Queen Mary 2 Short Cruise Review

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I'm on P&O's Adonia 15th September 2013

 

QM2 November 26th 2013

 

Queen Victoria 23rd May 2014

 

QM2 September 2014

 

Sneering and calling someone a know all is just showing up your own limitations.

Thank you for your quick response. Marked in the diary. Thank you.

[Whitemarsh]

But do you not often dine at a hosted table? I don't begrudge your doing so - you've made yourself a welcome presence on board QM2 and many of us wish we could say the same. But hosted tables cannot be the typical on board dining experience. There is a much higher level of familiarity and attentiveness from the staff.

 

I was lucky enough to experience a hosted table in Britannia and then on the following segment I was invited back to dine in the Britannia restaurant (at a non-hosted table) by nice people I had met on board.

 

I don't remember there being any difference in the service provided to the hosted and non-hosted table. Additionally, the hosts are only present on formal nights, the remaining nights it's just the passengers.

 

From my perspective the service & food in the Britannia restaurant on QM2 was excellent.

[capnpugwash]

But do you not often dine at a hosted table? I don't begrudge your doing so - you've made yourself a welcome presence on board QM2 and many of us wish we could say the same. But hosted tables cannot be the typical on board dining experience. There is a much higher level of familiarity and attentiveness from the staff.

 

There is no difference whatsoever between the service or the food that is given at a hosted table, the only difference is that the host purchases the wine that is served and usually contributes greatly to the conversation at the table. The officers aren't necessarily the polished hosts that you might imagine but normal people who have the same concerns and worries that we all share, the difference is that they are away from their homes for months at a time. The officer is only there for a maximum of 3 nights out of 7 and the same wait staff serve the food on each night. It is an absolute misconception that this table isn't typical of the on board dining experience. Any familiarity with the staff arises from interest shown in them and their names and origins, it isn't a magic trick but rather common decency that may elicit better service. I have always found that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and there are countless vinegary tales to be found from some posters within this particular forum. :)

[pepperrn]

But do you not often dine at a hosted table? I don't begrudge your doing so - you've made yourself a welcome presence on board QM2 and many of us wish we could say the same. But hosted tables cannot be the typical on board dining experience. There is a much higher level of familiarity and attentiveness from the staff.

Hi BlueRiband,

I have also dined at a hosted table, and must agree completely with what Whitemarsh and capnpugwash have said above. I noted no difference in the excellent service, or food, on a hosted table, to that which I received before, or have enjoyed since.

Best wishes,

[SEFlyer]

I would echo the comments above. I've enjoyed a hosted table once out of about 65 nights on Cunard ships and, I too, noticed no difference in the excellent service and food I enjoyed.

[imacruizer]

The wait staff who serve the hosted tables also serve other tables in the same area. On our recent voyage that consisted of several segments, we ate at four tables. Our last table was next to a hosted table. We had the same servers. I did not feel they were any more attentive to the hosted table than they were to our table. Those servers were very good. However, they were no better or attentive than the servers we had at the previous three tables.

[capegull]

I think that the short cruises are a good way to 'try out' a ship to see if you like it, also for those who can't take long holidays for whatever reason. Although we have been on 7 & 14 days cruises we are finding that we like to take several shorter holidays during the year now that our children are older so we decided to give a short cruise a go. As they sail from Southampton it is much easier than & less time consuming than flying.

We have just returned from the Summer Getaway on QM2 & certainly wouldn't call it a 'booze cruise'. There were positives & negatives (I have written a review - rather long as I wrote it while we sailed & I had plenty of time!).

I have just booked us on the Winter Getaway too as I'd love to revist Bruges for the Christmas markets & we haven't been on a winter cruise before. :)

[Fantasyland]

I was also on this trip. There was a show on the last night, it was "The Beatles Experience." It was quite entertaining: there was a couple of technical hitches and "Paul McCartney" really lost his cool, stomping around the stage muttering about poor service. One of the others even said "Please Paul, calm down."

 

When "Paul" said "Christ almighty! this is supposed to be a billion dollar ship!" I had the feeling they won't be back on board again....

[janandjon]

I recently finished 21 days on QM2 and one cutback in PG was fresh fruit. A silver bowl of fresh fruit used to be standard issue but now there was a card where one could check the varieties wanted and request replenishment. There's good and bad in this. The good is that fresh produce isn't wasted on those who will not consume it. The bad is that they may hope passengers will forget about this one time PG amenity and even the request cards will go away.

 

As Salacia said, "... when fares are greatly reduced...the menu and other ship board amenities are also reduced. Now that should be quite acceptable for those who got greatly reduced fares, but those who paid more, expect more, and rightly so. There will be disappointed passengers. How far the bottom line can be pushed is anyone's guess." Bingo. The passengers who sail only when they get a "deal" will be more accepting of reduced standards while those who booked early feel they have been made fools for paying more and getting less. This results in more and more passengers waiting it out for a "deal" and so on to the point where some itineraries will be financially unsustainable.

