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Queen Mary 2 (QM2)

Queen Elizabeth

Queen Victoria

From deception to all out fraud

Went on this cruise for my late honeymoon with my wife.  Service and staff was generally amazing, the team keeping the ship clean and serving the food in the Brittania restaurant were top notch.  Afternoon tea was wonderful we went almost every day, and the gala nights were really nice.  It's wonderful to still have cruise lines that keep things classy.  The food that we got was great and tasted wonderful.

Unfortunately the decision making and organization for some of the key elements were absolutely horrible, it really seems as if the upper levels of staff don't realize that a lot of people go on cruises to be able to visit cities and ports.  Woke up after the first night to find ourselves gunning it back to Sydney at 20 knots due to a medical emergency, but with 2 days at sea planned before the first destination one might expect that we'd do the same on the way back to make up time, but no.  Rough seas had us going at half that speed the ship is meant to be able to reach, effectively cutting off a whole port of call as well as one of the days in Wellington.  Made it to the fjords a whole day late and even had to skip the 3rd entry point for the fjords due to it being apparently too windy.  Given the circumstances I'm sure a lot of people might have preferred us making our port of call in Dunedin and actually getting off the ship rather than visiting the fjords for a few hours.  Added to that, it took us 2 hours to get off the ship in tender boats at the bay of islands, with nothing to do beyond just waiting in the theater of the ship while they played the BBC on the projector on mute, because that's the only place you'll hear when your tender boat is leaving.  I'm glad we decided to start that early, but it also meant we had no chance to visit anything there before having to get on our excursion.  Apparently booking an excursion with the cruise line gets you no scheduled disembarkation time or priority tender access if you book the excursion in the afternoon?  I'm at a loss as to why they didn't have specifically scheduled/booked tender assignments like I've seen on other lines.

My first cruise since covid so I don't know if it's a Cunard/Carnival thing or if all cruise lines do this since then but to top it off, there was an acknowledgement from the Captain that all of this sucked but there seemed to be no sense of ownership or attempt to acknowledge any accountability for any of this, and therefore no compensation of any kind.  It took us 3 days of talking to the Purser's office to eventually getting to talk to the Customer Service Manager and literally asking outright to get us comped one day of basic internet just so we could cancel all of our externally booked shore excursions (which thank god were refundable).

While some events just happen and there isn't anything you can do about them happening in the first place, I'm extremely disappointed in how Cunard managed those events and their responses to them.  I doubt I'll be booking with them again.

Great Service, poor decision making.

Im keen to try all the great cruise lines if possible and this Cunard ship was sailing out of Australia and returning to the same port at a time that suited our needs so seemed like the perfect choice for a nice holiday break. Check in was simple and quick, and we were allowed to go straight to our cabin once aboard which was fantastic. Ship is very smart, looks like a stately home of Art Deco design. The crew seem to be on top of ongoing maintenance throughout the ship and this was evident on a daily basis throughout the cruise, which was good to see.

Pros:

Staff were all delightful and very professional and friendly (only one exception). Food was amongst the best we've ever had, couldn't fault it, and I'm comparing it with the likes of Seabourn, Silversea and Celebrity. The demographic meant sun-beds were always available and we never had trouble getting seated in bars etc (exception: The Golden Lion pub, if you want lunch here, arrive well before noon to secure a table). We loved the promenade deck too, great way to get your step count up on sea days. Entertainment....hmmmm, some good, some average, some poor, nothing captivating, so it sits in between 'Pros and Cons' 

Cons:

Demographic onboard was older than expected but not as old as we've experienced on Silversea. Although we dined in the Princess Grill Restaurant which was fantastic, we have always enjoyed sitting at different tables every night and meeting new people but on Cunard you are allocated a table. We were lucky and sat amongst delightful interesting people, but we both commented later on how fortunate we were. It could have been a nightmare situation and embarrassing if you had to ask to move tables. Drinks package was a bit of a faff to sort out when we boarded. First thing I want to do when I get onboard is partake of a nice glass of champagne to celebrate.....not, as in our case.. having to first queue to get it sorted with a grumpy staff member.

The ship's Tender transportation process at ports needs sorting, it was far too slow and communication was poor. 

