WantedOnVoyage

Or back to paying to reserve deck chairs.... sign me up!

Or one can contemplate a deserted Yacht Club on QUEEN VICTORIA, once packed with live music, and devoid of life (or sound) during "Silent Disco"....

I wish I could sit in on a modern course in "cruise management" or 'cruise marketing" and hear some of the course topics: 1. The Importance to Aspire to New Customer by Alienating Present Ones. 2. "It Would be Ever So Nice if You Weren't Here": Tips To Avoid the Annoyance of Repeat Customers 3. "Are They All Old Fogies": How to Aspire to Attracting Hip Gen Z Cruise Passengers 4. Identifying 12 core values of your product that you can whittle away within two or three seasons. I suspect there is no room for "auditing" such classes as they must be packed for every company... including Cunard has nothing but their graduates running the company now it seems.

Well ditto from our QV cruise in May... we had simply delightful, efficient, friendly and gracious service from almost every single crew member we encountered.And not just in the Grills, either. Many were familiar faces, too, and remembered by name. We were in PG but elsewhere in the ship, too, no complaints. Now... there were service lags and lapses to be sure... 20 min waits for drinks in the Commodore and Chart Room not uncommon and seemed to get worse later into the voyage. And yes, LONG waits between courses in the Princess Grill restaurant. But I don't blame the point contact stewards for that.... behind the scenes in the galley and indeed a shortage of bartenders seems the issue. We are back on QV in October to "take her home" to Southampton and now do so mainly with the hope that so and so will still be aboard and yes, the crew matter to us more than the ports.... we hope the former are the same and know the latter will be, too!

Well.... how many stewards are still remembered today by their full name? How many? I can still name many of my stewards by their first names and from nearly 50 years ago. And make the point of trying to address them by name now. But Dennis Dawson was special. Odd... I did not find him "crusty" at all. I thought he was professional, quirky, dedicated to preserving "the old ways" and quite charming. To have him called him "monstrous" (really?!) by people on this site who never even met the man says more about his detractors frankly. Dennis Dawson was Old School Cunard which... yes... some of us remember, cherish and hold on to.

Pretty sure it's the Clyde... we got to do Greenock, Geirangerfjord and Liverpool on QE2's 1996 cruise.

Are you sure this is Geirangerfjord?? Looks more like the Clyde to me.... and one of Stephen Card's paintings.

Sigh indeed.... Dennis was the last of the Old School Cunard crewmembers. With the wrinkles and mahogany skin complexion of a real deck steward. And the most wonderfully outrageous "Dennis Tall Tales". He spoilt us rotten on our honeymoon and my wife just loved him. We met Dennis for the last time, in civvies, aboard QE2 in Southampton when he was just visiting some old shipmates. Like so many oldtime stewards, he opened a pub in Hampshire. So none of those tall tales to go to waste even in his dotage. BTW, he unzipped one of those blue cushions for me and showed me what was underneath: the original zig-zag cushions from... QUEEN MARY! As were her steamer rugs, too.

What I like is how thought out the "presentation" is... the sun hat adds an elegent touch to be sure. I would prefer something slightly less contrived personally but being "Dutch", Holland America likes a more ordered approach. Oh, well, "freedom" dining plate plonking, sunbed wars, jumpers on chairs in lounges, cafeteria table squatters and grill deck interlopers is the stuff of modern cruising and QUEEN ANNE its latest exemplar. Time will tell if she discourages or enables more of it.

No... it was reserved. Not "saved" or hoarded. I think you appreciate the difference.

Of course, it was, like most everything else, more civilised and non confrontational when one hired a deck chair for the crossing or cruise. It was yours. And no one else's. Oldtimers will remember this on QE2 and the redoubtable Dennis Dawson, the First Class deck steward. Every morning, your chair with cushion and rug was all laid out... for you. No "saving", no confrontations. Today, we are supposed to think "freestyle" everything is better... it says so in the brochure, no?

All valid reasons why we would rather skip a meal than set foot in anything remotely "lido" (what do they call it now, "Artisan" something or rather).... I cannot think of anything less congenial or indusive to a holiday at sea than a cafeteria. Having to "save" a table, queue for this and then that, press this or that for coffee, and to have contretemps during it all. No thanks. I remember years ago we were lost on QM2 (imagine that!) and found ourselves wandering like the other lost souls in "Kings Court" (don't you love it?) and one of the asst. maitre d's from QG was passing by and ran over to us and exclaimed, "What are doing here... are you lost?" He most certainly had a point. We've never gone back. Even if lost.

"Owing to customer demand, we are now charging for a room service burger..." Works everytime. Heaven spare us from those "demanding customers", no?

So did we.. that was two years ago. None of the the French Riviera ports have figured in Cunard itineraries since.

Well.. no. The issue is not the work and details entailed in planning itineraries. Personally, I think that would be an wonderful job (and say so after 42 in the travel business and doing just that for a time)... it's the fact that Fred. Olsen manage to come up with different "event" cruises and different ports as do other lines. And not Cunard. Why is it more challenging for one line and not another? Sadly, some once semi regular ports which we loved... Cannes, Villefranche and yes, even good 'ol Gib (I always stocked up on cheap hankies there) have vanished. I think the French Riviera has said we cruise passengers are undesirable riff-raff so that may explain it, although we were better dressed than any of the locals last calls and had lunch at the Martinez in Cannes. Still not good enough! Cunard seem to avoid Oporto and the French Biscay ports. Naples is a rare treat for some reason as is Palermo. What about Casablanca? Toulon?

