Victoria2

Well I do like black!

I mis-read that and thought you wrote 'fight'. I thought golly, I know we're Cunard but come on, a fight...and in black tie too!!😲

Don't you just love the debate when discussing Cunard's evening dress suggestions. I would dearly love to see some CC members f2f [I was lucky enough to meet exlondoner in May] and see how sartorially better dressed they are from ourselves. I feel like a peasant sometimes when reading some posts. 😄

but only one Grills bar and that was the focus of the comment.

Actually, I agree with quite a lot of this but from a different viewpoint. We found the food quality and portion size absolutely fine but then I'm quite happy to do an Oliver Twist and I dine QG where the quality has most certainly been maintained, We recognise Annie is totally different from her sisters and we wouldn't be sailing with her if the Vistas were in town.We will get used to her but she is most certainly different and I can understand why regular Cunard passengers might be dismayed by her but just because she's a new era of Cunard, she's still Cunard with Cunard service and attributes. We didn't come across any unhappy staff or if we did, their miles of smiles hid their distress well but just as we don't want to jump ship from the Vistas, I can well believe staff feel the same but like us, will get used to the new. We felt on the second cruise, because of snags, we were shake downers but most of those snags were snagable and we're looking forward to travelling with Annie on a non shake downer and will objectively report back our findings. 🙂

I still have May's statement and you're quite correct. Service charge was added the day after embarkation.

United Airlines. Their alternative name begins with U, but ends in double s. They gave me a 'free' first [or it might have been business in days gone by] class ticket after a disastrous flight experience. I binned it.

If I happened to be on a 35 day cruise with bag/s missing, Cunard, which booked the flight which mislaid my bags would have 'something' to answer for and would be expected to sort 'things' for me. I would have no issue being in any area of the ship 'inconsiderately attired' if the Cunard flight had lost my bag/s but would expect to be 'suitably attired' by the shops onboard even if we had to pay for it ourselves and argue with the company, later.

Don't make me laugh. I have no expectation of luggage being lost and if my bags went missing, as a Cunard booked flight, their lookout, not mine and I expect them to 'look after us'. and as for 'paying for the experience', as one who books Q1 or Q2, I know very well what 'paying for the experience' entails.

Rubbish. If luggage fails to arrive [in time], consideration should be expected and given to the lack of clothes, formal or not. There isn't a cat in hell's chance I'd have added a carry on suit carrier to any flight baggage and I speak as one who has max allowance on any flights we took/will take.

There will be one or two issues [lifts being the main one for wheelchair'd passengers] which can't be addressed but Our Annie will now have settled down. I will find out on our next venture and give of my opinion. I'm expecting great things. 🙂

I can ignore the few who don't 'scrub up' for Gala nights but what really 'gets' me are the 'Peaky Blinder's' outfits on the 20's night. Vintage 'gangster' style can look extremely chic but not the way some chaps dress so please, dress to the 20's if you must but for goodness sake, leave the flat caps and inflatable guns at home.

Me too. Mine even have their own name, Weiss rings. Add photophobia to the mix and my sunglasses are on and off all the time so keeping them on my head means I don't forget them...until I forget their on my head and I panic 'cos I can't find them!😕

We have very similar views and I agree with all you said including how lovely everyone [ignoring the odd few] looked on the ship.

#47 Golly, hold the front page. Passengers trying different cruise lines, passengers disenchanted with Cunard and passengers delighted with Cunard. T'was ever thus and will continue to be so.

and me. Also keeps the hair back sometimes so I see glasses on head as a hair accessory too.😀

If you must continue to use the word dumb, Cunard would be dumb if they didn't change to meet the cruise market of today. I miss 'the old' but realise there might not be a Cunard in a few years time if the tweaks hadn't been put in place and as there is nothing stopping anyone 'dressing for dinner', and the vast majority of passengers do scrub up well, there will be a Cunard for years to come.

Oh so do I!. Memory fails sometimes and I have no wish to show that when we are remembered [probably from passenger photos but hey it's nice to think from actual memory!] and short of getting a magnifying glass sometimes, it's hard to see the name badges! 😀

You are right. It is possible to have a rapport without any familiarity on either side and that's what we have found and experienced.

It's not harsh to me but when you're in close contact with staff for a month or two, or even three plus if on the whole Worldie, it's easy to build up a rapport, especially when it's on the same ship.

Try this Kordy https://www.cunardcareers.co.uk/life-at-cunard/ and specifically Learn more about living and working at sea.

Believe it or not, poverty is subjective. When you have heat from the sun, food to pick off the trees, you won't be cold and you won't starve but living in a house rather than a shanty and to provide that for your family is the goal of many and apart from seeing that for real when we lived in S.E.Asia, we were told how the staff we talked to support their families back home without us asking so no, we didn't 'question' anyone. That would be crass and we are most definitely, not crass. When you meet the same staff over the years, we chat and it's amazing how you DO become part of the family and you learn about the lives of staff and their families, again, without asking but because we are interested, we learn and we ask after them and admire the photos as the children grew up. I can tell you which football teams some support, which schools some of the children go to [educating their children is a goal of many of the staff], how their children have progressed to university and which of the computer science courses they are taking. So no, we don't intrude and ask and it's not being nosey, it's being interested in staff as people rather than just 'staff' and that might be why we are welcomed as if coming home.

One of our waiters from well over a decade ago is now a Britannia maître d', not that we're surprised at all and similarly, one is now a Head Waiter in Sir Samuels. Hopefully, she'll be a maître d' one day.

I have no reason to disbelieve the staff I've spoken with. They are quite senior and have worked their way up from room stewards. Two were sponsoring relations to come and work for Cunard in the kitchens. I have seen the villages and to be accurate, dwellings many, many folk live in, in S.E.Asia including 'under the bridge' and under tarpaulins. Under the bridge chap turned up for work in worn clothes, but clean and fairly well pressed. He washed them in the river, dried them on the stones and smoothed them out to effect a pressing. He was determined to work for himself and his parents. The work ethic was astonishing and there will be hundreds and thousands like him in the world so we can't put our Western values on those who choose to work at sea in what 'we' would call not very nice conditions but which are a damned sight better than those they had at home, and they are sending money back to boot.

No, I wouldn't want to live like that either but again, many folk have a far better life at sea than the small villages in,say, the Philippines and a huge plus, many finance their whole family by working like this and I heard this personally, from staff we've interacted with over the years.