First time cruiser

[Eastcroft]

I expect I wasn't alone in being a first timer on M411 12th May Southampton to Hamburg and back. I'd booked it as a surprise for my partner although the ulterior motive was that I really wanted to go on QM2. Some friends joined us as well once they heard we were going so we became a party of six, not quite the ideal number for finding seats in the bars. Our restaurant booking went somewhat awry as on the first day we were all allocated tables of 2 at different times for late dinner. The Maitre'd was rather accomodating and found us a table on the first night and the next nights we went for open dining.

 

One thing I found rather bizarre is that we had all been informed in advance that it was an optional gala night on the second night, and then in the daily programme that was never advertised, but on the fourth night before Southampton it was advertised as an optional gala night which for us had previously been just a formal night. I'm guessing it was because we had booked the shorter cruise as opposed to continuing through to New York, but it would have been nicer if we had dressed on the "right" night as the ship did seem more 'in the spirit' on the night we were just in formal clothing as we'd worn our tuxedos earlier!

 

Service on the whole seemed really good bar one or two slips, my partner and I both opted to go for drinks in the Carinthia Lounge one evening leaving our friends in the Golden Lion, we ordered drinks and waited almost an hour despite me visiting the bar after 30 minutes to see what was going on. Eventually the waiter came over and explained everything had "gone wrong" and clarified our orders and they appeared 10 minutes later. The couple infront of us had been waiting an hour for two pints of lager. So something was clearly not working. Again the next day we met in the Carinthia Lounge and had to leave for a lecture, we waited 30 minutes for our order to be taken despite trying to attract attention, and then when taken we had waited over 20 minutes for two coffees so had to leave before they arrived as we wanted to attend the Concorde lecture.

 

Aside from those niggling issues everything seemed as I'd hoped it would be, the food was good, service was good and despite it being a taster to see if we liked crusing I'd booked the 11 night Atlantic Coast Adventure around 3 months earlier because I'd already made my mind up that I'd enjoy it. 

[NE John]

It looks like we’re see the service effects of veteran crew members being moved away from QM2 and QV, maybe not as much as QE is she’s in Japan now, to the new Queen Anne.  
Hopefully service is better for your next voyage. 

[Pushpit]

8 hours ago, Eastcroft said:

One thing I found rather bizarre is that we had all been informed in advance that it was an optional gala night on the second night, and then in the daily programme that was never advertised, but on the fourth night before Southampton it was advertised as an optional gala night which for us had previously been just a formal night. I'm guessing it was because we had booked the shorter cruise as opposed to continuing through to New York, but it would have been nicer if we had dressed on the "right" night as the ship did seem more 'in the spirit' on the night we were just in formal clothing as we'd worn our tuxedos earlier!

Something did indeed go wrong here, I was also on this sailing and there was a clear disconnect between what the online Calendar said, ahead of departure, and the Daily Programme, which isn't something that I've experienced before. So I think it was actually some communication error within Cunard about this, and you could sort of tell since on the Gala Night advertised in the Daily Programme, adherence to the Gala dress code was fairly weak, around 60 / 40, instead of the more usual 90 / 10.

 

Anyone boarding in HAM would have thought "no Gala night" and not brought anything suitable, anyone departing in HAM would have taken their formal clothes off with them so it was a bit of a dog's breakfast.

 

You can see that in the wonder @bluemarble Google Docs for the Dress Code, where the Gala night shows as 13 May and it was actually 15 May. In umpteen Cunard sailings I've never seen that happen before (other than when there was disruption to the schedule en route).

 

Getting served in Carinthia is a bit of an art, you need to keep the menu standing and remove any white doilies from the table, have your room card out and visible. After about 10 minutes I do seek someone out, or go to the bar. They could do with another member of staff there. Also the port side gets better service than the starboard side (poor sight lines on that side).

[Eastcroft]

5 hours ago, Pushpit said:

Something did indeed go wrong here, I was also on this sailing and there was a clear disconnect between what the online Calendar said, ahead of departure, and the Daily Programme, which isn't something that I've experienced before. So I think it was actually some communication error within Cunard about this, and you could sort of tell since on the Gala Night advertised in the Daily Programme, adherence to the Gala dress code was fairly weak, around 60 / 40, instead of the more usual 90 / 10.

Well we enjoyed ourselves and our party looked rather splendid at least. It just didn't quite have that feeling of being a gala night really. For the actual gala night we had booked the Verandah which was very good so we didn't really experience the MDR on a gala night, and then packing straight after a final drink.

5 hours ago, Pushpit said:

Getting served in Carinthia is a bit of an art, you need to keep the menu standing and remove any white doilies from the table, have your room card out and visible. After about 10 minutes I do seek someone out, or go to the bar. They could do with another member of staff there. Also the port side gets better service than the starboard side (poor sight lines on that side).

I'll try and remember that next time I'm on QM2, although as its QV next time I've got 11 days to get used to the idiosyncrasies of getting served there. 😄 

[Bell Boy]

I was also on this QM2 sailing , the problem with the formal evening confusion, as Pushpit has already mentioned above was the disconnection between our calendar and the ships hotel department .

I had already mentioned this to the entertainment manager who was unaware we had been given confusing information she assured me that it was to be programmed for the return sector .

 

I'm amazed at the references to poor service in the Carinthia Lounge , this venue was my go to place every evening for pre dinner cocktails. ( which at that time was the hight of activity ) I encountered no problems in being attended to - I expect this was due to sitting at the Bar Top.  

 

 

[exlondoner]

12 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

I was also on this QM2 sailing , the problem with the formal evening confusion, as Pushpit has already mentioned above was the disconnection between our calendar and the ships hotel department .

I had already mentioned this to the entertainment manager who was unaware we had been given confusing information she assured me that it was to be programmed for the return sector .

 

I'm amazed at the references to poor service in the Carinthia Lounge , this venue was my go to place every evening for pre dinner cocktails. ( which at that time was the hight of activity ) I encountered no problems in being attended to - I expect this was due to sitting at the Bar Top.  

 

 

But it shouldn’t matter where you sit, should it?

[Bell Boy]

7 hours ago, exlondoner said:

But it shouldn’t matter where you sit, should it?

Of course it shouldn't, and I've covered this in my post,   however, common sense tells me choosing a seat at the Bar Top during the hight of activity 7-8pm enables one to be attended to more quickly.

 

Fortunately I'm able to perch my self up on a high bar stool comfortably 😉