome - unsatisfactory.

 

The call centre for Australia is off-shore, in the Phillipines apparently. One fellow I spoke with just after receiving the email fobbed me off that they would send me an email during the day - of course nothing has eventuated from that.

 

Then I spoke with a brilliant woman in a travel agency who went in to bat for me but they told her (after 2 hours on the phone) that they couldn't complete the booking through her as I made the original booking directly with Cunard - no matter that it's a new booking.

 

The second Cunard employee at the call centre I spoke with for the last hour and a half was well-meaning, I'm sure, but totally lacking in authority or ability to access information beyond what any of us can see on the public website, nor had he the ability to make this new booking. He has emailed the UK as I pressed him to resolve it and I will have to wait until Cunard Uk starts work in an hour and gets around to my problem, then emails Cunard in the Philiipines call centre who are now closed for the day. In 14 hours when Cunard call centre in the Phillipines re-opens it may be too late to make the booking and get me on the ship which sails in 22 hours from now.

 

I haven't had a holiday in four years. I've got the dogs being cared for for a couple of weeks at the kennels at huge expense and a suitcase packed and ready to go. To think that the ship will sail tomorrow with empty cabins and I will miss this much-anticipated break just because the computer says 'no idea', is really so very disappointing.

 

What is the point, seriously, of Cunard's direct sales centre for Australia if they are unable to make a booking? Anything simple we can all do ourselves on our home computers. The fact that the call centre can do those sorts of bookings ONLY is pathetic.

 

 

We've just been on Cunard and I ordered a birthday chocolate cake through the "Australian" call centre. Unfortunately, the person was very poor at English and we ended up with a plain sponge cake. Both the head waiter and the purser's desk tried to make out that it was my fault

[LittleFish1976]

Update: Last night I waited until the Cunard UK call centre had opened and rang them directly. Oh joy! Immediately I was speaking with someone who understood my problem and who could straight away set about getting me a new booking. She was a bit concerned about me spending more money to make another booking just to get on this ship but I assured her I would at least get a refund of the funds already paid out to Cunard for the original booking. So I spent a similar amount of money to get a much lower-grade of cabin (not that I care but I had been looking forward very much to the other one) - such is the case with last-minute bookings.

 

But I am on-board!

 

My cruise card is NQR but I'll wait and see how that unfolds before going into specifics here. Suffice to say for the time being at least I am in my originally booked cabin and very comfortable.

[sfred]

That's fantastic to hear, @LittleFish1976!!  Sorry about all your challenges, but glad the outcome was positive.  Best wishes for a wonderful voyage.

[LittleFish1976]

1 minute ago, sfred said:

That's fantastic to hear, @LittleFish1976!!  Sorry about all your challenges, but glad the outcome was positive.  Best wishes for a wonderful voyage.

Thank you @sfred!!

[Host Hattie]

This sounds like a nightmare for everyone, thanks for the updates and I hope there is a better outcome next season. 

Have a great trip even if it's not the one you'd planned. 

[LittleFish1976]

On 2/14/2023 at 5:53 PM, Host Hattie said:

This sounds like a nightmare for everyone, thanks for the updates and I hope there is a better outcome next season. 

Have a great trip even if it's not the one you'd planned. 

 

Many thanks, Hattie! Being on-board was the holiday that I had planned so I'm thrilled just to be here.

 

The ship is looking sparkling in my opinion. Lots of painting going on and cleaning of balcony windows. The sofa in my cabin has been re-covered and all the carpets look either new or as good as. The crew all seem happy and attentive. Everyone seems to be making the best of the change of itinerary. Overall, it's a very happy ship.

[Host Hattie]

That's very good to hear, thanks for posting.