QV May 2023 Princess Grill Cut-Backs and General Impressions

[esrs]

6 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

I wouldn’t worry about the odd ignorant passenger. There are quite a few mask wearers around the ship and it’s a personal choice to do so. Just in case you come across similar ignorance, you’re well armed now and can have a suitable put down ready.

 

Some of the hygiene habits of a few passengers is questionable but t'was always thus and will continue to be so, sadly.

We're having a great time apart from that one morning so no worries. 

[LouChamp]

Aloha.  I still wear a mask from time to time in crowded situations because my mother at 90 with dementia never had Covid. That said every now and then a knucklehead will approach and comment that the masks don’t help. I politely reply that they are correct and I know. They look so confused as I continue on my way 😂 

[sandjango]

On 5/30/2023 at 12:47 PM, Victoria2 said:

No, you’re not paranoid. Loads of coughing onboard which of course, doesn’t mean Covid but I would take a punt not everyone will be as diligent as exlondoner, and check to see their status re Covid.

We will continue to observe care in perceived crowds and avoid them if needs be.

[sandjango]

Maybe the Cunard Cough

[RJChatsworth]

Docked in Holyhead today.  Must be the biggest dump I have ever been to in the UK.  They can’t even keep the streets clean.  The Town Crier was meeting everyone - they should have given him a brush!  The only good thing about this place is its proximity to Snowdonia.  Wish we’d taken a trip!

[exlondoner]

18 minutes ago, RJChatsworth said:

Docked in Holyhead today.  Must be the biggest dump I have ever been to in the UK.  They can’t even keep the streets clean.  The Town Crier was meeting everyone - they should have given him a brush!  The only good thing about this place is its proximity to Snowdonia.  Wish we’d taken a trip!

In the end we didn’t go ashore, because the shuttle bus service was somewhat chaotic and queues were large. But, as the Captain said, it was a maiden call, and they’ve given lots of feedback for improvement. Our neighbours in the dining room, who did go ashore, were quite laudatory, mentioning the extremely friendly people, and an admirable if small maritime museum.

[NE John]

I just saw on YouTube where a vlogger on a very recent TA showed a PG alc menu and Roast Chicken has been added. Duck, beef Chateaubriand, and Dorsey Lamb chops still offered to be carved at table side. Turbot still on alc. Cheese Trolley also on menu. Not sure about cheese selections. 
All looks good to me but the vlogger said they ended up with two ounces of lobster meat from the daily special of lobster. She said the meal was great but the amount of lobster lame. 
Looks like roast chicken on PG alc menu is a new addition, not sure. 

[RJChatsworth]

Exlondoner - glad you are out and about again.  Our waiter began the conversation at dinner this evening with, ‘I’d be surprised if we went there again’ until I pointed out in August. The port shuttle was a bit chaotic but I have never seen one full-up coming back at 11am before!

[Host Hattie]

What a shame as there are some beautiful spots in North Wales. What excursions were offered?

[oskidunker]

1 hour ago, NE John said:

I just saw on YouTube where a vlogger on a very recent TA showed a PG alc menu and Roast Chicken has been added. Duck, beef Chateaubriand, and Dorsey Lamb chops still offered to be carved at table side. Turbot still on alc. Cheese Trolley also on menu. Not sure about cheese selections. 
All looks good to me but the vlogger said they ended up with two ounces of lobster meat from the daily special of lobster. She said the meal was great but the amount of lobster lame. 
Looks like roast chicken on PG alc menu is a new addition, not sure. 

They will give you as little as they can get away with hoping you will continue to pay the ransom to book the grills even though they are giving you less for your money. Only when people refuse will they consider changes for the positive.  At this point I would not book a grill.people are only loyal to cruise lines up to a certain point many have left the mass market lines because of cut backs and an overall degraded experience. They dont care .they want younger people who wont care and just want to get drunk and do yoga 

[RJChatsworth]

1 hour ago, Host Hattie said:

What a shame as there are some beautiful spots in North Wales. What excursions were offered?

