QM2 venues off limits to Britannia guests

[Jim_P]

2 hours ago, Cpt Pugwash said:

I have never travelled with Cunard only P&O i am shocked to hear that in these days people can be stopped from going into certain parts of a Cruise Ship they have paid to travel on.

That's almost every single cruise except some of the very expensive luxury lines. If anything the "exclusive" spaces on Cunard ships make up much, much less of a footprint than the spaces on other cruise lines.

Edited July 20 by Jim_P

[Winifred 22]

4 hours ago, Cpt Pugwash said:

I just happened to come across this post and though i have never travelled with Cunard only P&O i am shocked to hear that in these days people can be stopped from going into certain parts of a Cruise Ship they have paid to travel on.

Last year on one of my Cruise i met one of the Loveliest Young Ladies i have ever met who was only on Iona because her Mother wanted to try it and said she normally travelled with Cunard and suggested i should try them sometime as they are more superior in many ways.

I replied jokingly 'they would take one look at me at Check In and say No we'll give you your money back' 🙂

Well reading these posts has made me decide i will never book Cunard because through various jobs in my lifetime face to face with the Public i have been shouted at called many names some i didn't even understand and i just ignored them but the thing i could not bite my lip was when someone looked down there nose at me thinking they were better than me or anyone else.

I am I correct in thinking that on P & O only suite guests can take their breakfast in the Epicurean Restaurant ? Apparently on some ships non suites guests depending in availability can do so for a daily charge. Too me that is no difference to Cunard with their different restaurants. On P &O, If I am not in a suite or don’t want to pay the up charge  then that is part of the ship not open to me. Similarly The Retreat on P &O is an area of the ship not available to all unless they pay daily or weekly extra charges. The areas non Grills or Club guests can use is minimal. A restaurant and a lounge , concierge room and deck area fo Grills and just a restaurant for Club. As a regular Cunarder I never feel inferior. I have only sailed in Grills once and that was a cruise gifted to me by a family member. I love the Cunard experience and as a female solo feel it ticks all the boxes. I certainly do not feel inferior around the ship as a non Grills guest and certainly not feel deprived of any facilities. Out and about nobody knows your cabin grade. Your cruise cards don’t indicate it. 

[Pushpit]

7 hours ago, Cpt Pugwash said:

Well reading these posts has made me decide i will never book Cunard because through various jobs in my lifetime face to face with the Public i have been shouted at called many names some i didn't even understand and i just ignored them but the thing i could not bite my lip was when someone looked down there nose at me thinking they were better than me or anyone else.

I would gently make 2 suggestions. Firstly perhaps re-read the posts here, the overwhelming view is that the relatively small areas allocated to Grill passengers will barely register to a non Grill passenger, 95% plus of the ship is available to all. Plus Cunard wants your money so the more people, the more dollars, the better from their point view. I think that 95% probably still holds even for Anne, that has the largest Grills area.  I can assure you that no-one gets look down on. It does not happen. I sometimes gently poke fun at the Grill passengers on this board, they tend to be too polite to respond! Same on the ships.

 

Secondly see for yourself. There are all sorts of silly rumours and myths around cruise lines, but book a short trip say Southampton to Hamburg, or maybe France. It won't cost too much and then you can speak from experience.

Edited July 20 by Pushpit

[Millieloulou]

Some time back, when we booked our first Cunard cruise, I was in a right “tiz” about how posh the ship would be. I drove my husband crazy with  what to wear, I imagined all the ladies dresses in Dior and Gucci creations.I reworked my wardrobe, and shopped! Until I felt I would fit in.I also thought we would never get to meet anyone socially.

How wrong could I have been!,,,From the first few moments we stepped on board ,we were chatting with people,and made some wonderful friendships with people we still cruise with who are Americans.We both love Cunard, and regret we had not come to cruising a lot earlier.

Ps And I got to wear my M@S frock.

[exlondoner]

8 hours ago, Cpt Pugwash said:

I just happened to come across this post and though i have never travelled with Cunard only P&O i am shocked to hear that in these days people can be stopped from going into certain parts of a Cruise Ship they have paid to travel on.

