Runaways

I was worried too...we had only been on the QM2 and never on the QV or QE when we took our first trip this past year...a 48 day segment of the QV world cruise.

 

We had a very smooth trip until New Zealand when Cyclone Pam was close by. We had two very stormy stretches from the South Island into Wellington and then Wellington to the west coast through the Cook Strait.

 

They were the roughest seas we had ever experienced and we've taken 10 transatlantics. The QV was great! I was surprised how well it took the weather and we were at dinner for both trips across! I will never worry about it again.

 

As others have mentioned, people react differently. We saw one of the head waiters escort an elderly lady out of the restaurant, she looked very frightened. We felt perfectly safe and really isn't that the most important thing?

Well done if you could make dinner considering the conditions you describe! I know the Tasman Sea and Cook Strait have 'reputations'. I've had 2 sailings across the Tasman: One many years ago on a non-stabilised, tiny tub in nasty weather, and the next 18 months ago on Celebrity Solstice with flat, beautiful seas. That first experience set me up for 'rough-weather/ sea sickness fear' for ever after I think. I've found all our other cruises on stabilised, modern ships to be fine, except for an aft cabin when crossing the Pacific 7 years ago. The sea sickness tablets were whipped out then. I find the Ginger ones much better than straight travel sickness tablets. The ordinary ones work - but only because they make me unconscious! I remember on QM2 they always gave you a piece of crystallised ginger at the end of the meal. A lovely thought on the only ship that probably doesn't need it! Thanks everyone for your input.

I've picked up on a few comments on various threads alluding to QV and QE's not-so-great seakeeping qualities. Of course QM2 is a completely different design, made for rough and tough conditions, which we've experienced personally. I'm wondering how different the ride will be on our up-coming WC QV ocean sectors. We're mid-ships, but some recent comments have me mildly concerned that this modified Vista class may not be all that stable, generally. I think ocean swell as much as wave height has an affect on my comfort level. How have you found these particular ships? Thank you.

I believe that is why they let you bring your own and charge the corkage fee which we are just fine with. I QUOTE]

 

 

I doubt very few who bring wine aboard have any intention of taking it to the dining room and shelling out the corkage fee. It's for imbibing in private, in cabin, in or out of the shower.

 

David.

 

I disagree. I believe the majority who bother to bring wine aboard DO take most of it to the sommelier and are quite accepting of the current corkage charge in the restaurants. Certainly a glass of champagne, a G&T or whatever is enjoyable to take in the cabin and balcony - but one practise does not preclude the other. Freedom of choice really.

While I have never felt the need to have an adult beverage while showering and getting dressed for the evening, I assume that Cunard would be happy to provide you with one. Therefore, I look on brining ones own on board as cheating. If I am wrong and a room service adult beverage can not be purchased and you need one to get the evening started then no it is not cheating.

 

Guess I need that point clarified.

Of course there's no "need to have an adult beverage while showering and getting dressed". Who would want to water their drink down in the shower!! - and we don't need to steady our hands to do up buttons either. However, when on holiday, sitting on the balcony or catching up on TV news before our preferred late dinner, a glass of what you fancy - whether delivered by room service or brought on board as allowed - is very pleasant indeed. BYO is not 'cheating' - an odd description of behaviour accepted by those that matter, Cunard management.

No one is being cheated. Nothing is being snuck aboard. Cunard's policy welcomes passengers to bring on wine and liquor at embarkation and at ports of call without the need for subterfuge.

Of course if his doesn't imply that you should do so yourself.

Completely agree! Also, taking wine or other drinks aboard doesn't necessarily have anything to do with one's ability to pay for what the ship has on offer: Cruise lines make a lot of money using their considerable purchasing power/duty free status, and the mark-up plus 15% auto-tip can turn a reasonably priced bottle of wine into something else - expensive. We also have favourite wines we want to consume on board and accept a substantial 'corkage' fee will be levied in the restaurants in that case. Fair enough. However, enjoying a drink or two in your own accommodation is what adults do, so no 'cheating' is involved.

Just wondering - Do all of you that bring wine and other adult beverages on board also carry a bottle or two when you check into a land based hotel and do you also bring your own adult beverages to land based restaurants that sell booze? If not why do it on a ship?

Yes.

Just look on Cunard website roundtrip 14 nts 22/10/15-5/11/15 was £799 for inside cabin and now £849 and balcony £999.

Are these prices per cabin, or per person? Thanks.