There were trips to Snowdonia and the Ffestiniog railway.  I was hoping the one up Snowden would have been offered but it wasn’t.  It had been previously but then Holyhead was bypassed because I think damage to the quay.

 

The quay is very narrow but there seems to be some evidence of it being widened.  When we got to the bottom of one of the two gangways off the ship we were stopped.  The coach people were telling the ships crew to stop passengers getting off because the quay was overcrowded and safety might be compromised.  An arriving coach had to proceed along a narrow gap between ship hoarding on one side and queueing passengers on the other.  The coach had to go further down the quay to turn around and then come back to pick up passengers.  There didn’t look to be enough room for more than one coach at a time.

 

Once on the coach you went down a narrow causeway over water, perhaps one quarter to one half mile long, being one way at a time with no passing places and other traffic.  This made the whole system somewhat slow and Maiden port or not it is hard to see how this could be much improved.

[exlondoner]

10 hours ago, NE John said:

I just saw on YouTube where a vlogger on a very recent TA showed a PG alc menu and Roast Chicken has been added. Duck, beef Chateaubriand, and Dorsey Lamb chops still offered to be carved at table side. Turbot still on alc. Cheese Trolley also on menu. Not sure about cheese selections. 
All looks good to me but the vlogger said they ended up with two ounces of lobster meat from the daily special of lobster. She said the meal was great but the amount of lobster lame. 
Looks like roast chicken on PG alc menu is a new addition, not sure. 

This is last week’s QG alc.

 

[exlondoner]

8 hours ago, RJChatsworth said:

There were trips to Snowdonia and the Ffestiniog railway.  I was hoping the one up Snowden would have been offered but it wasn’t.  It had been previously but then Holyhead was bypassed because I think damage to the quay.

 

The quay is very narrow but there seems to be some evidence of it being widened.  When we got to the bottom of one of the two gangways off the ship we were stopped.  The coach people were telling the ships crew to stop passengers getting off because the quay was overcrowded and safety might be compromised.  An arriving coach had to proceed along a narrow gap between ship hoarding on one side and queueing passengers on the other.  The coach had to go further down the quay to turn around and then come back to pick up passengers.  There didn’t look to be enough room for more than one coach at a time.

 

Once on the coach you went down a narrow causeway over water, perhaps one quarter to one half mile long, being one way at a time with no passing places and other traffic.  This made the whole system somewhat slow and Maiden port or not it is hard to see how this could be much improved.

They hold let people walk. That would save a lot of coach passengers. As you say it’s not far. 

[Host Hattie]

This is the first season that berth has been used for cruise ships, Holyhead used to be a tender port.

It sounds as if there's still some work to be done to improve the experience. 

[Victoria2]

23 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

This is the first season that berth has been used for cruise ships, Holyhead used to be a tender port.

It sounds as if there's still some work to be done to improve the experience. 

The announcement was a bit muffled for us but I’m sure the Captain, in his sail away chat indicated they will have a better system in place for the next visit.

[exlondoner]

39 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

The announcement was a bit muffled for us but I’m sure the Captain, in his sail away chat indicated they will have a better system in place for the next visit.

He did. He said they had made a lot of suggestions to the port authorities.

[NE John]

14 hours ago, oskidunker said:

They dont care .they want younger people who wont care and just want to get drunk and do yoga

It’s a big leap to say that adding roast chicken and getting a smaller lobster portion in the Grills leads to Cunard turning into a millennial yoga and booze cruise. 

[Victoria2]

23 minutes ago, NE John said:

It’s a big leap to say that adding roast chicken and getting a smaller lobster portion in the Grills leads to Cunard turning into a millennial yoga and booze cruise. 

