QA Canaries 10 May Comments

[Host Hattie]

30 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

@Host Hattie Do you have a booking on this elegant ship?

Not until next year at the moment but I've got my eye on one in September. 

[bluemarble]

To complete the set of webcam images for the ports of call on this itinerary, here's a capture showing QA's departure from A Coruña this afternoon. This is from the "A Coruña (móbil)" webcam on the CRTVG "g24.gal" website.

 

[exlondoner]

Tonight’s canapés and menu.

Edited May 22 by exlondoner

[exlondoner]

I went to the Library to sign the book, and Ashley knew about it but couldn’t find it.

[safarigal]

Just now, exlondoner said:

I went to the Library to sign the book, and Ashley knew about it but couldn’t find it.

That's ridiculous! I gave it to her this morning. She wanted to put it out on one of the tables, but I told her to keep it in her little section otherwise it was bound to get lost. It is is the library - so do try again tomorrow and I will remind Ashley 🙂

[exlondoner]

3 minutes ago, safarigal said:

That's ridiculous! I gave it to her this morning. She wanted to put it out on one of the tables, but I told her to keep it in her little section otherwise it was bound to get lost. It is is the library - so do try again tomorrow and I will remind Ashley 🙂

She was submerged under piles of books. She needs a bigger desk. I said I would go back tomorrow.

[exlondoner]

And when we got back from breakfast, we found this sad but inevitable sight.

[Host Hattie]

Have a good last day onboard and thanks again for taking the time to post during your cruise. 

[NE John]

4 hours ago, exlondoner said:

And when we got back from breakfast, we found this sad but inevitable sight.

Thanks for taking us along with you, virtually at least. 

[exlondoner]

I shall do a summing up, possibly even a review, after I’ve thought about it a bit. But at the moment my feeling is that the least good part of this cruise has been the slightly disappointing weather, which is something it is hard to blame Cunard for. This ship has so much lovely outdoor space, even with its inferior prom deck, that it is made for warm weather cruises. We have two Med. cruises booked, fortunately.

[Victoria2]

I will also do a summery but it will be from two perspectives, mine and my husband and we don’t necessarily have the same opinions on all things.

[Judyrem]

On 5/21/2024 at 4:25 PM, Victoria2 said:

Caesar on the menu comes pre prepared. Off the menu and as a special would probably be what you would order.

I order a Caesar with dressing on the side, sometimes they add to much dressing and it's not acceptable.

[Victoria2]

22 minutes ago, Judyrem said:

I order a Caesar with dressing on the side, sometimes they add too much dressing and it's not acceptable.

I have all sauces on the side and no salad dressing at all but the reference was to pre prepared or table mixed dressing so should have added 'dressing' after Caesar.🙂

 

Thanks for clarifying.

[foodsvcmgr]

Thank you both for all the first hand insight and information that makes me eager to try QA.

Although, absent a bid, I’m strictly Britannia or possibly Club, it’s been very helpful learning about the ship in general.

[Host Hattie]

Sounds your cruise didn't end too well!

Queen Anne Disembarking delay

[Victoria2]

14 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

Sounds your cruise didn't end too well!

Queen Anne Disembarking delay

We had a potential issue but it was resolved by the wonderful Concierge , Joy.

 

For the very first time, we saw a controlled announcing of tags, at the gangway in order to disembark.

Sensible as baggage unloading did seem to be very slow and those who might in the past have got off but with no bags ready to collect, caused a bottle neck, couldn’t do so.

 

Speaking from an early disembarkation procedure, * only ten mins later than given* we saw a controlled exit. I can imagine tempers might have got a bit frayed at any long waits.

Edited May 24 by Victoria2
Spellin and * …*

[exlondoner]

10 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

Sounds your cruise didn't end too well!

Queen Anne Disembarking delay

I don’t quite know what went wrong, but it was not good. We were supposed to disembark at 7.45, but were still on board at 8.20. Goodness knows how slow it was for later disembarkation groups.

