Robbar

Probably the same one's who tell you at the table on the first night they don't drink then you see them at the CTP hoovering it down.

Not me for sure, we will be checking the wine menu while having a rum[emoji56]

Just turned on my Tapatalk and saw your post

Rob

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Yes

Even to walk around the port area

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My reply was more in jest to the original poster as to paying the steward for extra duties

Yes all ships have 15 - 18 gratuity charge on drinks [emoji1]

Depending where the ship ports the most US$ are easier for crew though they accept any currency much like us when travelling and buying in small areas

Crew can exchange at their purser office but will pay an exchange

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Just wave your Mastercard around ... then everything is "Priceless"

They only take it once prior to boarding and then it is the seacard to wave around so a cabin steward cannot use it as nothing to purchase unless they refill your fridge and you sign an enormous tip. Sadly the tip is then shared.. Has to be US$ I guess :) :eek:

Welcome aboard, Charbecca.

 

Once you collect your luggage in the terminal, look for a porter. They'll pile your stuff on a large cart, and you'll skip the big line for customs and immigration. We understood they want the porters to go trough as quickly as possible, and they took us to a short line to one side. A $10 tip per cart or porter is good, more if you wish. Our guy took us out to the waiting area.

Hello, just saw your comment above as I am trying to see the best way to get to a hotel in downtown , not booked yet

We will be on the QM2 for July 2015 , have no idea when we would disembark aside from being on deck 5 and not on a transfer or tour

So, if I get a porter for 4 pieces of luggage and two adults then they fasttrack me through Immigration / Customs to limos / taxis and I just ensure he is given $10 :)

Sounds like Barbados ....

Will cars be there or do you prebook and give an approximate time.. Our mobile will have a different Sim in it so not sure if it would work , though a text might

Any help for a new Curnarder and NYC visitor would be appreciated

Hi njhorseman,

 

Thanks so much for your quick reply with all the information, I really appreciate your time spent answering my query. You have made me think, and I think I should take your advice and pre-book a transfer from the Cruise Terminal. I had been thinking of getting a yellow cab at the exit gate, but, as you suggest, we would probably require a larger vehicle to carry all our luggage. It makes sense to pre-order with Dial7 or Carmello and avoid any complications at the dock side.

 

Depart for New York one month to the day now!! Can't wait to see the Big Apple!!

 

Best Wishes,

 

jonbo

So, what finally happened on your venture to get into NY

Did it work out well, who did you use , cost and what hotel did you stay at pls

We will be on the QM2 for July 2015 and first time in NY for us, will stay a few days

Thank you

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pepperrn/sets/

taking a boo at your photos

many cruises for sure and lovely pictures

thank you

Tagging on to this thread

Has anybody been at the Marriot Hotel in Times Square or the Crowne Plaza or Holiday Inn as we will be arriving in July off the QM2

Are they good hotels to enjoy 3-4 days in New York

Is it better to just get a limo from the pier or taxi

Will these hotels allow you to check in at 11am or such or at least safely store your luggage.

Final question , we will be leaving from Newark Airport to fly across the country , do you request a limo or such from the hotel and is the cost about $100 us

Thank you all

Rob

Wow, that is a serious change! Any reason for this sudden change? Does it apply to the other Cunard ships? Sorry for all the questions, but I see I change in the dress code upcoming if there is no dry cleaning available on board. :eek:

My thoughts on reading as to articles that are dry cleaned would be not an issue for folks on a cruise up to about 14 days but I would think those on long segments and a World Cruise would have some concerns.

Guess it depends on the items in many men's shirts and pants these days are not needing an iron , just a wash and dry while a jacket does not get dry cleaned for awhile unless it has been a long time or a spill happened.

Certainly many women's dresses are dry cleaned prior to a trip and perhaps during .

It is a good question to send to Cunard Head Office or even their Facebook account as to reason for and options.

Certainly if offering a port option then the responsibility for on time and quality of dry-cleaning rest with them as they would have approved the company prior,,, least one assumes so

Cheers

Having anyone, anywhere, launder a suit or sportscoat - let alone a tux - is not only inexcusable but jaw-droppingly stupid.

 

My husband loves his Armani tux (I managed to find it for him on sale, 44L, a number of years ago). Replacing it would be difficult and costly. We are doing a TA on the QM2 soon, and after previously reading positive posts about sending clothes for pressing, that had been my plan. Now I'll pack my steamer after all.

