Ben_83

I am fairly sure that there are only two types of bookings, CUNARD FARE or EARLY SAVER.

Where you say "Its not an early saver fare..its a guarantee", a guarantee merely refers to the fact that a cabin has not been allocated at the time of booking. I think it is more than likely that this booking is an Early Saver Fare, which has little to do with the actual time the booking was made.

As for saying confirmed, that can be changed at any time up to receiving the on board dining arrangements, which is a card in the cabin giving the dining arrangements. It seems likely they have been bumped in favour of a Cunard Fare party, who take precedence.

 

Early Saver Bookers

 

Early Savers receive 2nd priority for dining. We will attempt to accommodate your request but this is not guaranteed. Dining will be allocated on board and cannot be changed. To register a dining preference please click on the below link.

If it was booked in the UK then I believe this is correct, there is Cunard Fare, Early Saver and if required late saver. The saver fares are guarantees as you are guaranteed a class of cabin but don't get to select which one.

If booked outside the UK then this may well differ.

I agree with Welshred, advise them not to let this spoil their holiday. They may find they like late seating, you can always go to afternoon tea to tide you over. Failing that kings court is an option. Even if it has left such a bad taste that you don't plan on travelling with Cunard again I would try to enjoy the holiday.

The Cunard website has this

 

"Cunard Fare

 

You will be asked for your preference on table size and time at time of booking. Subject to availability these will be confirmed*at time of booking.

 

Early Saver

 

You have the option of*advising us of their preference*up to five days prior to departure. Confirmation will be provided once on board.

 

Please note that those on Early Saver fares who have booked into a Queens Grill (grades Q1 to Q7) or Princess Grill (grades P1 & P2) suite or Britannia Club stateroom (AA, AC grades*) need not submit a dining preference as there is*one sitting*in these*restaurants.

 

*

 

Late Saver and other promotional fares

 

You will not be able to specify any preference, you will be allocated your sitting and will be advised on board."

This all sounds correct appart from the bit about table size being confirmed on booking. Cunard agent I booked with most recently confirmed late sitting but said although i could request a table size it would only be confirmed on board. I dont remember table size being confirmed until on board on previous trips either.

The voyage personaliser shows my table size preference but underneath it states "*Please be aware that Table Size cannot be confirmed until you are Onboard."

Just logged into my own voyage personaliser to check, it shows 8.30 dining but it doesn't say anywhere that is is "Confirmed", however my understanding from when i booked is that it is confirmed due to paying the Cunard Fare.

It does have a section about saver fares which I have copied below:

Early Saver Bookers

Early Savers receive 2nd priority for dining. We will attempt to accommodate your request but this is not guaranteed. Dining will be allocated on board and cannot be changed. To register a dining preference please click on the below link.

Seems likely that while the voyage personaliser may have shown early seating, this was just showing your preference and wasn't a confirmation. Cunard's website is imo fairly terrible and riddled with mistakes/out of date info.

Lots of people (including us) prefer late dining.

What a shame they are disappointed, what sort of fare did they book ?

I always thought late sitting was the most popular, can't understand anyone wanting to eat dinner at 6pm. Each to their own I guess.

OP when you say those who want early got late and vice versa, has this happened to everyone and they have just got the whole ships reservations backwards? If it is a just your family then as others have asked did you book a saver fare? I was under the impression dining is only confirmed when you get on board with saver, irrespective of what the voyage personaliser may say. It isn't about the amount paid, it is about the terms and conditions of the rate booked.

Whatever has happened you are correct that nothing condones rudeness from the Maitre D.

Quite right,and not only that, a Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic often attracts quite a lot of young professional '30/40 somethings', who are still in employment and often take advantage of a stress free break. Unlike many retirees who will look to cruising.

Spot on

Take a look at booking either a 'Sports massage' or the 'Deep Tissue massage'. You'll find that this type of therapist will also have had some experience in Physio , you'll find a much better result than the basic Aroma Therapy

 

I have no experience of spa treatments on QE ,however I often use the Deep Tissue treatments at Canyon Ranch (Qm2) which works quite well.

My wife also suffers from lower back problems and finds the sports massage helps a lot.

My 33-year-old daughter is joining me, my sister and another woman "of a certain age" on a cruise later this month. She is very excited. Even so, she keeps asking if there are likely to be people her age on board. I told her that there will be some people in her age group and recommended that she spend time in the gym if she wants to meet her contemporaries. (She will do that anyway.) Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas about where she can meet her age group on a QM2 TA?

