On board QV now 3rd July 22

[techteach]

@cook68 Oh No! Horrors that you had to open a proper bottle of fizz. 

[cook68]

13 minutes ago, techteach said:

@cook68 Oh No! Horrors that you had to open a proper bottle of fizz. 

I was hard, I volunteered, Someone had too 😉

[cook68]

I am yet to see if he is doing a talk or simply having a holiday, but Lord Dannatt, retired senior British army officer and member of the House of Lords is on board. 

[schattenfell71]

Good Morning from Olden,

I have the same impressions as cook68. The staff is awesome, food very good and the ship looks fine. We have got the spa vouchers also.

 

I still wonder why nearly everyone is not wearing a mask. If you are looking for us....we are the ones with the masks on LOL. Typical Germans

 

The group from Mexico seems to be everywhere.

[ew101]

On 7/6/2022 at 9:12 AM, exlondoner said:

 

I cant think of any three letter line beginning with C, though several,with a C in them. Am I being deeply dim?

Carnival (CCL) the Mother Ship.  Based on a recent very cheap voyage they seem to have missed the memos blaming others and have a jolly crew, tidy decks and served diner promptly.  There is in fact an active competition between vessels on who has the highest "Net Promoter Score" (MBA Speak for guest satisfaction) - passengers notice this.  

[exlondoner]

Is that how it is referred to? Blaming others for what? I have heard little but great praise for the crew on Cunard ships from those reporting from onboard. See above: 'the staff is awesome'.

[jimbo1683]

Please can you take some photos of menus?

[rakkor]

There's a whole bunch of scanned menus on my blog - https://blog.rakkor.uk  both PG and Britannia - I don't think they will have changed much in the last year

[jimbo1683]

12 hours ago, rakkor said:

There's a whole bunch of scanned menus on my blog - https://blog.rakkor.uk  both PG and Britannia - I don't think they will have changed much in the last year

Amazing thank you

[Host Hattie]

Enjoy your sea day sailing home, I hope you get the beautiful weather we're promised.

[schattenfell71]

We are off the ship and for 2 days in London right now. I will do a trip report with my pros and cons when I am back home in Germany.

[Host Hattie]

Thank you, enjoy your stay in London.

[cook68]

Also back home now. We had a good trip, weather not too good but that is no one's fault. I do feel things went down hill a little after a couple of days. I really don't want to be on any ship holding a convention ever again. The convention group I believe around 250 moved around the ship in large groups and when they arrived in dozens to any bar it felt very over whelming. They had no concept of anything around them, and chatter would fill a room to the point you could not hear yourself talking.
The dress code went to rack and ruin. Did they even know what they should have been wearing or even care, I have no idea? Every evening so very many of them walked in to the dining room wearing what ever they fancied. This included jeans tracksuits baseball caps [including on backwards] mini skirts, midway tops and  fat trainers. Just about anything went. Gala night was exactly the same. I even asked  if I should go back and put my jeans on!! 8.30 dining and one evening our main course was delivered at 9.50pm, getting to the 10pm show was never going to happen. It appeared alot of the conference group were ordering 2 and 3 main courses EACH and over whelming the kitchen and getting what they were asking for. They also table hoped all evening used mobile phones face timing family or chatting away. Nothing was said to any of them that I could see curbing any of this. I would never knowingly choose to go on any cruise if a conference was going on every again, no matter who it was or what country they were from. It simply changed the dynamics  of the entire ship, and in no way on a positive side. We and others I had spoken to on occasion had walked out of the Queens room and the chart room due to no being served. I believe the conference group were on some sort of all exclusive drinks deal.
The staff on board were all very polite and as helpful as they could be, but their attention was often being drawn away, mainly while dining in the evening. There did seem to be a shortage of staff [no mention of covid] Less sommelier and waiters. Talking to some of them, I think Cunard are really struggling to recruit. I now think the culling of passengers from our cruise a few week's prier was not because of visa issues, but because they just can not get the staff any more. 
The Veranda was closed. A couple told us they had prebooked a meal in there for a birthday, turned up to go in and told it was closed. They had not been told it had been cancelled beforehand! As said before, no meals in the Golden Lion. We also never saw any officers of any ranking. This I do understand. Masking wearing was an option throughout the seven days and very few wore them. I never once heard anyone being called for or back to their rooms, so hopefully if covid was on board it was in low numbers. We tested our selves this morning to be on the safe side and were all ok. 
I love Cunard very much but this experience has left us wanting to look at other companies. The powers that be prioritised a convention over passengers that would and do return time and time again over people on a free knees-up. I will add no one should have been prioritised, we should all have been treated the same no matter how or why we were on board. 
Setting this aside, it was lovey to be back on board and the Queen Victoria did look lovely. I am sure the people on board today will have a totally different experience and a more positive say. 

Edited July 10, 2022 by cook68

[cook68]

4 hours ago, schattenfell71 said:

We are off the ship and for 2 days in London right now. I will do a trip report with my pros and cons when I am back home in Germany.

I would be very interested if you felt the same as we did. Enjoy the rest of your time here 

[exlondoner]

I'm glad you (mainly) had a pretty nice time. Nonetheless, I think it is very poor of Cunard to accept this huge group without making any effort to ensure they conform to what is expected of passengers in general. I can see it is difficult to write to the other passengers, saying that there's are 250 Mexicans from Ford aboard, do you want to cancel. But they could ensure the huge party was aware of expectations. I would write a stiff letter, something I never do, but would here.

