MrsHat

Am on QM2 right now, and they are doing fixed dining on Deck 2 and open on Deck 3 - Deck 3 is dark and the waiters don't seem super happy to be there. I'm a bit disappointed - previously on QM2 (last year) I ate open dining on Deck 2 and it was lovely (they had early fixed seating and then open after that), and a few weeks ago on QV they had open dining in the lower area. In the past, I've been asked if I wanted to sit alone or with others, and I do like to mix it up, but they aren't even asking this time around. Overall, the crew feels glum and a little less welcoming than I expected.

Augh I'm mistaken - I'm on QV tomorrow and QM2 in July and it's the latter that got upgraded. And I am SO CONFUSED because I don't remember bidding on an upgrade for QM2...must call them!

We bid on all the available options, and we were in an obstructed-view ocean view so I put in the max bid for each of three categories we were offered (max was 350 pounds pp for Britannia Club Balcony). I got "sorry no" emails on two of the bids, but today, the day before we sail, we just got bumped up to Sheltered Balcony (which I prefer to open balcony anyway!) at 40/pp. So 80 pounds from a Late Saver fare to a balcony, and I am thrilled!

I did walk-in dining on my last cruise and very much enjoyed meeting plenty of new people. The types of “conflict” I experienced aren’t being criticized—it’s that I’m very liberal in my opinions and many cruisers are more conservative. I don’t want to offend anyone, and it’s not the time or the place to have fervent belief-driven conversations, so it’s a bit of a minefield to avoid topics where I know opinions will come up that I find repugnant enough that I must then both immediately change the subject and actively look for the good in my fellow diners in order to remain at their table. These days, with the amount of conflict in our world as a whole, there are an awful lot of topics that need to be avoided. Like, sports used to be a safe one, and it’s not anymore. So far, it’s been worth the roulette, but the first few minutes of every dinner are (for me) full of tension while I figure out what’s OK to talk about.

Thank you 3rdGenCunarder! I was on the transatlantic to Southampton. Following on the original Q - I hate to say it but there were people in quarantine. My cabin was right next to a blocked-off corridor stretching from Stairway A halfway to Stairway B on deck 6. Before I realized it was a quarantine hallway, I cut through once and saw food trays at cabin doors. There were doors in that corridor marked “Donning” and “Doffing,” which my steward confirmed were rooms for putting on and removing PPE, in order to provide service to the people in quarantine. The same section on Deck 5 was also blocked off, and about halfway through the voyage, the blocked Deck 5 section was extended all the way to Stairway B.

Dreadful 🙂 I showed up for a 3:15 boarding time and finally boarded around 4:45. The agents were swift with each of us but there were a lot of people in line and we went through a preliminary check, then customs, then cruise check in. The back of the line was probably 75 people behind me.