Queen Victoria - Customer Service and awareness not good

[Thameside]

We disembarked from the Queen Victoria at Fort Lauderdale on Monday after completing the first leg of her world voyage and I experienced so many problems during just 13 days. Most of the problems could have been handled so much better with good customer service training. I have found staff generally much better on most other cruise lines. We travelled Princess Grill and that part of the product other than the poor cabin condition was very good.

They don't seem to be able to get customers on or off the ship whether it's embarkation, disembarkation or tendering at ports. They always have plenty of excuses and don't tell you the whole truth. The biggest problem seems to be making sure that the tour groups booked with them take absolute priority when things are running late, to the cost of everyone else.

I will save my observations for other posts, but am happy to answer any questions you might have if you are joining the ship soon. I know you Cunard lovers will be fast to defend them but as the last Cunard person I spoke to in the arrivals hall at Fort Lauderdale said to me, after standing in an immigration queue, with my baggage, behind the tours for the day, for more than two hours if you don't like our rules don't use Cunard again.

YOU CAN BE SURE OF THAT

[roscoe39]

 

TWO HOURS!! thats pretty tough, I can appreciate them letting the excursions off first and don't have a problem with that, but was it Cunard or the Port Authorities creating the holdup?

 

There have been threads on here in the past about immigration hold ups by the US authorities especially in Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles so it sounds like a good idea to organise ship excursions or transfers to at least facilitate a quicker exit.

 

Still if you arn't aware of it in advance I can understand it being a bit annoying at the time. Hope the rest of the trip was relaxing....

 

roscoe

Edited February 5, 2015 by roscoe39

[Bell Boy]

I'd like to hear a few more clear examples of were Q. Vic fell short .

 

Tour groups have always had some sort of priority when it comes to disembarkation ...surely that's common sense ? don't they need to get them off first to complete their booked tour in time for the evening departure.

 

Are you sure that the person you spoke to in the immigration hall at FL was a Cunard employee ... as a Brit you should know by now that FL isn't the best place to transit or disembark. As rosco says was it Cunard or the port authorities causing the hold up.

:)

[BlueRiband]

We disembarked from the Queen Victoria at Fort Lauderdale on Monday after completing the first leg of her world voyage and I experienced so many problems during just 13 days.... I have found staff generally much better on most other cruise lines. ...We travelled Princess Grill and that part of the product other than the poor cabin condition was very good....

 

How did the staff fall short on service? Waiters? Steward? Both? Everyone you encountered?

 

I'm puzzled over the "poor cabin candition" since the ship just finished a refit. What specifically was broken, worn, or theadbare?

[Salacia]

We disembarked from the Queen Victoria at Fort Lauderdale on Monday after completing the first leg of her world voyage and I experienced so many problems during just 13 days. Most of the problems could have been handled so much better with good customer service training. I have found staff generally much better on most other cruise lines. We travelled Princess Grill and that part of the product other than the poor cabin condition was very good.

They don't seem to be able to get customers on or off the ship whether it's embarkation, disembarkation or tendering at ports. They always have plenty of excuses and don't tell you the whole truth. The biggest problem seems to be making sure that the tour groups booked with them take absolute priority when things are running late, to the cost of everyone else.

I will save my observations for other posts, but am happy to answer any questions you might have if you are joining the ship soon. I know you Cunard lovers will be fast to defend them but as the last Cunard person I spoke to in the arrivals hall at Fort Lauderdale said to me, after standing in an immigration queue, with my baggage, behind the tours for the day, for more than two hours if you don't like our rules don't use Cunard again.

YOU CAN BE SURE OF THAT

 

Hi Thameside. I'm sorry your cruise was problematic. It does appear that cruise lines are not noted for being forthcoming with passengers. I think that is an industry-wide problem that hopefully will be corrected.

 

Regarding disembarkation on Cunard ships: if you need to be amongst the first off the ship, self-disembarkation is the way to go. Grills passenger are the next off (and sometimes Platinum and Diamond Level passengers follow if their numbers are few). The disembarkation process, if followed correctly by passengers, goes from the upper decks on down. My experience of a dozen QM2 cruises is that the disembarkation process is quite orderly (especially when compared to my limited experience with other Lines). Embarkation has been a breeze for me because I usually arrive hours after embarkation begins.