My wife and I are both 33 and are booked for a round trip TA in November. We did our first crossing together when we were 24 and had already cruised together with P&O before that.

There are plenty of younger people on board, we have had table mates for dinner of similar age to us more than once. As to where to meet younger people, I honestly haven't noticed them congregating in any specific part of the ship.

My advice to your daughter is not to worry about it. She will meet a bunch of interesting people from various age groups and will have a wonderful time. The overwhelming majority of people on board are really friendly and will strike up a conversation.

Its common knowledge that all those peeps in the ghulags used to have a whip round every week for their guards,lol.

What size envelope is appropriate for tipping a ghulag guard? I imagine that isn't the sort of thing you want to get wrong.

Sorry, I am not sure I understand your concern about the sticky. I was asked to make the comments a sticky after a previous gratuities discussion where what happens on other cruiselines was being applied to Cunard.

Please contact me via email if you would like to discuss it further.

If the general consensus is that it's not helpful I will remove it but this is the first complaint I have seen.

I am not sure of the issue either as the sticky seems to really cover two points. 1 that the staff aren't informed which passengers have removed the service charge and 2 that staff don't have to share cash tips from people who have turned off service charge.

Nothing I have seen indicates either of these things is inaccurate.

Impossible to Police,

Remove the Gratuities, Cunard Pay the difference if the Gratuities do not make up the total Wage Bill.

Give the Gratuities "Service charge" you would have paid that would have been on your account to the staff in $ , Their happy, Your Happy because you have saved your self some dosh in extra tips. Cunard have paid. Cunard apparently Guarantee to make up the difference in their wages from Auto Tips. now Called Service Charge.

Not sure this is entirely correct. Yes Cunard promise a minimum wage and if enough people removed tips to bring the staffs pay below the guaranteed minimum Cunard would indeed have to make up the difference. However I believe the minimum levels offered are fairly low and in reality the staff earn a fair bit more than the guaranteed minimum.

If some people remove tips this will reduce what the staff take home and unless enough do so that it takes pay below the minimum it wont cost Cunard anything.

I have always left the auto tips on as I think it is an easy way of making sure everyone gets rewarded, I can then choose if I think anyone deserves anything extra. If someone wants to remove the auto tips then that is up to them but I don't think it should be assumed it costs the staff nothing. It is a personal matter and views on tipping vary greatly.

There are 5 Laundry rooms

 

Deck 10- near 1005

Deck 8 - near 8110

Deck 6 - near 6249

Deck 5 - near 5216

Deck 4 - near 4041

There is one on deck 11 as well, so 6 in total.

Good afternoon Ben.

 

"This thread should be closed, in fact it should have been closed some time ago. Not because Cunard is being knocked but because this is basically a troll thread".

 

You're words, my thoughts.

 

Thank you.

Thanks Richard,

Glad I am not alone in viewing it this way.

Ben

You seem to have fallen into the trap that so many now do on internet forums; If they do not agree with what someone has to say, they call them a "troll".

I disagree with this statement also but am not accusing you of trolling.

If he was responding to people in a constructive way it would be different. He isn't, he is responding with the same line about enjoy Cunard. His meaning is clear. If we enjoy it we are boring or snobbish. I consider myself to be neither of these things. I just like different entertainment to him.

Repeated comments about dress code and entertainment are no more constructive than me going to a forum about club 18-30 holidays and writing pages of review where I moan about the lack of dress code and the excessive cheap booze consumed. I wouldn't do that as it is clear this type of holiday isn't aimed at me. That's fine, no one thing can suit everyone.

So you agree with her that because Cunard is being "knocked" on this thread, the thread should be closed ?

This thread should be closed, in fact it should have been closed some time ago. Not because Cunard is being knocked but because this is basically a troll thread.

He is posting a critical review, fine, I love Cunard but it certainly isn't perfect - nothing is. But when anyone responds by pointing out an inaccuracy (2 hour shows for example) or asks him what he did want he makes a comment along the lines of 'You keep enjoying Cunard then'. This is a veiled insult as he has already made it clear he believes that us folk who do enjoy Cunard are Mrs Bucket.

Cunard offers entertainment that clearly doesn't interest him, that's fine and I hope he finds a line that appeals. I personally want live music in which lounge/bar I decide to sit in and Cunard gives me that. I want interest I talks by a variety of speakers, the talk about drug smuggling in the Med sounds great to me. He has made his views of this sort of entertainment clear.