 

The other day I got an email advertising a 24hour sale on Cunard's 12-day NY-Canada-NY voyage next month. They even stooped to using the "C-word" - "Only 100 Cabins Available". Inside at 799USD works out to roughly 67USD or 45GBP per night. In the US it's not even possible to book a roadside motel room at that price - at least not for the whole night. Add in costs that land based lodging does not provide like three full meals, unlimited cafeteria food, and entertainment.

 

How to reverse this vicious cycle is a job for the marketing and advertising people because the current spiral is unsustainable. If the trend continues we may see the dissolution of the Cunard brand and reassignment of the ships.

 

 

 

My wife and I are one who also received this E-mail. It also offered a balcony at 999. I called our usual booking agent and booked the cruise through them for the advertised price. We also received 600 OBC (100 from agent-200 ea from Cunard and 100-military vet. from Cunard)

 

We were going to Las Vegas on Sept 6 to 9. Cancelled this trip. No lose on air since we were flying SWA which offers no charge to cancel and rebook within one yr. of the original booking date. In our case--now: Fla in Feb,2014.

 

It's seems that this cruise was not selling well --strong competition from other cruise lines.

For us it was a no brainer--Cost of transportation(2) to and from Brooklyn--

for us is 230.

 

In 2004, I heard a radio comment offering Round Trip to and from NY to London-transportation to Southhampton--7 day cruise on the QE2--for $999/person. (we had to leave with 3 week notice)

 

Since then , we have sailed 13 other cruises. We really got hooked.

[Eglesbrech]

Well this is me just getting round to adding some notes about our 5 days away. We always set out to enjoy a holiday and this was no exception however there were some annoyances as well as high points.

 

Stateroom 9039 Q5 grade - lovely, nice and spacious with lots of storage space and good size balcony and bathroom. Great location mid ship near to lifts and the concierge room and very quiet.

 

Butler- fine but nothing special, he did what a good cabin steward would do, kept the bar well stocked, ice lemon etc, brought the canapés and breakfast but little else. He did change the standard canapés at my request to hot ones, lovely scallops, mini fish cakes, calamari and warm prawns with dip etc- got that every night thereafter. A case of you have to ask to get.

 

Queens Grill- very nice but not as spectacular as I had expected. Our table companions made the voyage for us and good conversation always makes a meal better. We ordered al la carte every night after the first as the standard items on the menu were not to my taste, a really strange mix of choices and some that were delivered to table ( for others) looked pretty poor eg 4 small shrimps on a plate with rice for a main. The Dover sole was beautiful as was the chateaubriand.

 

Some of the behaviour of the other guests in Queens Grill was pretty poor in my opinion, the way they spoke to the staff was dreadful. Demanding immediate attention, complaining about everything,asking for ridiculous items eg boiled egg with no yolk in them but looking like a boiled egg (yes really).

 

Some of these same people appeared on formal night in very casual clothes, he wore a jacket and polo shirt, she trousers and a top. The Matre,D did nothing about it at all. ( and no they had not lost luggage or anything like that, they were just individuals who did not wish to conform and were allowed to do so with no challenge).

 

Kings Court- never used it as it was grubby and overcrowded. They need more staff there to keep it clean.

 

Entertainment - the speakers were excellent with interesting talks on submarines, border control and film stars. The border control was intriguing as he described how customers officers decide who to pull over and why. I was not so keen on the evening entertainment but that is of course very subjective.

 

The ships officers were also entertaining and we had a great commentary as we left Southampton and then again when we went along the Jurasic Coast of the UK.

 

Dress code-a bad joke, there were many people who just completely ignored it. Those who did dress for the formal night had some beautiful gowns and tuxes, one lady had an amazing black gown with a silver chiffon overdress.

 

Annoyances - this was a short 5 day cruise so why o why did they decide to do a full crew boat drill on day 3 and so shut down all ships services for most of the morning? They also painted and had wet paint signs on the corridor on formal night ( think ball gowns with wide skirts!). Carpets were being replaced, corridors closed of for this purpose creating a long walk round. There was drilling, there was a power outage serious enough for the Captain to come on and announce that no one should worry about it.

 

Effectively we were on a shake down cruise which was a bit cheeky.

 

Our last cruise was in Princess grill and there were some nicer touches then than there are now in Queens Grill. Other than the bigger room I did not see any major benefit in upgrading.

 

It has been a few years since we were on Cunard and I do feel that standards have dropped greatly in terms of cleanliness in public areas, entertainment and food quality. I was also not particularly impressed with many of the staff (though having seen how they were sometimes spoken to by passengers I can perhaps see why there is an attitude) they were not as friendly or forthcoming as we have found on other cruise lines.

