$1,798 Vs. $9596

Lets have a bit of fun with this idea! On a transatlantic voyage on the QM2 in the off season, the fare for a single passenger traveling by themselves is approx. $1,798 for an inside cabin and $9,596 for a Queens Grill cabin.

Here is the game. How to create a Queens Grill experience in an inside cabin at the Britannia Level.

Cabin - Queens Grill - Balcony - Not very useable in the winter/View - also not always the best as there are storms and misty days or can be.

Size - Single person roomy

Cabin: Inside - don't need the balcony - don't need the view -use webcam for bow shots of crashing waves in force 8 storm. Both cabins have a widescreen TV

Size - single roomy. have bed made into two (assuming you are not a thrasher) and make up one as a couch.

Butler Vs. Steward - How much of an extra tip would your steward need to become a "butler" for the 7 day passage. This would include unpacking your luggage (one suitcase should do a 7 day sail). Find, bring and set up a small table with linen, real dining room flatware and dishes etc. Not that a single person would have many meals en suite. However, breakfast and before dinner appetizers on a set schedule surely can be arranged.

Afternoon tea - Most everyone agrees the Queens Room is the place for afternoon tea not the Grills Lounge.

Outdoor lounging and dining - Most likely not going to happen during a winter or off season crossing.

Meals: A check of Cunard menus reveals the Breakfast and Lunch are within two items of exactly the same. Again a bit of green in the Britannia dining room for the breakfast waiter (how much do you think?) may rustle up those elusive fresh berries in season w/ cream, a muffin or two and of course even the fresh squeezed OJ.

Now dinner is where one has the advantage in the Queens Grill Vs. Britannia, however, for an extra $35 per evening there is Todd English or for $$245 plus tip. And Britannia dining room staff has been known to be quite creative if challenged so that could also be a fun experiment.

The rest of the ship belongs to everyone.

So let us say $350 to the room steward for the 7 days and he/she becomes a "butler" and an additional $ 350 to the dining room staff for those few hidden extras. And we have spent $700 in largess plus $245 plus tips for Todd English for a total of around 1,00 over and above the $1,798 or $3,000 max for as close to a Queens Grill experience as one can obtain thereby saving $6,600. The question then becomes what would a single person get for the extra $6,000.

Store label dinner suit or an expensive designer label dinner suit? What do you get for five times the price?

Ford versus BMW? The both can get you from point A to point B. What do you get for $30K more?

Chocolate bar from the newsstand versus the version from the haute chocolatier? They're both chocolate. What do you get for the extra $5?

Pol Acher versus Verve Cliquot? They're both sparkeling wines with about the same alcohol content. What do you get for $20 a glass more?

The ammenities versus price are something only you can decide relative to your finances and the things that make you happy.

The question is why do you care? If a solo has the money and wants to occupy a Q1 well good for them. They can afford it and it makes them happy.

So basically you're suggesting a NCL system of tiered pricing and ship-within-a-ship concept. A la carte, as it were. There are things I can live with and things I cannot live without. Interesting.

Lets have a bit of fun with this idea! On a transatlantic voyage on the QM2 in the off season, the fare for a single passenger traveling by themselves is approx. $1,798 for an inside cabin and $9,596 for a Queens Grill cabin.

 

Here is the game. How to create a Queens Grill experience in an inside cabin at the Britannia Level.

 

Cabin - Queens Grill - Balcony - Not very useable in the winter/View - also not always the best as there are storms and misty days or can be.

Size - Single person roomy

Cabin: Inside - don't need the balcony - don't need the view -use webcam for bow shots of crashing waves in force 8 storm. Both cabins have a widescreen TV

Size - single roomy. have bed made into two (assuming you are not a thrasher) and make up one as a couch.

 

Butler Vs. Steward - How much of an extra tip would your steward need to become a "butler" for the 7 day passage. This would include unpacking your luggage (one suitcase should do a 7 day sail). Find, bring and set up a small table with linen, real dining room flatware and dishes etc. Not that a single person would have many meals en suite. However, breakfast and before dinner appetizers on a set schedule surely can be arranged.

 

Afternoon tea - Most everyone agrees the Queens Room is the place for afternoon tea not the Grills Lounge.

 

Outdoor lounging and dining - Most likely not going to happen during a winter or off season crossing.

 

Meals: A check of Cunard menus reveals the Breakfast and Lunch are within two items of exactly the same. Again a bit of green in the Britannia dining room for the breakfast waiter (how much do you think?) may rustle up those elusive fresh berries in season w/ cream, a muffin or two and of course even the fresh squeezed OJ.

 

Now dinner is where one has the advantage in the Queens Grill Vs. Britannia, however, for an extra $35 per evening there is Todd English or for $$245 plus tip. And Britannia dining room staff has been known to be quite creative if challenged so that could also be a fun experiment.

