Keepsies

[southwestie]

Hmm, that's a good thing to encourage!

 

 

I would encourage them, but it does happen, :)

[Salacia]

Not so. The bathrobes in Britannia Club are towelling, not waffle.

 

Please see http://www.cunard.com/cruise-ships/queen-mary-2/accommodation/queens-grill-suites/

 

You will note that the Grill accomodations specify "Soft Terry Robes & slippers" while Britannia Club and all other Britannia categories state "Bathrobe and slippers."

 

Apparently our experiences differ, but my experience in Britannia Club was that the supplied robe was waffle weave. It really doesn't matter much to me since I usually pack my own robe anyway; silk, light weight, easy to pack, hand washable, and a darn sight better looking than a communal bathrobe, be it terry or waffle. :DRegards, -S.

[Scrapnana]

You will be charged for bathrobes and pool towels if they are not in your cabin on the day you leave. How do I know because we were charged for pool towels that we didn't know we had because we were on a winter transatlantic?!! The first we heard of it was when the cost appeared on our credit card a month after disembarking. In the lengthy process to get our money refunded by Cunard, it came to light that they were reported missing two days before we got off but nobody mentioned it to us!

 

Are the pool towels in your stateroom when you board or do you pick them up by the pool?

[Salacia]

Are the pool towels in your stateroom when you board or do you pick them up by the pool?

 

 

Normally, pool towels are in the bathroom cabinet below the sink.(Sometimes the laundry is late and the pool towels might not be there when you enter your cabin, but they should soon appear.) There are also towels available at the pool, which you leave in the designated boxes after use. At certain ports, towels are available when leaving the ship, and those towels are to be deposited in hampers immediately upon re-boarding the ship. -That has been my experience on various QM2 Caribbean voyages in the past (Britannia Category, balcony accomodations -where a pool towel comes in handy for drying off wet balcony chairs :) Regards, S.

[Ray66]

Please see http://www.cunard.com/cruise-ships/queen-mary-2/accommodation/queens-grill-suites/

 

You will note that the Grill accomodations specify "Soft Terry Robes & slippers" while Britannia Club and all other Britannia categories state "Bathrobe and slippers."

 

Apparently our experiences differ, but my experience in Britannia Club was that the supplied robe was waffle weave. It really doesn't matter much to me since I usually pack my own robe anyway; silk, light weight, easy to pack, hand washable, and a darn sight better looking than a communal bathrobe, be it terry or waffle. :DRegards, -S.

 

I have stayed in a Britannia Club room and the bathrobe was definitely towelling.

[RJChatsworth]

Are the pool towels in your stateroom when you board or do you pick them up by the pool?

 

They should be under the sink. We never use them and also being on a wnter T/A we didn't check to see if they were there. We always check now as I don't want to be caught in the same situation again being charged for them after we disembarked.

 

I believe there is an issue. You are encouraged to leave them in boxes after taking them ashore or using them at the pool. However, I recently read carefully the Guest Information book in the cabin and I seem to recall it quite clearly states that if there are no pool towels in your cabin when you disembark you may be charged for them.

 

Can anyone clarify this point for me please?

[Scrapnana]

Normally, pool towels are in the bathroom cabinet below the sink.(Sometimes the laundry is late and the pool towels might not be there when you enter your cabin, but they should soon appear.) There are also towels available at the pool, which you leave in the designated boxes after use. At certain ports, towels are available when leaving the ship, and those towels are to be deposited in hampers immediately upon re-boarding the ship. -That has been my experience on various QM2 Caribbean voyages in the past (Britannia Category, balcony accomodations -where a pool towel comes in handy for drying off wet balcony chairs :) Regards, S.

 

Thanks, Salacia. I think I will just use the ones by the pool for swimming. Great idea about using the pool towels to dry off the balcony!

 

Kathi

[Leucothea]

Not long ago the room cards had our photos on them, and we were allowed to keep them. I have a few, some not bad at all, some cringeworthy. At least now we don't have to deal with a potentially bad photo.

 

As for taking toiletries or whatever, I barely have room for my own things, especially if I've purchased anything onboard. I may take a bottle of lotion, as I like the perfume; I'll put it on my hands and remember ocean travel and anticipated adventure.

[fantasy51]

I have always automatically taken the pen home - and the notepad!