Thank you for your response Maggie. Yes, I noted the 19!!! suitcases and how you unpacked and sent them to storage 'somewhere'. I read it all, totally amazed you could do what you obviously do without being buried in 'stuff'! And the wedding couple with 29 cases - gobsmacked is the only, rather inelegant, term I can think of. Those slim hangers must make a huge difference to wardrobe space. You must be an incredibly accomplished organizer to be able to regularly pull this off. I/we could never, ever manage it - I lost a mid-sized diary in a rather large handbag for 9 months once. Searched several times but tucked away in the bottom somewhere, and refused to be found until the week I bought a new one! So, I'm forced to keep my travel wardrobe much simpler than yours - double or triple duty for most items except for a couple of long formal dresses. But we're not doing a WC, just a 38 day segment. One day we'll do Sydney-Southampton - hopefully. Best wishes for more happy (and SAFE - no more tap dancing?!) travels. Gwenn.

How on earth do you fit 100 dresses in a standard balcony cabin? I am worried about squeezing 16 in in 3 weeks.

I'm wondering the same Maggiemou. I've just bought and read your book and cannot fathom how you store so many formal dresses, costumes and day wear plus about 40 pairs of shoes plus your husband's formal/day wear and numerous shirts (36 last WC?). How do you do it and how do you keep so many items in good, wearable condition - do you spend part of every day ironing? Really amazing - I know we could never manage such a feat, and have been trying to cut down on luggage recently, for several reasons. Thank you.

Thanks CruiseNH for the Amazon cubes tip - one I will follow up. Also, great idea Scrapnana re putting a world map up. I've noticed pics of QV cabins seem a bit "bare", with no pictures on the long wall. Such a map would be a colourful and useful addition to warm the room up a bit.

Magnets and removable hooks are a good idea - thanks. Any creative ideas on maximising storage in what appear to be tiny QV bathrooms?

None of us can know what will happen to fares. Geopolitics, economies, and exchange rates can move the needle one week to the next. (No way would I have wanted to go to Greece during their financial crisis. How were tourist spots to get the provisions need to serve customers?)

 

Book at what you think is a fair price and then never look at the prices again. Waiting out for a "deal" is a gamble. Yes, you might see a great bargain but also the price can go up or the ship sells out. That, and last minute deals usually are category guarantee only meaning that Cunard picks your stateroom.

 

Also if you are from New Zealand the fares in you market tend to be higher because yours as not a "tipping" culture and so many passengers in this market remove the auto-gratuities. Therefore, the cruise line has to make up the difference to the crew by subsidizing the gratuity pool. (Not my intention to start an argument but that's the way it is.)

I don't want to "start an argument" either, or sidetrack the OPs questions, but you've stated something I've never heard before, i.e. that Cunard charge NZers (and Australians I guess as we both live in countries where substantial tips are not commonly expected or given) higher fares than people in other countries to subsidise the crew if/when auto-gratuities are removed. Many of us leave auto-tips in place and others prefer to tip personally at the same level as Cunard 'charge'. We've always left auto-gratuities in place as it never occurred to me that cruise companies charged fares based on cultural differences re tipping. Interesting! I guess that means there's a substantial amount if extra cash floating around - wonder in whose pocket it ends up.

None of us can know what will happen to fares. Geopolitics, economies, and exchange rates can move the needle one week to the next. (No way would I have wanted to go to Greece during their financial crisis. How were tourist spots to get the provisions need to serve customers?)

 

Book at what you think is a fair price and then never look at the prices again. Waiting out for a "deal" is a gamble. Yes, you might see a great bargain but also the price can go up or the ship sells out. That, and last minute deals usually are category guarantee only meaning that Cunard picks your stateroom.

 

Also if you are from New Zealand the fares in you market tend to be higher because yours as not a "tipping" culture and so many passengers in this market remove the auto-gratuities. Therefore, the cruise line has to make up the difference to the crew by subsidizing the gratuity pool. (Not my intention to start an argument but that's the way it is.)

It's not my intention to "start an argument" either, or side track the OPs questions, but you've mentioned something I've never heard before, i.e. that NZ, and I guess Australia as we have similar cultures as far as not tipping everyone all the time goes, are charged more in fares which Cunard then use to subsidize tipping. Interesting. Many of us pay top fares and also leave auto-gratuities in place, so there's some extra money floating around - wonder where that ends up?

Did you have any trouble at the Customs when you declared the crisps?:rolleyes:

I'm interested to know how that went too.

Wonder if anyone knows how the Britannia DIning Room menus are managed over long World Cruise sectors. Is there a 'rotation' over a week or two of the same or substantially similar menu, or are new dishes introduced? Is there inclusion of some local cuisine, reflecting the ship's location on a World Cruise and its sectors?

