QM2 Crossing review

[WantedOnVoyage]

Personally, I'd rather Cunard value me... the passenger, in Britannia or QG or anything in between more than smoozing a couple of "vloggers" (a term I was mercifully ignorant of before QUEEN ANNE).  Indeed, Cunard decided to build a new ship, should have know the impact on staffing and ensured it did not effect passengers, especially on its existing fleet let alone its flagship.  We were more than happy with the service we got aboard QV last month but apparently they denuded the flagship of many experienced and valued staff and apparently in disdain for QM2 passengers' experience.  Even a pair of "vloggers".

[Victoria2]

3 minutes ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

Personally, I'd rather Cunard value me... the passenger, in Britannia or QG or anything in between more than smoozing a couple of "vloggers" (a term I was mercifully ignorant of before QUEEN ANNE).  Indeed, Cunard decided to build a new ship, should have know the impact on staffing and ensured it did not effect passengers, especially on its existing fleet let alone its flagship.  We were more than happy with the service we got aboard QV last month but apparently they denuded the flagship of many experienced and valued staff and apparently in disdain for QM2 passengers' experience.  Even a pair of "vloggers".

We were told by a senior member of staff, Queen Anne benefitted from 30% staff from each ship plus 10%new staff.

 

How true that is I have no idea but if you were happy with the staff status quo/service on QV, what went wrong on QM2?

[S1971]

10 minutes ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

Personally, I'd rather Cunard value me... the passenger, in Britannia or QG or anything in between more than smoozing a couple of "vloggers" (a term I was mercifully ignorant of before QUEEN ANNE).

 

I'm sure they value all their passengers, but given the worldwide audience vloggers give them, I'm sure they are valued as passengers too, be it good or bad reviews it's now part of cruising and cruiselines are recognising that.

[Patria21]

12 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

We were told by a senior member of staff, Queen Anne benefitted from 30% staff from each ship plus 10%new staff.

 

How true that is I have no idea but if you were happy with the staff status quo/service on QV, what went wrong on QM2?

I can tell you what I heard and what I saw. What I was told by a maitre d is that Cunard started at 30% and then kept taking more until his supervisor told the company that he could not spare any more staff. As for what I saw, on the last leg we lost our waiter, our sommelier and our head waiter. The sommelier switch was fine. The head waiter never even bothered to introduce himself, let alone check on the table, and the very personable new waiter was not just new to our table, he was completely new to Cunard. Let's just say he was young and sweet and he tried very hard but he was woefully under-trained. It was a problem repeated in almost every bar. But I haven't been on since the end of April. When we return in July we'll see if things have stabilized.

[*Miss G*]

43 minutes ago, Kordy said:

Is this really a big problem that experienced and good crew members from QM2 got transferred to Queen Anne?  And if so, is this temporary, will they come back?   Maybe we have to wait a few months for service levels to stabilize again?

 

Or maybe it's already stabilized and it's all exaggerated ?

 

On the June 9th-15th crossing, I did not experience this problem.  For the most part, I thought they were fully staffed until this week when I read these posts!  My Britannia waiter, Jimmy, said he had been on the QM2 for 20 years!  He gave some good tips and was able to provide context and background on certain areas of the ship, such as the Boardwalk Café.  Luckily, I was blissfully unaware of any staffing problem.  Perhaps because I had no idea of the experience prior to my own, as this was my first time on QM2.

[vieux_carre]

12 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

provide context and background on certain areas of the ship, such as the Boardwalk Café

Curious what he said…

[*Miss G*]

2 minutes ago, vieux_carre said:

Curious what he said…

 

Apparently, this big empty space used to house tables and chairs, and included a food and beverage service.  He used to work in this area as part of his gradual move to the Britannia restaurant.

 

 

[JT1101]

That space is not a permanent restaurant area. Sometimes in summery weather it may have some tables as a standup cafe but it is not permanent. I've been on Winter TAs and it is not open for example. 

[Host Hattie]

A sea day sailing to Southampton on a Mediterranean round trip last June

[Pushpit]

As far as I can tell the Boardwalk Café on deck 12 goes via that rectangular hatch on the right of the first photo above. The menus are displayed on the left of that, and it's burgers and hot dogs essentially. I don't think I've ever seen it open on a Crossing, and usually the combination of the ship's progress and the wind makes it impractical on Crossings. But it is open on things like Caribbean and Mediterranean jaunts between ports, when the ship is typically just ambling along and the weather more congenial.

[Judyrem]

30 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

A sea day sailing to Southampton on a Mediterranean round trip last June

That's the ticket!

[TheOldBear]

26 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

As far as I can tell the Boardwalk Café on deck 12 goes via that rectangular hatch on the right of the first photo above. The menus are displayed on the left of that, and it's burgers and hot dogs essentially. I don't think I've ever seen it open on a Crossing, and usually the combination of the ship's progress and the wind makes it impractical on Crossings. But it is open on things like Caribbean and Mediterranean jaunts between ports, when the ship is typically just ambling along and the weather more congenial.