 

Thanks for posting your experience, and my condolences on the loss of the tux. Sadly once a wool suit is laundered, nothing can be done to restore it.

good idea, steamers do the job , well they should

Course a couple of good weights might do the trick... :)

It is a famous quote. I am neither of said people.

Well at least you have that right :)

It is the ship stairs that can cause knee problems to be worse though if one takes it easy it is fine

We did a cruise out of Boston on HA to Montreal in2006 when my daughter was in specialist year

Loved that city and we will be on the QM2 when it docks in July again

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Thank you for taking the time to post your review.. Lovely prose and pictures though I think you made it sound like your Dad and Mum could barely move.

They look quite healthy and with it :)

Regardless , nice to have done a family trip together , I too enjoy trains and such and yes next time in Vancouver take the summer evening supper train to Whistler or such ..

We live on Vancouver Island so we get a lot of the Alaska ship in port each year. check my blog out

We were on the Infinity back in August 2001,

one of the same four style ships built for Celebrity that time, course yours was renovated though the style seems the same.

Here we are in Hubbard Glacier , great time to buy a Hot Chocolate :)

We started cruising in 2001 once our children were starting University and such.

Cheers / Rob

Sorry about the damage :eek:

If it came back with pockets out as you say then it was washed and not dry cleaned unless it was requested, norm for most ships.

Sometimes just hanging after a shower overnight helps or one of those portable steamers.

Pressing by oneself is probably the best option in the DIY room, least you know the only damage might be oneself..

It certainly puts a damper on ones experience of a ships laundry ,,, which you do not want to test again.

Glad to hear you had your fix and all is well with the world

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Our last long cruise a few years ago (dare I day :) ) was on Dawn Princess for 28 days around Australia, day in Bali and an overnight in Hobart which reminded us of our local city here. We saw family in Perth that my wife had not seen for eons , after leaving Barbados. The plane was a 16 hours direct which worked out well on a B777-200 so I bought the seating beside one of the exit doors , gave us lost of room aside from my wife waking up to see some fellow doing stretches in front of her .

That cruise was where she had just completed her world cruise and we discovered folks continuing onto our segment then continuing after to New Zealand and the islands.

One wishes... :)

Course the majority were Australia and New Zealand and yes we ran into the ones who were very impolite and felt the world revolved around them but all in all it was a fun cruise. Our table ended up with one couple who never appeared, another who came every odd night and a great Aussie couple who kept us in laughter and information. The funny part was aside from us being immigrants to Canada , am American couple were always present. Our Aussie couple also seemed to relate how well their business was going et cetra while the American couple were quiet.. When we exchanged business cards at end we discovered aside from their jobs the American couple owned a few apartment blocks or such on the West Coast ..

One never knows....

Least we have our QM2 coming up in July and I would suspect everything will be shipshape with special events planned for the 175th celebrations/

Cheers / Rob

Please don't think that I meant that people who buy cheaper cabins are somehow more 'un desirable', I really didn't want it to come across that way! I simply meant that having such cheap cabins available on some voyages can sometimes lead to people booking who otherwise wouldn't normally book on Cunard and then once onboard they realise its not the line for them and then complain about how different it is to the usual lines they travel with (which are usually less pricey lines). On my last voyage there was a rowdy Australian lady who didn't seem to do anything other than get drunk, smoke and complain about how boring it all is and how much more she prefers P&O Australia. Which those of you who know about that line, know that it couldn't be further from Cunard in a sense of onboard atmosphere, fellow guest, things to do etc etc.

of coarse if you are a ' regular Cunarder', cabin is irrelevant in my books, as we all have one same thing in common, we love Cunard and everything that it stands for. So chances are we'll all get along just fine.

For example probably the best couple I met and have enjoyed the most out of all my voyages and formed a true friendship with (that continues onshore) were both in an inside room whilst I was in Princess Grill. Category really is irrelevant in that sense and I don't mind saying, they have a lot more money than me! Hahaha..

 

Thanks for the kind words, I wish more people my age were into the history of ocean liners.. Seems to be quite a rare interest for the younger generations. Cars & Planes seem to always be at the top..

Mel B

I'd suggest that the person you describe had an expectation that regardless of what cruise line she went on , she would have behaved exactly the same. In our case getting to a ship regardless of cruiseline always involves a long flight and hotels and I have not seen a cheap cabin price offered by Cunard unless it was a special in off season. Course one has to define the value of cheap ..

For sure , cheap cabins can be found on the cruise lines that offer cruises around the Caribbean or Alaska or reposition mainly in off season or that break of holidays.

