Further to yesterday's post about my summer holiday. Mary and I returned to the Cipriani after our visit to Padua to receive from the hotel's concierge an urgent request to ring the Queen Victoria. Some 10 months ago, Cunard once again invited me to speak for them - which I have done on 3 previous occasions on the QE2 and very much enjoyed. The young lady who I spoke to apologised, and said a mistake had been made the Los Angeles end and they had sold my cabin. Would I therefore be willing to go down to a different cabin grade which would mean my not being able to dine in in the Grill restaurant? I explained that I was unwilling to do so because our close friends, Bill and Jackie Samuel, were booked on the same deck as us and were sharing our table in the Grill. The young lady promised to let me know right up until the last minute if there was a cancellation and we could be reinstated. Mary and I hung around in Venice for a couple of days, but sadly there was no cancellation so we returned to London. Our planned holiday scuppered. The only good thing that came out of it was that I was able to watch the Olympics from morning to night.
3 Comments:
How weird is that - So your room totally ties you to which restaurant you can go too. No exceptions?
The more I learn about cruises the less I want to go on them!
Hello Jeffrey
Sorry to hear about your Queen Victoria fiasco. But in a selfish way, I am quite pleased, because I thought I had just missed you. For we were on the Queen Victoria the week before you were scheduled to appear and disembarked in Venice. And I was most annoyed to discover that I was going to miss you speaking the following week. We had Roy Hattersley!
I would have been furious if I was on board the same week as you and you were a no show!
Your experience does not surprise me, for although we enjoyed our cruise on the Queen Victoria, the service was not as good as when we were aboard the QE2. I am sure it will improve.
Kind regards
David
What an absolutely disgraceful way to treat someone! It doesn't say much for the organisation skills of the Cunard staff. As with your previous blogger David, I too was on the Queen Victoria during its previous 12 days cruising the med, but I concur with his opinion that whilst the cruise was enjoyable, the standard of service was not up to that of Cunard's other sister ship, the Queen Mary 2, which we travelled on a couple of years previously. I certainly don't blame you for telling them to shove their alternative cabin - more fool them, as not only will they have missed out on some quality 'entertainment' for their passengers (which btw was also not so good as on the QM2), but they have also now earned themselves some bad publicity regarding the lack of the 'White Star' service they so like to boast of! I trust they are adequately compensating you for your inconvenience etc?!
Post a Comment
<< Home