wolfie789

Would it be acceptable to wear dark blue smart jeans with a brown jacket and opened neck shirt on informal nights?

In short no, but smart chinos are fine.

We are taking our first Cunard cruise, other than a cruise on Caronia nearly 20 years ago. For clarification we will be on the QE and have booked a Princess Grill suite and are waitlisted for a Queens Grill one. We have cruised a lot mainly on Regent and Seabourn, and it seems Cunard is very different. We have found the Cunard website less than informative and have a host of questions some of which I list here.

Water

1. Is bottled water supplied in our suite and is it free or do we have to pay.

It is provided for free in the suite.

2. We prefer bottled water with our meals. Will we have to pay for it even in the Princess Grill.

Yes, unfortunately.

Restaurants

1. The Veranda seems to be a paying restaurant. Is this so and is there any point in going to it since we can eat dinner in the Princess Grill.

It depends slightly on who you ask. We find the service and food in the Grills so outstanding, that we now avoid the Veranda. When we did it last, we found the food nice but the service not up to Grills standards.

2. We quite like buffet. Is the Lido a good option for breakfast and lunch. Is any extra payment required?

I would honestly advise trying PG for your meals. Part of the magic of PG is having the same waiters for each meal, who get to know you and your individual preferences. They really will bend over backwards to make sure you have everything you want. Everything in the Grills is also cooked to order by a special team of chefs, unlike in the buffet.

3. Can one eat outside at the Lido, weather permitting.

Yes. There is also the Grills courtyard which is lovely for lunch in good weather.

4. Does the Lido open for dinner and is it a good alternative.

5. Do we have to pay extra to lunch in the Golden Lion?

No. It's free and perhaps oddly given my comments above, we do occasionally stray down to the Grills for lunch in the Golden Lion because we occasionally feel like very simple food and the service is actually very good.

Royal Theatre

1. Are there shows every night and what times are the performances.

2. Does it get very crowded and so necessary to arrive early.

3. Is there any sort of priority seating for those in Grill suites.

4. What is the position re- boxes. For example, can they be booked and if so is there a charge.

Hope this is helpful!

is there a noticeable difference between the menus, quality of food and quality of cooking between the Princess and Queens grills. From the deck plans of the QE they seem to share the same kitchen.

Both have very high standards and normal orders from the everyday menu are identical.

Where they differ concerns the a la carte menu, which is larger in QG than PG. You are also encouraged to go off menu in QG more than PG.

There were some threads about "enhancements" to the Grills last year you might find helpful. We've found off menu requests are encouraged in both PG and QG and have been hugely happy with service and quality of the food in both. For balance I should say that others have had more disappointing experiences and reported some real menu limitations in PG as of last year.

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Maybe we should start a revolution, but I believe Karl Marx wore a dinner jacket.

Cunard is very formal - informal nights jackets are obligatory and in the Princess Grill many men wear ties. On half a dozen cruises I've once seen someone turn up to dinner in no jacket - it was politely suggested they return to their suite and come back appropriately dressed.

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Hi,so thats why there are a few bad reviews in steerage lately,you guys are getting it all.When I sail on the QE next year,just throw the dodgy lobsters over the side and I'll catch them on my club balcony,lol,cheers,Brian.

What an odd comment - passengers pay a lot for the Grills and expect something in return. When we cruise in Britannia we expect a different product and level of service to what we get in PG or QG, commensurate with the price.

Of course all Cunarders should get good service and a good product, but begrudging those who pay much more for their cruise expecting something for that I cannot understand.

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In addition to the Daily offering which was similar but differed somewhat from the Britannia menu, one could order ducks, chateuabriand, and rack of lamb for tableside service in advance, also escargot, shrimp cocktail, ceasar salad also there was a salmon dish, beef dish, and chcicken breast always available. This is pared down from 2 years ago but I think acceptable as the daily menu seems to have been upgraded. Looked like crepes and cherries jubilee were also available off menu by speial request as were a few other items that could be obtained apparently from the QG. The attitude was one of of total accomodation if it was within their ability. Given the prices, seems right to me. The only really bad item this time was the lobster - salty and old.

Thanks. That's good to hear!

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This is really encouraging to hear. Do you happen to have photos or copies of the menus? What was the a la carte like? Thanks.

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It's very sad to hear these reports. We were spoilt rotten in PG on the QV in September 15. I can understand Cunard's business case for differentiating the products, but surely at some point PG becomes hugely devalued.

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Great to hear the responses so far - thank you very much Pepper and AZNative!

There was a lot of discussion on the forum this time last year and during the summer of changes to the menus in both the Princess and Queens Grill on the Elizabeth (and later the QM2 I believe).

Would anybody be prepared to report on recent experiences in terms of the new menus and off-menu ordering? We're particularly interested in the QE which we're booked on for November but are also keen to hear from those recently off QV which were the last to get the "enhancements".

For what it's worth our experience in QG with Beniamino Acler on the QV in September was outstanding. No request was too much trouble and the old a la carte was still operative.

