Victoria2

Que?

Is that a cryptic crossword clue? Badly dressed orc[a?]s and well dressed hobbits?

I would like to think there's no difference in service on any of the three ships. One of the members of staff I knew quite well was on QE [from QV with a bump up in restaurant position] and he thought Victoria was the happy ship too. As long as all seem happy on all the ships, there's no problem but the initial post posed a question about atmosphere and a happy crew means a happy background atmosphere which passengers can pick up on. QV is a very happy ship.

Yes, staff do transfer but luckily for us, the usual suspects were all there apart from a new to the ship M'd who turned out to be a great replacement for Sandro. I recognised quite a few of the Ents staff too. In talking to staff over the years, they all to a man/woman said Victoria was the happy ship.Who am I to argue! 😀

I'll go with HAL. Not tried Viking and found Celebrity too glitzy.

Interesting. We find the staff fairly static on Victoria on the whole.

Just to clarify in case any newbie to QV thinks oops, just like other cruise ships when reading your summing up of Victoria, she is a cruise ship but I found her activities very similar to QM2 and the designers forgot the climbing wall, ice rink and dodgems.

I prefer teak to composite too but the question was about atmosphere and not the hardware. 🙂

I love Victoria and I'm not a fan of QM2 although I must state the longest I've spent on her in one go is four nights. First off, Victoria is a cruise ship. Mary isn't. I find Mary a bit stuffy and she reminds me of an elderly relative who clings to faded decor of the Edwardian era. For me that affects the atmosphere as it's certainly not the passengers who are stuffy, well not the ones I came across. I would say QM2 leans to a more formal feeling rather than the warm feeling of Victoria. Lovely people on both but right or wrong, QV comes over to me as a far more friendly ship.

For info, my GHDs [both wide and narrow plates] worked just fine on all three Cunard ships.

As we like specific cabins; which can sell out pretty quickly, we usually book when itineraries are released which can be as you say, nearly two years in advance. We have a rolling yearly insurance which allows us to book in advance subject to health conditions at the time of booking but if our circumstances changed and after informing the bank they decided not to insure the advance bookings, we'd get out deposit/s back. Hopefully! Not tested the system yet and we're hoping we won't need to. 🙂

Rather more a Cruise Credit than just Onboard then. If you find an excursion of interest, let's say a sightseeing flight for instance which indicates any kind of limited places, I would book asap.

Bit of a giveaway in the title ''onboard''!

and I answered in #4 🙂 but to be fair, tipping has come into this thread for some unknown reason although this has had an unusual slant wise. When is a tip a gratuity and when is a tip a bribe. Quite interesting. Jerry987654321, first of all, your table will have been pre-assigned and the change we found in August was, no card with your table number waiting for you in your cabin. You will find out when you first dine eg lunch. That table is yours for the duration. Secondly, in a Q2, if you were to be aboard QE or QV, I could tell you precisely where your two top table would be. Obviously, I can’t on QA, [ I refer you to my comment #4]. There are the same number of Q's 1 and 2, just in reverse order but that still means six ''top''cabins and depending on where the ''best'' area of the restaurant has been deemed, that is where your table will be. The only thing I can guarantee is, as a Q 2 passenger, you will have a two top by the window. We will be interested to see the table hierarchy on QA. I have my fingers crossed we're away from most of the footfall but as a first timer on Anne, we will go with the flow as I know we'll get a perceived ''good'' table. We'll be well informed and will ask for any specific table for the next trip.

Strangely enough, I would be very embarrassed if I tried to ''offer a tip or gesture '' in order to move tables and no table was available to move to. As asking to move tables is done discreetly at the M'ds desk, I don't see how complaining or moaning comes into it. If tables are there to move to, the move will be facilitated. If not, it won't and ''offering a gesture'' to try and get this done will have no effect whatsoever except cause embarrassment to possibly both parties Now to give a discreet gesture at the end of the holiday as a thank you, well that is a different matter and one I am all in favour of.

When I have been on shorties in the past with friends, we self disembarked and could do so as soon as the ship was cleared. I don't know if the process has changed, but we had to register with the Purser's office where we where given a self disembarkation card. We had to be able to carry all our bags ourselves.

OBC, use it or lose it and don't do what we did years ago which was go to the casino and think your obc will cover any losses. We found out the hard way, you can't use obc in the casino. OOPS! 😀 In the unlikely chance you have any left over, ask the Front Desk to add it as gratuities to the staff.

Thanks for your posts. Very interesting. Hope you don't have to rock'n roll too much!

You can request a shower stool when booking.

Short of getting the Captain to wait on us at the table, I 'm not sure what a bribe could offer in the way or a superior service and I'm not talking table position as one passenger's choice position could very well be another passenger's disaster of a table. Of course, should the Captain, after waiting on us at the table, give a superior service, we would of course reward with an extra gratuity, 🙂 To quote an oft used phrase. ''each to their own''.

It wouldn't happen.

I have no idea what negative, awkward confrontations you refer to but with hundreds of nights in QG under our belts, I think it insulting to the staff to suggest a bribe will raise service levels. The staff are eager to please and will almost fall over themselves to help in any way and to reward service after the event is of course up to an individual should they wish to show appreciation. Of course there will be occasional anomalies in levels of service but to bribe beforehand is almost saying ''I don't think your regular service will be good enough'' which in my book is demeaning.

I totally agree although if I have the cabin I want, I couldn't care less if the price drops, but when one is tracking a fare, it's impossible not to notice the fluctuations, as discussed on this thread.

Or the change would have been affected anyway without the bribe if a table was available On one cruise, our selves and another couple had had enough of our table companions by the second evening and we both moved onto tables for two. The tables were available and no bribe was required.

Fluid pricing is getting very fluid. The fare is up by thousands, per person now and that's including any early booking discount. It will be very interesting to see what happens when the pre launch interest period of grace is over. Al a bit of a gamble isn't it! 🙂