 

I don’t follow this argument. You have paid for a cabin on a ship, but it doesn’t give you access to all the cabins, or any crew areas, or the engine room or the bridge (usually, though you can view it on QM2), or extra charge restaurants, or spa fragment areas. Anyway the Grill area on Cunard ship is pretty small. Compare it with what is provided on MSC or RCI, or NCL or others.

[Victoria2]

 

Come on folks,

 

everyone knows 'The Grills' have water cannons placed at strategic points along the perimeters with instructions to please water bomb any and all interlopers who dare to poke their noses into areas where they don’t belong.

 

Indeed, it’s an unofficial sport for those who don’t take up archery. There’s a chart in the lounge to chalk up hits. The best score so far over this last week is one hundred and eighty, although I have a feeling that might have been a darts score, 'mistakenly' added in the hopes of winning the much prized half bottle of Pol Acker.

 

 

It’s quite easy to spot 'them'.

'Their' clothes are just not what we’re used to. I mean, who wears jeans on a Cunard ship, and M&S clothes, especially on a Gala night

 

Ooops…that’s me!   🤣🤣

 

 

 

[Millieloulou]

No Victoria2 I didn’t wear my M@S dress on a gala night! Even I have enough decorum for that!

[exlondoner]

1 minute ago, Millieloulou said:

No Victoria2 I didn’t wear my M@S dress on a gala night! Even I have enough decorum for that!

She didn’t actually say dress, she said clothes, so she may have been referring to underwear. 😀 I’m sure I have worn an M&S dress on Gala Night, however.

[Megabear2]

8 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

You say you only travel on P&O. Have you not encountered the Yacht Club yet? 

P&O do not have a Yacht Club, I believe that is MSC.  P&O suite guests do not have a separate restaurant or area exclusively for their use, their only "concession" is breakfast in The Epicurean restaurant which is the top pay for restaurant on their ships, in fact not all the ships in their fleet even have this restaurant facility. Basically all P&O ships share public facilities throughout and no matter the grade of cabin everything is open to all.  There is an area at the front on five of the fleet offering an exclusive adult deck area and this is available for purchase by all passengers regardless of cabin grade.  It is the same as offered on Princess ships.

[Victoria2]

18 minutes ago, Millieloulou said:

No Victoria2 I didn’t wear my M@S dress on a gala night! Even I have enough decorum for that!

Well I obviously haven’t any decorum what so ever as my favourite long dress is  M&S per Una. 👍😀

 

but then my mother often urged me 'to have a bit of decorum' as I climbed down from the latest tree swing, as a child I must add! 😀

[Millieloulou]

At least Saturday has turned out to be an amusing morning.😄

[Winifred 22]

1 hour ago, Victoria2 said:

 

Come on folks,

 

everyone knows 'The Grills' have water cannons placed at strategic points along the perimeters with instructions to please water bomb any and all interlopers who dare to poke their noses into areas where they don’t belong.

 

Indeed, it’s an unofficial sport for those who don’t take up archery. There’s a chart in the lounge to chalk up hits. The best score so far over this last week is one hundred and eighty, although I have a feeling that might have been a darts score, 'mistakenly' added in the hopes of winning the much prized half bottle of Pol Acker.

 

 

It’s quite easy to spot 'them'.

'Their' clothes are just not what we’re used to. I mean, who wears jeans on a Cunard ship, and M&S clothes, especially on a Gala night

 

Ooops…that’s me!   🤣🤣

 

 

 

Me too nothing wrong with M and S 

[*Miss G*]

10 hours ago, Cpt Pugwash said:

though i have never travelled with Cunard only P&O i am shocked to hear that in these days people can be stopped from going into certain parts of a Cruise Ship they have paid to travel on.

 

That’s the thing, though. You haven’t paid to travel in The Grills. 🙃

 

 

59 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

P&O do not have a Yacht Club, I believe that is MSC.  P&O suite guests do not have a separate restaurant or area exclusively for their use, their only "concession" is breakfast in The Epicurean restaurant which is the top pay for restaurant on their ships, in fact not all the ships in their fleet even have this restaurant facility. Basically all P&O ships share public facilities throughout and no matter the grade of cabin everything is open to all.  There is an area at the front on five of the fleet offering an exclusive adult deck area and this is available for purchase by all passengers regardless of cabin grade.  It is the same as offered on Princess ships.

