Queen's Troubles in L.A.

[lansonlady]

Thankyou for your words of encouragement MELUVDASEA! I hope you are right!

 

Hers wishing you a fabulous time too!

[stowaway2k]

Blumin eck! as we say here in the North of England -

 

My family and I are on our first cruise (ever) from Rio to New York on the QM2 in April. After reading this thread I wish we weren't!

 

Ach! Criminey! (I'm not going to say what we say here in L.A.!)

 

Please don't let anybody's posts influence your own state of mind.

If you arrive in Rio determined to enjoy yourself, then you will. ;)

 

Heck, there may be a couple of glitches, but so what? :rolleyes:

There is no such thing as perfection, and you're not going to let anything get in the way of having a terrific time on this grand ship, are you? :)

 

Experienced travellers always keep an open mind, and always allow themselves to have a wonderful time.

[stowaway2k]

Step on over to my galleries http://freespaces.com/kjgallery/ and have a look at my photos from the cruise.

 

For some of you they may induce nightmares, :eek: but try to enjoy them anyway. ;)

Most of the photos are of the usual stuff, deck scenes and interior shots.

The wreck of the SS Catalina in Ensenada is interesting, as is the beached cargo ship that I taxied on down to gawk at.

[Kindlychap]

Only been on QM2 once...last fall with the Splendor of the Fall cruise...here's what we found 1) my "key" did not work 6 times during the 12 days on board...they always gave me a new one but ??? 2) They do need SERIOUS help with "crowd control"...the day to have your imigration papers checked was a night-mare...cris-cross lines with no staff to help control the flow, anger etc..it was like they knew it was bad and stayed away! 3) Tendering was difficult..I would think because they hadn't really done this going back and forth across the Atlantic? BUT...it is a beautiful ship, and the rest of the experience was wonderful..I felt like I was re-living the golden days of ocean liner traffic...or and by the way...we were in "steerage"...WHAT is up with using THAT term? LuAnn

 

Your key didn't work? Well, that is common with those dreadful card things. My mother managed to kill three in six days on the MS Midnatsol. She laughed about it and I laughed at her - it took moments to replace. If you want a real key try a real liner.

 

Immigration was dreadful - well, that's Americans for you. Every time I have sailed into an American port it has been dreadful. Anything else - piece of cake. Didn't need to see anyone in Norway or Canada. If you don't want this bother, don't sail in America.

 

Tendering was difficult. Think of the numbers. It's not an ideal way of getting ashore, but how do you expect to get 3000 people ashore in little boats in ten minutes?

 

Steerage - that's an old ocean liner term. I thought you wanted to relive the "golden days of ocean liner travel"?

[Merry_Sea_Witch]

<<I was in that terminal all day. Check-in staff was reduced beginning at 3:30 because the lines were clear and only a small percentage of passengers had not checked in. By 4 pm, there were very few, if any, waiting in any line (Grill or Gold) and at that time, there were more staff than passengers.>>

 

Sorry, but were we in the same terminal??? We arrived around 1 pm and did not set foot on the ship til 5 pm, I repeat 5 pm--that is almost 4 hours standing in the terminal! We would not sit as long as there were many elderly waiting for chairs. Additionally, we were not given numbers right away.There were still MANY people in line at 4:30. :(

[Happy ks]

Thanks, Kyle, for posting your pics, I've not put mine on my computer yet , nor have I taken my card in to have prints made (my preference). I enjoyed seeing the ship again and I do have to say, you had some shots of places we missed, just not enough time in 3 days to see it all.

 

For those of you who doubt what people experienced for embarkation, I suppose there is no way you would believe it unless you were there yourself. The person who states they were there and witnessed that embarkation was smooth, well, I have no answer for that, perhaps their watch had stopped. All I know is that at 3:30 pm, we were still in line and we had boarding number 14, the numbers, to my knowledge, were up into the 30's for boarding. They were calling new numbers about every 15-30 minutes. But, it is useless to argue the point and I certainly know that we, plus 6 out of the other 8 people at our table had the same experience.

 

We know to provide ourselves with water, magazines and a good dose of patience for any type of travel. Perhaps that is why we were able to easily put it behind us after we boarded. It's over, it was unpleasant, but not the end of the world, it didn't ruin our little cruise, just part of the afternoon.

 

For those who have keys that stop working, my husband has had problems with that before. It turns out the magnetic closure in his money holder was the culprit, so he just takes a travel wallet along now.

[yodacruiser]

I suppose the primary reason most of us visit this board is to seek information on a cruise we are thinking about taking or one we are about to take. I value all comments regardless of there tone or content, regardless if they have made one post or thousands (you have to start somewhere!!). Everyone will have different impressions or exposures to same events or situations. As well as different thresholds of patience and tolerance.

