DonRobertoSanJuan

Wines by the bottle are over prized enough on Cunard, but you get scammed when you order wine by the glass! They sell you wine at 150 ml (one fifth of a bottle) and 250 ml (one third of a bottle). Anywhere else, when you order 250 ml, you get a small carafe or a wine glass indicating the measurement. Not on Cunard, you just have to trust them..., but when you see the amount of wine in your glass, it sure does not look like one third of a bottle.

At Cunard, all alcoholic drinks are outrageously over prized! It must be Cunard's British heritage, to sell expensive drinks, carefully measured in tiny measurement cups. They sell you martinis in tiny glasses that are still less than half full unless you pay for a double shot. Anywhere else you get a reasonable amount of liquor poured into your glass. Cunard is being cheap when it comes to alcohol.

We prepaid our gratuities because we were not aware gratuities were optional. If the service personnel is salaried and not, like in the US, dependent on tips, there would be no need for daily gratuities and the cruise line should make that clear when booking. We still tipped our room steward and some restaurant staff at the end of the cruise.

The purser's desk personnel were mostly very professional and they do have a sign, stating that the ship is fully booked and "no upgrades available". We saw it when we wanted to change rooms due to septic system failures.

The mid ship bars on deck 2 and 3 don't make much sense: One bar (deck 3) only serves gin and the two on deck 2 don't serve the same kind of drinks, leaving one completely empty and the other full. The theater did not have any waiter service, so we had to bring our own drinks from the room.

Looking back, we had the least positive impressions at the Britannia and Lido restaurants. Our initial waiter in Britannia kept on pushing certain dishes and seemed to be disapproving when we ordered something else. In the Lido, especially during the second half of the cruise, the service slowed down a lot. Tables were not cleaned on time, leaving passengers scrambling for tables and coffee service so slow at breakfast, that we had to get it ourselves.

We always interact with the crew whenever we can and had no negative interactions, just not many sociable ones, except for the Philipine and Latin crew members. Some passengers told us that tipping is not required on Cunard and maybe that affects the crew?

We took our first Cunard cruise last month on the Queen Victoria, for a trip around the British Isles. We have previously cruised with Celebrity (great), Royal Caribbean (not so great) and Princess and hoped we would enjoy Cunard's ambiance.

The good: The food in Britannia and Lido was of excellent quality and varied. The ports were interesting and Cunard provided free shuttle buses where necessary and the ship offered sufficient venues for entertainment. We did like dressing up for the formal nights and liked that most passengers did the same.

The bad: We felt like we had landed in a funeral home. We are around 70, but we felt way too young for the ambiance on this ship, especially at night. The casino, the bars and public areas were empty after 10 and really were only busy right before and after Britannia dinner times. The entertainment was mediocre at best with the exception of a Circe du Soleil type performance and a band playing sixties and seventies hits. The service was stiff compared to other cruise lines. It seems most of the service personnel comes from countries where people are not naturally friendly or happy and they did not seem to enjoy their jobs. Certain areas of the ship had a sewer smell and the flush system in our bathroom often did not work well either.

I guess we will stick with Celebrity in the future.

Yes, there is no problem if you can find the guys that put suitcases through the hole in the wall early doors. They start just before the earliest boarding time. Then just go off around town or whatever.

 

Regards John

Thanks John. What would be the earliest boarding time for a 16:30 departure?

We are departing from the Mayflower terminal and have a boarding time of 14:30. Can we drop our luggage at the terminal in the morning?

Thanks John, that is a wine list worth looking at!

Cunard sure does not offer value for money on their wine selections and the packages don't offer too many interesting choices either. Table wines for almost $40? I guess the wine offerings by the glass are not much better? BTW, I did not see any Amarones.

We stayed at the Double Tree Marble Arch and walked everywhere (we like to walk). Good location in a quiet side street.

In the VP, Cunard offers a Chardonnay and a Cabernet on their Private Label. Both from Pays D'Oc. How do those wines compare to the other wines in Cunard's wine list?

The Queen Victoria should dock in Dublin at Ocean Pier 33. Does Cunard organize (free?) shuttle buses and where in Dublin do they drop off and pick up?

We will be on the Queen Victoria, visiting Belfast in May. Can we walk into the city or do we need transportation?

You could rent a car in Southampton and drive to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Windsor, before dropping the car at Heathrow (or London if you are brave enough).;p

You are right majortom10. Upon closer look, Kirkwall is not a tender port. Portree and Guernsey are.

I was concerned that we would have to wait for suite and club passengers, as well as passengers on ship tours, to tender before we would be able to go ashore.

We will have a few tender ports on our British Isles cruise and would like to know how much time it will take to get ashore.

We are not suite or club, but balcony and have rental cars booked at Kirkwall and Portree.

Also, what are the rules on getting back to the ship?

We are doing the British Isles cruise on the Queen Victoria and read that some ports could be missed due to rough seas or weather.

What would happen in such a case? Would we visit another port?

One of the ports more often missed is Guensey, which is our last stop. Would we return to Southampton early?

Too many people turn a blind eye to countries with fascist regimes that commit horrible crimes against their citizens and others. Many people visited Hitler Germany before WWII, ignoring its abuses and killings. In my opinion, Russia, Turkey, Israel, China, the Philippines and many other countries should be shunned, but too many people wish to ignore their atrocities.

Thanks all for your replies. I had hoped the Cunard board would have a cabin review section, like on the Celebrity board, where people note what they liked or disliked about their specific cabin (number).

In the end I found very few cabin options for my cruise and ended up booking the furthest aft balcony cabin, next to a suite. Maybe some of the suite will rub off on us :rolleyes:

Thanks all for the information. I may have to find another car rental place, because this one is 30 mins from the cruise terminal.

We should be arriving on the Cunard Queen Victoria, on May 22nd. Cunard's website has no information about their docking locations, so, does Cunard use the Albert Dock in Liverpool?

We expect to arrive in Southampton late night (around 23:00) and probably will be hungry. Does anyone have experience with room service? We booked the Grand Harbour Hotel because they show room service, but they have a lot of bad write ups and they have not responded to my email about their room service. Any other hotels with late night room service?

Thanks all for the information. I see pictures of Club Balcony rooms and others, but not Balcony. Oh well... I ended up aft, next to one of the largest suites.

May I suggest (seen on other boards) starting a compilation of cabins, by passengers who stayed in them, showing the cabin numbers, (hopefully with pictures) and anything they like or dislike about that room, like noise, smoke, movement etc. etc.

It would help first timers, like me, a lot in choosing a location.

I must be missing something... I see a thread with thousands of pictures of QM2, but not QV?

Thanks Hattie, I am still used to the Celebrity and Royal boards, which are a little different. I will take a look.

I am trying to find information on specific (balcony) staterooms, but have seen no reviews or pictures. I am trying to find out if it makes sense to pay a little more for an aft (BD) room on deck 6 (6202) vs a fwd (BE) room on deck 7 (7003).

Where can I find that information?