 

To the best of my knowledge, it is not an unusual practice for passengers who booked ships' tours to be amongst the first off in a port of call, but please correct me if I am mistaken. I do know that's the way it works on QM2, and I plan accordingly.

 

Thanks for bringing this topic up for discussion; no doubt it will make others aware of the system in the event they didn't think to ask the procedure for disembarkation or port stops.

 

Just to mention that certain ports can suffer an unusually large number of ships (or even two or three Mega Ships loaded with thousands and thousands of passengers) docking at roughly the same time which puts a burden on US Customs and other port services. That doesn't happen at the Red Hook Port - sorry, I just had to mention that :)

 

My suggestion is to check port schedules so you have an idea how long the line through Customs might be, and familiarize yourself with the procedure for passengers going ashore at port stops.

 

Again, I'm sorry you had a bad experience on QV, and thank you for raising this as a point of discussion.

 

Cheers,

Salacia

Edited February 5, 2015 by Salacia

[Thameside]

I'd like to hear a few more clear examples of were Q. Vic fell short .

 

Tour groups have always had some sort of priority when it comes to disembarkation ...surely that's common sense ? don't they need to get them off first to complete their booked tour in time for the evening departure.

 

Are you sure that the person you spoke to in the immigration hall at FL was a Cunard employee ... as a Brit you should know by now that FL isn't the best place to transit or disembark. As rosco says was it Cunard or the port authorities causing the hold up.

:)

 

We were advised initially that US immigration had computer problems and processing was very slow so we were being held on board to save us standing in queues too long. This went on until we were finally let off at about 0900 only to find very long queues which took some two hours to process. The officer processing me was not aware of computer problems earlier.

 

Tour groups had been let off first, and there were a lot of them, followed by the self help walk offs and then us, so there were still many behind us and the hall was full of baggage. the procedure at the port is collect your baggage first and then queue for immigration, which means you are having to move all of your baggage every few feet in the queue, not the case for tour group customers obviously. I don't agree that tour group customers should get priority at disembarkation ports such as this. Cunard know how long it takes to process people through US immigration, wherever it may be and should either start them later or make different arrangements.

 

Yes the lady I spoke to in the hall was part of the ships crew in a white uniform. The local representative staff were much more polite and helpful.

[Thameside]

How did the staff fall short on service? Waiters? Steward? Both? Everyone you encountered?

 

I'm puzzled over the "poor cabin candition" since the ship just finished a refit. What specifically was broken, worn, or theadbare?

 

Overall they were not a happy crew it was a struggle for staff in general to say good morning etc. if not directly serving you. Our waiters were good and our steward was fine.

 

The refit seems to have been public areas, carpets and some painting along with the new single cabins and sun canopies on deck 12. Our room was very tired looking, both sofa and chair were in need of deep cleaning or recovering and the carpet although fairly clean was shoeing it's age. Curtains needed a clean and some repair work. The worst aspect for me was the bathroom tiling which had a lot of black mildew on the grouting and around the bath and was poorly lit.

[roscoe39]

We were advised initially that US immigration had computer problems and processing was very slow so we were being held on board to save us standing in queues too long. This went on until we were finally let off at about 0900 only to find very long queues which took some two hours to process. The officer processing me was not aware of computer problems earlier.

 

Tour groups had been let off first, and there were a lot of them, followed by the self help walk offs and then us, so there were still many behind us and the hall was full of baggage. the procedure at the port is collect your baggage first and then queue for immigration, which means you are having to move all of your baggage every few feet in the queue, not the case for tour group customers obviously. I don't agree that tour group customers should get priority at disembarkation ports such as this. Cunard know how long it takes to process people through US immigration, wherever it may be and should either start them later or make different arrangements.

 

Yes the lady I spoke to in the hall was part of the ships crew in a white uniform. The local representative staff were much more polite and helpful.

