Se1lad

2 hours ago, BigMac1953 said:

 

I don't need a lecture thanks.

 

If a person on a limited budget wants a small glass of something that's not available, then it's no business of mine or yous for that matter. It's hardly going to bring the temple crashing down.

 

Incidentally, we're also Diamond with over 25 trips in QG.

If you’re requesting a pretty standard product such as Grand Marnier and Cunard are unable to provide if, then I don’t see any issue with going back to your cabin, pouring a glass and returning to the bar.  It’s not like you are trying to deliberately engineer a situation/excuse to get you out of paying.

In any case, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell - after dinner you do see people moving between bars and the nightclub with drinks they purchased already in one of the other bars.

You could always ask the bar staff if it’s ok - I would be surprised if they said no in this situation.

On 2/20/2023 at 9:53 AM, Host Hattie said:

What proportions did they use ? And how much was it ?!

I would suggest 50ml cognac, 25ml grand marnier, 25ml sweet vermouth, 5ml grenadine and 25ml lemon juice.

If you have a sweet tooth use 10ml grenadine.

 If you don’t want a really strong drink use 25ml cognac.

8 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

I would imagine, QA's Grills terrace will be as exclusive as the other Cunard ships' Grills areas. Read into that what you will. 🙂

That’s what I’m worried about - as there are no other infinity hot tubs on board they might prove too popular! : )

For reference this is the page I quoted from:

https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/inspiration/queen-anne/open-spaces
 

Looking at the deck plan it would seem pointless to secure access from the lifts but leave the access from the two entrances fore and aft to the terrace open.

26 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

How more ''secure'' and ''secure'' against what, or should that be whom?

 

If non Grills passengers  want to access the decks, they can, via the stairs and I guess the same on QA and if it is passengers then I know I don't ask for password and identification of my neighbours when I sit ''up there'' but in reality, how many in the Grills areas are non Grills?

 

 

 

 

 

 

A group of non grills passengers kept occupying the hot tub on QM2 on one of my TAs - while I was sitting nearby waiting for it to come free I heard them talking about being on the second sitting for dinner so I knew they weren’t in grills.  Annoyingly they were always in the hot tub at the same time each day which was when I was wanting to use it.  
 

On QV last November on one of the sunny days the grills terrace was rammed.  I’m assuming someone had gone and had a word with one of the stewards as just as I arrived about 10 people were asked to leave.

Regarding Queen Anne I quoted what Cunard says on their website.  Looking at the deck plans it looks like the grills terrace could end up getting busy with people walking through from the Sun bar area to the wellness studio and forward lifts, hopefully there will be some form of access control to prevent this happening.

There appears to be a reasonable amount of deck space on the higher decks, or am I

missing something?

One positive is that it looks like access to the grills terrace is going to be a bit more secure, and the infinity hot tubs sound good:

Take pleasure in the sweetness of doing nothing, whiling away hours in the beautiful Grills Terrace, exclusive to guests of our Princess and Queens Grill Suites. Accessed with your suite room key, this peaceful space features two infinity hot tubs with a view out to the horizon

The UK website still says this:

You may bring one bottle of wine or champagne on board to enjoy within your stateroom. You are welcome to buy alcohol ashore as a gift or souvenir, which will be held for the duration of your cruise, and returned to you when you disembark.

I imagine Cunard say this so that they can refuse someone who has caused an alcohol related issue on board for buying more en-route for consumption, or for limiting it on future cruises (if they are even allowed to cruise again!)

However it's a bit unfortunate as it doesn't reflect what actually happens.  If you were a first time cruiser on Cunard (but had cruised with other lines that do enforce this) you would probably not question this and potentially miss out on saving a bit of money.

If you search a bit more on the FAQ page there is a reference to the corkage fee but this isn't clear either - you could interpret this meaning

(i) you can bring on one bottle of wine/champagne for a special occasion and it's subject to a corkage fee if consumed in one of the ships restaurants/bars/lounges

(ii) you can bring on an unspecified amount of wine/champagne which is subject to a corkage fee if consumed in one of the ships restaurants/bars/lounges, plus one bottle for special occasions which is not subject to a corkage fee

when in fact the answer is (iii) You can bring on as much wine/champagne as you like, regardless of the occasion, and it subject to a corkage fee if consumed in one of the ships restaurants/bars/lounges

All bottles of wine or champagne brought on board by guests for consumption in any of the ship's restaurants, bars or lounges, are subject to a corkage fee.

