Lynnewob

13 hours ago, exlondoner said:

A review of QE has just appeared, saying the ship is filthy, the staff rude and incompetent, and the beds very uncomrtable. Can you just reassure us this has not been your experience?

Wow, that was not our experience at all.

The only slow/wrong service we had was Bar service in the casino at the tables.  We just rolled with it as a lot of new staff are on board.  

Decks and interior were all in good shape. 

Our 29 Aug to 5 Sep cruise (BCN-BCN) on QE has 1469 on board according to the Snr Maitre D'

Well, the last day is upon us. Valencia, before disembarking in Barcelona tomorrow. 

Breakfast in the room with champagne as its our anniversary and then a little walk around as we were here in March.  

Back on board, packing done and in the balcony chilling with Veuve and choc chip cookies until sailaway - living the high life eh

😂

Rakkor, haven't seen you in the Grills lounge but if you see us tonight at around 8ish , say hello.  I'll be in a bright orange dress with matching shoes. 

I understand if it's booked as one voyage, that you'll only get 1 allowance.   If its booked as 2 separate trips with different booking numbers, it will reset again.  

We're also on board at the moment 29 Aug-5 Sep.  

Flew BA (on Iberia metal) from LHR after a night at the very basic Thistle Heathrow. Pods to T5 worked quickly.  Checked in at 0530 for 0905 flight.  

Booked independently using frequent flyer miles on a companion voucher so in economy.  As Silver booked an exit row.  If we weren't Silver with BA we would not have been allowed to check in until 0705.   It also allows 2 pieces of luggage each at 23kg.

We had originally booked 0615 flight but that got cancelled so moved to this one.  

Busyish flight but a couple of spare rows, at the back.  

Collected luggage and spoke to a few who were joining QE with transfers booked.   

We hopped in a cab outside - flat fare of 39 Euros.  

Fast check in at 1pm, only 4 other couples around.    Straight to suite to drop of hand luggage and to QG restaurant for lunch.  

After lunch, luggage arrived, unpacked, had champagne on balcony and wandered around to say hi to staff we know. 

Grills lounge for a drink at 7.45pm and dinner after which was lovely. Have a table for 2 in the window.  

On balcony for departure at 11.30pm. 

No breakfast as still full from night before. Sea is like a millpond and sun is On starboard side (we're on portside).  Still warm at 27 degrees.  Lots of people on steamer chairs on deck 3.  

Talk on Donald Campbell (Bluebird) at 10.15am and Diamond World Club lunch in Verandah.  

Premium Internet worked best for us as a diamond member as only 6 days remaining  so chose premium option as works out free being diamond member.

Red/Gold gala night tonight. 

19 hours ago, Lynnewob said:

However, we've been booked on a Q6 Gty since Sep 21 for an upcoming QE trip on 29 Aug.    It will be interesting to see what we get assigned. 

We are now assigned 😁, a Q4 - 7080, which is not surprising really given how many Q4's there are on deck 7.

13 hours ago, BigMac1953 said:

About four or five years ago, "guarantee" bookings were removed from Grills. It's now just pot luck. Mostly, we tick Do Not Upgrade.

We used the PG & QG gty bookings previously and thought they had disappeared too. 

However, we've been booked on a Q6 Gty since Sep 21 for an upcoming QE trip on 29 Aug.    It will be interesting to see what we get assigned. 

We just got off too (nearly home now) 

Agree about issues trying to get seats in bars Pre-dinner.  It was a game of chance. 

We were club class dining so didn't have any sort of wait, but compared to previous trips, you could tell the waiters were very rushed. 

Didn't touch open decks as too busy and enjoyed our balcony instead. On a ship this  full, we'd never use pools or hot tubs. 

We're gamblers so.spent a lot of time in the casino and it got very rowdy with drinkers late on which we could hear from the tables.  Surprised staff didn't cut people off drinking as some were definitely hammered.  

Wines were different to what was on the menu as they ran out of stock and didn't know what they had.   You could ask for a red pinot noir for example and not know what it was you were drinking as the staff didn't know either.  Stock shortages created the changes and the staff weren't kept up to date. 

Haven't got another Princess booked but did get an FCD.  

Our 2 issues were resolved quickly.  1 pair of ladies trousers ruined by the laundry and hubby had a ceramic shard in his apple pie last night. Luckily no damage done to him or his teeth thankfully. 

We disembarked Pursuit on 2 April in Barcelona and just grabbed a cab after disembarkation - there were many lined up.    I think it's a flat fee to the airport, we paid 39 Euros.  It was about 20-30 minutes.