Our Cruise specifically:

Unfortunately a series of emergency illnesses onboard and stormy weather meant that the itinerary had to be altered with some ports of call either cancelled or cut short. This is unavoidable of course but meant I gave a 4 star review as my overall view of my experience. We also missed a day ashore due to the tender process taking so long that by the time they got it sorted it was too late to go ashore to carry out the exploration we had planned. Exacerbated by the need to back onboard early and needing to allow at least as much waiting time on the dockside for our return trip to the ship.

We've cruised many lines but this was our first time on Cunard 

We picked this cruise to see New Zealand, This compete fast began on a sour note with the ship being 6 hours into the cruise and a death occurred on board, the boat returned to Sydney to remove the dead person. We set back out for New Zealand but the Capt said its a bit of a rough sea so will will cut our speed (10 knots). we were then told because of the time lost we wont be going to Dunedin,,,,,,,we ventured down south into a Sound where we parked up and wasted time, after missing land visits we went South to Wellington where we had shore leave cut in half, up and till then we had no days on land, kept on the boat for 7 days straight. Locked on board buying every thing in $US. We then moved up for a shortened stay in Auckland. followed by a an off shore anchorage in the Bay of Islands,,,,,,,,there was a delay on getting the people to shore as the Tenders had problems, after the half day delay, they realised the boat was in the position to disembark , which once again cut shore time out.In 13 days we spent 11/2 days off the boat, completely misses seeing Nth Island of NZ. when we first came on board and bought a drink our visa card was debited $174 US each for a Futurity charge to cover the cost of the ships workers, but also was to to tip the service crew, every thing bought on the boat attracted a 15% service charge, after a debate with the Admin staff the $174 charged was removed.The boat was lovely and service crew (Asians) were lovely people, but you can notice there is superiority complex (segregation) between staff and the workers, there is plenty of supervisors who stroll around with their noses in the air and stiff upper lip. The feature movie was Back to the Future 1985 Movie, the movie theater only screened 2 movies, all other TV shows were cabin TV movies. The onboard entertainers were very sub standard. This cruise should had be called of when they decided they didnt want to deliver the package

Ripped off 100%

Chose this cruise as it was a food cruise, didn’t realise when we booked that all the chefs dinners were going to be at large extra cost. Hence we didn’t do any as exchange rate Australian dollar to US $ is very poor. Have sailed on this boat prior to Covid and have no memories of anything to complain about. It seems they either can’t get staff or are just trying to save money. Took 20 minutes or more to get a cup of tea, bars very slow, got food in the Britannia restaurant before even managing to order a drink. Coffee machine broken down for the whole which put more pressure on the poor guy making coffee drinks etc all day in the cafe ( then he was in a bar at night). Queued over an hour to get into the Britannia restaurant the first night. Some crew were very off hand on the point of rudeness, many not very engaging, some we had never encountered on any cruise ship before. We also witnessed a few fairly verbal episodes between crew members.

Food was underwhelming everywhere, including stuff that seemed a bit old and stale. Quite a few times I ordered wine which was on the lists they didn’t have. We sailed 7 nights from Melbourne to Adelaide to Hobart back to Melbourne. Friends had done the cruise before us and had emailed us to say they were dissatisfied with the food, they also thought it had gone downhill since they were last on the ship. Entertainment was good, with varied selection going most of the night. Also a lady rushed up to the purser’s counter and asked if she could jump in front of me as she had a medical emergency, but the girl that she spoke to did not have good enough English to understand her and had to go away to find someone else, she appeared to be senior person on the counter, bit of a worry. Lot of staff poorly trained as there were always questions they couldn’t answer. Won’t be booking again and I know our friends won’t.cabin steward kept an excellent room 10 out of 10 for him.

Under staffed, rude staff,food gone down hill

As this cruise was leaving from MELBOURNE and was a special event for us we thought CUNARD would be worth cruising with as have never cruised with them before. it did not disappoint, everything from entertainment, food,cleanliness of rooms was wonderful. and would like to give a big shout out to Jonash who kept our room immaculate. 

Food was exceptional, whether dining room or on 9th floor for bistro. Plenty choices for everyone.

Enjoyed the shops. Thought prices very reasonable.

Entertainment high class. 

Shore excursions were very well organised. We thoroughly enjoyed Handorf and Richmond.

Loved pool area and surrounds, even went in the pool and spa.

