White Star Service (Cunard Line)

Member Name: bkecky

Product:	Cunard Line
Date:	29/06/09 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Generally high standard of service, magnificent British style interiors and exteriors

Disadvantages: Class system may not be to everyones taste, people may tire of the formal nature

My grandparents have taken me on cruises for many years now and after trying cruiselines such as NCL, Royal Caribbean, P&O and Carnival we finally found what we were looking for in Cunard. The line is owned by Carnival Corporation & PLC and occupies the market of the classier cruise line.

Cunard's slogan is "The Most Famous Ocean Liners In The World" and although this was probably true with the QE2, I'm not sure that still applies with the new super-liners that other cruise lines are bringing out. Currently there are two liners, the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Victoria, with a Queen Elizabeth to be launched in autumn of 2010. What sets Cunard apart from other lines is the "White Star Service" they pride themselves upon. This entails a higher standard of service than your average cruise line and I have to say that generally they keep up with their promise, training their crew in the White Star Academy where they learn the art of silver service.

One of the main differences with Cunard ships and other ships is that there is a sort of class system on board. Depending on your type of stateroom, you are allocated a level of restaurant, the Queens Grill being the highest for the suites, the Princess Grill for the mini-suites and then the Britannia for the other standard cabins. For Grill passengers there is a private terrace and lounge where afternoon tea is reserved especially for them. This is great if you are a Grill passenger as it means you never have to fight your way to afternoon tea or get there an hour early to secure a good table but it is not so good if you are not a Grill passenger as you are restricted to the Britannia restaurant whereas Grill passengers can downgrade should they wish to. Often when I have been on board, people have disliked this old-fashioned method of classifying people but it is something that i doubt Cunard will change. There is also the inevitable question that someone will ask, "Which restaurant are you in?" and as I was a grill passenger I felt embarrassed to answer, not wanting to seem like a snob and almost felt like I was apologising for it! The Grill Restaurants show an outstanding level of service but having dined in the main restaurant on occasion I felt that I enjoyed it more because the crew were more personal and you also got more food, albeit that the food was more simply presented. I definitely felt a snobbery in the Grill areas, and a lot of eccentrics! Some of them would never leave the Grill area, possibly due to a concern of being infected by the "normal" passengers, a phrase I heard floating around on occasion. In addition with my Birmingham accent I felt I was sometimes looked down on by fellow passengers and even by a few members of the crew. To be honest this is one of the few differences between the restaurants. This and the size (the Grills are smaller), you don't get the Baked Alaska Parade and in the grills you get an additional menu of basic grill items, available every night. However I found when dining on the QE2 in the Mauretania (the restaurant for standard cabins) I didn't like the menu and they bought me out a steak anyway. Always gives me a chuckle when the Grill passengers think that it is not available to anyone else except them though. One of the great benefits of being a grill passenger is that you have an open sitting for dinner so you can go when you want as oppose to being in a first or second sitting. The downside of this is that if you are on a table of 8 and there is a two hour open sitting you could find two of you sitting on an empty table if your preferred eating time does not correspond with the others on the table.

However there is more to Cunard ship life than eating! Although looking at the way some people have their breakfast, three course lunch, afternoon tea, five course dinner and midnight buffet you may be fooled into thinking otherwise! There are a variety of activities on board such as watercolour classes, dance classes, deck sports, live shows, talent competitions, karaoke, daily quizzes, darts, card games, arts and crafts, films in the cinema, golf competitions and lectures. For anything with a competitive element you can win prize vouchers, which you can redeem at the end of the cruise for a Cunard souvenir. The only downside to this is that the ship name is not on the souvenirs so on the QE2 that was quite disappointing. Also the first time I went on a Cunard ship I was excited to receive a voucher only to find I could get a free pen, which I already had from the bar. I found that a lot of the activities were not suitable for younger people, as Cunard tends to have an older market than other cruise lines. Also there tends to be groups that form that can be quite competitive and I found that in such activities like the quizzes and bridge it was sometimes a bit intimidating and it got a little too serious at times for my liking. But if you can put this aside and get a little group of you own then it is not too bad. It astounds me though how far people will go for a little yellow voucher. A Daily Programme lists the day's events and also some information about the ship, history of the port, sunset and sunrise times, weather information and some mini biographies of some of the key crew members. I would say that after 4pm there is not a lot going on, I imagine due to the people of early sitting getting ready for dinner. Also on port days if you do decide to stay on the ship there is very little going on so if it is a boring port you often find people just hanging around waiting for afternoon tea.