10 hours ago, Goaty said:

Sailing on Pursuit from Ravenna on 16 April can’t believe we’ve had our upgrade bid accepted from N2 to Club World Owners Suite. Still in shock as it was a low bid. Still bring it on getting very excited!!

We did that on the first sailing on Pursuit from N1 and loved it. Had 6091, it was great. 

On Pursuit, they are still using the mixed menus in PrimeC/Aqualina but have added a special main course for each restaurant (you can have either wherever you're dining). 

Last night they added an additional dessert as a special too. 

Things are gradually changing, giving more choice. 

14 hours ago, audobon_tx said:

 

HD?

It's Heike 

On board Pursuit. 340 passengers.  

Capt Antonio Toledo.  Mario F&B Manager.  Tanya CD, Lee Asst CD. 

Top suites m&g in drawing room on first night at 5pm before the 6pm sailaway from Lisbon. 

4pm on sea day loyalty party cheese and wine in living room. 

Sea day with rubbish WiFi was warm in afternoon. 

Seville for overnight today, docked at 0430, depart 1800 Mon.  Weather overcast to start but sunshine a from midday and 18 degrees c. 

Destination evening (flamenco) tonight in 2 sessions.  We decided not to go and enjoying the sun on the aft balcony instead.   

White night scheduled in Gibraltar on Tuesday. 

2 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

@Lynnewob  I want to be there someday!!

We didn't think we would get it and certainly happy with our N1 regardless. 

This just adds an extra special layer to the trip.

Our lowest bid for the CW was accepted overnight from N1.  

We received the email at 8.30pm (UK time) on 16 March for 25 March sailing.

Pleased to say we were allocated deck 6 and not deck 8.  I'd much rather have the engine growl below us than noise from sunset veranda above.

Looking forward to the trip even more now.

The offers for 8 night on Pursuit on 25 March 22 from our cabin (N1 CC suite) are:

SP -  Spa £990 to £1910pp

CO - Ocean £1295 to £2670pp

CW - Owners £1525pp to can't recall

There are 3 CW still for sale (deck 2xdeck 6 and 1xdeck 9) but others are sold out.

We've put a low bid in for CW - if we get it, great. If not, c'est la vie and still happy with our N1.

We had an SP cabin in Oct 21 so don't need to try that type of cabin and don't like forward cabins so didn't put in a bid for CO.

Lovely to read your Blog.  

We were on board from SOU-HAM and joined the end of the your 5pm meeting in the Commodore Club on 12 February to meet with the two Mark's at 6pm where we were meeting with another larger group for birthday drinks. 

I think I saw you in the group sitting near the entrance.

I hope you had a safe journey in the new car and look forward to reading many more of your blogs in the future.

Lynne

Here's a plan showing the D deck D4 (premium deluxe) and BD (deluxe) balconies.   You can see that these are larger.  

We had the aft corner suite (D727) and no one was in D725 so we took a photo of that balcony.  Compare that to the E deck balcony shot we also took below. 

D aft are a lot larger on the Sky, compared to the other Royal class ships. 

For your spreadsheet:

QM2 2nt 11 Feb 2022 Ston-Ham

11 Feb (smart attire), 12 Feb (Gala - no further description) 

QE 7nt 29 Aug 22 BCN-BCN

29 Aug(smart), 30 Aug (gala - red&gold), 31 Aug (smart), 1 Sep(smart), 2 Sep(smart), 3 Sep (gala - 20's), 4 Sep (smart). 

We mentioned the mini doughnuts, had disappeared from the dessert menu and that we loved them.   As we were dining there another night, they said they could make some for us for the next night, so it's worth checking on board to see if the can do something on an advance order. 

For info, here is the current specialty dining menu on Quest which combines PrimeC and Aqualina.   

A daily starter, main and dessert is also offered which the waiter tells you about upon arrival. 

I forgot to photograph the dessert menu so will do that after dining there tonight. 

I attach FYI the suite breakfast menu in Aqualina and in room breakfast menu. 

We had Vishal last night too in Prime C who was great.   You weren't the couple at around 9.30 who were sung Happy Birthday to were you? 

NB.  There are 2 Vishal's, who describe themselves as tall and short 😂. 

We've just had the destination Caruso evening with 2 tenors and a soprano which was very well attended.   They were really good but we can imagine how much better they would have been outside with an Italian backdrop rather than in a show lounge, but in these times, we must expect changes.  

Chilling now in the Living room with a drink before bed.  All very nice. 

We also took a couple of random up shots from D727, so attach these for info, C deck is obviously the first in shot. 

Here's a couple of shots of Sky D727 on one of the recent UK staycations.