Long Overdue QM2 TA Review

[ClanMcLean]

Hello :)

 

First of all, many thanks to everyone on the board who has offered helpful advise prior to our trip. It was greatly appreciated.

 

A little background.... we are a family of 3 (6yr old boy) and recently returned to Scotland, arriving to the UK in style on the QM2.

 

We booked a Queens Grill suite (Q5) as it was only fractionally more than booking 2 x Club Balconies. We were also luck enough to benefit from the 'free unlimited drinks' promotion.

 

Communications prior to boarding were all efficient, especially with the Food & Beverage department re: my son's allergies. We organised the White Star Lugagge Service to collect one of our bags and this was well worth the price. White Star were excellent, but DHL (who collected the bag in NZ) did not fill me with confidence.

 

Having spent an enjoyable (but very hot!) 3 nights in New York, we transferred to Red Hook with plenty of time to spare an no issues. It appeared relatively quiet (11am) and it did not take long to fill out the paper work and be seated in the lounge.

 

By the time it came to board, I was positively giddy with excitement. Such a wonderful feeling when you board for the first time. It didn't take long to find our room and first impressions were good. On closer inspection, the previous occupant's toilet bag had been left in the bathroom cabinet. Not good.

We had a wonderful surprise of a bottle of champagne from our dear friends in NZ, in addition to the two bottle left by Cunard.

As our bags were still to arrive, we went for a wee wander around the ship. On or return our butler came to introduce himself. I gave him the bag I found in the bathroom and also mentioned that we were still awaiting our bag from White Star. He assured us not to worry.

Our suite was perfect for the sailaway. Couldn't have asked for better views. Just a lovely experience. At this point our White Star bag had still not appeared and I was starting to get twitchy, so called for the butler. He looked shocked when I said it hadn't arrived and ran off to find out what had happened. He returned quite promptly, with the bag.... minus it's luggage tags! Such a relief to have it though.

 

Queen's Grill

On the whole, we had a lovely experience in the Queen's Grill, with some fabulous food. It was a bit disappointing to have to repeat my son's food allergies to everyone for the first couple of days, and we had an incident where a smoothies that was prepared for him was cross contaminated, which resulted in a fairly instant vomiting session in the restaurant!

We loved our two main waiters, who remembered my son's favourite food and drinks. The head waiter was also lovely, as was the (i think) assistant Maitre D. The only person I took a strong dislike to was the Maitre D himself. He rarely welcomed us and I swear I never saw the man smile once during the whole trip! So different from the other lovely staff. I also wasn't impressed in how he dealt with the vomiting episode.

The chefs went out of their way to make some lovely danishes for my son, which were greatly appreciated and unexpected.

We also warmed to the fabulous sommelier.

 

Room Service / Butler / Housekeeping

This is where we felt the 'White Star Service' was a let down. One of our first requests to the butler was for a travel adapter. We had one with us, but an extra would have been handy. We were told we'd have to purchase it from the shop. Really? That's a fairly basic request that even a 3 star hotel code cope with!

We had issues ordering room service, and to cut a long story short, it was because or butler wasn't available, who we'd made aware (as he wasn't) of my son's allergies. It resulted in me speaking to the concierge, who in turn spoke to the food and beverage manager, and I get the impression our butler was pretty peeved about this, as he main of point of saying we should always order food from him. That's fine if he's on duty, but he never seemed to be around in the afternoons.

We had issues with our spa bath, in that it was filthy! A man came to change the filters, which did improve it, but not to the extent we'd choose to use it. Really quite poor!

 

 

Staff in the Commodore Club were lovely and brought out the packet of chips so I could check if they were OK for my son.

We found staff in the pub quite surly, which was shame as we liked to go to the quizzes there. Speaking of which, we did remarkably well for our wee team of 4 (Cunard Virgins) against a team of 6 (sometimes 7) veteran Cunarders who had clearly heard a lot of the questions before. The couple we teamed up with were lovely and we had a great time quizzing with them.

 

The Planetarium was a big hit. No issues getting tickets from the concierge desk.

 

I loved the spa bath on the Grills deck, and my son enjoyed the spa bath by the kids pool. Neither deck ever seemed busy.

 

As I mentioned, we had the unlimited drinks package, which was great! The only issue being that the accounts department didn't have a note of it on our reservation. This led to being charged (despite assurances from the concierge) and then refunded on our credit card, so we obviously got stung with the exchange rate and fees! Not a huge amount, but quite irksome.

 

When it came to disembark, we had breakfast at 7am an on returning to our room the housekeeper was in stripping the beds, despite the fact we still had a few things to pack away! I thought this was very poor. They seriously couldn't have waited 30mins when we were due to meet in the Grills Lounge for priority disembarkation?

 

Overall we had a really lovely time and we'll definitely sail with Cunard again. I have my eye on an Iceland and the Fjords trip ;) I don't think they live up to the 'White Star Service' they heavily advertise. Our suite was worth it for the space and flexible dining alone, so we'd always go for that option, despite the 4* star service.

 

I've posted lots of photos on my social media account '3tickets2theworld' :D

 

If you have any questions or comments, type away :)

[jimmybean]

Thank you for your comprehensive review, ClanMcLean. It has been fun anticipating your voyage (through your postings) and, then, hearing how much you enjoyed being on-board. Even with a few service flaws, it sounds like the QM2 captured your heart! Here's to many happy sailings in your future!

 

Jimmybean

[Salacia]

Hello Clan McLean.

 

First of all, I would like to compliment the three if you for your courage and stamina. It can't be easy to move from New Zealand to Scotland.

 

I hope you are all well and enjoying being back home. Hope you enjoy your next Cunard voyage.

 

Cheers,

Salacia

[CateW]

Great review and wonderful pictures on FB!