[schattenfell71]

14 hours ago, cook68 said:

I would be very interested if you felt the same as we did. Enjoy the rest of your time here 

Sitting in my hotel in London and before I will write a long report here is a short answer to your question: YES...we felt the same.

 

More when we will be back home.

[Host Hattie]

What a shame, I can understand how a group that size can have a negative effect on a cruise.

It's disappointing that Cunard are taking that sort of booking, I would have thought it would be more appropriate to have a charter of a smaller ship rather than disrupting other passengers' holidays.

 

Thanks for your report 

[Host Hattie]

Just one thing about the staffing, a poster on another thread mentioned that as they passed through Gatwick at the weekend there was someone there to meet staff arriving for Queen Victoria.

I realise that's of no consolation to those who have already sailed but maybe a sign that things might improve.

[lindylooellalouise]

14 hours ago, cook68 said:

Also back home now. We had a good trip, weather not too good but that is no one's fault. I do feel things went down hill a little after a couple of days. I really don't want to be on any ship holding a convention ever again. The convention group I believe around 250 moved around the ship in large groups and when they arrived in dozens to any bar it felt very over whelming. They had no concept of anything around them, and chatter would fill a room to the point you could not hear yourself talking.
The dress code went to rack and ruin. Did they even know what they should have been wearing or even care, I have no idea? Every evening so very many of them walked in to the dining room wearing what ever they fancied. This included jeans tracksuits baseball caps [including on backwards] mini skirts, midway tops and  fat trainers. Just about anything went. Gala night was exactly the same. I even asked  if I should go back and put my jeans on!! 8.30 dining and one evening our main course was delivered at 9.50pm, getting to the 10pm show was never going to happen. It appeared alot of the conference group were ordering 2 and 3 main courses EACH and over whelming the kitchen and getting what they were asking for. They also table hoped all evening used mobile phones face timing family or chatting away. Nothing was said to any of them that I could see curbing any of this. I would never knowingly choose to go on any cruise if a conference was going on every again, no matter who it was or what country they were from. It simply changed the dynamics  of the entire ship, and in no way on a positive side. We and others I had spoken to on occasion had walked out of the Queens room and the chart room due to no being served. I believe the conference group were on some sort of all exclusive drinks deal.
The staff on board were all very polite and as helpful as they could be, but their attention was often being drawn away, mainly while dining in the evening. There did seem to be a shortage of staff [no mention of covid] Less sommelier and waiters. Talking to some of them, I think Cunard are really struggling to recruit. I now think the culling of passengers from our cruise a few week's prier was not because of visa issues, but because they just can not get the staff any more. 
The Veranda was closed. A couple told us they had prebooked a meal in there for a birthday, turned up to go in and told it was closed. They had not been told it had been cancelled beforehand! As said before, no meals in the Golden Lion. We also never saw any officers of any ranking. This I do understand. Masking wearing was an option throughout the seven days and very few wore them. I never once heard anyone being called for or back to their rooms, so hopefully if covid was on board it was in low numbers. We tested our selves this morning to be on the safe side and were all ok. 
I love Cunard very much but this experience has left us wanting to look at other companies. The powers that be prioritised a convention over passengers that would and do return time and time again over people on a free knees-up. I will add no one should have been prioritised, we should all have been treated the same no matter how or why we were on board. 
Setting this aside, it was lovey to be back on board and the Queen Victoria did look lovely. I am sure the people on board today will have a totally different experience and a more positive say. 

How disappointing for you and fully understand your comments on the large group I too would have been unhappy in that situation but how on earth would you be able to find out if a large conference group were going to be onboard, we had a similar experience onboard QM on the literary festival at sea they took over the whole ship gathered in noisy groups and to be honest they thought they were superior to other passengers I will be boarding QV in three weeks so hopefully all will be well and staffing issues solved.

[Lilydes]

I'm just off this trip. Cunard really have to pull their socks up.

 

1.The showtimes have changed, so you either miss your dessert to get there.or arrive late which isn't fair on the artists.

 

2. The ship was understaffed. I was told by a senior member of the crew they have permantely dispensed with various staff members e,g, sports organiser, social host.

 

3, All the experts have gone.

 

4. No satellite, during Wimbledon and a pollical crises.

 

To be fair, there was a lot of  quarantining , which must have been a nightmare. The Irish duo (Cula) were doing everything,

 

My son did his bit for Anglo=Mexican relations.

 

The crew were great. The management are rubbish.

 

[exlondoner]

Which experts are those? 

[Lilydes]

18 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Which experts are those? 

Computer staff, Connextions staff etc,

Edited July 11, 2022 by Lilydes

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, Lilydes said:

Computer staff, Connextions staff etc,

 

No good will come of that. Do they still have librarians?

[Victoria2]

44 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

No good will come of that. Do they still have librarians?

Hope so.

We were on HAL Statendam in the early 90's, a few cruises after her Maiden and the library was almost non existent. 

Why?

Books had been borrowed on an honour system. Permanently borrowed, sadly! 

 

 

[exlondoner]

7 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

Hope so.

We were on HAL Statendam in the early 90's, a few cruises after her Maiden and the library was almost non existent. 

Why?

Books had been borrowed on an honour system. Permanently borrowed, sadly! 

 

 

 

 I'm afraid the same thing seems to have happened to newspapers on Cunard. There was the time when the port agent supplied a selection for the library when the ship was in port. There was a notice asking passengers not to remove them, and people didn't, then they started doing so, and now they don't get the papers.