 

I had read some reviews that said that the ship stinks of smoke and unfortunately in some areas it does. I just avoided them but would not have been happy if my cabin was near by eg the Commander.

 

All in all we enjoyed the holiday but would not be in a rush to go back on the QM 2.

[Jimsgirl]

Just did 19 day cruise on QM2 inside cabin. Embarkation/Disembarkation very smooth on the whole,

Did not go ashore at St Peter's Port, very please as tendering appeared to be total confusion, could not get through crowd clogging the main areas, Sir Samuels, and Chart Room. Sea appeared to be rather turbulent

 

Requested fresh fruit, never received this, gave up asking after third failure to obtain.

 

Although I never met my cabin steward face to face, (he never introduced himself ) he did ignore my "privacy pleas "sign twice, last time was at 6.30 a.m on last day , assume he thought it was time for me to "get out"!

 

Twice had trouble with toilet not working, both times other cabins affected

 

Twice had no water at all with which to wash. again fault appeared to be outside in some distant point

 

Three times had no hot water . again fixed at some point outside my particular cabin

 

More soft spots in flooring than ever, heard these will be dealt with in 2017!!!!!

 

Lights in cabin went out without warning, then came on , but flickered, out again, then came back on at reduced brilliance, before being put right.

 

Met some truly lovely people, had a vey enjoyable cruise, booked a tentative future cruise.

[Eglesbrech]

Just did 19 day cruise on QM2 inside cabin. Embarkation/Disembarkation very smooth on the whole,

Did not go ashore at St Peter's Port, very please as tendering appeared to be total confusion, could not get through crowd clogging the main areas, Sir Samuels, and Chart Room. Sea appeared to be rather turbulent

 

Requested fresh fruit, never received this, gave up asking after third failure to obtain.

 

Although I never met my cabin steward face to face, (he never introduced himself ) he did ignore my "privacy pleas "sign twice, last time was at 6.30 a.m on last day , assume he thought it was time for me to "get out"!

 

Twice had trouble with toilet not working, both times other cabins affected

 

Twice had no water at all with which to wash. again fault appeared to be outside in some distant point

 

Three times had no hot water . again fixed at some point outside my particular cabin

 

More soft spots in flooring than ever, heard these will be dealt with in 2017!!!!!

 

Lights in cabin went out without warning, then came on , but flickered, out again, then came back on at reduced brilliance, before being put right.

 

Met some truly lovely people, had a vey enjoyable cruise, booked a tentative future cruise.

 

We did not get off at st peter port either as the tender service was dead slow and stop and the que went for miles. On the assumption that those who que to go off have just as long a question to come back we just stayed on board. Agree about the service disruptions as well.

[Iceman's Mum]

we didn't get off in Guernsey either! Probably not worth it as nothing open!!

 

Sorry we never got to meet you Lyn - hope you enjoyed your trip. I did get to meet Kathy (Lady Hudson) but we were the only two in the Commodore Club :confused:

 

As nothing to compare with previously, we enjoyed this trip. Sure there were some little annoying things but, overall, we had a really good time.

 

Alison

[Fantasyland]

I was also on this trip.

 

Jimsgirl- Are you saying you never met your steward on a 19 day voyage? It would be interesting to know what room you were in re. the water problems.

 

Commodore Rynd made reassuring announcements regarding this power shortages.

 

The tendering was a shambles to get off but it was fine to get back on again. We arrived onshore at 10.30 which is plenty of time to see Guernsey.

 

As for the poster saying it wouldn't be worth going ashore as nothing was open: the shops may not have been open but the museums, pubs and cafes were and of course the magnificent coastline and beaches were free for all to use. If anyone was desperate to spend their money there was a very nice market along the seafront and various other places such as Guernsey Pearl were open.

 

Not to go ashore just because one hasn't got any shops to go into: I actually think that is rather sad.

[keela1eva2]

Jimsgirl It was good to meet you at the 28th July M&G on the 2nd leg of my round trip. I have often seen your name on posts so it is good to be able to put a face to a name.

I am sorry that you had issues with water etc and not meeting your steward.

Mine came on the 1st day and introduced himself told me to call if we needed anything. I only called him once and he responded immediately. He was a very capable young man and the standard of his work was excellent.

My Granddaughter loved the QM2 and I was delighted that she enjoyed it so much.

Maybe our paths will cross sometime in the future for now I have no plans!! BUT that can change !!

 

Sue

[missfrankiecat]

There was one longish water outage during the night on 28.7 EB that I was aware of which certainly effected cabins on 5,6 and 11 from people I knew. I don't usually want a shower at 2am but after unaccustomed exercise in a very hot G32, I managed to pick the night when they were testing the system. One of my fellow dancers apparently woke up several hours later to hear 'heavy rain' only to realise the shower had been left turned on after abortive attempts and the water had come back on!