 

Thank you! As soon as the edit window closed, it dawned on me that I was thinking of MSC. 😂

 

My only experience with P&O is their ferries. Interestingly, they do have the private Commodore Club lounges.

 

 

1 hour ago, Victoria2 said:

 

Indeed, it’s an unofficial sport for those who don’t take up archery.

 

 

I’d sign up for that!!

 

 

46 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

 

but then my mother often urged me 'to have a bit of decorum' as I climbed down from the latest tree swing, as a child I must add! 😀

 

I got sent to Charm and Self Improvement school! 🤣

 

Edited July 20 by *Miss G*

[Megabear2]

23 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

My only experience with P&O is their ferries. Interestingly, they do have the private Commodore Club lounges.

P&O Ferries are a totally separate company from the cruise line and are absolutely nothing to do with each other.  A large amount of money was paid by the cruise line to publicly advertise this fact after P&O Ferries atrocious behaviour to staff a few years back.

 

[*Miss G*]

3 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

P&O Ferries are a totally separate company from the cruise line and are absolutely nothing to do with each other.  A large amount of money was paid by the cruise line to publicly advertise this fact after P&O Ferries atrocious behaviour to staff a few years back.

 

 

Yes.

[NE John]

2 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

 

Come on folks,

 

everyone knows 'The Grills' have water cannons placed at strategic points along the perimeters with instructions to please water bomb any and all interlopers who dare to poke their noses into areas where they don’t belong.

 

Indeed, it’s an unofficial sport for those who don’t take up archery. There’s a chart in the lounge to chalk up hits. The best score so far over this last week is one hundred and eighty, although I have a feeling that might have been a darts score, 'mistakenly' added in the hopes of winning the much prized half bottle of Pol Acker.

 

 

It’s quite easy to spot 'them'.

'Their' clothes are just not what we’re used to. I mean, who wears jeans on a Cunard ship, and M&S clothes, especially on a Gala night

 

Ooops…that’s me!   🤣🤣

 

 

 

Don’t forget the barbed wire and guard dogs. 

[ExArkie]

On 7/17/2024 at 11:25 AM, Bellarion said:

Recently on this site, a passenger said she was admonished by staff for being in an off limits area, which I believe she said was outside. 

This is from the original posting. If this is a correct account (hearsay evidence possibly not reliable as the OP did not experience it), being admonished for entering a restricted space outside options are

 

(1) Grills Terrace, which is unlikely to have persons posted to admonish those not in Grills - we have been on the QM2 Terrace when traveling in PG and overheard (hard not to) those nearby talking about their early or late seating that evening, so evidently they were Britannia guests who were never asked to leave the area, (which didn’t bother me as long as they weren’t monopolizing the hot tub) or

 

(2) an area in which an emergency drill was being conducted or refueling operations were occurring. We wandered out onto the Promenade Deck one trip to encounter a contingent of the crew in the process of an emergency drill and were asked to go back inside…  “admonished” if one were a particularly sensitive soul.

 

My guess is, again assuming an accurate report, that this was more likely the latter situation, where any guest would have been turned away. 

Edited July 20 by ExArkie
Correct typo

[Jules.]

We’ve just disembarked QM2 (sob!) and once during the voyage my husband made his way up and down the steep grills outside stairs with no admonishment. It was also very easy to look over the rails to the grills terrace from the kennels deck. 
Please don’t shoot me but I wore a sparkly black Sainsbury's Tu dress on gala night! 

[exlondoner]

Just now, Jules. said:

We’ve just disembarked QM2 (sob!) and once during the voyage my husband made his way up and down the steep grills outside stairs with no admonishment. It was also very easy to look over the rails to the grills terrace from the kennels deck. 
Please don’t shoot me but I wore a sparkly black Sainsbury's Tu dress on gala night! 