Not sure it's a favourite Cunard pix (those would be of my first crossing in QE2 in 1977 which are not digitised) but here is an unusual meeting of QUEEN MARY 2 (on her Southampton-West Indies roundtrip) and QUEEN VICTORIA during her rather sad use as a Covid crew accommodation ship together at Barbados on 26 January 2022. We first met at sea just off the port the previous evening with some nice whistle salutes. This was the first time I've been aboard a Cunarder and met another one in the same port or at sea.

Yes, and the times I am tempted to "try something different" is being, well, thoroughly bored with Cunard's itineraries. I look at what Fred. Olsen offers and just sigh at how comparatively innovative and interesting they are. Ditto Oceania and yes HAL but once a favourite of mine, they are so "lite" as to be transparent now and no thanks. We just booked QUEEN VICTORIA on her 21-day cruise back "home" from the Med in late September because we scored a last min Q3 guarantee but except for Palermo, the ports are same old. We last called at Palermo on the grand old QE2, sigh. But we like our QUEEN VICTORIA too much to care for where she goes. But the crew, if no one else, must be dead sick of her port of call tedium.

Possibly. Not sure if there is a "window" for self disembark where the object is to get off as early as possible. You could do just do the set disembarkation for the transfer and... yes... just wheel your luggage off with you. I don't think anyone will notice or care.

Talk about how times and cruising have changed.... I remember the P&O of CANBERRA days when the Pacific Restaurant, with Jamie the maitre d', knocked Cunard into a cocked hat when it came to food, service and ambience. Cocktails in the Century Bar and down that magic spiral staircase to the restaurant. That was special. Those who think it's swell everyone goes cruising can look at what's happened to P&O since.. we last sailed with them in VICTORIA in 2001 and never went back. It was already changing. I wouldn't recognise P&O now and do not care to find out. We vote with our feet... P&O, then Oceania for years, a bit of Cunard and post 2016, all Cunard. But we also now what we like and value and when the balance tips. With Cunard, at least in the Grills, not there yet.

I like it! We QM2 fans like the fact she is, by this table, the single (and by a good margin) most spacious Cunard ever! But already knew that. QUEEN ANNE isn't comparing too well.... she's c. 1936 QUEEN MARY!

Especially when they are wearing scruffy jeans and a T shirt. You can accuse me of being elitist all you want, but you know what, I liked steamship travel (back when it was called that, too) when it was considered special and had a certain cachet about it. Now I am frankly ashamed to even tell people we are going on a cruise. Cruising is now for everyone. I started travelling by ship as a high school student and even at min student fare on FRANCE and QE2, we got scrubbed up for dinner. It was what made an ocean liner special. Now, a particular sort makes a statement about being an uncouth slob and yes, Cunard and other lines, are just as happy to take his or her money and look the other way. And the local residents of Santorini are being told to stay indoors when the cruise ships arrive with 10,000 "cruisers". Times as we keep being told here are "changing". Oh boy... and how.

Cunard, like many lines, provide venues for those not wanting to "dress up". But the above suggests there is some statutory "right" to do so. Nonsense. Indeed, the confusion of different codes for different areas did even exist until the 1990s or later. Or, back with the old First and Tourist Class system. But there is no obligation on Cunard or line to accommodate, encourage or tolerate (I love that word... you never hear it anymore!) people who find dressing so distressing. Cunard does and very specifically list where you may and may not. Yet selfish people still flout, and deliberately, the code, even in its diminished state. The Slob Snobs want it all. The concensus here is that Cunard needs to do a much better job explaining and enforcing. My point is they rather just take the money and not bother one way or another.

So I guess if you chose not to wear a shirt or shoes indoors on a cruise ship or airplane or restaurant, it's all YOU... your choice, too. You could, I suppose, say it's your choice not to go through a scanner to embark. Or attend a boat drill. It is not a choice when a venue has a stated dress code and you purchase access to said venue. Again, no one is forced to go on Cunard or any cruise line but by doing so, it is about joining what is, by definition, a community. It's not all about YOU. "MY" vacation is staying at home... when you chose to share it with others, others matter.

Point taken and absolutely. Having worked briefly on a ship, albeit a small one (but with a dress code even in the middle of the South Atlantic!)... anything that warrants a complaint should be sufficiently mortfying and concerning since 99.8% would rather suffer in silence and wait till they get home and post the complaint here! Real complaints are rare and a professional cruise staff take it seriously. We had a family aboard complain about not enough for children to do aboard and I was "detailed" to be the kiddie deck sport "czar" for the ensuing three weeks at sea. I wish they had waited instead to complain here! Of course, this was five years before there was a Cruise Critic.

Personally, I think anyone seeing the christening of QUEEN ANNE would think they can wear as they darn please... "Hey Guys....!" But that would be just my opinion. And to think, some here were sure she'd get a royal christening. So much for that... But yes... we should complain about the issues as that raised in this thread. At the time. And take it as high up as the system designed to prevent that as you are able. We had to raise a serious medical diet issue last time on QV and I was astonished at the conflicting layers one has to go through. And the time taken in doing so. Finally, one makes the "times" not be dictated to by them. Especially when one is the customer paying for it.