Staff very friendly and courteous. Really liked our newsletters every evening.

Met some great people. There was certainly something for everyone.

Certainly memorable for our 60th Wedding Anniversary. We had a private photo shoot with Carly and she did an amazing job. 

We would highly recommend to anyone to cruise with Cunard lines. Thankyou for our memories.

60th Anniversary present to ourselves

Our first time back on Cunard since pre COVID but have done many Princess and Holland america cruises.

Both HAL and Princess have cutback on so many things and added extra charges for many things that were once free .

The Royal class Princess ships are like travelling in a Westfield mall with most bars speciality restaurants and lounges opening off the main atrium which hold aerobics and line dancing with loud music most of the day and in the evening there is also loud music or someone screeching on the mic leaving no where onboard to have a quiet read or cocktail. On the Queen Elizabeth there were many stylish intimate bars with pianists or trios at cocktail time or the Queens room or yacht club if you wanted to dance but were still able to have quiet drinks or a quiet lounge to read during the day without piped music blaring in every part of the ship.  The food was of a reasonable standard in the Britannia  and free room service and full cooked breakfast available in your cabin. Little things like chocolate on your pillow at night,tea and coffee and biscuits with your own kettle, note paper and pencil all the things we all enjoyed but have been removed by the other cruise lines.

The standard of dress overall is adhered to in the evening and virtually no one in t shirts and shorts in the bars and certainly not in the restaurant. On Princess last cruise there were people in sweat stained singlets and shorts in the dining rooms.

The staff onboard were all friendly and professional and remembered your name and drink within a few days.

We are elite with Princess and 4 star mariners with HAL

But think our loyalty will now be with Cunard.

The ship is beautiful throughout and very well maintained.

Fantastic value and good quality.

We sailed on the Queen Elizabeth over Xmas and New Year. Part of our package included transfers from the airport. This was the start of the issues. There was no communication about where to meet or who to meet once we get off our flight at Melbourne Airport. We were stuffed around with the transfers to the ship. 

Once onboard we headed straight to the kids' club with our six-year-old, to ensure we wouldn't mis out on a spot for him. We were advised that they cannot book in advance for kid's club. We had to log into a portal each morning at 830 to book for the following day. Well, that would've been okay I guess, except that the portal never worked. There were 70 kids on board, with limited vacancies. They were two (sometimes) three-hour spots, so parents continually had to watch the clock to pick the kids up and had to pick them up 15 mins before closing time, which meant in the mornings they were only in for 1hr 45. Kids club wasn't open early enough to do classes in the gym, and kids aren't allowed in the gym. The kid's club was small and didn't offer a big outside area for the kids to go outside.

We then discovered that Cunard thought it was okay to take additional money out of your account "just in case" you buy more things, before it gets disapproved. So, our account was at $1400 but they took out and additional $650 - in case we wanted to purchase anything in the next few days ahead?? I mean how is this even legal!! 

I could go on about all the other frustrating this on the ship, such as the tiny, overpriced cabins, the PT that had a personality of a dead fish and the boring entertainment, but the thing that has annoyed me the most, is now I'm trying to fight to get the additional funds they decided to take, back. I've called them and sent them emails. I'm talking an additional $1000 they've taken without authorisation, and have been advised it will take up to 10 days for the case to be investigated.

They were more trouble than anything and I don't recommend, and I advise that if you still think of cruising with these guys, to use a debit card and load it up as you spend so you don't have to fight to get your money back for things you never purchased when you get off the ship.

The Worst Cruise I've been on and would not recommed

I travelled from Melbourne with my Mother on a 5 night cruise to Hobart, Tasmania. We really enjoyed our time on board this cruise.  Cunard's Queen Elizabeth is in very good condition and is a beautiful, well appointed ship.

Embarkation was exceptionally smooth and  I think we were onboard in less than 15 minutes. 

We had originally booked a Brittannia Club Stateroom on Deck 8, but I bid for an upgrade which was successful , and got a Princess Grill Suite also on Deck 8.  

I bid the minimum possible for the upgrade (about $390 AUD in total) and was very pleasantly surprised when this was accepted.  

The Princess Grill suite we had was lovely, spacious, and very comfortable, with a good sized balcony.  We received a complimentary bottle of champagne on arrival, and complimentary mineral water each day.  A small chocolate was provided with the turn-down service each night. 