 

so its sounds like it was immigration again, I think they are having an industrial dispute from previous posts and it continues. Im surprised considering that it is such a big cruise port that they are able to get away with it as it must be all lines experiencing the same problems or maybe that is why they are taking the "go slow" action that they are, because the port is so big and they can make a bigger impact.

 

Even a few years ago we had problems getting off the ship here and no one was allowed back on until everybody has gotten off the ship and "zeroed" it out. Took hours and all I wanted to do was retrieve my camera I had left on board.

 

Hopefully Carnival will start putting pressure on the authorities to sort the matter out as you would think that it is affecting the ports business and isn't helping to encourage us to visit the states.

[balf]

 

Regarding disembarkation on Cunard ships: if you need to be amongst the first off the ship, self-disembarkation is the way to go.

Salacia

 

Have you noticed the average age of Cunard passengers on most sailings?

 

Self disembarkation lugging heavy cases is certainly not the way to go for them.

 

Regards.

 

David.

[Chunky2219]

............. This went on until we were finally let off at about 0900 only to find very long queues ..............

So the ship was docked, secured, cleared customs and formalities and letting folks off by 9am? Everything after that is completely out of Cunard's hands. They pay a fee but don't control events.

 

On a two day stop at NYC Manhattan terminal on QE we didn't bother booking a tour for the first day. It was a stellar decision - clearing immigration ran 2 hours later than planned and the queues ran to maybe the top side of 100 yards. There was a dozen or more coaches lined up waiting for delayed pax. Up the coast at our first stop in Canada the only delay at immigration was when the officer told me my shoe lace was undone.

 

When visiting the land of the free, it's not unusual to have an experience akin to trying to gain entry to Fort Knox.

 

,

Edited February 5, 2015 by Chunky2219
typo

[BlueRiband]

US Immigration has problem with British and European citizens are attempting to enter the US legally through New York. No problem with South American citizens attempting to enter the US illegally through Mexico.:mad:

[ToadOfToadHall]

I've been to the US several times (7 now I count them) and I've never had a problem with long delays at immigration. However, I've read numerous times about how bad US immigration can be. It's as if they don't actually want tourists coming to America and spending money. And I recall a few years ago hearing reports of people waiting 8 hours or so when landing in Florida, and the Florida tourist board (or whatever they are called) telling immigration to "pack it in" because it was affecting their businesses because people were avoiding Florida due to the stupidly long delays and going elsewhere for their holidays.

[ToadOfToadHall]

US Immigration has problem with British and European citizens are attempting to enter the US legally through New York. No problem with South American citizens attempting to enter the US illegally through Mexico.:mad:

 

I suspect the US authorises take the same approach as we do in the UK when there is a problem that requires some effort and they can't be bothered to do something about it; instead what they do is focus on something easy (in this case, tourists visiting NY) and don't bother with the real problem (Mexico border in your example) because it's too much like hard work.

 

That way, the authorities can claim they are doing something about the problem whilst at the same time actually doing exactly nothing about said problem. It's standard practice here in the UK.

[milkcow]

From our experience, a two hour delay at immigration at Ft. Lauderdale is nothing.

 

Sorry you were not prepared for this. If we are disembarking for good, we wait till the last call to leave. If we are travelling on we do not disembark at all, or if meeting someone ask them to be there around 1 pm.

 

We have been trapped in the middle of fistfights among people and luggage waiting to self-carry disembark.

 

We always stay the night in the area before travelling on home in the USA.

 

And people with other than US passports are delayed even more.

 

I think Ft. Lauderdale is a neat place to sit on the deck of a cruise ship and watch all the harbor happenings and goings and comings.

 

David

[cruisinggran]

Ft Lauderdale is always the same when you are disembarking especially if it is your first U.S. port. When doing a T/A cruise you know your going to have a long wait in line. Even longer if you non US. I always find the staff and Custom officers are respectful. Now be in transit at Heathrow Airport and that is a eye opener. We flew Toronto/Bracelona via Heathrow and talk about rude custom and staff people. I was born in the UK and I can tell you I was embarrassed by the way they talk to everyone.

