False and fraudulent advertising – total sham – not the Cunard I knew and loved

Queen Elizabeth Cruise Review to Panama Canal, Central America

145340gal

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 14

Overall rating:

2 out of 5

29 Night Alaska & Panama Canal (Vancouver To Ft. Lauderdale)

Sail date: July 11, 2022

Ship: Queen Elizabeth

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

I stayed in room 8179 and was in a Queens Grill Suite. My last experience was three years ago in the Queens Grill on the QM2; we loved that experience and expect the same thing this time around. QE is nowhere near as grand as QM2 and should be priced accordingly. Our trip was not worth the money, and we will not use Cunard again in the future - so sad that Cunard that’s lost their classy edge and key differentiator. FOOD: The menu in the queen’s grill is fake and nothing special, and it is the same food served everywhere on the ship. For example, the lamb barley soup (or any soup) in the Lido buffet is same stuff as you get in the Grill restaurants. Same with everything else. What a ripoff for those of us that bought a Queens Grill suite. The queens grill breakfast and lunch are quite unremarkable; we ended up going to the lido buffet almost every day. Again, Cunard has lost its edge. Here are more examples for the false advertisement: • On July 16 they served me the worse “28-day aged USDA ribeye steak” I ever had. It was uneatable and one of the toughest pieces I’ve ever seen. Filled with uneatable tendons that could not be cut. It was clearly a Select Cut of beef and should never be served anywhere on the ship, much less in the the queens grill restaurant. I gave the beef a second and third try and it never got better. • The things on the menu sound fancy, but the reality is way different. Examples include: o “Thai sticky rice” that is just basmati rice (they told us they don’t have sticky rice but are not allowed to change any names on the menu. o “Miso Grilled Aubergines, sticky rice and pickled cucumber kimchi” was literally a backed slice of eggplant with a coffee cup sized lump of basmati rice (definitely not sticky or flavorful). Even the waiter was embarrassed to serve it and suggested my wife try something else. What a scam. o “28-day aged USDA ribeye steak” that was so tough and grizzly that it would never be sold in the US or pass USDA inspection. I was a butcher and know very well this is Select grade or worse. Shame on you Cunard. o One if the worse things that happened was the candy they served at the end of the dinner had a bite eaten from one of the pieces. So gross. Do not eat any unwrapped candy anywhere on the ship. It was likely served to someone else first. Unbelievably cheap and gross. o All “Risotto” was made with basmati rice! o The osso bucco was all bone and had no eatable meat. I went to the lido buffet after dinner to finish my dinner. o I checked the Veranda Restaurant menu and saw the best steak they served was a “prime sirloin”. I tried to get it in the Queens grill and they say no. The Veranda Restaurant is a $49 per person up charge and the sirloin steak is another $20 upcharge. No steak house in the USA even serves sirloin steaks because they are so cheap and tough. What a scam Cunard is pulling off. HIGH TEA: service is the Main Hall (for anyone on board) is much better than the tea service provided in the princess grill for Grill Suite Members. The P Grill is all the same stuff as the main hall things, except the things in the main hall are served fresh and warm; waiters continually come around with fresh warn food. In the princess grill you have to order what you want from a menu, then they run downstairs 6 floors and reserve it on a nicer plate. By then it isn’t warm/fresh. Bottom line, the tea in the princess grill is not very good and you should go to the main hall on Deck 2. So sad I paid for a Queens Grill Suite. ⁃ ROOM: Room 8179 and any other room in the aft of the 8th deck sucks and is incredibly noisy and smelly of the ships smoke stake exhaust fumes. The noise begins with loud banging at 7:30 am every day as they position the pool deck chairs above on the 9th deck. After that banging of the chairs by the staff, then comes the banging and scraping of chairs from the people who use the chairs. Unbelievable that they offer these rooms as Grill Suite rooms. What a rip off. Special soaps and shampoos in the Grill Suite rooms are gone. Now you have big bottles of stuff with a push top. Cheap, cheap, cheap. COVID: Several hallways were blocked on each floor for covid and that made it hard to find our room at first. No issues after that and we heard they use the rooms for covid positive people and staff the come-on board for the first time (they were quarantined for 3 days). COVID protocols on board are dangerous, and I could not wait to get off the ship. They don’t monitor people that are covid positive, and it’s up to the people with covid to stay in their rooms. We saw people with covid at the purser’s desk asking for their rooms to be clean. Also, covid positive people leave their eaten food in the hallway and it sits there all day and night sometime. Totally sick, and Cunard should be held accountable for this mess. We rarely could use our balcony because so many people were on their balcony coughing and the wind blew in our direction (especially the day we went through the Panama Canal). SPA/GYM: Before we departed on our cruise the Cunard website for our cruise said we could buy a 20-day spa pass for $285. When we got on board it was $265 for 13-day pass (they said a new company just took over and they wouldn’t honor what the website said). Thank God we tried the spa before we bought a package for several days. It was terrible; dirty everywhere, almost no bubbles in the pool, and a two-person steam room available with only 5 hot stone chairs for people use. Worse thing about it is that you must schedule your session in advance (this is ridiculous). Also, the showers in the spa don’t carry conditioners for your hair and every shower was dirty and no one was there to clean. Also, no one ware their masks in the gym while covid was clearly everywhere on board. We also never saw anyone cleaning the Gym equipment. This forced us to only walk on the outside deck for exercise. The outside deck is much smaller the on the QM2 and this make it hard to walk with so many others trying to do the same thing. Dress Code: Worse thing that has changed is the dress code. Wearing jackets after 6pm, or formal wear on gala nights is not required or enforced and most people dress down (even in the grills). Very sad. Only a collared shirt is required now after 6 pm, and most only wear polo shirts. INTERNET: Internet was 30 per day for “premium streaming service” and 20 per day if you buy it for the compete trip. It was so slow it took 60 seconds for any webpage to load. I canceled it on day two. Again, false advertising, they said you could do video streaming and that it was 3 times faster than their normal service; what a bunch of BS. Later in the trip I repurchased it and had to beg for a daily refund every time it stopped working; they should automatically reimburse people if their service isn’t working. Total scam. Entertainment: Most of the evening entertainment was good. One comedian from the USA was terrible and totally bombed. Regarding the afternoon movies, on July 22nd, the movie in the main theater at 2 pm was grotesque; everyone walked out by 20 minutes into the movie. Shame on Cunard for hosting such grotesque trash in the main theater. It included a witch pulling out her own inners in front of a child and then showing this witch like child how to eat the inners on animals etc. SO SICK we left and nobody else remained. TOTAL INCOMPETENCE: The last week in our 29-day cruise they started charging us for drinks even though I showed them that I had a drinks package included and they were properly not charging me for drinks the first 22 days of the trip. Fighting with them daily over this totally ruined our trip. They even tried to tell me that the “drink package” on my documentation was only for water, and not alcohol. They finally realized it was their mistake and they got rid of the charges. Bottom Line: I want a refund for all the false and fraudulent advertising they sold me. Cunard has lost their way, and the leadership team onshore should be fired. They clearly lost focus of their Brand and are being run by their bean counters. So sad.