Jump to content

njpln

Members
  • Posts

    116
  • Joined

About Me

  • Location
    Florida, USA

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

njpln's Achievements

Cool Cruiser

Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. A couple of comments after reading through this thread. 1. Buy a bowtie at the ship’s shop because they typically have them and they’re not all plain black ones. And they are pre-tied. No problem if you haven’t learned to tie a bow tie…. 2. Anyone who is concerned about how many suitcases they have to bring, why not try using one of the luggage forwarding services? There are several. We’ve had great success with Luggage Forward, especially with Cunard since they partner. It’s not cheap but we find it’s the best way to get all our dressy clothes on the ship with having to lug another suitcase. 3. If you’re in either of the grills, you can order from the dinner menu earlier that day, and it will be delivered course by course to your cabin. In Queens Grill, it will be delivered by your butler. Embrace everything that Cunard offers. It’s different than any American cruise line. We love it , but it’s definitely not for everyone.
  2. We used it for wool trousers and wool tux pants. On two QE cruises. The trousers were sent on both cruises! I think it was better than the dry cleaning we have at home. Honestly. I’m not getting paid for this.🤣 I am careful to say, wool, because other fabrics might react differently than wool. I have no clue. I’m just really pleased with how my husband’s trousers came out when he had made a mess of things at dinner!
  3. Re tipping w OBC. Two years ago, after Covid, we started taking extra cash with us to tip. We’ve gotten some excellent service from Butlers, stewards, maitreDs, head waiters and waitstaff both in the dining room and in lounges. We have had some odd occurrences that put us in weird situations and everyone helped us out. Maybe our situations are not so weird ? Our experience is that mostly everyone is wonderful on Cunard. (The first room steward we had in Princess Grill was terrible but we’ve done 8 cruises with Cunard now, and we love everyone else.) BTW, in all our cruising since Covid, on all cruise lines we’ve used, we’ve been tipping cash to our daily attendants and servers, and anyone who goes above and beyond. It’s now on our packing list to make sure we have the right currency when we cruise. I have to be honest and say we don’t trust that if we assign tipping with our OBC that it gets to the persons… In any cruise line. What can I say?
  4. HAL does. we are cruising Alaska this summer with them, and I was able to use our OBC, the pittance that it was, towards excursions. Not sure about others.
  5. Thanks. We cruise in the grilles and always end up with lots of OBC at the end of our Cunard cruises. I don’t want to leave it there but I’d rather spend it on things we actually spend money on, than just shop. It’s one of the very few things I complain about re Cunard. This next cruise I will try the canceling and rebooking.
  6. We travel on several different cruise lines as well as Cunard is the only one who still doesn’t let you use OBC to book excursions etc. prior to the cruise. Am I the only one who finds this annoying? I’ve heard you can book and then reverse/ rebook on the cruise, but if you book a popular excursion, will your spots disappear if there is a waitlist? Curious how others feel and if there is something I don’t know about to circumvent this issue. thanks, Norma
  7. As a Floridian with kettles that shut off automatically,😉, I want to note as an aside, that on Cunard, we always get kettles in our cabin, and the water seems hotter!! I’m not sure if it’s because of the higher voltage, or what, because water boils at the same temperature everywhere….or does it🧐? Anyway, we were once able to get a kettle in our room from our butler on Celebrity. Just once… we’ve never asked Holland America as I’ve gotten accustomed to bringing a large insulated Tumbler, putting my own teabags in it and getting hot water from the Lido deck. No, it’s not as hot as coming directly from a kettle, but it does seem to work, my tea never tastes weak. All this from an American, who probably doesn’t know what good tea really is🤣🤣🤣…
  8. You do not have to use the app if you don’t want to in the US, and according to the online info it appears similar in the UK. They provide this information: So I would think you can send an email with the information attached. I did it 2 weeks ago and they added the obc in about 4 days. They emailed to let me know. Good luck.
  9. We’ve cruised QG and PG, love them both…main difference for us is cabin size and butler, although there are several more. Check the website. There ARE diy laundry facilities on most floors at no cost, detergent provided gratis. Great for every day clothes. Best time to use is on shore days when you return to the ship. Also you can send out for pressing, laundry or dry cleaning for a charge….We usually get so much OBC in QG that we send out the items we can’t wash and it’s not big deal. Yes the beverage package is included up to $12.50 I believe, and most popular drinks are under that price point. Anyway, their drink prices are very reasonable compared to other cruise lines. This applies to alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. So things like specialty coffees and bottled water are included. In your room, you’ll have a small refrigerator and your butler will stock it per your choices with two bottles of alcohol or two bottles of wine if you prefer. They will also stock it with sodas. Not only is there no service charge for en-suite dining, you can order from the QG restaurant menu and your butler will serve you, course by course if you like. Gratuities are also covered. Although we like to reward good service and give addl tips at the end of the cruise. The QG restaurant has a lovely menu every night. There’s only one thing we don’t love and that’s the beef, the steaks on Cunard. We Americans are used to much more tender quality of steak. We also don’t go to the veranda restaurant—we find there’s plenty of things on the QG menu. The best meat on the menu is when they have venison. It’s outrageously delicious. And the lamb is good also. They serve duck, sole, and lamb table side. It’s so nice. Last point, the grills lounge is nice to sit in the morning for a specialty coffee or a pre dinner drink. It’s open all day and the concierge is located there, his/her hours will be posted. Overall we love the grills and recommend you try them at least once!