[I_r_a]

Thanx for sharing, CM

[Former Goalie]

Hello :)

 

First of all, many thanks to everyone on the board who has offered helpful advise prior to our trip. It was greatly appreciated.

 

A little background.... we are a family of 3 (6yr old boy) and recently returned to Scotland, arriving to the UK in style on the QM2.

 

We booked a Queens Grill suite (Q5) as it was only fractionally more than booking 2 x Club Balconies. We were also luck enough to benefit from the 'free unlimited drinks' promotion.

 

Communications prior to boarding were all efficient, especially with the Food & Beverage department re: my son's allergies. We organised the White Star Lugagge Service to collect one of our bags and this was well worth the price. White Star were excellent, but DHL (who collected the bag in NZ) did not fill me with confidence.

 

 

Having spent an enjoyable (but very hot!) 3 nights in New York, we transferred to Red Hook with plenty of time to spare an no issues. It appeared relatively quiet (11am) and it did not take long to fill out the paper work and be seated in the lounge.

 

By the time it came to board, I was positively giddy with excitement. Such a wonderful feeling when you board for the first time. It didn't take long to find our room and first impressions were good. On closer inspection, the previous occupant's toilet bag had been left in the bathroom cabinet. Not good.

We had a wonderful surprise of a bottle of champagne from our dear friends in NZ, in addition to the two bottle left by Cunard.

As our bags were still to arrive, we went for a wee wander around the ship. On or return our butler came to introduce himself. I gave him the bag I found in the bathroom and also mentioned that we were still awaiting our bag from White Star. He assured us not to worry.

Our suite was perfect for the sailaway. Couldn't have asked for better views. Just a lovely experience. At this point our White Star bag had still not appeared and I was starting to get twitchy, so called for the butler. He looked shocked when I said it hadn't arrived and ran off to find out what had happened. He returned quite promptly, with the bag.... minus it's luggage tags! Such a relief to have it though.

 

Queen's Grill

On the whole, we had a lovely experience in the Queen's Grill, with some fabulous food. It was a bit disappointing to have to repeat my son's food allergies to everyone for the first couple of days, and we had an incident where a smoothies that was prepared for him was cross contaminated, which resulted in a fairly instant vomiting session in the restaurant!

We loved our two main waiters, who remembered my son's favourite food and drinks. The head waiter was also lovely, as was the (i think) assistant Maitre D. The only person I took a strong dislike to was the Maitre D himself. He rarely welcomed us and I swear I never saw the man smile once during the whole trip! So different from the other lovely staff. I also wasn't impressed in how he dealt with the vomiting episode.

The chefs went out of their way to make some lovely danishes for my son, which were greatly appreciated and unexpected.

We also warmed to the fabulous sommelier.

 

Room Service / Butler / Housekeeping

This is where we felt the 'White Star Service' was a let down. One of our first requests to the butler was for a travel adapter. We had one with us, but an extra would have been handy. We were told we'd have to purchase it from the shop. Really? That's a fairly basic request that even a 3 star hotel code cope with!

We had issues ordering room service, and to cut a long story short, it was because or butler wasn't available, who we'd made aware (as he wasn't) of my son's allergies. It resulted in me speaking to the concierge, who in turn spoke to the food and beverage manager, and I get the impression our butler was pretty peeved about this, as he main of point of saying we should always order food from him. That's fine if he's on duty, but he never seemed to be around in the afternoons.

We had issues with our spa bath, in that it was filthy! A man came to change the filters, which did improve it, but not to the extent we'd choose to use it. Really quite poor!

 

 

Staff in the Commodore Club were lovely and brought out the packet of chips so I could check if they were OK for my son.

We found staff in the pub quite surly, which was shame as we liked to go to the quizzes there. Speaking of which, we did remarkably well for our wee team of 4 (Cunard Virgins) against a team of 6 (sometimes 7) veteran Cunarders who had clearly heard a lot of the questions before. The couple we teamed up with were lovely and we had a great time quizzing with them.

 

The Planetarium was a big hit. No issues getting tickets from the concierge desk.

 

I loved the spa bath on the Grills deck, and my son enjoyed the spa bath by the kids pool. Neither deck ever seemed busy.

 

As I mentioned, we had the unlimited drinks package, which was great! The only issue being that the accounts department didn't have a note of it on our reservation. This led to being charged (despite assurances from the concierge) and then refunded on our credit card, so we obviously got stung with the exchange rate and fees! Not a huge amount, but quite irksome.

 

When it came to disembark, we had breakfast at 7am an on returning to our room the housekeeper was in stripping the beds, despite the fact we still had a few things to pack away! I thought this was very poor. They seriously couldn't have waited 30mins when we were due to meet in the Grills Lounge for priority disembarkation?

 

Overall we had a really lovely time and we'll definitely sail with Cunard again. I have my eye on an Iceland and the Fjords trip ;) I don't think they live up to the 'White Star Service' they heavily advertise. Our suite was worth it for the space and flexible dining alone, so we'd always go for that option, despite the 4* star service.

 

I've posted lots of photos on my social media account '3tickets2theworld' :D

 

If you have any questions or comments, type away :)

Great pictures, beautiful family! Thank you for adding to the anticipation of our crossing next year!

[alc13]

We are just back from a trial run on Crystal, and the whole time we kept saying to each other that it didn't compare to the Grills (we've done PG twice, and got a lucky upgrade to QG once). So I am disappointed to read about some of the shortcomings you experienced. Still, I'm glad you had a lovely time overall.

 

We were underwhelmed when it came to our butler on our QG upgrade cruise. Maybe he knew we were interlopers. (Kidding, I think.)

 

I posted a review of our Crystal cruise if anyone is interested. We liked it, but prefer Cunard.