I should say that this was my first sea cruise, previously I have enjoyed two river cruises with Scenic Tours who I would rate higher. Cunard is now unfortunately an American company, so you will be subject to the American tipping requirements. They dont pay staff enough salary so you have to supplement them by a daily charge of about $11 per passenger per day, plus an automatic 15% on any drinks, bottle of wine etc.

There is an active sales effort going on all the time, which you may not realise at first. For example for each port to be visited there are 'Port Talks'. Hoping to find out something about the places we would visit, and for example, if would we need local currency, and so on. We were disappointed to get no information at all - just a strong sales pitch for all the tours which could be bought.

iPad for beginners class - that looks interesting. Yes $45 per person. $47.50 for internet access for a short time. If all this moneymaking stuff doesn't worry you, you will have a great time. It was a special time for my wife and I, so we were not being mean with money, it was just the continual, insidious efforts to get more and more of your money that I dislike. Read more