Pre-Cruise experience with Cunard - my first time travelling with them

 In December I will be sailing on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. I have wanted to sail on Cunard for many years and with the sale and on board credit from Vacations to Go.com I have decided to try it. Note I have had a really good experience with Vacations to Go, David my agent has been helpful and quick to respond to any questions.

 Here's what to expect for your pre-cruise experience:

Cunard does not have an app. You must provide and get all information via their website. It's clunky and not user friendly.  I have purchased shore excursions and the internet for the week and am curious how I will connect the internet on board without the app.  Also they must still print out tickets for shore excursions and a daily event sheet.

Cunard does not provide direct confirmation of your Stockholder benefit or On board Credits, you must have your travel agent add them to your confirmation receipt.

Cunard does not provide the time of arrival or departure in each port until the day of or day before the port. This is not helpful if you want to book independently for shore activities.  Having been on so many cruise ships I know they are provided with designated times for arrival and departure as they pay huge penalties and may miss their slot if they are not on time. I am guessing it's a money grab to get passengers to book their shore excursions. 

Cunard provides transfers from the airport for a whopping $70USD, when a cab is $40 and RCCL provides them at less than $20USD in Miami.  Note if you book your flights thru them then the transfers are free. Note the prices they quoted for my flights were outrageously high.

Cunard will not let you designate your time of arrival at port, you are assigned a time based on the following criteria:

Cunard assigns embarkation times 

based on the stateroom grade and cabin location to manage passenger flow, though this can sometimes be inconsistent. The highest-tier guests, like those in the Queen's and Princess Grill Suites, receive priority and earlier times. Your specific time is printed on the boarding pass after completing online check-in, and you are asked to arrive at that time to help prevent long queues. 

In other words they have a class system in place (higher tier) based on spend. Note all other ships allow suites passengers to go first, but as a new client of them I was hoping that I could get better than the last slot.  I tried calling but the rep said the times are designated by the ship and if I wanted help to contact my travel agent.  Note my travel agent then called and got this answer

"I called and spoke with them and they told me that the time assignments are made generically and can't be changed.  She did say that if you show up earlier it is simply the discretion of the pier staff whether they let you board or make you wait.  In my experience I have never had a single customer tell me they had a problem with showing up early.  That is not a promise, but it is my experience."

I am going to try to go after the Suites customers at 12 noon and see what happens. But I am not impressed.  Their reps just want you of the phone.  

Cunard does not have an email address to write to... you must call if you have questions. The good thing was that they answered promptly but were unhelpful. 

I will update this post after embarkation, but I am expecting a 19th century experience in the 21st century.

Hope this helps

Marcia

How to write a complaint letter and to who when you are encountering issues on a cruise

First of all I hope you never need to write a complaint letter while on a cruise.  However if you have ll legitimate issues while on a cruise below are my suggestions for what to do.

I recently had ongoing plumbing issues in my  original cabin on my Explorer of the Seas cruise. The first day no hot water- I called the front desk who said it was ship-wide. Then the next morning still no hot water I called again and a maintenance person arrived and did something that got it to work. However when I took a shower within a minute of being in the shower the water went down to a trickle. I called again and they sent maintenance while I was out of the cabin.  Again the next day after about a minute the water was down to a trickle. I then walked to Guest Services and explained what was happening. She took it upon herself to explain it to the maintenance person. However after they said they fixed it, I only got scalding hot water out of the sink taps and shower.  This had then been 4 days without a proper shower.  I went to front desk and they kindly moved me to another cabin.  However that was not the end of the issues. 

I had issues within the Dining Room for breakfast - twice it took them an hour to bring my breakfast and then it was cold. The first time I just let it go, but on the second time I told the waiter it was cold. The supervisor came and put her hand on the food to test if it was cold???  I went up to the manager and as I was doing so she waved her hand/finger towards me. Wow. 

At this point I think it's time to write to the Hotel Director.  Below is what I recommend. 

- always tell them how long and how many cruises you've taken and where this cruise ranks with all the others (this was 3rd worst) of over 40 cruises

- advise them of your membership status 

- Tell them what has been great/good on the cruise to date - mention the names of the staff that have given great/exceptional service

- Then factually tell them about the issues you have had, who helped you and who didn't.  

- Always ask what they will do for you given the circumstances. 

- thank them for taking  the time to consider your concerns.  

Will this always work?  I have no idea, as out of the 40 plus cruises I only have written a letter 3 times.  The first time on Carnival (several years ago)  it was bad for everyone so no one helped - However head office gave us all 75% of the cruise value back (not 100% as they said we ate food).  The second time on Regal Princess the director had the issues corrected (second day at sea) and I sent a thank you note for their prompt attention  Now on this one, I was given a 25% future cruise credit of the value of my current cruise.

Hope this helps

Marcia