Declining World Club benefits

[david,Mississauga]

Cunard sent us an e-mail regarding the World Club benefits for our upcoming QM2 voyage.  There was reference to benefits as "one of our most loyal guests." There was also reference to benefits which cannot be provided "due to social distancing requirements."  Some of them are understandable, but not having the priority disembarkation or the disembarkation lounge for Diamond members is nonsense. 

 

Several weeks ago we disembarked the QE in Vancouver. Passengers now wait in their staterooms and proceed to the gangway at the appointed time. When we did so we noticed a crowd of well over a hundred people in a queue which we were invited to join. There had been a  delay for disembarking our colour and number. Fortunately we found seats nearby. The queue grew longer by the minute. After 20 minutes of being crowded together, the long queue proceeded ashore.

 

On our last QE arrival in Vancouver in 2019 the upper level of the Britannia restaurant was the designated disembarkation lounge. There were few people there and social distancing was maintained - and this was long before that phrase was ever heard or needed. At the appointed hour we were all invited to proceed ashore.

Edited August 15, 2022 by david,Mississauga
typo

[ballroom-cruisers]

Disembarking direct from your room at a specified time is way more efficient and quick than gathering in a disembarking area for call off as used to be the case, even with the old priority system. I hope they keep the direct disembarking from your room permanently.

[PORT ROYAL]

19 minutes ago, ballroom-cruisers said:

Disembarking direct from your room at a specified time is way more efficient and quick than gathering in a disembarking area for call off as used to be the case, even with the old priority system. I hope they keep the direct disembarking from your room permanently.

Let Ds have a choice from both.  Used the lounge once, now we take a long breakfast in buffet and disembark when ready.  Usually just before last call is announced.  Thereby missing all the pre/post luggage hall mayhem.  Lift (empty), card, luggage, porter, point, load, exit, car, load, gone.

  

Edited August 15, 2022 by PORT ROYAL
Typo

[ballroom-cruisers]

I guess the specified departure from your room means that the number who leave at any one time is designed/managed so that the entire cohort of passengers leaving through the limited gangway scan-out capacity is spread over a sensible period of time, which should mean nobody ends up with any significant delay.  Of course if a few people decide to wait until the last call off, it is fine, provided a sizeable number of people don't all decide to do that, in which case there would be a log jam just before last call off!

[BklynBoy8]

Like our departure on October 7th will be from Deck 9 Princess Grill in Brooklyn.

 

Being Diamond Level which I would not be surprised most will be at that level , there will be a large gathering of passengers exiting in those hallways.

 

So either way Verndah Restaurant (Disembarking Lounge)or Deck 9 cabins, there will be a large group leaving and piling up at the lifts.

 

Best, wait till most leave and exit before the next announcement.

[PORT ROYAL]

9 minutes ago, ballroom-cruisers said:

Of course if a few people decide to wait until the last call off, it is fine, provided a sizeable number of people don't all decide to do that, in which case there would be a log jam just before last call off!

Umpteen Cunard cruises, never happened.  99% wish to “hit the road jack” asap.

Also, a nice additional gratuity to stateroom attendant, extends one’s unofficial stay in stateroom, to arrive at the buffet when the table hogging lemmings are evacuating. 😉

[BklynBoy8]

That is why not having been on a long trip lately, I question the other CWC benefits that are being offered in the past.

 

Comp Wine Tasting and the CWC Cocktail Party & Senior Officers Gathering, if they are being re-introduced Post C19 to passengers on board.

 

Those Good Olde Days..

[exlondoner]

3 minutes ago, BklynBoy8 said:

That is why not having been on a long trip lately, I question the other CWC benefits that are being offered in the past.

 

Comp Wine Tasting and the CWC Cocktail Party & Senior Officers Gathering, if they are being re-introduced Post C19 to passengers on board.

 

Those Good Olde Days..

 

We had the wine tasting on QE in April, and it was offered, strangely, on the last afternoon, on QM2 last month.

[carlmm]

Covid is used as an excuse for so much.

We can mix and mingle in all the lounges and bars all the time, but Cunard cannot eg. provide a senior officers party for diamond guests? At least with some officers greeting from stage?

[ballroom-cruisers]

27 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

We had the wine tasting on QE in April, and it was offered, strangely, on the last afternoon, on QM2 last month.

 

Yes the same for us in July on QM2 - which we thought was thoroughly inappropriate timing! There were plenty of sea days earlier in the cruise for the wine tasting to be organised and offered!

[PORT ROYAL]

25 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

We had the wine tasting on QE in April, and it was offered, strangely, on the last afternoon, on QM2 last month.

Not strangely, but deliberately, to save the cost of a few short measures, by clashing with afternoon tea, getting ready for first sitting and packing.

[ballroom-cruisers]

7 minutes ago, PORT ROYAL said:

Not strangely, but deliberately, to save the cost of a few short measures, by clashing with afternoon tea, getting ready for first sitting and packing.

 

With only four wines now, instead of six in the good old days, the wine tasting takes less time now, and the chat/desciption over each one is a lot less detailed than I can remember even through the haze of six generous glasses as used to be the case! There is less 'food' to accompany the wines now too! So plenty of time to leave the wine tasting, and even get changed before afternoon tea!

