RJChatsworth

On Cunard I have found the concierge service for Queens and Princess Grill passengers to be excellent. On two of the ships they sit at a desk in the Grills Lounge on another in a large room that provides tea/coffee and snacks for free and afternoon teas plus a load of magazines and other reading material. They save going to the lobby reception and queuing for service. They can sort out most problems except for dispensing cash. They book and cancel bookings in speciality restaurants, help with shore excursions, get problems in cabins like toilets sorted without waiting to see the cabin staff or leaving them messages. Similarly if your key card stops working. They have quick access to all services on the ship, provide help with internet problems and have printing/ photocopying facilities, keep ship newspapers for immediate provision plus Sudoku and crossword sheets. They have port maps that are better than those in the daily programme. They are useful for any queries including sorting out onward travel arrangements involving Cunard. You don’t have to think about who you should talk to to get matters resolved or questions answered. Whether those on P&O would be near as good I don’t know!

majortom10 - you say you think there is a lot of difference between Q1-Q2 and Q5-Q6 in terms of butler service, but in an earlier post you said you’d only been in a QG suite once. If your information sources are not hearsay I’d love to know what they are so that I might use them one day.

We have not received notification of speakers when in QG or PG. However, on sectors of the WC on QE-2 they used to put an A3 sheet in the cabin in daily grid format. Each grid square gave the date with the more important events. The speakers may have been listed in there along with the port (or at sea), dress code and theatre entertainment. Someone will remember, I am sure.

Ok, but I’m sure you are correct that for security reasons some speakers wouldn’t wish to be named in advance.

Victoria 2 - are you suggesting all those authors named on the Literature Festival at Sea have more secure homes? Perhaps they are able to afford such!

Thanks blue marble. I would have thought it in Cunard’s best interests to publish as before the pandemic. They seem to accept it useful to publish the theme events you mention, but not the single speakers. Perhaps there is another issue with them. Either too many cancellations or they have reduced their perks/remuneration and can’t attract them!!

Following on from blue marble’s Dress Code and Themes post, does anyone know, please, the guest speakers on each of Cunard’s ships for the rest of this year? In the good old days (whenever they were) I seem to recall an annual list of speakers against each voyage. There were often changes and additions which was inevitable, but they were largely correct. These days we know only about themes, like concerts and authors. I do enjoy a good speaker, particularly on the transatlantic voyages. I regularly looked at the lists before booking.

Is that a launderette I see in the middle of the Princess Grill suites on decks 4 & 7?

That’s interesting. We are just back too and had a turn down service every evening except the first. Perhaps it’s a perk for being in a suite! We were surprised to see the same bits on the carpet for two weeks. Not ‘hoovered’ once in that time.

Having to make advance bookings for the theatre might be a precursor to paying for this venue in the future. It might mean cutting the number of shows from three to two each evening but I don’t see that as an issue.

Thanks. We are well. As a precaution we didn’t go to Headliners on Thursday evening and went to a quiet Beach House Friday evening. I hate to think what it might have been like with another 1,000 on board. We were told there were 700 single passengers who were in double cabins for half the price they would normally have paid. A special offer. Don’t know whether this is true or not but we were aware of large numbers of single passengers. I don’t expect we’ll go on it again. Not the kind of experience we want. it was like travelling in a floating shopping mall!

We were on this cruise and agree Eglesbrech’s report to be accurate, thorough and excellent. We were in a rear suite comprising a sitting room, bedroom, bathroom and huge balcony. As such we were invited to take breakfast in the Epicurean. The food was good but very restricted like no Eggs Benedict, no porridge, no hash browns, no beans etc etc. They did do bacon, eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes. They even cut the crusts off the toast and it took time to get used to the idea we wanted them on. We avoided the place regularly. Passing through Customs this morning was interesting. We have been through dozens of times, generally off Cunard, the last time being off Queen Victoria in November. We have rarely seen any border officers although they are probably watching from somewhere. I don’t know what has changed but the place was heaving with them this morning. It’s the first time I’d seen passengers pulled over and from one they had extracted dozens of cartoons of what I assumed were cigarettes. Had they been alerted by the large amounts of onboard credit on this cruise or is it a reflection on some of those cruising on P&O? Or are there other reasons I haven’t thought about eg spot check? I wouldn’t wish to guess!