Reminds me of someone on another forum who said the reasons the crew attitude "changes" on the last day is because they are probably so sad to see us leave (because they have formed such attachments to us don'tcha know) that they need to separate and be stern to keep a stiff upper lip so they don't get overemotional, etc.

 

Bwa ha!!! They actually believed it too. :rolleyes:

Love this - so funny!

Most likely it is not the "attitude" that changes, but the amount of time staff have to interact with departing passengers. It should be obvious that change-over day has to be particularly demanding -- meaning that there simply is not as much time for staff to stop doing what they are trying to get done.

Crew being busy on changeover day is clearly obvious: However, a smile and eye contact takes no time and leaves departing passengers feeling good about their whole cruise experience.

I concur with OceanMonarch - Lucca is a lovely, easy to get around small city to visit. The rail station is just outside the walkable city walls. Puccini lived in Lucca and there are several interesting museums. A gorgeous oval-shaped piazza is a must see. I really must make a return visit!

You can drink a bottle of dinner wine over two or more evenings for a single corkage fee, so the fee only applies once per bottle.

Yes, I presume the same applies if one were to take a bottle of dessert wine, or a fortified to accompany the cheese course, to the dining room. Opening of such a bottle should attract a single corkage charge and the dessert &/or fortified wine then be available to enjoy on subsequent evenings at no further cost - hopefully.

This thread is really making me LOL ��

We were invited to a cavalcade once. It was bedlam!! ��

Our one & only/not-to-be-repeated RCL voyage was a long 28 days crossing the Pacific. We were relatively new to cruising then and now I'm SO glad we didn't know anything about M&Gs, 'slot pulls' and (horror!) 'CABIN CAVALCADES'. Why would a large group of adults want to poke their noses into other peoples private accommodation, wherever it is? If personally invited, lovely. Otherwise, 'my cabin/stateroom/suite is my castle' for the duration.

If comparing Cunard and MSC, is's a bit like comparing 'apples & oranges'. If the topic is service and crew attitude, then I have to say my one and only unplanned experience with MSC in July 2014 was a positive one. I broke a bone in my foot while on holiday at our house in France which resulted in a foot-to-knee cast. An emerging hip problem on the other side meant a wheelchair rather than crutches was necessary. My stepmother's holiday became a nursing/cook/housekeeping exercise- poor thing. We were booked on Celebrity Equinox for the last week of our holiday but needed to leave the house earlier as it was rented. Judy needed a break too. I found a suite on a 7 day round trip out of Marseille on MSC Lirica. I booked it last minute with some trepidation after hearing a friend's report on their Med cruise and reading others. I have to say I/we were treated with friendly kindness and consideration with efficiency from the moment we arrived at the pier. There was a letter from the Special Services Manager delivered to our suite (which was really just a large stateroom, but perfect for us) within an hour of boarding detailing everything on offer and not to hesitate to contact her for any reason. MSC also had red-jacketed bell-boys who arrived at my door within a minute of calling to take me wherever I wanted to go. This meant Judy could go on shore excursions or other ship board activities without worrying about me being confined to the suite. On Celebrity Equinox, while similarly generally kind, I had to rely on our cabin steward or general crew to wheel me around which took them away from their primary duties. I was always apologising because they were busy enough doing their regular jobs. So, MSC's bell-boys were fantastic - and I was their job. The food wasn't as generally good as Cunard or Celebrity and the style very different but that was expected, being an Italian line with a majority of European families on board. It wonderful to see 3 generations sitting down for a full , leisurely lunch together. But I must say we came away from that short, last minute cruise with good feelings and, getting back on topic, wonderful service from the moment we arrived at check in until a crew member put us in a taxi at the end.

It's also highly likely that our attitude changes on the last day as well !

In what way Hattie?

I haven't experienced this personally, but have seen a couple of comments about crew members being friendly, helpful, doing their job well at embarkation and throughout the voyage but then 'turn', as it was described, at the end/debarcation day. I've noticed on our previous mainly Azamara, Celebrity and Cunard voyages that crew are incredibly busy at the end of a cruise and particularly on 'change-over' day. Thinking about it, except for Azamara, there has perhaps been a hint of "we're finished with you now,next please", but put it down to plain 'busyness'. What do you think?

i have a very nice bottle of port and would like to enjoy it after dinner in the restaurant. I know you can pay corkage for normal wine. Does this rule apply for port?

An interesting question - and good idea. We guess corkage would be paid when the bottle is opened but no further charge be made as the bottle is consumed by the glass over several days/a week - however long it takes. At least we hope that's how it would work. Keen to know the answer to this one.

DW just read this.

Says in her case she will keep the old tux but get better looking husband.

Cheers.

Made our night - hilarious!!