I guess everyone has a job to do.

[PORT ROYAL]

I've been to the US several times (7 now I count them) and I've never had a problem with long delays at immigration. However, I've read numerous times about how bad US immigration can be. It's as if they don't actually want tourists coming to America and spending money. And I recall a few years ago hearing reports of people waiting 8 hours or so when landing in Florida, and the Florida tourist board (or whatever they are called) telling immigration to "pack it in" because it was affecting their businesses because people were avoiding Florida due to the stupidly long delays and going elsewhere for their holidays.

 

Well said. We gave up flying into Miami (yes, I know Miaimi is not part of the USA) because 4 hours plus at immigration was too much after a long flight. But then Miami port authorities held us B2B cruisers in the terminal for over 2 hours even though we were staying on the ship. This after we had to wait for over 1.5 hours to be called down from the ship to go through immigration.

 

Then the same is now becoming evident at Fort Lauderdale.

 

Explanation? Home Security. We think sloth :eek:

 

Welcome to America

[Salacia]

Have you noticed the average age of Cunard passengers on most sailings?

 

Self disembarkation lugging heavy cases is certainly not the way to go for them.

 

Regards.

 

David.

 

Hi David. That's a good point. We did self-disembarkation once because Hubby had to be at his office in Manhattan asap. For those that need to be amongst the first off the ship, they either need to be able to schlep their luggage or else resolve to leave the ship later. (Once we reached Platinum level, we found disembarkation in NY to be more pleasant as we wait in the comfort of Todd English - a much appreciated perk.)

 

We disembarked QM2 in Florida one time a few years, and the port was congested and chaotic as was the airport. By contrast, disembarking in Red Hook Brooklyn is a breeze - at least, that has been our experience there.

 

Just wondering - do passengers travelling on a non-US passport have the same problems disembarking in NY and other US ports as they experience in Florida? -S.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Salacia

[ToadOfToadHall]

Now be in transit at Heathrow Airport and that is a eye opener. We flew Toronto/Bracelona via Heathrow and talk about rude custom and staff people.

 

Was that recently ? I used to find that airport customs/immigration/security staff treated travellers like scum and actually enjoyed their "power".

 

However, I've flown twice in the last 3 months (once from Heathrow and once from Manchester) and I was amazed that it all seems to have changed for the better. Again, maybe airports were losing customers because of the abuse you get. In fact, the abuse at airports is one of the reasons we started taking cruises around 6 years ago - less abuse for being a paying customer.

[cruisinggran]

It was in October/14. we arrived in Heathrow and had a conecting fight to Barcelona. We arrived at Terminal 5 and our next flight left from Terminal 5 We went through customs and that was fine then we were sent upstairs to go through security and that is where the mess started. The staff were actually yelling at people to take all liquids out of your carryon and hold them up in the air. If you were not quick enough they grabbed your carry on and started going through them. You were allowed only one small bag of liquids. In mine I had a small bottle of contact solution and a small bottle of eye wash. They threw the eye wash in the garbage saying you were only allowed one and there was a pharmacy downstairs were you could get a new one. I did not argue I just took my carry on and left.

There was quite a few of us travelling together and when we met at the next gate we were all shell shocked. I will never book a flight that has a connection through Heathrow again.

I do realize this is different and scary world we live in and people try to take all sorts through the airports but we all felt victimized by this.

[albertb]

We were on this leg and got off for the day in Fort Lauderdale.

 

We got very clear, info ahead of time from Cunard self disembarkation started at 7 .15 then tours then disembarking passengers by deck. We opted for early walk off in transit at 8.15 and there were already lines. One of the port staff told me their first job at 5.30 am is to switch on the computers and most had not booted up. There were only about 6 Homeland Security guards whilst we were waiting an hour and a half ours had actually just come on at 9.30 as when he tried earlier he could not use his computer. I believe later it got up to 14 staff.