Please be advised that guests are allowed to bring on board one bottle per person for special occasions.

Groups who want to supply their own wine for wine tasting seminars or for consumption in any of the restaurants, bars or lounges will be charged a corkage fee.

If a bottle of wine/champagne has been bought for you (on board) as a gift, please ensure you carry the gift card with you to avoid having the corkage charge applied to your on board account.

The corkage fee is $25.00 per bottle and will be charged to your on-board account. (Corkage fee is subject to change).

I nearly booked 11,153 on my 2019 TA (they were some of the last Q5 and Q6 available) thinking it would be a quiet location with not much foot traffic outside.  My TA advised against it as I was glad I took their advice.

4 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Cunard doesn’t take dogs in the kennel on the World Cruise.    If you book a lower Queens Grill Fare thru a guarantee you unfortunately have little say in your suite assignment.

I imagine the only circumstance there might be dogs in the kennels would be if the first or last segment was to or from New York and some of the allocation was sold as a 7 night Transatlantic - though I am not sure if Cunard would have the staff on to look after them as it's not a normal crossing.

1 hour ago, D&N said:

We've not been drinking them so often in the last few years. On Arcadia they refused to mix as requested and I spoke to the Food & Beverage Manager (or whatever his title was), who claimed he would instruct bars to serve as we requested. I don't recall it making things any easier.

 

On QM2 I by chance came across a uniformed chap as I was queuing for the "Jubilee Street Party". His badge stated something like Hotel Services Director. I mentioned it to him and he wasn't at all helpful, stating that it was how Carnival Corp dictated they be served and that staff were held accountable for the quantities used.

 

We just have Prosecco or Aperol Spritz instead.

 

The 'correct' way of making them just tastes like contaminated champagne, cava or prosecco. I don't understand why anyone would use decent sparkling wine for mixing anyway.

As I said, in most mainstream restaurants on the Cote d'Azur they use more crème de cassis. The content is a dark Ribena colour.

 

But it's not something important to us so I won't be complaining about it.

 

 

We ran into a similar issue when on board - if you want a cocktail that's not in their system (there are  extra cocktails they can make which are not on the printed list - however there lots that are not) then they have to price it per ingredient.  They are quite happy to do it if you ask however - so you could ask for a double cassis and a glass of prosecco which would probably give you the quantities you were after - though doubt you would get much change out of $20.

There was an off-list cocktail my friend wanted which had 3 x single measures of spirits.  If we ordered just one then it would have been charged at roughly 3 x $9 for the single shots - so a $27 cocktail.  As I ordered one too they could charge 3 x $13 for double shots, so the price came down to $19.50 a cocktail.

An interesting thing we found with cocktails that they have on their system but are not on the printed menus is that they dont seem to review the prices so often.  Whilst prices for the menu cocktails have gone up, the ones only on the system don't seem to have increased.

On 1/13/2023 at 4:12 PM, D&N said:

Kir Royale was hopeless on both. Restaurants here serve about 30% creme de cassis topped up with champagne. Carnival Corp seem to work to an 'international standard' with much less creme de cassis.

It sounds like they are making them using the correct proportions - all recipes vary slightly but Diffords for example uses 15ml to 120ml ratio.

https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/1109/kir-royale

if you want a really sweet one just ask and they will double or triple the cassis for you!

28 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

Should Cunard have informed passengers beforehand? Maybe/maybe not. As I'm in the ''would have found it really interesting'' group [group, not ''geek'' group] I'm on the fence on that one but how many passengers would have altered their Christmas plans and said ''no, we're not going'' if they were given the chance? I'm guessing not many in reality but we'll never know. 

I think it would have been reasonable of Cunard to inform their customers so they had a choice.  As you say, I expect the majority would have decided to keep their holiday.

41 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

I was wondering if they will be working 24 hours, I guess we'll find out in the morning!

If I had an aft cabin I might be tempted to book a hotel or an Airbnb in Cadiz for a couple of nights.

If I’d already paid for a Q5 or a Q6 there’s no way I would be paying any more for a hotel!

35 minutes ago, Flick21 said:

From every website I look at it clearly states that it is against maritime law for passengers to remain on a ship whilst it is dry dock so how are Cunard getting away with this....also I read that this problem has existed for a while and has not occurred since we left Southampton on 23 December as we have been told...