The ships tend to be quite consistent in theme and all ships have a pub on board, theatre, outdoor eating area, self-service restaurant, cinema and a ballroom. Due to the older population on board there are a lot of ballroom classes and pre-dinner and after-dinner dancing with an old-fashioned dance band. There are also gentlemen hosts that are there to dance with the single ladies. As a ballroom dancer I have found that although these hosts are provided, there is high competition for them and that the older women can be quite posessive, especially if they see the hosts dancing with younger women. I was even told by one that because we had danced together twice it would have to be the last dance because there will be complaints from the older single female passengers. I thought this was appalling as I had paid the same money as these other passengers who often would dance all night with the same gentleman.

The overall decor of the ships is slightly more reminiscent of the golden era of cruising, with more wood panelling and historical artefacts than most. This gives the ships a more elegant feel than most and a distinctive British feel rather than other ships, which can be all over the top glitz. I like this about the ships because you can get a taste of Cunard's history. It is a great shame that we lost so much of these historical artefacts with the sale of the QE2 and that they couldn't have been transported to the other ships.

The smoking policies on board are quite reasonable. Smoking bans have not yet been extended to cruise ships for the time being and this means that there are deisgnated smoking areas on board although on the newer ships they have been reduced significantly compared to the QE2. Now there are no restaurant smoking areas and the pub on board is nono-smoking. On the Queen Victoria they have allocated the casino as the smoking area along with the cigar room. Although I don't think that this was particularly well allocated due to the smoking room being on one of the top decks and now a very full corner of the casino being a cloud of smoke.

The nice thing about Cunard is that the dress code is strictly enforced. There are never casual nights only smart casual. On transatlantic crossings it can get a little annoying because it's common practice that on a sea day it is a formal night. Therefore you can get 4 nights in a row of formal dress and the crowd on board really go to town. It's great the first couple of night but then I got a little fed up of dressing up in gowns and cocktail dresses every night and it lost a little of the special touch that it had on the first night. There were also occasions when the dress code has been changed late afternoon and so unless you go into a bar or happen to be walking past the pursers you don't know and often there have been people in ball gowns and smart casual clothes, creating some embarrassment. There are also often cocktail parties, the main one being the captain's welcome on board party. These take place twice for the first and second sittings of the Britannia restaurant and then a separate night for the Grills. There is an open bar with complimentary "champagne", which is actually sparkling wine. You get to meet the captain and have a formal photo taken with him (which will then cost you a small fortune to purchase). The only criticism I have is that once it is over it is almost like you are hustled out, which spoils the atmosphere a little.

On the subject of photographers, this can be an annoyance. Sometimes it is really irritating when you are trying to embark or disembark and it takes an age because the photographers are taking everyones pictures. Similarly when your meal is interrupted by a photographer taking individual photos with your mouth full. Usually it is optional to have them taken on the formal nights and you have to go to the designated area. The backdrops are the same on every ship and after a while you lose track of which ship they were actually taken. As I mentioned they are also ridiculously priced although on my last cruise someone dropped a drink over a photo I had just purchased and the photographers offered to print another one free of charge. On some nights they have a contemporary photo shoot with a plain white background and informal poses. These turn out great but sometimes they are not well planned and to have them on formal nights and then be rolling around on the floor outside the restaurant seems a bit bizarre to me.

The Spa and gym on board is usually reasonable, although I have seen better on the larger American ships. The treaments are usually very expensive and the therapists are paid on commision so you often get the hard sell and are conned into buying something you don't necessarily want or need. It also spoils the relaxing feeling when you are being pushed in a hard sell or worse that you know its coming so prepare yourself to take a stand. My advice is don't by the products unless you genuinely enjoyed them during your treatment and then go away and come back to purchase them so you can see how good they really are. There is also an ionothermie treatment that they really push. I had this several times and the idea is that you lose inches and improve the appearance of cellulite. They will really push this on board and it is expensive but then they will tell you it only works if you have the additional wrap, 6 sessions and then buy the treatments afterwards. Yes, the treatment works but after a couple of days the inches you lost will be back on as soon as you drink, as it is mostly fluid loss. They measure you afterwards but I have never had the same measurements two days later. Avoid this treatment, it is only a short term fix. They often do demonstrations from the spa during the day and although a couple of lucky people may get to be demonstrated this is also a hard sell and you will find you are going to a sales pitch rather than a demonstration.