  10. We have been on six Cunard cruises and seven HAL cruises. We typically only choose HAL because we think that it’s got a great itinerary. Other than that, HAL is a decent cruise line and it’s quiet so you get a good night’s sleep. Entertainment is OK. Food is OK. Because we mostly travel in a suite, it’s disappointing that HAL doesn’t have a separate dining room for the suites. But we have been in the main dining room on both cruise lines, and they were fairly similar in our opinion. We choose Cunard for the itinerary and the cruising experience. The experience is totally different and our opinion. It harkens back to a different age of cruising pre-2000….. just go to afternoon tea one day in the Queen’s room. And then there is the dress code for evenings. On HAL, 10% of the people “dress” for dinner, On Cunard, 90% of the people follow that suggested dress code. (These numbers are based on my observations. Yes, there are people who complain that no one dresses up, but really most people who cruise on Cunard choose to follow the dress code) When you’re on HAL, dressing up is not the same as on Cunard. People really do dress for the evening on Cunard. We actually take a separate suitcase with the dinner clothes and we are not alone. For HAL and other American cruise lines, I would say we dress “resort dressy”, which is more like Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer. On Cunard, we dress like people did 25-30 years go. It’s definitely a different feel. Cocktail or formal…. Another difference is that on Cunard you never feel like any place you go is crowded. You can always find someplace to sit in any lounge you go to. I can’t say the same for HAL, or Celebrity, or NCL or any other cruise lines we have traveled on. I would say, the quality of the food is similar for the MDR and buffet, although, for instance, in the Buffet, you will find lots of British favorite dishes that you would not find an American cruise line. Which makes sense… we are American but we enjoy having something different! The entertainment on both lines is decent, and we have had good speakers on both lines. I think the dancing is better on Cunard. Cunard in general has more options to listen to music on the ship. And I hope that HAL has not gotten rid of Lincoln Center on board because that was one of the things we enjoyed most. One of my favorite features of Cunard is that they actually have laundry rooms on the ships. So on a long cruise, you don’t have to pack so much because you can actually do laundry yourself. You can also send out items for cleaning or pressing as needed. I hope you enjoy your cruise on Cunard, it will be slightly different than Holland America. But we have never had a bad cruise after traveling on seven different cruise lines. It’s what you make of it. Just be open to something different!
  11. We cruised last September on QE and noticed the lack of dance hosts which we attributed to Covid. And there was a lot of Covid on that cruise. We also noticed the mix of generic dancing with ballroom dancing. And there was a lot more happening at the yacht club, than on our previous cruises on QE. I’m not a big fan of putting the generic dancing on the ballroom floor, but it’s great to have a disco-like environment in the yacht club. This year my husband is awaiting hip surgery when we come home from the cruise, so I doubt we’ll be doing much dancing together. I think it would be great to dance with a Dance host for a couple of Rumbas here or there. And if they’re not there, I guess I’ll have to settle for dancing in the yacht club to the disco music.
  12. Calling all Princess experts! We have traveled on several different cruise lines and amassed 20+ cruises. But we only took one Princess cruise 18 years ago and don’t remember much. so we are basically newbies on Princess. We are booked on the Enchanted Princess for New Year’s at the end of 2023. So, I’m wondering what advice you would give to someone that you wish you had known about prior to cruising with Princess? Thanks in advance!
  13. follow up: It worked! The engineer said the interior was metal on metal and they put some insulation to prevent the banging. Last nights sleep was great!
  14. OP here, Thanks for your comments. We went to the concierge this morning and told them we wanted the engineering supervisor, the one who told us they would be here to caulk yesterday, to come back and make sure the work is done today. We also told him we felt we were due some compensation for the fact that we’ve had 4 really noisy nights. {Yes, this is not your regular creaking, engine noise or anything, it’s banging. That’s why I did more than one night of recordings on my phone.} So the engineering supervisor had somebody come and do caulking, we can actually see the results right now. We’re hoping that this takes care of the issue. I also believe we will get some compensation because I told the concierge that this should have already been fixed and we expect some compensation for too many interrupted nights. She said she would follow up with that. Thanks again for your feedback.
  15. We are on a cruise now, the second of back to backs. Approximately day 10 of a 12 day cruise, a banging noise started at night, and it was hard to sleep. I recorded it on my phone, and notified our butler, and the manager. They came with the maintenance manager and said they would caulk around the side window but we needed to be out of the room. We suggested they do it on the change day, because we had a full day excursion. They said they would. Today is the second day of the second cruise. The seas are calmer and we believe we are sailing slower, but I still heard the noise last night, albeit less frequently. So I asked the butler if the maintenance crew did anything. She said no. So we are in a suite, $$$, and we are loyal guests, and they just dismissed our legitimate problem. (After promising to do something, which may or may not have fixed the situation, but at least they would have tried.) What is the best way to handle this? We believe they should fix this or compensate us in some way. We would prefer the fix, but that may not be possible. Should we go back to the manager, who will be different since the other one went home? Or should we wait until we are home and contact Celebrity? I don’t want to spend too much time on my cruise dealing with this, but it’s disappointing how they are not dealing with the problem. Appreciate any advice. After 20+ cruises it’s the first time we’ve had a situation that wasn’t resolved. Thanks. Norma
×
×
  • Create New...