What is most important is that we continue to share all our experiences, good, bad or indifferent without attacking the author. Respect each others opinions, but also view them as just that…opinions.

OK, I am off my soap box to enjoy a JD and plan my next holiday

[sdb1s]

;)

 

We had the same trouble with the "key". It seems that they are very susceptible to any magnetism. Far more so than say a credit card. I was even told not to keep it with other cards, even though they have all survived no problem in my wallet!

 

On the immigration day on the Falls trip, we looked at the queue and went away for an hour. The queue was a bit smaller then, but moving quite quickly. Earlier two queues had formed, meeting ion the middle, which caused all sorts of problems. It would have haleped greatly if staff / signs had been posted at stategic points. Why they weren't, I do not know.

 

Re the tendering, we never had any real problems. Sometimes we had a short wait, other times we were on immediately. The only slight negative was that sometimes it took a bit of finding where to get off the ship, both when tendering and when at the quayside. For us, tendering all added to the fun, and of course enabled us to get a few superb photos of the QM2 from angles we probably would not have been able to achieve unless we had hired a boat especially!

 

Hopefully for you, the rest of the trip made up for the problems, as it certainly did for us.

 

Phileas

Who being British, is used to queues!

Calm down everone! I am slowly becoming disgusted with the attitudes displayed here...*****?

[travel-to-go]

Luv,

Why in the world would you accuse Critter of lying? They had negative experiences. I have seen similar things myself. With each successive screw up, you become less forgiving. Having worked in the customer service arena, I try to joke with those who had had insult added to injury and misfortune heaped on them. It DOES happen! That's part of old Murphy's law! I like to tell those folks that we try to lump all of our mistakes together, so we only inconvenience ONE customer instead of a bunch, and YOU're our favorite one, and we knew you could handle it. They usually laugh back, and I try to do what I can for them. But for you to invalidate someone's experience! How can you do that!

 

And the fact that YOU had a good experience, doesn't mean the people in the next cabin did. I have been on cruises from hell. And I always make the best of them, as it appears Critter did. They do happen!

 

As for the overbooking, It is true. I confirmed it with one of the res agents tonight. BTW, None of them were able to go to the meeting of the Mary's. They all had to work. I do not know how the overbooking happened.It may have been a MAJOR glitch. And I am sure they did not need to find 500 separate hotel rooms. Most of the folks were locals, remember? And I'd be willing to bet most of the rest travelled in pairs! And of course, the overbooking would certainly lead to other problems such as the trying to rearrange cabins, and boarding passes.

 

Now Luv? You owe Critter an aology. Tell herm you were just tired. I didn't get the sense of her (or him) being a boo-hiss don't go there type! I got the feeling it was a matter of fact relating of what happened! Kind of like the movie The Out-of-towners (The original with Sandy Dennis, and I think, Walter Mathau) "Oh My GAWD, We're being kidnapped!" In the worst midwest nasally tone you can muster) I've had similar experiences, and still had a great time. Now make nice-nice.

 

Karie,

who is being churlish at such childishness. You cannot argue with a person's experiences! Hmmph!

As my Mom used to say, "Fight nicely, children."

[wynkys]

Way to go Yodacruiser! Couldn't have said it better myself.

Let's continue to read the opinions expressed on these boards and then make up our own mind about what we do with the information provided.

[Boatdrill]

The person who states they were there and witnessed that embarkation was smooth, well, I have no answer for that, perhaps their watch had stopped. All I know is that at 3:30 pm, we were still in line and we had boarding number 14, the numbers, to my knowledge, were up into the 30's for boarding. They were calling new numbers about every 15-30 minutes.

 

 

I believe I now know where the disparity comes from in our experiences.

 

It sounds like you are referring to boarding procedures.

After passengers checked-in, they were directed to walk through the terminal, past the violin player, have their welcome aboard picture taken, and wait in the seating area for the shuttle to take them over to the ship. How long people waited there, I have no idea.

 

I'm talking about check-in (the OP was describing check-in, and I responded to that). Check-in (where passengers present their cruise/citizenship documents) did go smoothly and as quickly as possible with the exception of the short delay caused by the computer problem.

[crispycritter]

Thank you for your kind words and correct insight to what I was trying to share. Sharing is what this message board is for. I wanted those to read that just because it is an Ocean Liner, the biggest, grandest ship in the world – and a Cunard – doesn’t make it impervious to any faults or mistakes. Just don’t get on that ship and think like we did that everything would be a slice of heaven…because the heavens open up on us and poured.