Edited August 15, 2022 by ballroom-cruisers
typo

[exlondoner]

4 minutes ago, PORT ROYAL said:

Not strangely, but deliberately, to save the cost of a few short measures, by clashing with afternoon tea, getting ready for first sitting and packing.

 

It really isn't necessary to think the worst of Cunard's motives, unless you really enjoy it. It didn't clash with afternoon tea, or the other things really. But it stopped us choosing some of the wines with our dinner.

[jimbo1683]

23 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

It really isn't necessary to think the worst of Cunard's motives, unless you really enjoy it. It didn't clash with afternoon tea, or the other things really. But it stopped us choosing some of the wines with our dinner.

It's a bit hard to imagine that this much thought has gone into the wine tasting schedule. The purpose of it surely is to help promote certain wines for sale so it's a poor marketing tactic to put it at the end of the cruise, which to me suggests the opposite of a deliberate attempt to save money and more likely the result of a junior activities coordinator putting it in the wrong place on the schedule.

[deck chair]

Hi!  I always thought having the wine tasting at the end of the voyage made no sense if Cunard wants passengers to buy the highlighted wines to drink during the voyage.  
Deck Chair. 

[ballroom-cruisers]

40 minutes ago, deck chair said:

Hi!  I always thought having the wine tasting at the end of the voyage made no sense if Cunard wants passengers to buy the highlighted wines to drink during the voyage.  
Deck Chair. 

 

Yes, exactly!

[Victoria2]

I thought the wine tasting was an activity for a wet afternoon or when there was nothing better on the daily plan.

[PORT ROYAL]

5 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

I thought the wine tasting was an activity for a wet afternoon or when there was nothing better on the daily plan.

Have never actually fully attended.  In support of  the MD, checked in and immediately left.

Just too busy, and there would have been nothing presented that our Sommelier could not advise on, in particular Bin Ends.

 

[Victoria2]

7 hours ago, PORT ROYAL said:

Have never actually fully attended.  In support of  the MD, checked in and immediately left.

Just too busy, and there would have been nothing presented that our Sommelier could not advise on, in particular Bin Ends.

 

We went to one on our first 'Diamond' cruise. It was a perk. We used it.

Gave it the benefit of the doubt and tried again. Never bothered after that, I don't need advice as I'm comfortable with my Marlborough choices, apart from the occasional bottle of Ice-wine or a glass of 'd'yquem [if pushing the boat out] for 'afters' and my husband consults wine waiters  for their take on the reds if trying something new..

Bin end reds have been interesting.

 

Interesting to hear the take on WC benefits being cut. It sounds as if the Verandah lunch or pop up dinner is still available to the Diamonds, which we won't use unless dining with friends from other restaurants, and I guess I'll miss seeing some of the members of staff we got to know at the small get togethers in the Queens Room but apart from that, the only one I'll really miss is the 8 hrs internet because whatever Cunard say in their blurb about the changes in internet packages and you'll get the same value  of benefit as before, their idea of 'the same value as before' isn't mine!

 

We shall see.

 

[rakkor]

I imagine the lack of a senior officers party is more to protect them than us. We'd be in a right pickle if they all had to isolate because of a superspreader event.

[exlondoner]

8 hours ago, PORT ROYAL said:

Have never actually fully attended.  In support of  the MD, checked in and immediately left.

Just too busy, and there would have been nothing presented that our Sommelier could not advise on, in particular Bin Ends.

 

 

I wonder if you are thinking of the same event. I have certainly never found it busy. A few groups of 8-12. You used to move from wine to wine, but now you stay put and the wines come to you. I find it interesting: they are invariably wines I've never had. Some are horrid, some OK, and some I've enjoyed enough to order later in the voyage. Which of course wouldn't happen when the tasting is the last afternoon.

[exlondoner]

13 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

I thought the wine tasting was an activity for a wet afternoon or when there was nothing better on the daily plan.

 

That could be the reason they hold it on the last day, which is often a wet Bay Of Biscay or Western Approaches. 😀

[Victoria2]

22 minutes ago, rakkor said:

I imagine the lack of a senior officers party is more to protect them than us. We'd be in a right pickle if they all had to isolate because of a superspreader event.

My assumption too and totally understandable.

I won't miss any drinks etc but I did like meeting up with familiar faces.

[Victoria2]

6 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

That could be the reason they hold it on the last day, which is often a wet Bay Of Biscay or Western Approaches. 😀

Couldn't decide whether to give it a like, or a laugh! 🙂

[ballroom-cruisers]

What our experience was at the various wine tasting events on board, both current and in the past, is that of those wines we have been offered to taste, maybe one was palatable enough that we might consider having it again. The rest we usually found pretty much nowhere near the taste we would enjoy, and even more so at the prices offered.  You can have as much history of the vineyards as you like, and as much rolling round the tongue by the Sommelier, and as much description of 'hints of citrus, or notes of spice', but at the end of the day it either tastes nice, with a lovely after taste, or it doesn't.  Actually we have had hugely nicer wines at the wine tasting excursions, when at ports of call, than we ever had at the wine tastings on board - and often on excursions, whether Italy, Croatia, Sardinia, France or most places we have regularly had almost all the wines offered as enjoyable enough to want to have them again - and then if buying at the vineyard the prices are regularly pretty  good value, and it then just a question of how many bottles you can carry!  Not that I am a huge wine drinker - but a nice wine occasionally is a pleasant thing to have with a meal.