I use Vesselfinder, but keep an eye on all three Cunarders. I also find it useful when on board, if the internet is having a good day, to identify the ships we pass.
I don’t remember many negative comments about QM2 on here, though I’m sure there were some. However, if you go back far enough, you can find plenty of vitriol about the proposed Queen Victoria, which was clearly not a proper Cunard ship, being a Vista.
When I’ve been on QM2 recently, there have been a surprising number of people wanting to move. So, it has been easy to swap, if not to a table next to a window.
Well, the restaurant staff certainly seem to have fantastic memories, as they address everyone by name after a very few meals. And, as I say, I strongly suspect Ico (and his fellows) does have some sort of crib sheet.
There is also a time and place. It is often nice to have a fairly lengthy chat at lunch when the restaurant is pretty empty because lots of people have gone on tours. Slowing the staff down during is very busy dinner service, perhaps when lots have turned up together after a party, is fair on neither the staff or the fellow passengers, but I have seen people try to do it.
Some of us are simply not very memorable. I would not expect anyone, except perhaps Ico, who probably has a crib sheet, to remember me when we board on Sunday, despite the fact we were there in May. If they do, it will probably be as ‘the woman who managed to get Covid and cause lots of extra work.’ But we’ll see.
It is lovely to be recognised and welcomed back, and good that it happens. But they must be careful not to make it seem like a club where those who are newcomers or simply not remembered (me perhaps) feel excluded.
And I would hope that, if, for instance, a lot of people wanted unpacking, then Q1s and Q2s would be done first. But then I’ve never come across anyone wanting unpacking.
Remember in much of Europe in the summer it is not dark until dinner is over. You may of course be blinded by the setting sun, but it is well worth having a window seat. And they won’t move you to someone’s empty table during the day either, in my experience.
There is a lot of difference between five days TA and a three day portion of a longer cruise. Above all for the staff, in the days when many used to live and Southampton and were able to spend Tuesday and Wednesday nights at home once a fortnight. Imagine the difference that made.
But the problem is to give you a window seat would mean moving someone else from their table. We have sailed with Cunard about 25 times, nearly always in the Grills, and only once, quite early on, have we had a table in the window. So I shouldn’t be offended.