When I sailed in November the vibration was intermittent.  On complaining I was advised that the problem only occurs in certain conditions - swell, speed, current etc.  on our 10 night trip we had about 6 nights where it wasn’t noticeable, 2 nights where it was moderate, and 2 where it was severe.

I was onboard QV for the 15th Nov cruise in one of the rear cabins.  They ended up giving us a separate cabin to sleep in as the vibrations were so bad, and a bit of future cruise credit as a goodwill gesture.

We were a bit late leaving Cádiz as there were divers underneath looking at the propeller- it looks like they have tried to fix this multiple times.

Hopefully the nuclear option of a dry dock sorts this once and for all, and that there are no delays to impact the 4 night cruise to Hamburg on the 7th Jan.  I’m back on board in one of the rear cabins for this cruise - I’ll report back on any improvements!

34 minutes ago, Solent Richard said:

@Bell Boy also says that normal services are being resumed including officers being around and about social events....

 

Does this mean the world club parties are coming back? 🙂

2 hours ago, Austcruiser84 said:

On one QE cruise I abandoned a table where a lady sought to control the dining experience for everyone, including what seat you could have and in what order people could speak. I was reallocated to another table after two nights of unbearable, yet somewhat entertaining, dining dictatorship. At the new table was a couple heavily involved in the Scottish National Party. They only talked politics. They were perfectly nice and I did learn more about the SNP so saw it as an educational experience. Plus they didn’t tell me what I could order off the menu! 

I’d love to hear more about this!  She was trying to tell you what you could and couldn’t eat?!

2 minutes ago, groryjm said:

No it may not be on the list but they do have it on board. A new addition I think

 

That’s good to know! Does the Mr Black make this more of a post dinner drink?

1 hour ago, groryjm said:

Just over a week ago a very Tallented barman in the Grills lounge took my challange to create me a drink to my some what twisted tastes...

 

This is what Aaron made for me and we christened it "Aarons twisted Bombay sour" ....

 

 

So now I am home I will try and reproduce Aarons creation

 

 

Delicious. 

 

Here's the recipie. Feel free to enjoy

 

I’d like to give that one a try!  I couldn’t see Mr Black on the list you uploaded from the grills lounge - did you bring your own bottle from your suite?

1 hour ago, Glenndale said:

I was surprised to see that coffee in the Grills Lounge is no longer complimentary.

It’s only the liqueur coffees that are chargeable.

Loving the detailed review.  I’m interested to know if you asked your butler for any ingredients to help with your cocktail preparations in your suite  - lemon juice, maraschino cherries etc?

5 hours ago, majortom10 said:

That is fair enough I certainly wouldnt be ignorant with polite chat but it is laughable those that race to dance floor and push their way into standing by senior officers.

I felt sorry for the medical officer/doctor at the last party I attended pre Covid.  Three elderly ladies surrounded him and started bombarding him with questions about their various ailments.  They appeared to be trying to outdo each other with who had the most wrong with them!

7 hours ago, Bell Boy said:

Well yes, you've  almost answered your own question , occasionally you will need to glance at the drinks menu  ( in the various public venues) to see what is within the $12 maximum.

The bar waiter staff & restaurant sommeliers are very helpful and will advise you if  a drink of your choice is over the limit.  

 

 

I’ve found that if you order off menu cocktails they tend to be better value than those on the list - you are frequently just charged for one shot of the primary spirit in the cocktail.

1 hour ago, Bell Boy said:

This probably won't please everyone, but it looks as if good times may be coming back.

Just seen on social media photos of a couple of Cunard snr officers enjoying pre dinner drinks with various guests in the public venues. It appears the good old times are back , time to get those Cocktail Receptions and Club Word receptions organised again especially for the upcoming World Cruises. 

 

No doubt there will be a barrage of replies from folks who will say they wouldn't dream of attending these events, that's perfectly ok,         More room for me to work the floor.   

 

 

That’s excellent- hopefully Cunard will follow suit seeing other lines such as Saga have already reinstated the cocktail parties!

3 hours ago, ClefsDor said:

I couldn't agree more. We too like to dine between 7.00 and 7.30 and even after a leisurely meal it's still a while to wait until 10.00pm. Looks like we might have to have a few later nights than what we're used to - I know, I'm on holiday and it shouldn't  matter but old habits die hard.

I normally dine at 7.30ish and like to take a couple of hours over dinner when on holiday so a 10pm show works perfectly for me.  If I’m finished a little early then it’s the perfect excuse for an after dinner cocktail!