 

I've always assumed they were replaced each time. After this, I think I'll spray the pen with disinfectant before using it, in case the person before me left it behind. lol

[fantasy51]

I got quite a lasting keepsie on my last cruise (3 weeks Ancient Wonders, Nov/Dec) - a cough that lasted and lasted. I finally got rid of it after an alternative practitioner treated my lungs for aspergillis (a mould). Another friend on the same cruise is still ill over 2 months later, and he's a doctor! Two lots of antibiotics haven't got rid of his cough. He is beginning to consider the mould problem.

 

Now that's a keepsake I don't want again!

[Ray66]

I have always automatically taken the pen home - and the notepad!

 

I've always assumed they were replaced each time. After this, I think I'll spray the pen with disinfectant before using it, in case the person before me left it behind. lol

 

On the last evening of a cruise you might find your stationery folder has gone missing. We have found ours hidden in various places in our cabin replenished with a new pen and other stationery. So they must be replaced each time and the used ones might as well be taken home.

[lucky white heather]

You will be charged for bathrobes and pool towels if they are not in your cabin on the day you leave. How do I know because we were charged for pool towels that we didn't know we had because we were on a winter transatlantic?!! The first we heard of it was when the cost appeared on our credit card a month after disembarking. In the lengthy process to get our money refunded by Cunard, it came to light that they were reported missing two days before we got off but nobody mentioned it to us!

 

 

I was interested to read of your experience.We had a charge of £5.00 added on as a separate charge on my credit card when we received the next credit card statement some time after we had disembarked.As the onboard a/c was checked out before we left the ship and was in order I phoned Cunard to ask what the extra £5 charge had been for. They were unable to tell me. So I then wrote to them requesting an explanation and after almost 6 weeks and another reminder letter saying I still wanted an explanation of the charge, Cunard phoned me to say it was an" in room" charge but could not trace what it was for.

For us , the amount of £5 was not the issue, it was a matter of principle that we should know what we were being charged for.

It was never resolved. Cunard decided to repay the £5 but informed me if applied to our credit card , the refund would carry a charge we would have to pay , so the full £5 would not be refunded. Another solution was found!

[capnpugwash]

I've purchased bottles of water in the past on board and one is usually in the fridge when I board, it causes great confusion with most stewards when I order three bottles which I hope will include the one that is already there. It never does and there is always a catch up bill to take care of the situation. That might explain your extraneous charges. I've tried explaining it to them but it seldom makes any difference.

[MawganTr]

The post about being charged £5 really worries me. Should they be keeping credit card details once used? Surely, once the account is settled we should expect that no more money is taken and our account details erased. It's totally unacceptable that they cannot offer a reason for the charge. It may 'only' be £5 but its tantamount to stealing.

 

 

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[capnpugwash]

Have you never had late charges applied when you have checked out of a hotel? To call it stealing is ludicrous assuming that you have used whatever you are being billed for!

[MawganTr]

They can't just take money from your account without telling you before they action it, surely! I actually think that it is unacceptable. Everything is computerised so it should be recorded and they ought to be able to offer a reason for the charge. If they can keep credit card details (which I don't think they should!) they can find what the charge was for!

 

 

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[lucky white heather]

I've purchased bottles of water in the past on board and one is usually in the fridge when I board, it causes great confusion with most stewards when I order three bottles which I hope will include the one that is already there. It never does and there is always a catch up bill to take care of the situation. That might explain your extraneous charges. I've tried explaining it to them but it seldom makes any difference.

 

We went through every scenario ourselves which might have explained the £5 charge without finding anything to explain it and gave this to Cunard by letter.

 

viz .We never took the slippers out of the packaging, the 2 d/ gowns were still there, never used the towels for sunbeds, etc etc .We don't drink , never had the water provided as we usually purchase a large bottled water before boarding for our own use, never even opened the fridge.. gave away the gift bottle of wine provided, so it was very hard to pin down what the charge could have been for. The onboard account was spot on for spendage..I even still had the toiletries I had purchased in the shop onboard and could give them all the stock numbers on the sticky (price) labels and the chitty for each purchase that was given at the till although all of which were already paid for on the a/c before disembarking.

I still felt the cabin steward was the only one who could have indented for something we were supposed to have taken from the cabin without permission. but that was dismissed as a theory.

It was a mystery!

[lucky white heather]

They can't just take money from your account without telling you before they action it, surely! I actually think that it is unacceptable. Everything is computerised so it should be recorded and they ought to be able to offer a reason for the charge. If they can keep credit card details (which I don't think they should!) they can find what the charge was for!