One of my friends wrote recently that in her Cunard World Cruise going around Australia some of the best passengers in terms of bringing some laughter and fun to the ship were the Aussies who boarded at one port to the next for three or so days and then left.

Thank you for your clarification.

Oh, I meant to say , Utube has some amazing videos on the history and building of current Cunard liners and past plus some of the early lines from Europe

Part of my fun is spending 45 minutes of such watching these videos as I enjoy the construction process including the latest planes.

Cheers / Rob

I know some folks who have done World Cruises and seqments , as said prior, booked an inside cabin or Outside to reduce the initial cost so they can enjoy that type of cruise, others as they cannot abide light into the cabin or as some say I use it only for sleeping. The cabin type does not define a person's character nor the accommodation class.

Kind of like waiting in the Airports Lounges reserved for frequent flyers, airmiles collected, some purchase entrance for the day, backpackers, business people, students, jetsetters all waiting to board a plane in comfort , relaxation.

As I said prior , once one's trip begins, we are all equal , course some will always think better but it is a ship full of thousands, has to be the odd duck, much like marrying into a family. Even odd ducks can be quite enjoyable once you spend the time to know them.

In our case, we finally have the time to take a longer vacation , spoil ourselves for trips we could never do before but now grandchildren have new demands on ones time, which is precious.

Cannot know all on a voyage but always glad to meet new people and explore if we listen to each other. Always learn something

Cheers / Rob

If you want to save money that bad' date=' cut your tips or sail Carnival. You have options.[/quote']

 

Mr John Heald, are you in the UK right now deciding on an safari with the family or do you have the same name as a Senior CD of a certain cruise line

Just saying as this is a surprise for me who only sees you on FB a lot

 

Cheers

Rob

Luv it .... Work , work to enjoy Grill class after a free upgrade...

Sounds like a lot of work to me to pretend and I believe having your steward be your butler for some extra monies might get him fired , in fact will as he cannot attend to his other responsibilities.

Even if he did this on his own time which is limited , it would not satisfy your expectation , like afternoon tea in your stateroom and pray tell how does he explain the food brought in .

As someone said earlier , if you have it and want to enjoy the Queens Suite, you will , some folks are known never to leave as they have all their meals in their stateroom , attended to of course by the butler trained for those clients.

Nice story , rewrite to might have sections where you elect a decision and follow the result based on that choice.

Cheers

Show off! Looks like a fab stateroom. I think I'll have to win the lottery to be able to travel like that. In the meantime it's steerage for me!!!

Ha ha.. Yes Richard not only has been in some fantastic rooms on many cruise lines but even in the staterooms overlooking the Atrium on the QM2 when he was experiencing travel as a single passenger on a November 2013 crossing .

http://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2013/11/20/solo-trans-atlantic-live-blog-day-1/

In my case I will be experiencing an Outside Cabin (Stateroom) on QM2 for its 175th re-enactment voyage to the New World in July :)

I could have had a suite last year and in fact I did for 16 hours on hold, but it was about $20,000 Cdn for the two of us. :p

Such is life, but we all experience the same voyage once on board. :)

Rob

Dear Melb1988

Thank you for your original post about your recent cruise on the QM2.

I elected to register to be able to reply after having read all the replies to this post.

No one disputes your thoughts and recordings though of course we all have different thoughts ourselves and this forum allows all of us the right to post factual and sometimes emotional replies without insulting the group or the rules of the group.

As you are fully aware , all airlines much like cruise lines operate 24 hours a day with scheduled time to repair and maintain. Even an B-777 or an A380 or a B747 will show signs of age or neglect but as long as those employed to keep the passengers happy and comfortable to get them to the destination in a safe and memorable way , then all is fine.

I have tripped many a time going down a stair or entering a plane but still enjoyed my experience. I have seen more unhappy flight personal then ship personal.

I had to pause reading your OP as it was a lot of detail to absorb and prior life made me think next time, try point form for your observations then it makes more sense. Reading was like reading a novel, wondering what is the main message you wish to give us.

It would make a lot of sense to have summarized and sent to Cunard Head Office , we do ship rebuild where I live and that ship arrives on a set day at a set time and must be completed as scheduled to proceed on its next voyage with all those passengers who booked a year prior,

Please do remind yourselves , that a lot of us might not say much but if we reply on something it is with good reason and intent to share. We do not brag and we do not expose people's perceived past on the forums , accept us for the present .

By the way , I will be on the QM2 for its July voyage to Halifax and on this year , my first time and I look forward to its traditions and its peoples, warts and all :)

We are Cunard

Rob