Some Post Queen Victoria Iberian Adventure Cruise Thoughts.

[uilleann]

This was our first cruise on a Cunard vessel and here are some of my thoughts.

 

1.  As Princess Grill passengers we had early boarding.  And that was nice.   But I saw that others who did not have early boarding seem to be getting on board almost at the same time and just as easily.

2.  The upgraded room to Pricess mainly for the extra room.  You do not get a lot more room than the balconies but we were glad for what we go.  Nice room.

3.  For the geeks out there.... The balcony rooms actually have a slightly bigger tv and the HDMI ports are more exposed.   The Pricess Grill had 2 tv's both smaller, and the hdmi ports were in accessible.   Also there is a feature where you can link your smart device to the tv to play movies, show pictures, etc.  But only on android based devices.   Macs will not work ;-(

4.  We were traveling with other family members who were on the balcony suites.   We wanted most of our meals with them in the main dining room.   The staff fixed that so we could do this.  We did have one breakfast and a dinner in the grill.  The food is slightly better than the main dining room but the service was much slower.  It also felt a bit like eating in an old folks home.  Very quiet.  Our most enjoyable times was in the main dining room.

5.  They did offer that my other family members could use the grill when we were not using it.  I thought that was nice.

6. One big gripe on the first night.  We talked to the Matre'd of the grill about our situation and he said it was already arranged and gave us our table number.  We ran down there to see where it was located.  It was right on the stern by a window, table for 6.   When dinner came they check for your assignment cards.   We had one for the grill but not for the main dining room.  But we know that it had been arranged.   I tried to explain the situation but they seemed overwhelmed with the first evening dinner and basically would not engage in any conversation execept to tell us to get in another line.  We did that.  But everyone in the line was unhappy and had their own story so the line never progressed.   I borrowed the card from one of my brothers.  Came around, grabbed my wife that was in the second line.  Came back in.... and we were seated  :-)

7.  We are in our mid to late 60s and the crowd on the boat made us feel like youngsters.  Several electric chairs,  more wheel chairs, lots of walkers and many many canes.  It was also pretty quiet on the boat.

8. The beverage cards were very confusing for us.  I don't drink alcohol and usually have a ginger ale for dinner.  Turns out the bev card does not cover that.  So I spent $87 and the card never got used.   We did get a coffee card and used all of that.

9.  I was looking forward to using the Churchill room with one of my brothers for cigars and port.  We did use it but it was like 6-8 cigarette smokers  and we were the only cigar smokers.  I complained to the staff and they said they usually do not do anything about it.

10.  We had extra stuff to wear for the masquerade ball and then roaring 20's but it looked like we were part of the 2% did this.  The vast majority did not.

11.  We got off early in Lisbon for the other part of our vacation.  The disembarcation was effortless to us.... I appreciated that.

12.  There was a higher level of snooty-ness (is that a word?)on the ship.  There were a few times where we were haviing such a good time together that we were laughing out load a lot.   I notices several tables giving us disapproving looks.

 

All in all it was a fun trip.  I think we will not do Cunard again as the passenger age is just too high.   We like a mix of ages.

[Underwatr]

I'm trying to remember whether QV (and QE) have alternate entrances to Britannia as QM2 does. On QM2 once I've located my table on the afternoon of embarkation day I don't bring it with me, and just use one of the side entrances or the entrance by the D lifts that is closest to Britannia Club.

 

Yes, it's too bad that you weren't able to use your beverage card for ginger ale. I think the card only gets you drinks from the "hose" and ginger ale comes only in a can/bottle on Cunard ships. I discovered this when I ordered a drink with a ginger ale mixer in the bar and the price was higher than my wife's martini (this was back when mixers from the hose were included in the drink price, but mixers from a can weren't.

[Host Hattie]

Thanks for reporting back, it's good to hear that it was a fun trip and that you managed to come to a satisfactory arrangement for eating together.