 

The rest of the ship belongs to everyone.

 

So let us say $350 to the room steward for the 7 days and he/she becomes a "butler" and an additional $ 350 to the dining room staff for those few hidden extras. And we have spent $700 in largess plus $245 plus tips for Todd English for a total of around 1,00 over and above the $1,798 or $3,000 max for as close to a Queens Grill experience as one can obtain thereby saving $6,600. The question then becomes what would a single person get for the extra $6,000.

Wow to save a few dollars you might get your steward and waitstaff fired. i bet you would try to get the dining accessories at walmart:D

Wow to save a few dollars you might get your steward and waitstaff fired. i bet you would try to get the dining accessories at walmart:D

Yes, "challenging" the wait staff is never ok

Yes, "challenging" the wait staff is never ok

I guess some people are not as classy as they THINK they are

I want to post a long thoughtful reply, but am working many hours because Cunard once suckered me in with a free upgrade and now I can only sail Grills...need to keep working !

Sounds like a lot of work to me to pretend and I believe having your steward be your butler for some extra monies might get him fired , in fact will as he cannot attend to his other responsibilities.

Even if he did this on his own time which is limited , it would not satisfy your expectation , like afternoon tea in your stateroom and pray tell how does he explain the food brought in .

As someone said earlier , if you have it and want to enjoy the Queens Suite, you will , some folks are known never to leave as they have all their meals in their stateroom , attended to of course by the butler trained for those clients.

Nice story , rewrite to might have sections where you elect a decision and follow the result based on that choice.

Cheers

Luv it .... Work , work to enjoy Grill class after a free upgrade...

If you want to save money that bad, cut your tips or sail Carnival. You have options.

If you want to save money that bad' date=' cut your tips or sail Carnival. You have options.[/quote']

 

Mr John Heald, are you in the UK right now deciding on an safari with the family or do you have the same name as a Senior CD of a certain cruise line

Just saying as this is a surprise for me who only sees you on FB a lot

 

Cheers

Rob

It is a famous quote. I am neither of said people.

Lakesregion, it sounds like too much work for me to do on a cruise, but a fun intellectual activity working it all out!

One thing I have learnt is that in the food department you can get a lot if you only ask. I asked at afternoon tea if they were having battenberg cake that day. The answer was no but to ask my head waiter to have one made for me for dinner the next day. However, even better than that, 20 minutes later a waiter arrived at my stateroom door with a freshly-made cake. I believe they get Queens Grill to do things like that. On my last cruise I turned up with my own clotted cream. One of the waiters told me that all I had to do was ask and they would get me some. Also on that cruise I was disappointed to see no banana bread on QM2. (I am used to it on QV.) The wait staff knew nothing about it, even though it was on the menu. I asked one of the 'suits' and he arranged for some to be brought in from the Grills, and told me to ask someone in a suit in future.

Lakesregion, it sounds like too much work for me to do on a cruise, but a fun intellectual activity working it all out!

 

One thing I have learnt is that in the food department you can get a lot if you only ask. I asked at afternoon tea if they were having battenberg cake that day. The answer was no but to ask my head waiter to have one made for me for dinner the next day. However, even better than that, 20 minutes later a waiter arrived at my stateroom door with a freshly-made cake. I believe they get Queens Grill to do things like that. On my last cruise I turned up with my own clotted cream. One of the waiters told me that all I had to do was ask and they would get me some. Also on that cruise I was disappointed to see no banana bread on QM2. (I am used to it on QV.) The wait staff knew nothing about it, even though it was on the menu. I asked one of the 'suits' and he arranged for some to be brought in from the Grills, and told me to ask someone in a suit in future.

They bakes you a cake in 20 minutes and you brought your own perishable clotted cream on board?

Luv it .... Work , work to enjoy Grill class after a free upgrade...

Well, not entirely. I also work to go to Disney World a few times a year! So my office is an incongruous mix of Vintage Cunard ads on one wall, and Disney memorabilia on another.

But, I like working. I have no kids to take care of, and I am too young to think about retiring - that's at least 20 or 25 years from now.

you brought your own perishable clotted cream on board?

Why not? after reading your last few posts it seems as though you've been bringing a pea shooter to a gun battle.

:D

Why not? after reading your last few posts it seems as though you've been bringing a pea shooter to a gun battle.

 

:D

You've missed the IED I've got smuggled in my luggage. I'm just amazed that someone would bring clotted cream on any sort of voyage.

Clotted cream is essential! I had stopped eating scones at afternoon tea because the squirty cream did not add to my experience. It has been an oft-repeated complaint on this board that Cunard has discontinued clotted cream at afternoon tea.

