Cunard Stops Homeporting in Oz 2026

[Mareblu]

On 11/4/2023 at 8:08 AM, Sparky74 said:

I think I’d enjoy Cunard. I have no issue with dressing for dinner every night. DW not so much. 🤷‍♂️
 

But it’s disappointing to hear of any line withdrawing from the Australian market. 

We enjoyed Cunard immensely, and loved dressing for dinner, as we do on every voyage.  It's part of the cruise experience.  Gala evenings were especially enjoyable, and it's not at all onerous for gentlemen to slip into a jacket and attach a bow tie, which is what my husband did on those evenings.  Each other evening, he simply wore tailored pants and a less formal jacket, usually with a tie.  I simply wore black pants and different dress tops.  Theme nights were fun:  a headband and feather for Roaring 20s, a mask (available for purchase in QE's shop) for Venetian Masquerade, etc.  Black and White was easiest of all:   black pants, a black top and pearls.  You only need a touch.  We are very sad Cunard will not be home basing here for the season.

[MicCanberra]

We loved our cunard QM2 cruise as well, it was back in 2015 and part of a world segment. I can tell you, it was some of the people doing the world cruise that were shunning the dress requirements rather than the pax doing the segment. However, mostly they stayed out of the MDR and just went to the buffet.

[LittleFish1976]

13 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

We loved our cunard QM2 cruise as well, it was back in 2015 and part of a world segment. I can tell you, it was some of the people doing the world cruise that were shunning the dress requirements rather than the pax doing the segment. However, mostly they stayed out of the MDR and just went to the buffet.

 

Were you aware of which nationalities they were Mic? There's a discussion on the Cunard board at the moment implying that Australians are partly (?) responsible for Cunard dumbing down their dress standards which is to my mind is ludicrous.

[MicCanberra]

They were British some Scottish, some English.

[Sparky74]

1 hour ago, Mareblu said:

We enjoyed Cunard immensely, and loved dressing for dinner, as we do on every voyage.  It's part of the cruise experience.  Gala evenings were especially enjoyable, and it's not at all onerous for gentlemen to slip into a jacket and attach a bow tie, which is what my husband did on those evenings.  Each other evening, he simply wore tailored pants and a less formal jacket, usually with a tie.  I simply wore black pants and different dress tops.  Theme nights were fun:  a headband and feather for Roaring 20s, a mask (available for purchase in QE's shop) for Venetian Masquerade, etc.  Black and White was easiest of all:   black pants, a black top and pearls.  You only need a touch.  We are very sad Cunard will not be home basing here for the season.

I’m not sure I could get away with wearing pearls. DW maybe but not me! 🤣

 

We are currently considering our options for 2025 as we will have 8 weeks holiday to use up again. 😁 The Queen Anne sails from Southampton on 9th January 2023. A 49 night cruise ending in Sydney would be wonderful but I don’t think DW would cope on Cunard. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Mareblu]

26 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

I’m not sure I could get away with wearing pearls. DW maybe but not me! 🤣

 

We are currently considering our options for 2025 as we will have 8 weeks holiday to use up again. 😁 The Queen Anne sails from Southampton on 9th January 2023. A 49 night cruise ending in Sydney would be wonderful but I don’t think DW would cope on Cunard. 🤷‍♂️

 

Actually, the January 2024 maiden voyage has been moved to May.  We will be on her 3rd voyage in the last week of May.  You won’t know how you’ll look in pearls till you try them.

[LittleFish1976]

1 hour ago, Mareblu said:

Actually, the January 2024 maiden voyage has been moved to May.  We will be on her 3rd voyage in the last week of May.  You won’t know how you’ll look in pearls till you try them.

In my opinion pearls flatter all complexions so perhaps Mr Sparky should try some? @Sparky74

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, Mareblu said:

We enjoyed Cunard immensely, and loved dressing for dinner, as we do on every voyage.  It's part of the cruise experience.  Gala evenings were especially enjoyable, and it's not at all onerous for gentlemen to slip into a jacket and attach a bow tie, which is what my husband did on those evenings.  Each other evening, he simply wore tailored pants and a less formal jacket, usually with a tie.  I simply wore black pants and different dress tops.  Theme nights were fun:  a headband and feather for Roaring 20s, a mask (available for purchase in QE's shop) for Venetian Masquerade, etc.  Black and White was easiest of all:   black pants, a black top and pearls.  You only need a touch.  We are very sad Cunard will not be home basing here for the season.

We've got the Black and White and the Roaring 20s gala night on our QE cruise next year. Notice of these coincided with a serious online sale of my favourite evening kaftan brand so I treated mysrlf to a black and white kaftan. Now all I have to do is find or make a headband. Amazon seem to have some nice ones.

[Sparky74]

5 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We've got the Black and White and the Roaring 20s gala night on our QE cruise next year. Notice of these coincided with a serious online sale of my favourite evening kaftan brand so I treated mysrlf to a black and white kaftan. Now all I have to do is find or make a headband. Amazon seem to have some nice ones.

I don’t think I could pull off a kaftan either!