The bathroom, which had a shower over the bathtub, was smaller than I expected, but perfectly adequate and well-lit. Good sized towels. The shower was very good - plenty of water pressure.  There were complimentary Penhaligon toiletries provided.

Whilst our Stateroom on Deck 8 was  underneath the main buffet area of the Lido restaurant, we did not hear any noise from above.  

We had a friendly and attentive Stateroom attendant who looked after us well. He was completely unobtrusive but very accommodating with the few requests that we had.

The beds were extremely comfortable, although the pillows were a little soft for my liking, but my Mother found them to be perfect. There was a comfortable sofa and armchair in the Stateroom.  Two televisions were provided, which seemed to come on automatically every time we put our Stateroom card in the receptacle near the door - a little annoying actually.

Plenty of hanging space and storage space in the Stateroom,  as well as plenty of coat-hangers.

Each deck with Staterooms has a launderette - excellent for slightly longer voyages. We did not need to use it.

The ship was decorated beautifully throughout for Christmas, with Christmas trees and so on all around.  All the public area are lovely.  The Royal Court Theatre is excellent, with plenty of well-raked seating, good acoustics, and very enjoyable shows each day, showing at 8pm and 10pm.  The Queens Room, where they have a super, complimentary afternoon tea at 3pm each day and various music offerings, is spacious and pleasant.  The Golden Lions Pub is atmospheric, if a little dimly lit.  The Garden Room, near the Lido Pool is a very pleasant, well lit area with a glass roof,has live music on regularly and we enjoyed many an evening trivia game there.  We loved the Commodore Club room at the front of the ship and had many happy evenings pre-dinner, enjoying a drink and live music.  The Grand Lobby looked sensational with its Christmas decorations and they often have live music there too.  There is a spacious card room on board and an extremely well-stocked, quirky library on board.

The Lido buffet on deck 9  (which we used for breakfasts and lunch) could be a bit crowded sometimes, but is spacious and airy.  The food was quite good. About 7.5 out of ten.  Plenty of choice for breakfast, and quite a lot of choice of main dishes for lunch with salad options, and a reasonably wide selection of desserts. Soup was offered each day too.  Our Princess Grill Stateroom gave us access to the Princess Grill dining room on deck 11, which was lovely and very attractively furnished, with excellent, very attentive staff.  We had dinner there each night. There were about 5 choices of entree, main and dessert each night, with soup also offered. Plus you could also choose from a non-changing menu (which they called the A La Carte menu) which was offered every night. We had the rack of lamb, the duck a l'orange, the chateaubriand, and the chicken from this menu.    On the last night we choose the Ocean Trout from the daily menu.  This was the best of all of them.  Again, in general the food was quite good, beautifully presented, but not outstanding. About 7.5 out of ten.  A little tasteless, on average.

In terms of activities, there was less offered each day than when I previously cruised with Royal Caribbean. Other guests I spoke to commented the same thing.  The ship caters mainly for the 40+ demographic; I'm not sure there would be enough for younger people. There was trivia, and various music offerings, and table tennis tournaments, and various other tournaments, and card games and dancing. They showed movies in the Royal Court Theatre each day too. There is a pickleball court, bowls and shuffleboard. There are two pools onboard, but both are outdoors and very cold. There were spas near the pools.    It sounds like a lot to do, but having cruised with Royal before I know there was a lot more choice each hour of the day than on this ship with Cunard. Still we enjoyed what we did.

There is also the Mareel spa services - these were very very expensive however.  I booked a massage for my Mother - over $300 AUD for 50 minutes. 

The ship rarely appeared crowded, except, as mentioned, in the Lido buffet.  

Overall the service onboard was excellent. Mostly all the staff seemed to be pleasant and willing to help. Particularly good were the staff in the Princess Grill, who went out of their way to make our dining experience each evening a lovely one.

Disembarkation was a bit of a mess - long lines to get off the ship and for taxis.  But I requested a wheelchair for my Mother (who is 98) as she cannot stand in lines for long - and they were extremely helpful and organised this quickly.

