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Glad you enjoyed the QM2, we love her. Sorry to hear that someone criticized your dancing - good, bad or indifferent everyone is entitled to hit the floor and have fun, it's not a competition.

We have flown out of Venice once following a Med cruise and it was a complete nightmare. The airport was heaving and no one from Cunard to help. We must have had the same ramshackle plane as the previous poster - I think BA pulled it out of the back of the hanger for the occasion.

We were also on the QM2 sail away from Hamburg on 21st August and the send off was amazing with Land of Hope and Glory and God Save The Queen being played from the shore. The Fjords cruise which followed was also fabulous with great weather and scenery and also a couple of great send offs from Norwegian ports of call

Some of the people on this thread are extremely pompous, why should anyone have to learn basic dance steps to dance in the Queens Room. There are always the 'competition dancers' who think they own the place and insist on dancing in ballroom hold and taking up more than their fair share of space, we always make it our business to get in their way! We can actually dance, my husband to an extremely high standard, but we would never dream of dancing in anything other than a social manner in the Queens Room, it is after all a social, not a competitive, environment.

I'm sure there was a midnight buffet on QM2 Christmas 2012 cruise

Out of interest, if these figures are indeed correct the grats received can be quite substantial. For example most have at least 10 cabins to service i.e. 20 passengers.

 

At $6.85 per px per day this equates to $137 (or £96.27) per day for the suite attendants.

 

At $3.85 stateroom attendants receive $77 per day. This figure is exactly the same as UK minimum wage @ £6.70 per hour (8 hr per day = £53.60 / $76.27). On a 10 day cruise, tips would amount to £536!! This is without their actual salary from Cunard!

 

To be fair, I have just returned from USA and all my bills in restaurants had at least 25% added, 9/10% tax plus at least 15% tips (most gave examples of what they suggest you should tip - anything from 15 to 22% was stated), so I completely understand why Americans believe these tips are 'normal'.

 

However in the UK all our bills include tax (VAT) and tips are left to your own discretion (10% is typically normal). This is why when faced with the 15-18% on all beverages (even water tea and coffee) and the daily charge they are shocked!

 

I know people on these boards always spout the line 'if you can afford to cruise you can afford to pay the grats' but in reality many (not all of course) of the passengers are pensioners (Current basic UK pension is £116 per week) or those who have saved hard for a long time to take a cruise, so it's not always that easy to find this extra amount, so please stop trying to make others feel guilty if they want to exercise their right to choose whether or not to pay these extras, and instead prefer to tip in they way they they feel is right for them.

 

This kind of berating people does nothing to help either passengers or crew members. Just saying.....

I wish there was a like button

Not espousing anything - how and who I choose to tip is entirely my own business - my money - my choice

Do whatever you want to do - who says anyone is automatically entitled to be tipped

We spent Christmas & new year on QM2 a couple of years ago and loved every minute. It was the best cruise we have been on. It is true to say that you do miss family at Christmas time but it was still fabulous.

The Queens Room is a place for social dancing - not competition dancing.

it really annoys us when couples feel they need to go the whole hog, full ballroom hold, skipping and hopping in quickstep. We always make it our business to get in their way!! There is no need to feel intimidated by these people showing off, if they were half decent dancers they would be able to dance socially.:D

I have always felt 'in the way' and pretty much ignored on disembarkation day by crew who have spent the last 14 or so days practically falling over you to be helpful. I am sure it is because they are very busy at such times but you do feel a bit like yesterday's news

Enjoying reading your blog. The bit about Mariah Carey made me laugh out loud, I couldn't agree more!:)

Thank you, I really enjoyed your review. It must have taken you ages to put together and I must say I totally agree with you on your point about disembarkation. I have always felt that you are treated with total disdain on that morning. I always think they might as well chuck your bags off of the highest deck and tell you to clear off!:)

I did pick that up thank you, I was wondering why when I looked at the QM2 webcam it said she was docked in that port when she obviously was not.

When I looked at the QM2 webcam last week it said she was docked in Aqaba??:confused:

Must be the time of year, we were on board QM2 at Christmas 2 years ago but thankfully managed to avoid the bug. Wishing everyone on QM2 this Christmas a lovely time, so jealous, definitely going to do it again some time:)

I normally find most of the OBC goes on cocktails:p:D

If you make a comment like that, then you are not aware of the problems seniors, sight and mobility challenged passengers have, shuffling along.

I wish your conscience well when someone falls over your artfully placed towel, that is if a steward hasn't already removed it during the night.

What about the challenge to the rest of us when the 'mobility challenged' leave their mobility scooters in the corridors. Surely this is a bigger 'elf and safety problem' in an emergency than a towel?

The Regatta bar area was used for an evening 'deck party' when we were in the Caribbean, it was lovely

We have sailed on a few times with Cunard, partly because we enjoy the formality. There are so few occasions now where you can dress formally it would be a shame to lose them. We have booked with Celebrity next year and hope that we won't be the only ones dressed for the occasion on formal evenings.

Thanks for all your replies, you have all been really helpful

Hi, I am looking for guidance with regard to dress codes on Celebrity ships. Have not sailed Celebrity before but have sailed Cunard and like the dressing up bit. Can someone let me know what the dress requirements are on Celebrity Eclipse which is the ship I am looking at, also can anyone who has sailed on this ship let me know their thoughts on it. Thanks.

Have I led a sheltered life? What is a crab shag?

Personally I have always found the waiters in the MDR quick, efficient and friendly, even in the midst of a Noro outbreak. Also I may be very easily pleased, but have also never found anything to complain about with the MDR food. In fact I have never found much to complain about at all on QM2 - (except the cost of the excursions when you find out later you could have done it much cheaper by yourself, but that's another story).

I'm sure people just post these sort of things from time to time to get us Cunard fans all hot and bothered. :)

Some of you people absolutely amaze me, what has it got to do with anyone else if these people want to take their baby on a world cruise? Yes the child might get ill, yes the ship might not be sanitized - where is sanitized? Aeroplanes are disgusting places full of germs but I don't suppose anyone would be whinging about taking a child on an aeroplane. The baby probably crawls round on the floor at home and also there are probably stairs in their home - imagine the danger!! The person asked a simple question - he or she doesn't need to be judged by people on this forum on their parenting methods. To be honest if I had read some of these boards before I started cruising I probably would have been put off completely.