I don't mind a funny review but I think it has gone to far.

Hi Ben, I am also from Lancashire, but I think $20. (over £15.00) is very, expensive, you may also have 15% service charge added on?:eek:

Hi,

I am not trying to claim $23 for 6 bottles of water (around £2.95 a bottle) is cheap and you can certainly get it far cheaper at a supermarket. However I don't really consider that to be a like for like comparison. If you compare it to bottled water in a hotel room I would expect to pay at least that much, hence I said I didn't think it was too bad.

Certainly you can make a saving by taking water with you but I believe the op stated he drinks 4 litres a day and is on a 6 day cruise. This would mean taking 24 litres/kg of water with him. I am in no way trying to be snobbish, i am all for saving money - it is hard earned and you only get to spend it once. I just personally don't think the effort involved of lugging a case with 24kg of water is worth it for a saving of £40. I don't travel lightly and have enough to worry about with all my other bags. It is a decision for the individual.

Whatever you decide I hope you enjoy your cruise :)

I can't understand why it would even be offered.

Well I guess it saves you just over $5 per coffee card, some people consume gallons of the stuff so it may be worth it for them.

Twenty dollars for six liters is a bit high ... I usually drink about four a day, even more sometimes. Also, I wonder how they would feel if I bring my own water to dinner - "corkage fee?" Lol.

Slight correction, the 6 bottles for $20 is for 6 x 1.5 litre bottles so you are getting 9 litres. If you get through 4 litres a day you are likely looking at $60 max for your 6 days.

Seems a better option to me than trying to lug 24 litres of water on board with me, but each to their own.

It was also free in Britannia Club staterooms on our voyage last October. Although we did not have to pay for water, there was a leaflet on the desk offering six litre-sized bottles for $20.

Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware it was free in Britannia club. It doesn't seem to feature in any of the info re Britannia Club.

As you mentioned they do offer 6 bottles for $20 in Britannia Staterooms which isn't too bad.

I priced some of the wines on the list. They are sold at a reasonable and not an excessive mark-up. Quite tempted to get the Commodore and have a bottle of LBV. Always a nice way to finish a meal.

I have gone for 4 from each list and plan on claiming a bottle of port. As you say, a nice end to a meal.

Include in the soft drinks package. I really good I don't drink alcohol or tea and coffee. Just good healthy water.

In the past the soft drink package only included soda from a gun, so no bottled water. I have heard nothing to indicate this has changed.

You can drink the tap water and there are water dispensers in the kings court buffet that are free.

For whatever reason the soft drink package is no longer showing in the answer to the "Do you offer drinks packages?" question. I assume this is a oversight as Cunards website is fairly bad but would be good if someone could confirm that it is still on offer.

The soft drinks pack was $6.50 a day on my last crossing but I am fairly sure I have read on hear it had gone up to $8.

The prices showing on Cunards website in the answer to the "Do you offer drinks packages?" question are as follows:

Captains

4 - $175

6 - $260

9 - $380

12 - $495

Commodore

4 - $250

6 - $360

9 - $525

12 - $660

Larger packages are available for world cruises.

If the prices on the list you have are different from above it is possible you have an older list.

I have a list saved with slightly lower prices, for example the 4 bottle Commodore pack was $225 so there has been an increase. I am not sure when the change occurred but I think it is fairly recent. I have ordered wine for my next crossing and I think I got it at the old prices, but would need to check to be sure.

The older Commodore list included Delamotte Champagne which doesn't seem to show anymore.

Do you know if cappuccinos are available in the coffee package?

Also, bottled water.

The coffee card does cover cappuccinos. I believe the only coffees excluded are speciality lattes and liqueur coffees.

I am unsure what you are asking re bottled water, if you mean is it included on the coffee card I believe the answer is no, it is really only good for coffee.

Bottled water is free in your cabin in Princess or Queens Grill but below that you will pay for it. If you want bottled water in bars or restaurants there is a charge.

You can purchase the wine packages in advance or on the ship. The price includes the service charge so the price quoted is what you pay.

They do represent a saving, the wine works out as a similar price to the packages but buying individual bottles you need to add the 15% service charge.

Drinking wine from your package is straightforward in the Britannia or Grills restaurants. You can fairly easily arrange bottles in the Verandah as well.

I can't really comment about drinking wine from a package in bars as I have never tried. However I have seen a few posts on here about it, I believe it is possible but may be more trouble than it's worth.