Golly, I hope not. Tried yoga once. Had to visit my physio after the one and only session!🙂

[oskidunker]

2 hours ago, NE John said:

It’s a big leap to say that adding roast chicken and getting a smaller lobster portion in the Grills leads to Cunard turning into a millennial yoga and booze cruise. 

I was mainly referring to Princess and other main stream lines. I don't see Cunard there yet.  

[NE John]

4 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

I was mainly referring to Princess and other main stream lines. I don't see Cunard there yet.  

Yoga and booze sounds more like Virgin Voyages cruise line. 

[alibabacruisers]

7 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

Golly, I hope not. Tried yoga once. Had to visit my physio after the one and only session!🙂

Had to laugh with you on this one!  We were on another cruise line once and tried the stretching class thinking that would be so nice and relaxing.......wrong...lol!  We could hardly move for days!  😉

 

[RJChatsworth]

After an enjoyable voyage we walked straight off the ship at 0815 this morning and a few minutes later we were leaving the terminal having identified our luggage.  We had departed via Mayflower terminal and returned to Ocean terminal. I was relieved that CPS had moved the cars to Ocean terminal as the terminal change was a surprise to me.  Perhaps I had missed an announcement!

 

I haven’t worked out the changes in disembarkation arrangements.  Previously we were given a time by the Purser’s office for, say 0915, which was subsequently changed by the loyalty staff in Future Cruises to around 0830.

 

On this occasion we were given a time on 0950 for disembarkation by the Purser’s office. I didn’t receive a subsequent change to an earlier time by the loyalty staff.  Being in Princess Grill I spoke to Concierge.  I was told it was a floor-by-floor disembarkation time now and the loyalty staff were not involved.  I asked if it was possible to change the 0950 disembarkation time.  I was asked what time I should like to leave.  I suggested a time of 0815 and an amendment of some kind was made on the Concierge computer.

 

We went down at 0815 and disembarkation had just begun.  We hadn’t been given replacement disembarkation luggage labels and there seemed to be no system to check whether we were queue jumping.  We just showed our key cards as if getting off at any of the ports visited.  Could everyone have just turned up at 0815 creating untold chaos?  Am I missing something?

[Victoria2]

35 minutes ago, RJChatsworth said:

After an enjoyable voyage we walked straight off the ship at 0815 this morning and a few minutes later we were leaving the terminal having identified our luggage.  We had departed via Mayflower terminal and returned to Ocean terminal. I was relieved that CPS had moved the cars to Ocean terminal as the terminal change was a surprise to me.  Perhaps I had missed an announcement!

 

I haven’t worked out the changes in disembarkation arrangements.  Previously we were given a time by the Purser’s office for, say 0915, which was subsequently changed by the loyalty staff in Future Cruises to around 0830.

 

On this occasion we were given a time on 0950 for disembarkation by the Purser’s office. I didn’t receive a subsequent change to an earlier time by the loyalty staff.  Being in Princess Grill I spoke to Concierge.  I was told it was a floor-by-floor disembarkation time now and the loyalty staff were not involved.  I asked if it was possible to change the 0950 disembarkation time.  I was asked what time I should like to leave.  I suggested a time of 0815 and an amendment of some kind was made on the Concierge computer.

 

We went down at 0815 and disembarkation had just begun.  We hadn’t been given replacement disembarkation luggage labels and there seemed to be no system to check whether we were queue jumping.  We just showed our key cards as if getting off at any of the ports visited.  Could everyone have just turned up at 0815 creating untold chaos?  Am I missing something?

Glad you got your time sorted.

 

Ours was a bit of a beggars muddle. I shall be 'having words' in order to make sure the right hand knows what the left has said the next time we're on QV.

[Host Hattie]

Welcome back and thanks for all your posts from the ship.

[Victoria2]

13 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

Welcome back and thanks for all your posts from the ship.

I will do a very mini thoughts and thunks on QG  on QV. For the most part, it will be very positive, for the most part. 🙂