Does anyone know if Grills passengers have access to afternoon tea on embarkation day in the lounge?

It depends on whether the ship is "in transit" or not. If it's the start of a new voyage I believe the answer is no. However, on QV in the Mediterranean when multiple voyages overlap, we've found afternoon tea is available on embarkation day.

Thanks very much John! I'd missed that previous thread.

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I'm wondering if anyone can help me with this. We used to always enjoy seeing who the Senior Officers would be on upcoming trips. In particular, seeing the Senior Restaurant Manager was helpful so we knew who would be looking after us in QG. After a while searching though, it seems than Cunard have removed this information from the site. Is this correct or am I just struggling to find it? Any help from fellow CCers very much appreciated.

To chip in - I brought lots of smarter jean-type trousers with me on my first cruise in Cunard. These weren't even blue denim - they were black, dark grey or white. They stayed in my suitcase, as I would have felt uncomfortably under-dressed on the ship if I had worn them on informal evenings.

My recommendation would be to avoid even "smart" jeans if you want to avoid standing out. Lots of people make a big effort to dress up, even on informal nights on Cunard. That includes us now!

OK so with Cunard it is all "secret handshake and a wink" to get the everyday offering what other lines publish in the menu? I find that a bit odd and annoying. How can a huge ocean liner run out of chicken breast, steak and salmon when smaller ones don't?

This is only speculation, but I wonder whether the advent of Britannia Club may have something to do with this - since the 'always available' options form the core of the 'A La Carte' offering there, it may be Cunard are keen not to advertise them for the MDR in order to differentiate Britannia Club. That's only hazarding a guess though!

I think it depends what the OP meant by "off-menu".

In Britannia, you can request chicken/salmon/steak etc which are always available.

In the Princess Grill, to a limited extent and the Queens Grill to a far greater extent you can ask for pretty much anything you want, providing they have the ingredients.

It's a good question. As others have said, it's an advertised selling point of QG that you can have 'whatever takes your fancy' and many in PG (though not as consistently) will also be able to order off menu from time to time. It's hard to pin down exactly what it is, but there is something rather special about having a dish prepared just for you. We also got the impression last summer in PG that the Head Waiter and Maitre D genuinely enjoyed showing off their craft with table side cooking. On our last evening the HW even excitedly showed us a recipe for a dessert of his own making!

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I'm afraid a jacket is obligatory every night on Cunard in most areas of the ship. For most of us this is one of the things that makes Cunard so special.

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We regularly draw down dollars for extra tips. It works like this - you request them, sign for them and they appear as charge on your statement just as a drink would or an excursion. They are then charged to your credit card as part of the overall amount - They don't incur any kind of cash advance fee from your credit card provider.

Beware, though this won't be an issue for most, that there is a limit on how much you can charge to your account daily. I think from memory it's $400.

Hope this is helpful.

Seconded here also! We loved PG last September but are now hesitant to book again and are considering leaving Cunard for other luxury lines for the same or less.

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Cruisluvva - Thank you so much for putting the work in with this, which offers many of us some reassurance. We never took advantage in PG last autumn, but were encouraged by both the Head Waiter and Maitre D on QV to order off menu every now and again. It made the experience very special for us and really helped to build up a nice rapport with them. Would be sad to see this possibility go.

We'll also be joining QV on the 10th in QG and would be keen to know about when the new (poorer, by the looks of it) menus will be introduced.

There was no shuttle when we were in Istanbul on the QV in August last year. There are three options:

Walking (though this is a good half hour to the centre and 40 minutes to the Hagia Sophia).

Taking the Tram - this is incredibly easy and takes you right up to where you need to go. Tickets are inexpensive and they are very used to assisting tourists with the tickets. It takes 10/15 minutes and is a really nice journey.

Taxi - This is very convenient but can be expensive. A number of people on our trip also had problems where the fare was exorbitant or they handed over a large note and were told by the driver it was smaller. Be careful and count out your notes clearly if you take this route.

Hi Brown-Eyed-Girl,

We finally took the plunge on QV and booked a Princess Grill cabin last year. It was a significant amount of money for us but completely worth it and now we are hooked!

The larger cabin was nice, but the dining really made it for us. The Grills really do take what's great about Britannia and take it to the next level. The A La Carte menu is amazing, having the same waiters for each meal makes more of a difference than you think and being able to order whatever you fancy off menu is a real treat. Cherries Jubilee, Bananas Foster, Beef Wellington and a curry they did for us one night stand out especially. If you are in a hot climate, the Grills sun deck is also really special.

As the previous poster said, the sisters and QM2 are quite different. We liked both the QM2 and the QV (very similar to the QE) in different ways. Many people say they prefer the Grills set-up on QE and QV to the QM2 and you might want to keep that in mind.

Prawn cocktail, steak, chicken breast and salmon have always been available on request from the Head Waiter. They've never said "no" to me, though how helpful the table waiter is when this is requested does vary slightly. Occasionally newer staff don't know these options are available so you do have to be fairly insistent :)