And I’m sure you looked absolutely the part. 😀

[Megabear2]

5 minutes ago, Jules. said:

I wore a sparkly black Sainsbury's Tu dress on gala nigh

If it wasn't for Sainsbury's and Tesco plus the local market I'd have nowhere to buy most clothes locally, even Matalan have shut down here since Novichok and the pandemic. We do have M&S still but they no longer stock what they describe as "smart and wedding wear" or suits of any description for men so it's a 40 mile round trip trip to Southampton if we need those and quite often they don't have the sizes in stock either.  As a result most of my cruise wear is bought online from Ebay, sometimes new but generally "preloved".  In 2019 for my world cruise my entire wardrobe cost £200 and I still wear a great deal of it on subsequent cruises. 

[Victoria2]

36 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

If it wasn't for Sainsbury's and Tesco plus the local market I'd have nowhere to buy most clothes locally, even Matalan have shut down here since Novichok and the pandemic. We do have M&S still but they no longer stock what they describe as "smart and wedding wear" or suits of any description for men so it's a 40 mile round trip trip to Southampton if we need those and quite often they don't have the sizes in stock either.  As a result most of my cruise wear is bought online from Ebay, sometimes new but generally "preloved".  In 2019 for my world cruise my entire wardrobe cost £200 and I still wear a great deal of it on subsequent cruises. 

If you have a localM&S, you can return online purchases with no problem. They stock some great brands now, many items of which are only available online. Celtic &Co sweaters are amazing and are now stocked online so I can try for size and easily return.
I buy online, collect at my local store knowing I can return any I don’t want to keep.

[Jules.]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

If it wasn't for Sainsbury's and Tesco plus the local market I'd have nowhere to buy most clothes locally, even Matalan have shut down here since Novichok and the pandemic. We do have M&S still but they no longer stock what they describe as "smart and wedding wear" or suits of any description for men so it's a 40 mile round trip trip to Southampton if we need those and quite often they don't have the sizes in stock either.  As a result most of my cruise wear is bought online from Ebay, sometimes new but generally "preloved".  In 2019 for my world cruise my entire wardrobe cost £200 and I still wear a great deal of it on subsequent cruises. 

Me too! We totted up the cost of my husband’s attire on gala night and the outfit of suit, tie, shirt & shoes came in at under £15

Edited July 21 by Jules.

[ExArkie]

7 hours ago, Jules. said:

We’ve just disembarked QM2 (sob!) and once during the voyage my husband made his way up and down the steep grills outside stairs with no admonishment. It was also very easy to look over the rails to the grills terrace from the kennels deck. 
Please don’t shoot me but I wore a sparkly black Sainsbury's Tu dress on gala night! 

I had been on QM2 four times and traversed that stairwell at least once each trip, walking a short distance across the Grills Terrace to the next stairwell up, before someone on this board pointed out to me that the stairwell itself was marked as Grills Only. No one ever questioned our being there. 
 

And, by the way, my wife considers anything black and sparkly to be gala, regardless of its origins. 

[D&N]

We have some M&S ladies wear, shirts and ties that we have worn in the evening on Cunard but only shirts and ties on an advertised gala. My wife's two black M&S suits will probably be used on evenings next time, again not gala nights.

 

In terms of 'dumbing down' that was discussed here recently I find it quite amusing that M&S keep sending me promotional emails proclaiming their latest in occasionwear or smart outfits, and when I open the emails all I see is casual wear!

[exlondoner]

23 minutes ago, D&N said:

We have some M&S ladies wear, shirts and ties that we have worn in the evening on Cunard but only shirts and ties on an advertised gala. My wife's two black M&S suits will probably be used on evenings next time, again not gala nights.

 

In terms of 'dumbing down' that was discussed here recently I find it quite amusing that M&S keep sending me promotional emails proclaiming their latest in occasionwear or smart outfits, and when I open the emails all I see is casual wear!

 I apologise in advance because I am so fatuous, but you can imagine the picture summoned up by ‘only shirts and ties…’ Actually, some passengers might moan about having to wear a tie even then, because of the extra luggage space.