Error: Access cunard.co.uk

We are currently crossing Biscay on ‘British’ P&O Cruises ship Iona towards the Mediterranean. I am trying to access cunard.co.uk on Iona’s internet site. Every time I do I end up on Cunard’s US site cunard.com where everything is in dollars. Does anyone know how to access cunard.com from a ‘British’ ship, please? This situation is ridiculous and I am totally exasperated with such nonsense!!

We have requested tables for 2 in Club dining on both P&O and Cunard and not failed to get one for at least 15 years.

With all these 45 minute queues I am reading about, do they have rows of chairs for oldies who can’t stand for that long? Also, this queuing must detract from holiday enjoyment - it would for me! Another question for those in the know; if you are in a suite with a butler, the P&O blurb states that the butler will make the bookings for you. How does that work? If you say to him/her book me a table for two in freedom dining at 7pm this evening will he be able to or will he be continually telling you they are ‘full’? Does he have some leverage with maitre d’? If butler does manage to book you a table for two at, say, 7pm for that evening do you still have to queue?

Hi Barbara - perhaps I’m the stupid one, too many cruises and assuming everyone else knows all about them. It did occur to me later that maybe you’d not been on P&O. The first time we did freedom dining soon after it was introduced you could book a table by turning up at 0750 every morning. They only had a few tables to book and it was a scramble. Nowadays I can only stand for about 5 minutes before pain takes over, thus I try to avoid such dining. We go Cunard most of the time now as they are more user friendly where dining is concerned, in our opinion.

Thanks for replies. We are going on Iona, no Club dining, shortly and wondering whether we have made a huge mistake. When you are well into your 80s the last thing you need is to spend holiday time on a computer trying to book restaurants. Must be like a bed sit in Margate and trying to book a restaurant each night in the town! Ah well, we’ll see what it’s like. I feel after taking our money for 40 odd years we don’t feature in the plans when it comes to new ships! C’est la vie!

Fionboard - you having to explain Club dining on a P&O site perhaps explains the trend!!

Are they going to phase it out on those ships that currently have Club dining? All the talk is about Freedom dining and speciality restaurants. I would hate to see Club dining phased out. Are new ships, Iona and Arvia setting a new trend?

CORRECTION: I meant Club dining. Thanks.

Just spent some time on the Internet trying to determine the dining arrangement on P&O ships. There is much talk about Freedom dining but little about Club dining. Which ships still have Freedom dining room, please?

I have found being on a wait-list a bit of a joke on more than one occasion recently. Even though being on the wait-list I have checked the Cunard website daily and have seen cabins I am wait-listed for come up. I have immediately rung Cunard and booked the cabin. Cunard had told me previously that there were others ahead of me for the category I had requested. They agreed that by checking the website I had jumped the queue. When I asked how this could be I was told that when passengers cancelled a booking the section processing the cancellation regularly posted the vacant cabin back on to the Cunard website without checking the wait list. Reservations seemed well-aware of this practice and offered no excuse.

We had a QA Med 2024 cruise cancelled by email on I think 9th November. I received a cheque through the post for the deposit last Saturday expecting it to be returned via the Amex card I’d originally used to pay the deposit. I rang in about the FCC (10% of original deposit) and was told that it would take another 2 to 3 weeks to appear against my account. I had booked directly with Cunard. Last time I wished to book a voyage using an unprocessed FCC there was no problem booking directly with Cunard. I paid a deposit less the FCC and received Booking Confirmation on this basis. The FCC was processed some weeks later.

Question about the suites please? Can the butler be relied upon to make dinner bookings for a table for two in the different venues? Does it work or do you end up in long queues please?