ToadOfToadHall

Hardly anyone bothers to wear fancy dress for the themed nights. Panic not.

rather than walk those never-ending QM2 passageways (you'll see what I mean)

You mean when you stand at one end of the corridor and you can't see the other end because it's disappeared over the horizon ?

I use that handy little bag in the room. Pop your clothes in, and magically they arrive back all clean and pressed !!

Oddly, it's the one service on board that's cheaper than at home and I do take pleasure from not being ripped off when using it.

Many people didn't get the double entendre of the title.

That's probably because there isn't one.

Our favourite call was: "Two little ducks - quack, quack."

You used to get "Two fat ladies - eighty eight". But it's against the law now to call that.

sammybonny, I would buy some food/snacks/drinks at the airport, past security. Our Titan flight on 19/8 back from Trieste, took off around 15;30 and there were THREE sandwiches left to buy! Breakfast at 8am was a long time ago!

We had the same thing coming back for Venice. Finally on the, lets eat then. Ar, no food. Thanks for that BA, cracking service.

Yes and I dont hold a lot of hope that that will be right either. Beginning to wish I hadnt bothered trying Cunard!

We're found the worse part of the cruise is the flying side of things. Our first one was fly there and back and it was not very good at all. So then we just did Southampton/Southampton ones which was much better. The last one was leave Southampton and fly back, and it just confirmed just how poor the flying part is.

Are you at the airport or still at home (I see your location is Manchester) ?

On QV now and a further 2 hour delay - not leaving ship until 6.30 for flight I think about 10.30 getting to Manchester 12.30am!

 

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The 13:40 from Manchester is now showing at 15:40.

It's not an "American ship". The ship sails under the flag of Bermuda.

In that case they should use the Bermudian Dollar then as the ship's currency.

When I said "Expect a shambles and you will not be disappointed" on the previous thread, even I did not expect that level of incompetence !

It already says 13.50. 3:50 flight time, so arriving just before 8PM Greek time. Maybe not midnight, but certainly at least 10PM.

I've stayed at the Holiday Inn too. Rooms are basic and a bit dated, but really just fine and the restaurant was good.

 

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We ate in the restaurant and it was more than acceptable. Breakfast was good as well. I liked having a drink in the hotel lobby area - but for some odd reason I have a thing about hotel lobbies !

One of it's big pluses is location, an easy walk to shopping and to central Southampton.

 

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Hmm, to be fair I think that's a negative. I was applauded by Southampton. The town centre is a disgrace.

The Holiday Inn is not too bad. I would recommend it. The rooms could do with an update but the rest of the hotel in fine.

http://www.hisouthamptonhotel.co.uk/

We stayed there for our last cruise and I had no complaints.

Yes, regardless of whether you pay by credit card or check (which isn't the case in the UK (assuming they even use checks any more)), the price reflects all of the line's costs.

 

As long as you don't claim that they could drop prices if they stopped accepting credit cards for booking payments...

A cheque ? How quaint.

But (as you have pointed out) even with the new UK law, companies can still quote a certain price and then offer a "discount" if you pay by debit card. A lot of news sites spotted that option about 1 millisecond after our cretinous government made their announcement to change the law; everyone spotted it in fact, apart from the government.

It has neither American registry or staffing.

 

Oh, you mean Carnival? How quaint.

Oh yes, Cunard is so "British", everything is priced in US Dollars. I'd say, as mush as people like to think otherwise, it's a US company.

Being an American ship it has American bingo.

I'd say Cunard are something of a pastiche of what you are looking for.

We did the same trip a few years ago, also with Titan to board at Athens. They told us to collect our bags and then board the coach. No bags arrived and so then we were all told do get on the coaches and the bags would follow on (which they did, but it took hours). But they failed to send enough coaches as well which meant it took ages to get to the ship.

Expect a shambles and you will not be disappointed.

Though I am tempted to pocket some of it myself next time as I often get mistaken for a crew member whenever aboard ship.

Well, if you will insist on dressing up like Captain Birdseye and swanning around the ship then what do you expect ? :D

Basically what a Sommelier/Wine waiter is paid to do as that is his job so why should you hav epaid him any extra. Would you ask an electrician to fit a new plug get a price and then say you have made such a lovely job that I am going to pay extra on top of what you are already charging me for... I dont think so.

Correct.

And consider this;

When you buy a holiday (and even more so you would like to think with a cruise), you are paying 100% for a service to be provided to you. You are not purchasing goods, only a service (at the end of my cruise I have not increased the material goods I own) . So surely very good service is, by the definition of what you are buying, implicit ? Surely you should expect very good service as the default position ? Because that is what you are paying for in the first instance anyway ?

with such silly expressions as "its good form" to tip extra.

Tipping seems to have become a form of virtue signalling.

I couldn't agree with you more. In practice, we are paying Cunard's very high drink prices with a 15% auto-tip on top. Then there are suggestions by some for the need for a further tip - madness. However, it is there money, so enjoy.

I think we now have "competitive tipping" - who can tip the most is the winner !

I would imagine a private taxi from Southampton to central London is not going to be cheap, say at least 2 to 2.5 hours each way.

I don't think Cunard do such a transfer, and if they did, it would be way more than you could book it for yourself anyway. To give you a very recent example; 4 friends had to organise their own transfer recently from Venice to the airport. Cunard wanted $300 for the coach transfer. They booked at taxi at the dockside for 50 euros.

The trouble is that I reserved an automatic and need an automatic, and with my luck, they'd bring me a car with a standard transmission.

2 months ago in Southampton I left the hotel for a walk in the morning. There was a car in the road (thankfully it was the road to the hotel, and little else, so no traffic). It was all over the place, ended up driving into the curb at 90 degrees. And then did not move. I stood and watched and the passenger door opened and they asked me to help them. The driver (an American) could not work out how to get the car into reverse. I lent over him and popped it into reverse for him. "How on earth did you do that !!?" So I explained it all to him and he was very grateful. I did offer to reverse it for him but he declined and managed okay after that. I assumed it must have been the first time he'd driven a manual.

But remember that hardly any cars in the UK are automatic so I'd not be surprised if you end up with a manual as the rental companies can't have that many anyway.

Popping a few corks can also involve remembering what you like, making recommendations on your preferences, keeping your white or rose chilled, and constantly refilling your glass. Oh, and saving the rest of the bottle that you might want to drink at the next night's dinner.

What ? You mean the job of a wine waiter ?