We have just reached home after two days no, one and a half days on the QM2. Organisation was poor both on and off the ship. Staff were elusive and unresponsive and often not enough to cope.

My husband and I plus two friends decided to take a few days out of our busy schedules and spend some time on the QM2. This was planned and paid for in June this year. Since then we have been talking about this trip and planning what we will do with our time aboard her. Our idea was to get on board as soon as we could to have a leisurely lunch before getting dressed up for the sail away party.

I rang Cunard at 11:00 on the 8th November and asked if all was going well with the embarkation, if so, could we board a bit earlier than our 2:30 slot? I was told, “yes that’s fine have a good trip".

We reached the terminal around 12:30, all seemed OK until we reached the top of the escalators into what had become an holding area for boarding passengers. We were given 4 green cards with a letter "T" on them and asked to please be seated until our colour and letter were called out. No-one told us at the time we were waiting to be moved by coach to another terminal. It seemed strange to my husband and I, as we have sailed many times before and have always just checked in straight away at the cruise terminal and boarded the ship within the hour.

We did as we were told but by now we were getting hungry, we had not eaten since early that morning, but were saving ourselves for lunch on board. Two hours passed and we were still sitting there waiting for our number to be called out. My friend and I had had enough; we were all now tired and hungry. We located a Cunard person who had some different couloured tickets in this hand and while we were explaining to him that we were not prepared to wait any longer a crowd had gathered around him of very irate passengers who had also had enough of waiting for their card number to be called out.

The Cunard gentleman agreed with us that it did seem chaotic that day and agreed to give us some of the cards that had been returned to him, that had been called earlier, so that we could immediately join the queue for the coach to take us to the terminal where they were checking in there then boarding for the QM2.

We eventually arrived at the QE dock and the queue to register was out of the doors. While we were waiting we watched in horror as the porters, "threw", numerous cases over a pile of cases already off loaded from a van. Other porters were seeing this as very funny and running around trying to get out of the way of the falling cases. When we eventually got to the lady at the check in counter we did bring this to her attention and she said she would complain for us. Another passenger mentioned to us that one of his cases had been damaged before being delivered to his room.

The time now was 15:30 and we were REALLY hungry and thirsty. No one was there to greet us, no glass of Champagne or even sparkling white wine, no music, no one to advise us of the best way to our cabin. Disappointed, we headed to our cabins on deck 5. Bags were already in our cabin, which was good. We dropped off our coats and before we left the cabin we were told that Muster would be at 4:00 so we took our life belts and went to look for food. As we reached the food area we were told by the Maitre d’, that the food was not being served until after Muster. We couldn’t even get a drink. We were not happy, but hoped that Muster would not take long. We waited at our Muster station B as requested and then another announcement told us that Muster had been put back now until 5:00 due to the QE2 leaving port first. So we returned to the cafe to see if we could get some food now with Muster delayed, we should have time to catch a snck. The food was there on display but trays had been upturned in front of it so that we couldn’t reach it.

Really, really hungry now and getting very angry, we stopped an officer who seemed to be over the catering area and asked if we could have some food as we were getting very frustrated with the lack of any concern on the part of the catering staff. During our conversation, several other late arrivals had also started to complain about the lack of food. Eventually we were, "allowed", to get some food; cold, no hot food was put on.

After the Muster we were allowed to have a drink and we started to look around the ship. The ship is VERY smart and staff, look after it very well.

The delays were very disappointing, as we were expecting to be on the ship around lunch time not tea time.

Our first night was at the Britannia and that was OK, shame the staff have not been told to look for customers trying to get eye contact with them, so trying to get the attention of the staff was a quest, all of its’ own.

In France we took the trip to Bayeux, which was Ok. Returning to the ship at 14:30 we were surprised by two things:
1 no welcoming party on the quay,
2 to find that the food areas were closing at 15:00, so we just had time to get some hot food but by the time we were looking to pick up some dessert, the staff were shutting up again!!!!!

Why not either bring coaches back a bit earlier before the food stations close or keep the food areas open longer on trip days?

We did take the time to report all this to the Pursers office only to be told that the ship was under staffed and the two day turnaround was a nightmare for staff to manage.

I can only say that my friends who were first time reluctant cruisers, had all their worst fears realised on this trip and my husband and I who were using the two day trip to see if we would like a longer trip with the Cunard Line were extremely disappointed and cannot see us ever sailing with Cunard.

Teach your staff to be more customer focused and not to avoid eye contact at all cost. You never know your sales may go up and complaints, that are common place about Cunard on the Cruise Critic web site, may be reduced and they could be replaced by compliments.

I think Cunard should look to the Celebrity and Azamara lines, to see how it should be done. Our experience has been that staff on these two lines are always attentive and seem happy to serve you. Food and drinks are always available.

When we return to our ship with either of these two lines there is always a red carpet out and staff are there to welcome you, "back home", with a drink and a smile. A few small things, but it means a lot to be greeted on returning to the ship by people who care.

Come on Cunard, you need to make sure your staff perform well, don’t just leave it to your name. There are other lines out there getting it right, go and have a look at them...!

This is a lovely ship but let down badly by the quality of service and organisation.
We have recently returned from a leg of the world voyage. The ports of call were all very interesting and the excursions provided good.

The cruise started badly in that the instructions for meeting the ship were wrong and no attempt had been made by Cunard to correct their error.

The service and attentiveness of the staff was very variable. The pursers office for example was ineffective at providing information and very abrupt.
Our attempt to dine in the Veranda restaurant failed, - being vegetarian they could not offer and would not offer any suitable food - their proposal was to have the option available in the Britannia restaurant - whilst paying the $35 supplement!
That said our cabin steward was 1st class. The standard of food in the Britannia restaurant was good, better that our experience on a Celebrity ship.

This design of this series of ships is generally OK, we loved the art deco interior design. But it was not good for hot climates, there is insufficient shaded areas on the decks and as there is no covered swimming pool this would not be suited to a Northern climate cruise.

Would we cruise with Cunard again? Probably as the ship goes to the more interesting places and does exude a certain style.