 

There were separate lines for crew who all had to come off and for US and Non US. Some of the crew were standing in line for 3 and a half hours and still had to do their duties back on board. Part of the delays would have been saved if everyone had actually got an ESTA we personally know of two people who didn't, one had run out and one person had paid her TA to do it and she couldn't be found on the system. When boarding we were only asked if we had the ESTA , when we went with Celebrity in November we were told to bring paper proof and this was checked at Southampton.

 

Disembarkation was not finished until gone 1pm so that's why embarkation was delayed, when we came back at 4pm there were only 4 people embarking and it looked like 20 or so cruise cards unclaimed so maybe that's another lesson for us all!

 

Personally we have been impressed by how friendly all the staff are. Maybe it's just in the grills they aren't :-)

[ToadOfToadHall]

It was in October/14.

 

We flew from Heathrow to Dallas in September 2014 but one thing we did do was not take any liquids. I never take hand luggage because I know how over excited they get. My wife did take medication in her hand luggage (but not liquids).

 

The liquid thing is just there to sell you the stuff they make you throw away. A few years ago with flew from Manchester to Chicago via JFK. We were forced to throw liquids away in Manchester and re-buy it in their shops. Then we were forced to throw the things we had bought in Manchester away at JFK even when we said we had bought it air-side at Manchester. So since then I never carry anything. I realise if you need it for your eyes etc you don't have any choice of course.

 

But all the airport security is just for show anyway. It's to give the impression that something is being done while actually doing nothing at all.

 

Another example, when we landed in Dallas you have to go through a full body scanner. I showed up with metal on my wrist by this thing. I was asked if I had a watch on, so which I replied no, so matey looked at my wrist and saw, guest what ? Yep, nothing. Then he checked the scanner display which I could see was showing something on my wrist. So they just shrugged and said "on you go". These things don't even work properly.

 

Can you tell you've got me on my soap box about airport "security" ?

Edited February 5, 2015 by ToadOfToadHall

[ToadOfToadHall]

Part of the delays would have been saved if everyone had actually got an ESTA we personally know of two people who didn't, one had run out and one person had paid her TA to do it and she couldn't be found on the system. When boarding we were only asked if we had the ESTA , when we went with Celebrity in November we were told to bring paper proof and this was checked at Southampton.

 

I didn't think they let you into the US if you don't have an ESTA ? (not the bit of paper of course).

 

But ESTAs are just another money making scheme. I really does seem as if the Americans don't want anyone to come to the USA.

[Captiveguru]

This topic may be worthy of its own thread...

 

We are traveling in PG on QV in April and will be disembarking the ship at FLL. Planning to rent a car to drive and drive to Orlando. Alternatively we may have a friend drive down from Orlando and pick us up.

 

I hate standing in lines. We have US passports and use Global Entry when flying back into the country.

 

We will be through customs before 11:00 AM?

Edited February 5, 2015 by Captiveguru

[roscoe39]

This topic may be worthy of its own thread...

 

We are traveling in PG on QV in April and will be disembarking the ship at FLL. Planning to rent a car to drive and drive to Orlando. Alternatively we may have a friend drive down from Orlando and pick us up.

 

I hate standing in lines. We have US passports and use Global Entry when flying back into the country.

 

We will be through customs before 11:00 AM?

 

probably a question for homeland security!

[Salacia]

This topic may be worthy of its own thread...

 

We are traveling in PG on QV in April and will be disembarking the ship at FLL. Planning to rent a car to drive and drive to Orlando. Alternatively we may have a friend drive down from Orlando and pick us up.

 

I hate standing in lines. We have US passports and use Global Entry when flying back into the country.

 

We will be through customs before 11:00 AM?

 

Hi Captiveguru. I don't know the answer to your question but I do know that weather and sea conditions, unforeseen ship events and an altered itinerary in addition to other factors such as how many ships will be in port that day are factors. Just as no one can forecast if their plane will land on time, no passenger can predict so far in advance what time they will clear US Customs, as recent events prove.

 

I hope it works out well for you. Best suggestion I have is to follow this forum since many generous passengers on board take the time (and expense) to keep us updated. Cheers, S.