I organised with Cunard (and paid for) a birthday cake for my Mother on the last night, which was beautifully made and presented. The staff sang her happy birthday. I had pre-organised a birthday card for her too - but Cunard seemingly forgot about this. A little annoying. A little irritating that you cannot organise these celebratory things through their website, (and why does Cunard not have an App?) -  I had to call them to organise this. 

Overall a very relaxing and enjoyable cruise. I would sail with Cunard again, except that they are not going to be sailing from Melbourne in the future,( and my Mother does not want to fly to Sydney.)  

 I have given the cruise overall 4/5 mainly because of the food which was not as good as I expected of Cunard.

Lovely, relaxing cruise aboard a beautiful ship

This is our third Cunard cruise, but like the furnishings in our cabin, the experience is wearing a bit thin and tired. While the day lectures offered were good, the nighttime theatre entertainment was merely glossy and without depth. Could something other than modern pop style music be presented? Meals and service were generally ok, as delivered by the hard working crew. But the LIdo buffet continues to be a frequent shamozzle and maybe some system of timed seating needs to be considered to alleviate the crush of people at certain times and races for the window seating. Disembarkation was long and even after that, the wait for a taxi was around 40minutes. I believe that the ship practices hygiene as best it can, but I did not appreciate disembarking the ship feeling that I was not 100%. Sure enough, a PCR test on land confirmed Covid. So a memorable (in not a good way) Christmas, isolating from family, and barred from a once a year family gathering. We are booked on our fourth cruise on this ship in April ‘24 and hope it will bring new and positive experiences.

Pleasant cruise with a Covid sting in the tail

This was our second cruise on QE, a five-day voyage from Melbourne to Hobart (with an overnight  stay) and return to Melbourne.  Our previous cruise was in March 2023, a repositioning voyage from Melbourne to Singapore.  Although the repositioning cruise was most enjoyable, there were some service issues resulting from staff shortages.  Happily, the Hobart cruise did exceed all our expectations.

In no particular order, some reasons that contributed to a fantastic cruise:

Staff – on our previous cruise we found the staff, particularly in the Britania Dining Room, to display a rather perfunctory attitude.  However, for our latest cruise, the staff were most obliging, friendly, and engaging, which more than contributed to a great cruise experience.  Also, there were plenty of Sommeliers around this time.  

Food/Drink – Food was excellent in all venues we visited.  This included the Golden Lion pub, Britannia MDR, and Lido buffet (which doesn’t have the variety of Celebrity but more than makes up for with quality).  In particular, we dined in the Lido Speciality Restaurant twice (Italian and Indian cuisines) and the service and food standards were equal to an elite restaurant.  Range and quality of drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) are one of the best we have experienced at sea, and if a cocktail was not listed on a drinks menu, bar managers will do their very best to conjure up the request.  Prices are equivalent to a high-end bar and similar to other cruise lines (don’t expect cheap drinks).  

The ship – Immaculate and maintained to the very highest standard.  A big bonus for us is the promenade deck, which provides the opportunity to walk around the entire perimeter of the ship.  The library is enormous with a high number of books, and the Queens Room has a very large dance floor and well patronised by ball-room dancers. The recent dry dock in Singapore has resulted in public area carpets and bathrooms replaced/updated plus all new gym equipment installed. We elected any-time dining in the MDR and never had to wait for a table.  However, it could be difficult to find a table quickly in the buffet at peak times, but this is common with all cruise ships.  

Entertainment – we love the variety of entertainment on Queen Elizabeth.  On one evening, we went to the show in the Royal Court Theatre (in a box), then ventured to the Queens ballroom for three ladies singing Motown hits to a very standard, then onto the Golden Lion for the Irish Folk Duo, past the atrium where a string quartet were performing, then up to the Commodore Club to listen to a jazz band, and finally finishing the night at the disco in the Yacht Club.  There are also dance lessons, sports events, trivia, and bingo available.  We didn’t get the opportunity to attend the lectures this time but found them very informative on the previous QE cruise.  The standard of Cunard singers, dancers, and musicians plus guest performers are very high, and no boring acrobatics.

Technology – Wifi worked well following the installation of Starlink.  However, the onboard app is inferior to other cruise lines and only good for viewing the onboard account.

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise and would choose Cunard first over the other cruise lines that we have sailed, being P&O Australia, Celebrity and Princess.

A Most Enjoyable Cruise

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