Nice to Know Things: Miscellaneous

Comments from passengers who have sailed on QM2 are so helpful, that I would like to ask some "dumb" questions.
When you order room service, is it brought by a food service person you must tip separately, or by your room steward? Do you tip at the end of the voyage, or upon each service?

Another question: When booked on two segments (transiting through) can you get off the ship and back on again without getting tangled up in the disembarking/embarking process?

Usually the room service is brought by someone other than your room steward,therefore a tip is appropriate at the the time of service. All back to backs I have been on do NOT require you to get off half way thru the cruise YOU PAID FOR. I have found the crew to be even friendlier (as if this was possible) to me because I am a "familiar face' doing a back2back.

Rick,24 cruises and counting! Next cruise- #25-Riverboat cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna in July '04

I will just add I was disappointed that the room service menu was so limited: there are only perhaps a dozen food items (appetizer, entree, dessert) TOTAL that you can order.

That said, the quality and service were generally very good, especially if I planned ahead. The longest wait I had was about 45 minutes; the shortest was about 20 minutes. They were also good about honoring 'special' requests (like late night hot chocolate with cookies etc.) or simple soft drink orders etc.

Honestly though, I never quite got my dinnertimes organized -- mainly because I often did not want to get dressed up to eat in Britannia and because I somehow remained clueless that you also need to make reservations by phone for the Kings Court restaurants at night and that the dress codes applied in the Kings Court restaurants as well.

Showing up at Kings Court without a reservation seemed to ruffle the crew a bit, but they always welcomed me and found me a place (even when I showed up in jeans on a 'formal' night!) -- though I felt a bit awkward.

If it's a formal night and you don't want to dress up, the only 'official' option is room service.

Crouton

Room service delivery was either very bad or very prompt, depending on God Knows What. We had to leave one morning for a shore excursion after waiting 45 minutes and received nothing. We had ordered it the night before, So I told the nice young English girl who called later in the day to apologize, that "backed up in the kitche" was no excuse when they had know for 6 -7 hours which cabins had ordered what items for at what times. The next encounter I had with room service they arrived to the minute I had asked them to arrive (24 hours in advance with hors d'ourves for a champagne party we were having).

When I disembarked yesterday (5-18), there was a couple getting off to see NYC for several hours before boarding and continuing on to Southhampton. They had to have their Ship ID Card, have filled out a Customs Declaration (which they had not done and were turned back to the ship to fill one out). But they would have been allowed to leave the ship and come back with out too much complication. Make sure you have your paperwork and passports with you and check ahead with the pursor's desk while on board to ask about the procedure. Especially about getting back on board as I did not witness this procedure for continuing passengers.