[Mareblu]

27 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We've got the Black and White and the Roaring 20s gala night on our QE cruise next year. Notice of these coincided with a serious online sale of my favourite evening kaftan brand so I treated mysrlf to a black and white kaftan. Now all I have to do is find or make a headband. Amazon seem to have some nice ones.

You will be fabulous🎉

[lyndarra]

9 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

I don’t think I could pull off a kaftan either!

Unless she loosens her grip.😉

[arxcards]

10 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

I don’t think I could pull off a kaftan either!

Why, so many people are unkind.

 

 

(a Kamahl reference)

[MicCanberra]

10 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We've got the Black and White and the Roaring 20s gala night on our QE cruise next year. Notice of these coincided with a serious online sale of my favourite evening kaftan brand so I treated mysrlf to a black and white kaftan. Now all I have to do is find or make a headband. Amazon seem to have some nice ones.

Thrift stores/ reject shops have those head bands for a dollar or two.

[MicCanberra]

Had to google kaftan, lol

[lyndarra]

6 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Had to google kaftan, lol

You can buy one for a tenor.

 

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, lyndarra said:

You can buy one for a tenor.

 

More than a tenor for a haircut for that lad.

[Jean C]

12 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

I don’t think I could pull off a kaftan either!

You'll never know unless you try - afterall, it will be "dress up" night, hehehe 😄

[Mareblu]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

More than a tenor for a haircut for that lad.

Remember his voice?  Distinctive.

[bazzaw]

17 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

Were you aware of which nationalities they were Mic? There's a discussion on the Cunard board at the moment implying that Australians are partly (?) responsible for Cunard dumbing down their dress standards which is to my mind is ludicrous.

Wife and I have done ten Cunard cruises - 6 of which commenced from the UK , one TransPacific commenced from the USA, and three from AUS ports. I think I can say that the cruises in European, UK and US waters are different kettles of fish than those which were in Aussie waters. Mainly from the dress code point of view. I have heard Australian dress sense being described as "casual to the point of indifference" 

[cruiser3775]

On 11/5/2023 at 7:31 PM, LittleFish1976 said:

I didn't know that cruises in Alaska were cheap - I had thought the opposite to be the case. It's not something that I would ever consider doing so I haven't looked into it

If you like independent travel and can make your own accommodation bookings, you can do an Alaska cruise for peanuts. Check out the Alaska Marine Highway, which is the government owned fleet of ferries.  The best way to book is to divide the state into sections, and do shorter ferry hops mainly in daylight hours between cities.  Stay a couple of nights in the places you choose, then get on the next ferry, etc.  They aren't cruise ships, there's no room service or Las Vegas type shows, but the food is OK and there are excellent talks by naturalists etc. and you can get into smaller posts which cruise ships can't approach.

Edited November 7, 2023 by cruiser3775

[MMDown Under]

28 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

If you like independent travel and can make your own accommodation bookings, you can do an Alaska cruise for peanuts. Check out the Alaska Marine Highway, which is the government owned fleet of ferries.  The best way to book is to divide the state into sections, and do shorter ferry hops mainly in daylight hours between cities.  Stay a couple of nights in the places you choose, then get on the next ferry, etc.  They aren't cruise ships, there's no room service or Las Vegas type shows, but the food is OK and there are excellent talks by naturalists etc. and you can get into smaller posts which cruise ships can't approach.

Agree Alaska can be visited cheaply. We did that and spent a few nights in a number of different ports on the Alaskan Marine Highway.  We enjoyed the food.  I loved how the smaller ferries could cruise into the smaller ports.  Also we enjoyed meeting the local Alaskan people, as well as adventurous travellers.  We also hired a car and a truck camper for land travel.  We loved Alaska and its people who we found to be like Aussies. 

[bazzaw]

18 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

 We did that and spent a few nights in a number of different ports on the Alaskan Marine Highway. 

Can you tell us more about the "mechanics" of organising this please. Did you book a "segment" of the overall trip and then try to get accomodation for a couple of nights in the port, before booking the ravel/accomodation for the next segment? This could be a bit of a "chicken or the egg - what comes first " thing. - maybe you could book the ship for a particular segment , but not be able to find suitable accomodation? 

[bazzaw]

19 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

do shorter ferry hops mainly in daylight hours between cities.  Stay a couple of nights in the places you choose, then get on the next ferry, etc.  

How did you actually do this - book everything in advance?

[ceeceeDee]

On 11/6/2023 at 8:12 PM, Sparky74 said:

I don’t think I could pull off a kaftan either!

Oh come on, Sparky. Demis Roussos managed it!😂 And you are already rocking the beard and mo.

[ceeceeDee]

23 hours ago, bazzaw said:

Wife and I have done ten Cunard cruises - 6 of which commenced from the UK , one TransPacific commenced from the USA, and three from AUS ports. I think I can say that the cruises in European, UK and US waters are different kettles of fish than those which were in Aussie waters. Mainly from the dress code point of view. I have heard Australian dress sense being described as "casual to the point of indifference" 

Ouch!