My first experience of Cunard (and I know that mini cruises aren't a true reflection of longer voyages as I've done a few of them), but I was really looking forward to trying the white star service. This was my 6th cruise, been on P&O, RCI and Celebrity ships.

Arrived at noon and there were already a couple of hundred passengers ahead of us. I saw Artemis of course in the Ocean Terminal where QM2 should have been, but assumed that check in would commence shortly at Ocean Terminal. Whoever was in charge on Monday in the management team should be ashamed. Now I realise that it was a difficult situation that the Artemis ship being in the wrong berth, but they knew at 2am the problems, that there were all the passengers, and only 3 buses and a lot less check in desks available at QE terminal. The little coffee bar at Ocean Terminal ran out of loads of snacks even, and you couldn't buy a sandwich. I wasn't too worried, but my mum has to eat fairly regularly due to a medical condition. Another poor lady who was diabetic was really poorly. In airport terminals at least you can get something to tide you over, and let's face it, we all expect lunch sometime in the afternoon. Cunard knew it was going to take 4-5 hours to load passengers, and there wasn't even a bottle of water complimenatary offered. Why did they not think of either sending down bottled water/sandwiches and some staff. After all, as very few people were on the ship, surely the staff in Kings Court could be utilised to help out. Or if not, an outside company to provide. After 3 hours in Ocean Terminal, we boarded the bus and thought that was it, but when you looked out of the window and saw a huge Q inside and right the way outside, my heart sank. It was another hour standing in very cramped lines, it was nearly too much for my parents to be honest. So we arrived on board at 4pm (4 hours after arriving!) only to be told by a rather rude staff member that Kings Court was shut for the muster. As we didn't know the ship, I'm not sure if there was food elsewhere. Well I grabbed a couple of things anyway and then left to try to find our cabin. Again, Cunard Management, how about a phone call to tell the manager of Kings Court to stay open? (and there were a lot of people behind us I can tell you). Muster was changed to 5pm with people still boarding, no apology or proper explanation from the Commodore. By this time, the 4 of us were feeling really tired and stressed with the whole experience. I hated the fact that I had no time at all to know where anything was. We were on 1st sitting at 6pm, so just changed and went down to the restaurant.

I liked the food in Brittania, I did notice that the waiters didn't introduce themselves, but the service was efficient so that was fine. I have to say, the majority of staff I saw over the few days didn't really seem very happy in their jobs. I'm sure it's a lot of work for them with the 2 day cruises but it's just the impression I got. Read more