[Victoria2]

A piece of post cruise good news from me

 

After copious amounts [for me] of wine; being almost force-fed those gorgeous little round choc petit fours - the ones with truffly interior [take some more?-oh go on then, I'll have some with my morning coffee]; fries with an awful lot of meals and basically, foods I wouldn't normally eat, I have put on precisely...one lb!!

 

Queen Anne worked miracles...sort of although I actually think regularly yomping the length of the ship in the wrong direction  and having to yomp back had a lot to do with it.😀

[TowandaUK]

13 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

Sounds your cruise didn't end too well!

Queen Anne Disembarking delay

Our allotted time was 9.10. We had breakfast and at 8am we decided to find somewhere near deck 2 where we could park ourselves for an hour. Went down in lift c as instructed. and it was chaos everywhere. It seems disembarkation was delayed and there were people queued and people waiting everywhere. We had been intending to wait in the Chart Room but it was completely full. We had no option but to make our way through the queues it was impossible to turn back, and managed to get through to the Queens room where thankfully there was plenty of room to sit. Had we known of the delay we would have waited well away from deck 2 and not added to the congestion. Cunard did a very poor job of advising people of the delay and nobody was marshalling the queues. They did eventually advise of delays but not until well after things got really bad. Chaos. There were announcements that the gangway closed completely for some while because of overcrowding in the terminal. We held back because of the chaos and joined the queue at 9.55 (45 minutes after our allocated time). We went through steadily and were in our car at 10.25. I’m surprised that Cunard claim that everyone was off by 10.25. When we drove out at 10.30 there was still a steady stream of people leaving the terminal. 

Edited May 25 by TowandaUK
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[Victoria2]

Thoughts so far from a devoted and loyal Cunard passenger.

Negatives,

 

Washers: being about twenty five yards down the corridor gave me the perfect opportunity to use them. How useful was that! Gave us a couple of bottles of wine instead of laundry charges! Always a plus.

 

The washers are digital, sensitive little souls and go technical at the slightest issue but luckily, staff are very quick to administer to their [the washers not the technicians]  diva like personas.

I suggested it would help if a quick pictorial chart was on the wall so folk could see which programme would be for the best i.e. quick wash of 26 mins is all that's needed for most, not a 50 min heavy duty wash but which programme does one pick for that? I gave tutorials to quite a few men...yes, men. Ladies didn't seem to be in charge of laundry duty on Annie. 

A+ for the machines and speed of fixing but C- for the diva temperaments.

 

corridors and service carts.

 

I am thinking of borrowing a trike horn for our next cruise. Either the corridors are narrower than QV or the carts bigger, I'm not sure but it became a game if the lovely little room attendant on our stretch of cabins [not ours]was working as to me going 'beep beep' and she smiled and moved her cart half way into the cabin to allow us to pass. C- there Cunard but A+ for the way staff helped.

 

Lifts...nightmare both em/debarking and then door closure speed never mind the 18 people [that's stacked babies by the way 😁] it's supposed to be able to handle. 

No more need to be said other than not well planned at all Cunard. Huge minus there. E-

 

Embarkation, a doddle but that's from a different perspective from nearly everyone else so can't really give a true perspective.

Same for disembarkation.  There was chaos on deck 2 but due to [admin?] errors, our disembarkation procedure was taken over by a staff member and we 'sailed' off with no problem.

 

We seemed to be late docking but I have no idea why such chaos but it was interesting to see at 8.20am, baggage handlers were working in an empty space which would normally be filled with bags even at our priority timed slot. 

Again, not an issue for us but Cunard are going to have to up their game re Annie's baggage delivery both em/debarking. Not good enough at all. Another even 'huger' minus F-

 

Edit

Pinch points around the ship for all passengers, never mind wheelchair users/the mobility challenged but a HUGE one by the casino and the opposite bar.

Definitely a D- there for the ship designers.

Edited May 25 by Victoria2
red highlights

[exlondoner]

46 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

Thoughts so far from a devoted and loyal Cunard passenger.

Negatives,

 

Washers: being about twenty five yards down the corridor gave me the perfect opportunity to use them. How useful was that! Gave us a couple of bottles of wine instead of laundry charges! Always a plus.