I think it equally important to share that we never, EVER once complained to any crewmember on that ship. We never expressed our frustration or dissatisfaction. We are patient people and stood back and realized that complaining would not have resolved any problem. Yes, the safe was fixed, the leak in the walls was fixed, our “missing” steward was replace with the purser, we found our bottle of wine after a hunt, pass key was replaced, a twin bed made cuddling fun, we couldn’t teach the waiter personality and efficiency and beside he looked really frazzled, and you cant expect all blackjack dealers to love America. Maybe her words were a joke back and we just didn’t understand her

English humor. And heck we are dieting so the bad food was a blessing!

In fact we became giddy towards the end because how could it “pour” so much on a 3 day trip. We prepared ourselves for our luggage to be lost at disembarkation….just like Murphy’s law but check out was the easiest part of our trip and our luggage was right where it was suppose to be. How about that!

With all the incidences we experienced, we still had fun…it was a family reunion and we were so blessed to have all been together in the first place on this historical sailing.

Ps. Want to know how bad luck followed us?….remember that car accident on the way home? Well, my girlfriend ran over a piece of metal from it and got a flat tire…and then when she got home was shown how one of her kids overflowed the bathtub for 15 minutes and it leaked from upstairs on downstairs…and when we got home we were informed how our babysitter backed out of our driveway and hit the Jag across the street. With all our bad luck….everyone on that ship should be happy that it didn’t sink!

[travel-to-go]

Ps. Want to know how bad luck followed us?….remember that car accident on the way home? Well, my girlfriend ran over a piece of metal from it and got a flat tire…and then when she got home was shown how one of her kids overflowed the bathtub for 15 minutes and it leaked from upstairs on downstairs…and when we got home we were informed how our babysitter backed out of our driveway and hit the Jag across the street. With all our bad luck….everyone on that ship should be happy that it didn’t sink!

 

Critter, I swear you're worse than me!

please let me know where you are going to be , and I AM STAYING AWAY FROM THERE! <LOL>

 

Karie,

Who had a travel agent die on us while our return flights were uncomfirmed, a hotel burn down, we ended up with no place to stay, as everything fully booked, then lost a high rise hotel, and our guest house did NOT honor our reservations and PAID deposit (It had been sold), another had no water in one room and a big hole where the ground floor open-to-the-world air conditioner used to be, had-to-try restuarant was closed for two weeks, caverns way up in the hills said come on up- then were also closed THAT WHOLE DAY! (after we called ahead), had fast food fried chicken for Christmas dinner.ONLY PLACE OPEN, ate at Arby's on St Thomas New Year's day ONLY PLACE OPEN between there and St John (but they served beer!), got in a fight with husband, spent New Years eve crying, visitng someone else's house for a party, slept on the floor with no pillow or blanket one night, had to stay with a family who were all sick one night, got bumped january 2nd on the flight home, missed our connecting flight, had to stay in atlanta with no clothes or anything, got home(in t-shirts, no jackets) to four feet of snow in our driveway (Had to take a taxi since the family couldn't pick us up with our jackets in the car, a day late) and so much more

 

And it was one of the most memorable trips that I still remember with wistfulness!

Life is an adventure!

[phileas]

Calm down everone! I am slowly becoming disgusted with the attitudes displayed here...*****?

 

sdb1s, to what in my earlier post did you take exception? I wasn't angry or irate, and was just confirming some comments by a fellow passenger. If Cunard ever look at this forum, then they could regard the comments as constructive criticism. And as we both said, we had a great time!

 

If you are able to have a perfect time and absolutely nothing goes even just a little bit awry, then you must live in a different world to the one I know. I will re-iterate, we had a splendid cruise, which was not marred by a few minor irritations. An example of one of these were the bathrobes. Ours had been through the wash so many times, the arms were about 8'' short, and although we are slim, would only just meet in the middle! Yes we had them changed, although only after 24 hours as no others were "available". Did it spoil our cruise? Not a bit of it, especially when we were able to persude our room stewardess to get us the posh bathrobes not normally given to us lowly "steerage" passengers!

 

So sdb1s, I am still not sure if you quoted the right person when commenting, and perhaps you can agree that I do try to give a balanced view with my posts.