On our 2017 eastbound crossing, on the last sea day they were preparing to open it [scant wind over deck, tables chairs and umbrellas rigged] then a line of thunderstorms popped up and we headed down to the Golden Lion as the crew began striking the umbrellas.

[Pushpit]

55 minutes ago, TheOldBear said:

On our 2017 eastbound crossing, on the last sea day they were preparing to open it [scant wind over deck, tables chairs and umbrellas rigged] then a line of thunderstorms popped up and we headed down to the Golden Lion as the crew began striking the umbrellas.

Which month of the year was that?

[TheOldBear]

44 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

Which month of the year was that?

September - it was the 2017 NSO crossing

[D&N]

I wonder if his points make sense or it's just sensationalism: 

@Kordy

 

It's been discussed on this thread previously.

A bit of both.

They travelled on 16th May. There's another vlog in progress relating to 12th May four day to Hamburg and back with similar issues. And there were comments on CC about poor service at that time.

However I watched a German video covering May 14th from Hamburg to May 19th New York and those people didn't seem to have same experience travelling in same type of cabin, but I think on fixed rather than open dining.

More recent comments here have been better, so it's probably mainly down to staff issues related to experienced staff being transferred to Queen Anne and newbies needing trained up.

[Tattycoram]

"However I watched a German video covering May 14th from Hamburg to May 19th New York"

 

If it's not onerous, could you please post a link?  I couldn't find this YouTube video in my quick search last night.

[DukeBeetle24]

I too was intrigued with @D&N's mention of a video providing a different perspective - I think I may have found it, but please correct me if I am wrong:

 

 

[D&N]

17 minutes ago, Tattycoram said:

"However I watched a German video covering May 14th from Hamburg to May 19th New York"

 

If it's not onerous, could you please post a link?  I couldn't find this YouTube video in my quick search last night.

Here it is but my arithmetic was a bit off! 😀 They would have disembarked May 23rd.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 02:01 PM by D&N

[King Amo]

But were they dressed properly?😉

[D&N]

6 minutes ago, King Amo said:

But were they dressed properly?😉

If you mean the Germans; we only see a young male in the video. He looks to be suitably dressed for his activities when he is in shot. They appear to be dining on deck 2 of Britannia. Some of the blurred folk in the background on what should have been a smart attire night seem to be formally dressed. There are a few shots of him in a well fitting dinner suit!

 

I should add in case anyone isn't aware; on YT there is an option to activate auto translation in subtitles. Not that there was a huge amount of commentary.

Edited Tuesday at 02:11 PM by D&N

[Kordy]

57 minutes ago, D&N said:

I wonder if his points make sense or it's just sensationalism: 

@Kordy

 

It's been discussed on this thread previously.

A bit of both.

They travelled on 16th May. There's another vlog in progress relating to 12th May four day to Hamburg and back with similar issues. And there were comments on CC about poor service at that time.

However I watched a German video covering May 14th from Hamburg to May 19th New York and those people didn't seem to have same experience travelling in same type of cabin, but I think on fixed rather than open dining.

More recent comments here have been better, so it's probably mainly down to staff issues related to experienced staff being transferred to Queen Anne and newbies needing trained up.

 

Thank you @D&N ... does this mean that in general you get a somewhat better experience with Fixed Dining on QM2 than with Open Dining?  I'm sailing as a couple so will just want a table for 2, but was thinking that on the Deck 3 (open dining), the tables are so close together and they bundle the tables as one large order (so things take longer) so maybe if we do Fixed Dining on Deck 2, then we are more likely to have a separate table with more space around us?  And the experience will be better/more private?

[exlondoner]

1 minute ago, Kordy said:

 

Thank you @D&N ... does this mean that in general you get a somewhat better experience with Fixed Dining on QM2 than with Open Dining?  I'm sailing as a couple so will just want a table for 2, but was thinking that on the Deck 3 (open dining), the tables are so close together and they bundle the tables as one large order (so things take longer) so maybe if we do Fixed Dining on Deck 2, then we are more likely to have a separate table with more space around us?  And the experience will be better/more private?

I don’t think fixed dining will affect the proximity of other tables, that is just something you have to accept as possible. However, with fixed dining you will get the same waiting staff every night and they will quickly get to know you and your preferences.

[JT1101]

I kinda like fixed dining anyway, as it lends to the classical experience. 

[Kordy]

When I do fixed dining on QM2.... what happens if I'm late or have to switch it up to a later seating?  Can I just turn-up late or use the Deck 3 instead?

[Pushpit]

4 minutes ago, Kordy said:

When I do fixed dining on QM2.... what happens if I'm late or have to switch it up to a later seating?  Can I just turn-up late or use the Deck 3 instead?

If you are just a little late they will be able to work around that, particularly on the second sitting. If you want to switch to the other sitting time then you need to ask the restaurant front desk for that. The system is not really intending people to just switch around, you are supposed to stick to the allocated sitting. But if they could not accommodate you on deck 2 they may well invite you to go up to deck 3. But you would go to deck 2 initially, they may have an empty table elsewhere. If all else fails there is always Kings Court.