 

The washers are digital, sensitive little souls and go technical at the slightest issue but luckily, staff are very quick to administer to their [the washers not the technicians]  diva like personas.

I suggested it would help if a quick pictorial chart was on the wall so folk could see which programme would be for the best i.e. quick wash of 26 mins is all that's needed for most, not a 50 min heavy duty wash but which programme does one pick for that? I gave tutorials to quite a few men...yes, men. Ladies didn't seem to be in charge of laundry duty on Annie. 

A+ for the machines and speed of fixing but C- for the diva temperaments.

 

corridors and service carts.

 

I am thinking of borrowing a trike horn for our next cruise. Either the corridors are narrower than QV or the carts bigger, I'm not sure but it became a game if the lovely little room attendant on our stretch of cabins [not ours]was working as to me going 'beep beep' and she smiled and moved her cart half way into the cabin to allow us to pass. C- there Cunard but A+ for the way staff helped.

 

Lifts...nightmare both em/debarking and then door closure speed never mind the 18 people [that's stacked babies by the way 😁] it's supposed to be able to handle. 

No more need to be said other than not well planned at all Cunard. Huge minus there. E-

 

Embarkation, a doddle but that's from a different perspective from nearly everyone else so can't really give a true perspective.

Same for disembarkation.  There was chaos on deck 2 but due to [admin?] errors, our disembarkation procedure was taken over by a staff member and we 'sailed' off with no problem.

 

We seemed to be late docking but I have no idea why such chaos but it was interesting to see at 8.20am, baggage handlers were working in an empty space which would normally be filled with bags even at our priority timed slot. 

Again, not an issue for us but Cunard are going to have to up their game re Annie's baggage delivery both em/debarking. Not good enough at all. Another even 'huger' minus F-

 

Edit

Pinch points around the ship for all passengers, never mind wheelchair users/the mobility challenged but a HUGE one by the casino and the opposite bar.

Definitely a D- there for the ship designers.

I agree with most of these, though I am happy to say I never went near a launderette. 😀 I will post my thoughts, but still feel zonked after yesterday. Aren’t holidays supposed to be revivifying? I am also suffering from quite bad reverse seasickness, not the right word. But when I went to the loo in the early morning, I had to cling to the walls to keep myself upright, as the floor was moving about. Does anyone else get this?

[Pushpit]

20 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

, I had to cling to the walls to keep myself upright, as the floor was moving about. Does anyone else get this?

That is motion sickness, in that the inner ear is not adjusting to the changed circumstances. I used to get it for a few hours after a Crossing on QE2 since she was nothing like as stable as QM2, and the old embarkation process meant one was on the streets of Manhattan very quickly after arrival. The inner ear adjusts more slowly if you have (e.g.) a minor infection or you are a bit run down, since the immune system will be taking up the body's resources.

[exlondoner]

1 minute ago, Pushpit said:

That is motion sickness, in that the inner ear is not adjusting to the changed circumstances. I used to get it for a few hours after a Crossing on QE2 since she was nothing like as stable as QM2, and the old embarkation process meant one was on the streets of Manhattan very quickly after arrival. The inner ear adjusts more slowly if you have (e.g.) a minor infection or you are a bit run down, since the immune system will be taking up the body's resources.

It usually takes several days. And, when on board, the ship hardly moved at all.

[Victoria2]

2 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

It usually takes several days. And, when on board, the ship hardly moved at all.

Oh it did move on the return BoB if 'you' are in a wheelchair. If you have legs, sea or not with which to steady yourself, not an issue.

[Pushpit]

1 minute ago, exlondoner said:

It usually takes several days. And, when on board, the ship hardly moved at all.

The inner ear varies from person to person, and can be very sensitive in some people. We don't really understand why that is, other than we know there is a small genetic component to it. For those people who would never go on say a Thorpe Park funfair ride such as a big dipper, they just know it's going to wallop their inner ear for hours. The  usual clinical advice would be to rest, take plenty of liquids and occasionally sit outside in day light to persuade the inner ear to calm down. Hopefully it's not pouring with rain down there.