Cunard Over the Holidays with Kids- CAUTION

[Arubalisa]

Our family just returned from a 15 night cruise aboard the Queen Mary 2. The Kids Zone had a variety of activities for every age range, their hours are comphrehensive and nights and days in port the zone is open and free of charge.

 

With that said, Cunard finds a greater influx of families with children over the holidays than they do throughout the year with their standard clientele. To handle the overload Cunard we found from talking to the staff, brings in college students. We had no problem with this.

 

On port days you must sign up your child in advance in order for them to plan their staffing for the day. Rightly due to security concerns, parents, regardless of the child's age, were required to drop off and pick up their child and sign them in and out.

 

On New Years day I went to the Zone at noontime to pick up my 12 yo dd for lunch. I buzzed the door for entry and no one answered. While standing pondering what to do to get someone's attention, luckily the phone at their reception desk rang. A staffer from the nursery came out to answer the phone. Seeing me she promptly told the party on the phone that she would return their call. I have no idea if it was a personal call.

 

She buzzed me in and I told her I was there to pick up my dd so she led me into the area for the 10-12 yo's. There were 2 boys playing air hockey, another child playing a game and dd working on a jigsaw puzzle. The staffer from the nursery then said, "Emily, get up". At first glance Emily could have been a child. Turns out she was a staffer who was laying on the couch watching TV and dozing.

 

Upon questioning dd after departing she stated that Emily was tired because she was up late with her friends, naturally New Years Eve.

 

Our dd is 12 yo and especially as an only child very capable of entertaing herself. I still though am concerned at the lack of direct supervision. There was no lock on the inside of the door to prevent someone to leave the Zone, only on the outside to get in. If our dd had the notion to leave and roam the ship that is one thing, but as dh and I discussed later, there were no precautions at disembarking to prevent her from going ashore by herself or with a stranger or even a family member with a different surname.

 

This was the only problem we had with the Zone and it's staff. Dd enjoyed her time there. Dh is writing a letter to Cunard to inform them of the incident as well as some unrelated issues.

[rebeccalouise]

I have sailed Cunard three times and had a good experience with the Zone. However, Cunard IMO does not have a big enough facility for the size of the ship. Yes, most of the time it suffices but on holidays it would be a bit small. I did the Easter and President's Day cruises and it was cramped and overall my son was not eager to go. This was fine with me because i wanted to hang out with him and was glad that he didn't like it as much as other cruises.

 

As for the 10-12 group, I can't speak to that. I know that in the younger group- the 3-6 age group that the kids can not get out of the play area by themselves- rest assured. My son was in the 7-9 age group this last time and I wasn't thrilled with the room. It was cramped. I would still do Cunard but it isn't the best youth program at sea. The saving grace is there is so much else to do onboard that neither of us was ever bored. In fact, I really enjoyed having more time with my son playing board games, going to movies, swimming, playing afternoon trivia, etc.

 

I am curious as to what other complaints you had. My only real complaint with Cunard, which I think it a big one, is the diningroom service in Britannia is atrocious. I didn't go to the main diningroom at all on our TA voyage but other passengers seemed to enjoy it. On my next cruise- a 4 nighter, I gave it a try and it was lousey on the one night I went. On the next 4-nighter I gave it another try and went three out of the four nights. The service was the worst I have ever experienced on a cruise line. This doesn't impact me too much because I really don't care about "fine dining"- I am happy eating at the buffet with my son but for such an elegant ship- I found the Britannia to be terrible. The waiters are rude and perhaps overworked. The only reason I kept going back was because we had really nice tablemates (who were even more angry about the service than I was). An example was, they gave the kids children's menus that you could color but no crayons. I only had my ship card with me and when I asked for a pen- the waiter snapped "I need mine" and walked away. I did finally get one from the maitre'd. This was unexcuseable.

[Arubalisa]

I am curious as to what other complaints you had.

How did you know I had other complaints? :D

 

Actually our service from our assigned waiter in the Brittania for dinner was excellent. He was prompt and friendly as was his assistant. The only thing our family did have problems with were the menu choices. Service at the one lunch we had in Britannia was excellent but breakfasts were admittedly hit or miss.

 

The earlier the better in the Brittania for breakfast. Dh and I were there within the first half hour of opening and never had a problem. Poached eggs for the most part were cooked as ordered. The later you ate breakfast, the longer it took to get your food and the more overcooked the eggs were.

 

We were not happy with the hours of the Kings Court for lunch while in port. Closing 3 of 4 buffet sections at a time in the afternoon when everyone was returning to the ship was downright dumb :mad:. Long lines, empty bowls and frustrated guests was not a pretty sight. :(

 

We were traveling with my 95 yo grandmother, a person very famiiar with the Great depression, so in her mind, no way after paying "all that money" as she puts it, for the cruise, was she going to pay an extra fee to dine at Todd English, "no matter how good the food". Since she is my grandmother :) and since we live in different states and do not see each other but a few weeks a year, we comply :) and dine together as a family as she wished. ;)

[rebeccalouise]

Glad to hear you had a good experience in the DR and perhaps they have gotten their act together. I am sure that I was not the only one complaining.

[kitty9]

We were incredibly disappointed in our QM2 cruise. We were in the QG and while the food was OK, they served the same menu as in the main dining room---we expected that being in the QG, the menu would be totally different. We were hugely disappointed in most of the food in the Kings Court and in the fact that it was a terribly dirty area. No one bothered to wash the tables off so things were sticky and dirty. The floors were a mess with spilled food and drink. Our next door neighbors didn't care for the kid's activities as they said it appeared to be more babysitting than actually doing activities with the kids. Perhaps this was a function of this being a January cruise, but there were quite a few kids on that sailing, of all ages.

[rebeccalouise]

QM2 is certainly a stunning ship and I wouldn't hesitate to sail her again but there are areas where they need improvement.