Myself and two girl friends all 50 this year booked this short cruise to Amsterdam, a birthday treat to ourselves. Myself and one of the others have cruised a few times with Thomson s but wanted something special this time. Oh how wrong we were. Three times the price and Thomson s could teach them a lesson in customer service!!! One of us was actually 50 the day we sailed, this went un-acknowledge by Cunard's. I mention it a few times during the booking process etc but it soon become obvious that if I wanted anything special I would have to pay for it so I ordered the celebration package, flowers, dipped strawberries and champagne for the room. Nothing in the room when we arrived. Had to complain. Then arrived in drips and drabs, impact totally lost, no automatic refund, had to complain when I got back. And if only that was the only compliant we had. No one to show us to our cabin when we arrived, 3 ladies wandering around identical decks trying to find our cabins!

Allocated wrong dinner sitting, Ok I know its not guaranteed but judging by the size of the queue to change it I can't see that they had considered anyone s request so why ask in the first place! Wasted the whole of our first day trying to change dinner sitting and chase the missing celebration package. For the whole of the cruise we not get a drink in any of the bar's, having chatting to a single lady traveling alone (who was almost in tears because she was being ignored by the staff) we thought that they had a thing against ladies traveling on their own. It was appalling, the staff were quite happy to ignore us and service someone else. On one occasion we were the only ones in the bar and they still refused to service us, nobody came to take our order so we went to the bar to get it ourselves only to be refused and told to sit down. . The bar staff only spring into action when two couples arrived, they managed to service them immediately.We had afternoon tea in the ballroom one afternoon and the waiter actually huffed when we asked for coffee instead of tea which of course never materialized The majority of the staff looked totally miserable and were at best un-helpful and sometimes just plain rude.

Food average quality, entertainment not to our taste but accept that is down to personal choice. Upon leaving i also found they had managed to smash my new suitcase to pieces. Complained via phone call on my return, managed to get the price of the celebration packaged refunded and £20.00 towards a new case but nothing could compensate for our special birthday being completely ruined. My friend also compliant via email but still waiting for this to be acknowledged.... three months later. I think their tag line should be "Cunard's Cant be bothered". Such a shame because the ship itself is stunning. To add on a high.... yes there is one, Alvin and Robert in the Britannia restaurant! Thank you guys so much, you were the only staff on this ship who treated us with any curtsy, always had a smile and happy to help. Cruised with Thomson's again shortly after this experience and it so nice to be greeted on the quay side by members of the crew all happy, smiling, and welcoming... come on Cunard's is it really that difficult!