I decided that rather than complain, it's easier to pack my own clotted cream. I was driven to Southampton and sailed from there, so it was absolutely easy. I thoroughly enjoyed my scones each day!

Are you also amazed that people would take their own champagne on a voyage? People on this board have done so! (I rarely drink, so that doesn't interest me.) Cruising for me is a time to do things I don't get to do for the rest of the year. I indulge in little luxuries. Scones with my preferred jam (jars taken from the breakfast buffet) and clotted cream are an occasional indulgence. It adds to the whole cruise experience.

Why complain about drops in Cunard's standards when it's so easy to organise the things that are most important to your sense of luxury?

Um, if you're talking to me I don't think I complained about Cunard's dropping standards.

I could swear that HAL has clotted cream. Am I wrong? Has it been discontinued in the last two years?

Anything masquerading as a food stuff, with the word "clotted" in it, sounds appalling.

Anything masquerading as a food stuff, with the word "clotted" in it, sounds appalling.

Maybe you can have it on a scone next to some blood pudding and finish it off with a pudding of spotted dick.

Um, if you're talking to me I don't think I complained about Cunard's dropping standards.

Sorry for confusing you.

I replied to your query about why I'd take clotted cream on board. My explanation included my general approach to life and so-called problems. It encompassed things that have been said by other people on the Cunard board. In other words, it was not about you and your previous comments; it was about me. Because I have only recently seen your name on these threads, I thought you may not be aware that clotted cream is an issue that comes up quite frequently as part of the examples of dropping standards.

I think my last statement sums up something I strongly believe in: Why complain about something when I can avoid it or fix it with very little thought and very little effort? Keep the complaints for things that are really important.

It is a famous quote. I am neither of said people.

Well at least you have that right :)

Sorry for confusing you.

 

I replied to your query about why I'd take clotted cream on board. My explanation included my general approach to life and so-called problems. It encompassed things that have been said by other people on the Cunard board. In other words, it was not about you and your previous comments; it was about me. Because I have only recently seen your name on these threads, I thought you may not be aware that clotted cream is an issue that comes up quite frequently as part of the examples of dropping standards.

 

I think my last statement sums up something I strongly believe in: Why complain about something when I can avoid it or fix it with very little thought and very little effort? Keep the complaints for things that are really important.

You are absolutely right that I have missed the clotted cream drama ;). My husband is from Devon so he takes clotted cream very seriously. As an American it is hard to get over the name but it is delicious. I honestly am sure we had it on HAL although they may have discontinued it there as well.

Lets have a bit of fun with this idea! On a transatlantic voyage on the QM2 in the off season, the fare for a single passenger traveling by themselves is approx. $1,798 for an inside cabin and $9,596 for a Queens Grill cabin.

 

Here is the game. How to create a Queens Grill experience in an inside cabin at the Britannia Level.

 

Cabin - Queens Grill - Balcony - Not very useable in the winter/View - also not always the best as there are storms and misty days or can be.

Size - Single person roomy

Cabin: Inside - don't need the balcony - don't need the view -use webcam for bow shots of crashing waves in force 8 storm. Both cabins have a widescreen TV

Size - single roomy. have bed made into two (assuming you are not a thrasher) and make up one as a couch.

 

Butler Vs. Steward - How much of an extra tip would your steward need to become a "butler" for the 7 day passage. This would include unpacking your luggage (one suitcase should do a 7 day sail). Find, bring and set up a small table with linen, real dining room flatware and dishes etc. Not that a single person would have many meals en suite. However, breakfast and before dinner appetizers on a set schedule surely can be arranged.

 

Afternoon tea - Most everyone agrees the Queens Room is the place for afternoon tea not the Grills Lounge.

 

Outdoor lounging and dining - Most likely not going to happen during a winter or off season crossing.

 

Meals: A check of Cunard menus reveals the Breakfast and Lunch are within two items of exactly the same. Again a bit of green in the Britannia dining room for the breakfast waiter (how much do you think?) may rustle up those elusive fresh berries in season w/ cream, a muffin or two and of course even the fresh squeezed OJ.

 

Now dinner is where one has the advantage in the Queens Grill Vs. Britannia, however, for an extra $35 per evening there is Todd English or for $$245 plus tip. And Britannia dining room staff has been known to be quite creative if challenged so that could also be a fun experiment.

 

The rest of the ship belongs to everyone.

 

So let us say $350 to the room steward for the 7 days and he/she becomes a "butler" and an additional $ 350 to the dining room staff for those few hidden extras. And we have spent $700 in largess plus $245 plus tips for Todd English for a total of around 1,00 over and above the $1,798 or $3,000 max for as close to a Queens Grill experience as one can obtain thereby saving $6,600. The question then becomes what would a single person get for the extra $6,000.

Considering that the staff have a certain amount of time to prep each cabin, I think your idea is rather strange to say the least.