 

Phileas

Who, due to his tiny brain, has trouble understanding losts of things!:confused:

[phileas]

Critter, I swear you're worse than me!

please let me know where you are going to be , and I AM STAYING AWAY FROM THERE! <LOL>

 

Karie,

Who had a travel agent die on us while our return flights were uncomfirmed, a hotel burn down, we ended up with no place to stay, as everything fully booked, then lost a high rise hotel, and our guest house did NOT honor our reservations and PAID deposit (It had been sold), another had no water in one room and a big hole where the ground floor open-to-the-world air conditioner used to be, had-to-try restuarant was closed for two weeks, caverns way up in the hills said come on up- then were also closed THAT WHOLE DAY! (after we called ahead), had fast food fried chicken for Christmas dinner.ONLY PLACE OPEN, ate at Arby's on St Thomas New Year's day ONLY PLACE OPEN between there and St John (but they served beer!), got in a fight with husband, spent New Years eve crying, visitng someone else's house for a party, slept on the floor with no pillow or blanket one night, had to stay with a family who were all sick one night, got bumped january 2nd on the flight home, missed our connecting flight, had to stay in atlanta with no clothes or anything, got home(in t-shirts, no jackets) to four feet of snow in our driveway (Had to take a taxi since the family couldn't pick us up with our jackets in the car, a day late) and so much more

 

And it was one of the most memorable trips that I still remember with wistfulness!

Life is an adventure!

 

 

Karie, with a report like this, I'm a bit worried about what might happen when you come over for the pheasant! Still I'm looking forward to seeing the "serving wench" outfit as reported on in another post (to which I did comment). By the way, I think Cruzgirl may be a no show, as I didn't hear from her!

 

As you say, life is an adventure. Life is also all too short, so make the best of it.

 

Phileas

Who if he eats more fish, may end up with a bigger brain, so he can understand things better! (see post above);)

[Bollinge]

I have travelled to America around forty times and their immigration procedures are amongst the most time consuming in the world. But I find they have been improving over the last three or four years. I think they now have more immigration staff on at the airports.

Russia is even worse. I asked the Hotel Director of a Celebrity ship which was the worst country for immigration hassles and she mentioned India and Vietnam where it is commonplace for palms to have to be greased before the ship can be cleared!

P.S. The 9/11 suicide pilots had all cleared US immigration.

[MeLuvDaSea]

[quote name='travel-to-go']Luv,
Why in the world would you accuse Critter of lying?[/Quote]

I didn't mean to. I guess my fear of having a bad cruise on the QM2 makes me look at negative comments in a somewhat fearful way. I am sure everything happened exactly as he said it did.

[quote name='travel-to-go']Now Luv? You owe Critter an apology.[/quote]

Crispy, I apologize. I am sorry for your misfortune, and for my gross misinterpretation of your comment. :o

[Happy ks]

[quote name='Boatdrill']I believe I now know where the disparity comes from in our experiences.

It sounds like you are referring to [I]boarding[/I] procedures.
After passengers checked-in, they were directed to walk through the terminal, past the violin player, have their welcome aboard picture taken, and wait in the seating area for the shuttle to take them over to the ship. How long people waited there, I have no idea.

I'm talking about [I]check-in[/I] (the OP was describing check-in, and I responded to that). Check-in (where passengers present their cruise/citizenship documents) did go smoothly and as quickly as possible with the exception of the short delay caused by the computer problem.[/quote]

No, sorry, I was speaking of the [B][I]check-in[/I][/B] procedure, the one where we waited for a very long time. The [B][I]boarding[/I][/B] procedure was very smooth, although they would not allow us to walk the 100 yards from one building to the next. Sorry I did not exactly discriminate one word from the next, to me, it is all of the same process which is, getting from the parking lot to the ship, it took 3 hours, I promise you. Boarding took about 10-15 minutes, after a 2 hour and 45 minute wait to check in.

I was there and no matter how many times you tell me it didn't happen, I'm sure it was not a figment of my imagination.

[phileas]

[quote name='yodacruiser'][COLOR=black][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]I suppose the primary reason most of us visit this board is to seek information on a cruise we are thinking about taking or one we are about to take. I value all comments regardless of there tone or content, regardless if they have made one post or thousands (you have to start somewhere!!). Everyone will have different impressions or exposures to same events or situations. As well as different thresholds of patience and tolerance.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[COLOR=black][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]What is most important is that we continue to share all our experiences, good, bad or indifferent without attacking the author. Respect each others opinions, but also view them as just that…opinions.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[COLOR=black][FONT=Times New Roman]OK, I am off my soap box to enjoy a JD and plan my next holiday[/FONT][/COLOR][/quote]

Sorry YC, I forgot to say in my earlier posts well said. Live and let live!

Phileas
Who is getting worried that with all the IQ increasing fish he is eating, he may be mistaken for one of Karie's cats and sent to the kennels on Deck 12!:)

[2moose]

[quote name='mufi']We had ours many times over 39/45.

David.[/QUOTE]
if it wasn't for us americans you my friend would be speaking german!!!!