 

 

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This was mainly the reason I pursued the question..it wasn't the amount involved...we can stand to lose a fiver! It was simply an explanation should be able to be given without it having to go round busy people at Cunard HQ trying to find out what a charge was for when applied retrospectively.

 

If it had been included on the A/c when we were leaving the ship, I would have queried it there and then and probably had the explanation immediately and would have been able to see where things had gone wrong and fixed their mistake. This was the first time this has ever happened to us BTW.

 

PS.I think we met on the QV..we were the only couple who turned up for the "meet" in the Commodore besides yourselves. Either March '12 or July/August '12

[Norfolk Brit]

gave away the gift bottle of wine provided,

 

Mystery solved: compensaaayshun for the unfortunate person who ended up with your freebie Pol Acker; doesn't seem much for his pain and suffering, though.

 

That'll be a fiver. Cheers.

 

Sir Martin

[keithm]

Are you allowed to keep the Bathrobe and Room Card on QM2 ?

NO! They will charge you for the robe. They take the card as you exit the ship. You used to be able to keep the cards in the past. You may purchase the Robe/Beach towels

in the store on board (as we did)The slippers are free. We asked our steward if he could get us a few extra pais. No problem.

[lucky white heather]

Mystery solved: compensaaayshun for the unfortunate person who ended up with your freebie Pol Acker; doesn't seem much for his pain and suffering, though.

 

That'll be a fiver. Cheers.

 

Sir Martin

 

If I had thought of that as a scenario, I could have saved myself lots of sleepless nights.

Is it really worth a whole fiver ?

OMG.. and here I have been giving it away for free , willy nilly every trip!

 

Scots , you'll realise, don't often get that generous.

 

I don't suppose the probable significant increase in the number of ( grateful?) pax with pain and suffering as a consequence of our generosity on the cruises we've taken will ever be known ... hope Cunard don't bill me for that too!

[RJChatsworth]

I've purchased bottles of water in the past on board and one is usually in the fridge when I board, it causes great confusion with most stewards when I order three bottles which I hope will include the one that is already there. It never does and there is always a catch up bill to take care of the situation. That might explain your extraneous charges. I've tried explaining it to them but it seldom makes any difference.

 

For the exact reason you describe, as soon as we embark and the first time we see the cabin steward/ess, I go to the fridge open the door and ask them to remove everything (water and soft drinks etc) that we might be charged for. There is a secondary reason I do it and that is because the fridge is so small I can't get things in it we purchase.

 

This seems to flummox the cabin person and they hide the bottles from the fridge behind the TV and elsewhere in the cabin as if, once drawn out, they can't remove them from the cabin!

[ToadOfToadHall]

Have you never had late charges applied when you have checked out of a hotel? To call it stealing is ludicrous assuming that you have used whatever you are being billed for!

 

I had that once. We stayed in a hotel in New York. I'd settled the bill at checkout but as we had a wait of a couple of hours we went to the bar/lounge and had a sandwich and a few drinks.

 

When the bill came it must have been put on my room (even though I'd checked out) so I just signed it.

 

The bill I was expecting appeared on my CC a while later. Then, on my next CC bill there was another charge from the hotel. I was going to contact my CC issuer but then I remembered what it was for. It's hardly stealing - I'd spent the money so they were quite correct to expect me to pay !!

[Jim Avery]

Those were nice pens - don't know about QM2, but it was possible to purchase them in the book shop on QV last year. They had a really good offer on pens on that voyage - I can't remember precisely how it worked but, in essence, it was a BOGOF offer. And the pens on sale came in quite a wide variety all with the Cunard logo - they even had one with a little model of the ship that kind of floated up and down when you move the pen around (I know - I am sad). The pens make nice little inexpensive gifts.

 

J

 

I actually have one of those pens with the little ship that moves. Also have a similar pen with a woman who's dress falls off when you tilt the pen.:eek::D How sad is that?

[Jim Avery]

This thread brings up memories of 1969 QE2. When she entered service, just about everything had the QE2 logo or Cunard on it. The towels were large bath sheet sized very plush with Cunard. A year later, just about every towel, ashtray, flower vase, butter dish, drink glass, had been pilfered for "keepsies" and replaced with nice but unadorned replacements. I still have one of the deckchair woolen leather trimmed steamer rugs (blankets) but the big towel has long turned to dust. In those days, you could bring 2 or 3 100kilo suitcases home with you and no one thought it was a national security risk.:eek: Never could figure how to get the large life ring with "Queen Elizabeth 2" and "Southampton" stenciled on it into my bag. Returned it to its place on deck and it had already been replaced. :D