Caipi

🙂 Whether it complies with the dress code or not, I saw Polo-Shirts in the evening in Britannia Club Restaurant and even on a Gala Night when going through the Britannia Restaurant. But I thought to myself that the airline must had lost his luggage. 🙂

I do not agree, it started as sportswear, but the unicoloured versions (of course without any text or numbers) are meanwhile the more elegant version of a T-shirt. Lots of men wear them in 'stylish restaurants'.

Sorry I've just edited my post and wrote that it was in a Facebook-group.

I agree with ShipboardSteve that people definitely know what can 'safely' be regarded as smart attire. But I also think one can have reasons for questions regarding the 'casual end of smart', I did ask as well in a Facebook group, months ago, because my husband had a lot of (designer) polo shirts, but only 1-2 'real' shirts. So why buy new clothes when you don't have to? But after I got my answer, (and some insults because of that really scandalous question,) we did buy several new shirts for him.

I never saw someone attacking the dress code, what would that be good for? It is as it is, and as you said if they don't like it they could book another ship anyway. (And Germans who were with us on QM2 did not bring evening wear at all, they just went to the buffet.) What I did see in several groups are 'traditionalists' attacking people who don't plan to wear a tuxedo or a suit every night, because according to them you have to, although Cunard clearly states that is not the case (anymore), only on formal nights. As long as people are following the dress code which is stated by Cunard they can wear anything and noone has the right to criticize them for it.

We had this one in our room: https://www.illy.com/en-us/coffee-machines/all-italian-espresso-machines/ese-pod-coffee-machine/coffee-machines-illyese-us-p.html?dwopt_60500_subscriptionOG=0&dwvar_coffee-machines-illyese-us-p_color=Black&pid=60500&quantity=1 The problem with the one in our room was it only gave very short amounts of coffee, so we downloaded its manual and saw that it was blinking for descaling. We got some descaling liquid from our steward (who said they do that 2-weekly, but it seems they don't do it the way Illy describes it) and after we descaled it the buttons stopped blinking and we reprogrammed one button for a correct espresso amount. (ca. 30 ml)

I saw a man in a polo-shirt on a Gala night in Britannia restaurant and was quite surprised, but i thought maybe he had lost his luggage. Could happen. 🙂 I was so afraid of that that we had all our evening stuff (suit, cocktail dresses, all collared shirts, 2 pairs of shoes) in our hand luggage. 🙂 We could have rebought some clothes in Hamburg, but definitely not these....

CUNARD does mention jeans as relaxed (not smart) attire: Of course, if you prefer to spend your evenings in more relaxed attire, a selection of casual dining and entertainment venues is always available for your enjoyment. Feel free to dress casually as you visit any of the following venues: Kings Court, Lido Buffet (Including Al Fresco), Golden Lion, Casino, Carinthia Lounge, Winter Garden, Garden Lounge, Yacht Club, and G32. Non-ripped, jeans are appropriate, but after 6pm please refrain from wearing shorts, sports attire, swimwear or sleeveless t-shirts outside of the gym, spa and deck spaces.

We have to book at Cunard International with the same fares as, say, Germans, and it is stated that gratuities are included. (However, in our case they charged it anyway, but I had it removed - Germans always write that they are asked on some paper in their stateroom whether they want to pay the extra gratuities or not.) No one showed us our stateroom and we did not see the people handling our luggage. We gave a tip to the steward, to "our waiter" and to the sommelier. (We were in Britannia Club.) We did not plan to give to the sommelier but we he was so nice and the only person in the restaurant who seemed to enjoy what he does 🙂 So we had no more cash left for him, and I asked him on the last day whether he gets the tip if I tip on the bill and he said yes he does. Oh and we gave 5 dollars tobthe the lady delivering the breakfast to our room, because we could not get a smaller banknote here in Hungary. 🙂

We got the first upgrade 7 days before sailing, (sheltered balcony on deck 5 -> glass balcony on deck 11), and the second one 5 days before sailing. (glass balcony on deck 11 -> Britannia Club glass balcony on deck 13) After the 1st one I wrote them that I don't like it because of the connecting door, but they wrote back that I have to take it because I had agreed to being upgraded. But this was not true, I booked on the phone and was not asked at all about this, and I wrote this back. So maybe the second upgrade was because of this, but of course there's no way of knowing.

I did mention the cookies in my review :), and I've already looked them up, but unfortunately I cannot buy my favourite, the salted caramel one, in Hungary. I suppose they had lots of this on board:

We were upgraded to a Britannia Club Balcony stateroom, and it was very nice experiencing it, because we definitely won't pay that difference for a different restaurant, a choice of, say 8 more dishes at dinner, - which by the way were the same ones on all 8 days, and some of them should have been preordered - and for some water, espresso and cookies. 🙂 (And we won't book higher than deck 10 anyway, we did not like those vibrations.)

We are hungarians, we drink 'short' coffees too. 🙂 But first we had to 'repair' our coffee machine, because it gave only very short shots (you had to press, say, 8 times for an espresso = 25-30 ml!!) and it could not be reprogrammed, because it was blinking for descaling. (We downloaded the manual.) So I asked our steward Aris whether he has something for descaling, and he laughed, and said, oh yes, this coffee machine only gives very short quantities, but he gave us a sachet for descaling anyway and assured us that the machines are descaled every 2 weeks. But I suppose they don't do it the way Illy writes to do it, so at first some guest who did not know how to use it reprogrammed the amount of coffee and it could not be reprogrammed again because of the blinking lights. By the way, it was an Illy E.S.E. (easy serving espresso)-pod machine, and they gave Illy Classic and Illy Decaffeinated pods. It has 2 buttons, and normally one is for a small cup and the other one for a big cup, maybe they have Illy Lungo pods as well.

I hope for you you do not. 🙂

Yes I read that explanation here in an older topic, (that's how I found this webpage in the first place - Googling 'vibrations on QM 2' :D,) maybe it was you as well who wrote it. 🙂 I understand your hesitation to believe it, it really sounds weird, but my husband, the mentioned maintenance technician says it could be true. However, in that case they must be washing all the time, 24/7. And I definitely do not love that quirk :), I could live with it again but we both hope we won't feel it in 8014 the next time... it's even more forward than 13033 was, but at least several decks below.