[pepperrn]

Just did 19 day cruise on QM2 inside cabin.

 

Met some truly lovely people, had a vey enjoyable cruise, booked a tentative future cruise.

 

Thanks for the list of negative points about your cruise Lynn :(

 

As you "Met some truly lovely people, had a very enjoyable cruise"... :)

 

I'd love to hear all about the positive points about your voyage... thanks. :) When you've got the time...

 

Best wishes, :)

[Ray66]

There was also a water outage on the QM2 on the Norway voyage last month. I don't know how far spread it was but it affected our cabin on deck 4 and also Kings Court.

[Salacia]

When I was on the QM2 July 1 cruise, a some public area ladies rooms were closed at various times (I don't know about the men's rooms). We experienced no problem with plumbing in our cabin (other than slightly delayed flushing), but our tablemates mentioned that they had some problems with the toliet and shower in their cabins not working at various times.

 

At the very least, I feel that when tap water isn't available, bottled water should provided at no charge for hand washing - far easier to do that than deal with a noro outbreak. We're sailing again in a few weeks (booking made several months ago)...guess we'll just have to hope for the best. -S.

[pmb1]

There was also a water outage on the QM2 on the Norway voyage last month. I don't know how far spread it was but it affected our cabin on deck 4 and also Kings Court.

It's a shame that the water outage was confined to a few cabins on QM2; too bad it didn't spread to the clouds over Norway. Not to say that the rain, drizzle, and mist ruined our first visit to Norway; it didn't, we had a grand time despite the soggy sightseeing.

[Jimsgirl]

Thanks for the list of negative points about your cruise Lynn :(

 

As you "Met some truly lovely people, had a very enjoyable cruise"... :)

 

I'd love to hear all about the positive points about your voyage... thanks. :) When you've got the time...

 

Best wishes, :)

 

Not negative points just a events that were a surprise when they happened. Finding yourself without water in the middle of "ablutions" is definitely a surprise, as is being woken suddenly by the steward who ignored the "privacy" sign (I thought I had turned the lock to prevent this, but nevertheless he managed to open the door and walked in).

 

As for lack of fruit, I thought you could get this if you asked for it, but perhaps it has been a victim of cost cutting

 

Positive were the lovely people I met, including those who came up to remind me of other meetings on other cruises. The wonderful foursome that welcomed me to their table at second sitting for the last five nights when I changed my table and time of eating.

As I said I tentatively booked a cruise for 2014,eventhough I will be 88 by then.

[pepperrn]

Positive were the lovely people I met, including those who came up to remind me of other meetings on other cruises. The wonderful foursome that welcomed me to their table at second sitting for the last five nights when I changed my table and time of eating. As I said I tentatively booked a cruise for 2014,eventhough I will be 88 by then.

Thank you Lynn :) ,

 

It often is the people you meet on board, or travel with, who are the highlight of any voyage. So pleased to read you met such great passengers :) .

 

All best wishes for 2014 :) !

[capegull]

I thought the tendering to St Peter Port was fine - we waited about 10 minutes in Sir Samuels & then we were off. We really enjoyed our visit - such a pretty place & the market was nice, as was the museum & gardens which had lovely views over the port. The coffee shops were open too & it was nice to stroll along the seafront. On our return we probably had to wait about 15 minutes for the tender back to the ship & the somewhat choppy ride was quite fun up on the open top of the boat!

 

This was the view of QM2 from the museum gardens.

 

[pepperrn]

I thought the tendering to St Peter Port was fine - we waited about 10 minutes in Sir Samuels & then we were off. We really enjoyed our visit - such a pretty place & the market was nice, as was the museum & gardens which had lovely views over the port. The coffee shops were open too & it was nice to stroll along the seafront. On our return we probably had to wait about 15 minutes for the tender back to the ship & the somewhat choppy ride was quite fun up on the open top of the boat!

 

This was the view of QM2 from the museum gardens.

 

Ummmm....

I don't know quite how to break the news to you... :confused: .

 

...QM2 is a much larger vessel than the one you posted above.

And has a large orange-red funnel :D .

I'm trying to identify the vessel in your picture...

:)

[pepperrn]

I thought the tendering to St Peter Port was fine - we waited about 10 minutes in Sir Samuels & then we were off. We really enjoyed our visit - such a pretty place & the market was nice, as was the museum & gardens which had lovely views over the port. The coffee shops were open too & it was nice to stroll along the seafront. On our return we probably had to wait about 15 minutes for the tender back to the ship & the somewhat choppy ride was quite fun up on the open top of the boat!

Hi capegull,

So pleased to read that you enjoyed your ride back to the ship "up-top"! I had a couple of similar tender rides in the Caribbean a few years back, loved them! :)

All best wishes :)

 

(sorry that I pointed out the mistake above :o . Bad pepper :o ).