[emilygrace]

I was there on 2/22 and it WAS chaos. We got there at 1:30 (the stated boarding time for our deck on our docs) and we finally were in our cabin (excuse me, stateroom) at 5 pm. It took us a while to find someone in the terminal that could at least tell us which line we were supposed to be in, and then we found out we needed numbers, so one of us in our party went downstairs and got the #s. I felt that Cunard could have handled this better by at least keeping us informed (other than "thank you for you patience") and providing us with bottled water or SOMETHING, considering what we paid for this 3 night cruise. I have worked the check in for cruises, so I know what that side of it is like. That terminal handles this amount of people several times a week, so it could have gone more smoothly.

As for the room key/card....that happens to me all the time if I put it in my pocket. I did have to replace mine once on this cruise, so at that point I had them punch a hole in it and I wore it on a lanyard, except for formal night, when it was in my little purse, facing away from the magnet.

[guernseyguy]

[quote name='2moose']if it wasn't for us americans you my friend would be speaking german!!!![/quote]

Really, 2Moose! If it wasn't for us Brits you Yanks would be speaking French! (and if it wasn't for the French you'd be subjects of HM QEII, not George W.....)......and so on.....but one observation, my friend, terrorism did not start on 9/11 - in fact the UK survived a lot of it in the 70s & 80s - much of it funded from the US.......

Back on topic, I have actually found US Immigration a bit faster now what with all the fingerprinting & photo taking.....saves those questions one used to get asked......

Peter

[MollyBrown]

[quote name='mufi'][I]We really are getting over-over sensitive if we object to this term. Of course we know that "steerage" is not a modern term and passage on modern cruise ships cannot in any way be comared with the crossings endured by the ancesters of many Americans.[/I]

[I]But, hey, chill out, it's just a very useful way of describing the accommodation of those who do not choose to travel in the higher grades. How anyone could be offended by it's use is really beyond me.[/I]

[I]David.[/quote][/I]

Why not just call it Britannia? Steerage sounds like "poor miserable losers" to me. I know people traveled in steerage once upon a time, and they weren't losers, just hard working stiffs, but it still sounds derogatory to me. Perhaps it depends whose ancestors you're talking about.

I'm willing to bet you travel in the Grills, right? I doubt if you'd call Britannia steerage if you didn't. Ok, perhaps if I had all the money my family [U]used[/U] to have, I'd travel in the Grills too, because, at this stage, for me it seems like a waste of money, and Britannia seems more fun anyway.

However Britannia is nothing like the old steerage, the latter which just does not exist anymore. QM2 is far more expensive than any steerage accomodations back then.

Trouble is, everything has skyrocketed in price in today's world, and upped the ante. Now to be just a plain old millionaire means you're relegated to "steerage". And since when the hell did it become all about money anyway? It's [U]not[/U] really, but I think some like to think it is.

[elaine61]

[quote name='cunardfirsttimer']Funny you should mention your room key not working, because I had a similar issue at a hotel recently, and after the 3rd time, the person at the front desk recommended that I not store my room key anywhere near (a) my cell phone and (b) my credit cards, because it causes the room card data to be comprised so it won't work! Unfortunately, as a female, I carry everything in my handbag, so finding a place to put the room key separate from everything else did prove a challenge. However, when I did this, I no longer had issues with the card not working to open the door! Go figure....[/quote]

We were on the same trip as LuAnn along with two transatlantic crossings. On several occasions my daughters room key didn't work. It became a bit of a joke near to the end of our 25 days on board!!!!!!! She was told by staff that she was using the wrong type of evening bag and she should consider not using it!! Well this did not go down well with my self willed 22 year old!! Of course being in the middle of nowhere and with a cashless society on board she had no mobile phone or credit card with her. I don't think it was the fact that the key did not work on several occasions more the way she was treated when she went to report it!! I do unfortunately believe that they have a very poor customer relations onboard QM2. Like LuAnn says, QM2 is a lovely ship. Just a shame about the poor customer service IMO!!

Elaine

[elaine61]

[quote name='lansonlady']Blumin eck! as we say here in the North of England -

My family and I are on our first cruise (ever) from Rio to New York on the QM2 in April. After reading this thread I wish we weren't![/quote]

lansonlady

First of all despite all the issues we had with Cunard customer service pre cruise and during the cruise it cannot take away the beauty of the QM2 itself. We went as a family of 4 and had a great time despite some little niggles. We were on board for 25 days and we had a great time. I will not tell you about our niggles because there's no point. I guess the problems we experienced ourselves do not always happen on every cruise. Just go and enjoy.

Elaine