There are also activities you will have to pay for, such as wine tasting and various fitness classes, such as yoga. The wine tasting is usually divided by country and is priced between $15-20, which is not too bad for the information and amount of wine you try. They are also happy to recommend wines for your dinner and you are free to order wine to take that evening if you enjoyed it. As for the fitness classes I have often been disappointed due to them being relatively easy due to the average age of the participant and also that they have often been cancelled due to lack of interest. I believe that if it is stated in the programme it should go forward even if there are only two or three people.

The crew are generally very well-trained and pleasant although on the last day you do sometimes get the feeling that they have received your money. The tipping charges are as follows taken from the Cunard website:

* Grill Categories
Q1 - Q7, P1 - P3
$13 (approx £7.00) per person per day
* Britannia Categories
AA - A3, B1 - B6, C1 - C4, D1 - D8
$11 (approx £6.00) per person per day

This works out quite hefty if you are a family of four. This is automatically added to your bill, which I think is a bit of a cheek considering we have had in the past the rudest room stewards who were also inefficient. You can go to the purser and get it removed and you can also offer an additional tip to anyone you think has given particularly good service. Unfortunately it is common practice for cruise lines to underpay staff so the passengers basically pay for their wages through tips. It is also pooled so it is better to remove the tips from the bill and give individual tips to those you think deserve it.

We have had only a few bad encounters with crew members, and surprisingly this was found in the Queen's Grill. We had a particular room steward who was extremely rude. On more than one occasion we ordered room service and it never turned up and when I went to the purser to complain I was told that it must be me that had ordered room service wrong! How I can order room service wrong when I have spoken to my steward, I don't know. He was also very friendly with certain passengers and on more than one occasion found him gossiping about other passengers. Another stewardess thought she owned the ship and when I came in one night and a friend on an upper deck walked me back to my cabin she then went to report to my grandparents exactly what time I arrived and that I was with a "gentleman friend" and were they aware of this. The fact was that they were aware of this and they told her where to keep her opinions next time. Another steward would be very polite to my grandparents and would speak to me in their presence but then ignore me if I was alone and another stewardess was smoking on a passenger balcony with the door wide open. There is a strict rule that crew should not socialise or fratenise with passengers yet this stewardess was sitting down whilst on duty relaxing on the balcony! I felt very awkward when I needed her to knock on the open door of someone elses cabin and request my bed to be taken out. It was really shocking to see this on the ship, especially in the suites where you are supposed to receive top rated service. Yet on other decks with the standard cabins I was told how wonderful the stewards were. On our deck they were all English so maybe this had something to do with it that they thought that they were of a higher place in the hierarchy as they were one of the few English on board I don't know. I suspect this may be the case as the Phillipino cabin assistants were very efficient and lovely but the way they were spoken to (or rather shouted at) by these other English stewards was appalling. And we could hear it in our cabins in addition to 7am amateur operatics from the smoking stewardess.

If you are ill whilst on board there is a medical centre and should sea sickness be suffered then you can buy tablets (although these used to be free) and there is a rather expensive vaccination available to prevent the sickness.

In your cabin there are films daily and there are different channels depending on satellite reception.

There are also children's facilities on all ships but moreso on the Queen Mary 2 where there are more children on board.

An additional point is that the prices are in US dollars but actually the bars are reasonably priced due to this and are less than you would expect in a nice hotel. The shops on board are a little more expensive but the duty free selection is good although regular customs regulations apply even if you are in international waters.

Overall we probably would not cruise with another line now as we enjoy the British company and traditions that Cunard upholds. The standards are higher than other cruise lines but it is not so ideal for young people or families, although I have always enjoyed them myself so this does not apply to everyone. Except the problem with the grill cabin stewards we have had no problems with the crew. Unfotunately because we were on the same Cunard ship for 8 years we did have to put up with them year after year but on the plus side are always crew that welcome you back year after year that are perfectly pleasant and accommodating and go out of their way to get what you need. Overall a great cruise line but if you are looking for spectacular ships with ice rinks and so forth and casual dining this is probably not the cruise line for you.

Summary: A classy line that maintains high standards of traditional British service.