Mutiny on the Queen Mary 2?

“Hey, instead of ambling around in port, we’re going to hang out by the pool and sip cocktails, captain, what do you think of that?”

Is that really much of a threat? Is that all they got?

Oh no poor little rich people can’t finish their over priced cruise. Who cares they shouldve donated the money they spent on the cruise to hungry people. Learn how to go on vacation people. Sitting on a ship with tons of idiots running around for 7 days? No thanks.

Why is it that those that have more always want more than they have? Life is full of dissapointment and change. Only children think that by yelling and stamping their feet they can get what they can’t have.

And.. didn’t they read the contract they signed with the cruiseline to get their tickets? The ship is not responsible to reimburse passengers for any changes to the ship’s sailing schedule; which can be changed at any time without prior notice. 50% is a whole lot better than nothing.

It is NOT rich boys moaning about nothing. We and others have saved up for a cruise with several stops which has not happened due to negligence.WE were not offered the opportunity to disembark at Fort Lauderdale but held captive on the ship for 12 days.The ship is very bumpy due to reduced employment of stabilisers to maintain speed so that the 1500 boarding at Rio will not be inconvenienced at all.Many passengers have been sea sick. The compensation is only 50% of the cruise fare and does not include air fares.

Many people have gone onto this cruise after saving for the holiday of a lifetime. Why shouldn’t they be upset that three of the best visits have been missed out? Who are all of you to judge? Spiteful jealousy is not attractive.

To the first person who commented, and everyone else, I think you misunderstand.  The sit-in is not threatening to stay on board on port instead of visiting and returning.  Those 1,000 people are supposed to GET OFF THE boat permanently.  Their cruise is over.  And 1,000 new passengers are to replace them.  So 1) If those 1000 don’t leave their cabins, it will be difficult to put the 1,000 new people anywhere.
And 2), this IS the vacation of a lifetime for a lot of those people.  Sure, some are takign the full 38 day cruise, but for 1000 of them.  This was it, and ALL THEIR ports got cancelled.  So whoopdee do, they went from Florida to Rio and were stuck on a ship in lousy weather for 12 days.  Is that any vacation you want?  They are out thousands of dollars for the cruise, more for airfare and hotels at various ports, as well as air fare from home to Florida and from Rio to home.  Thats a lot of money.  A 50% discount in NO WAY compensates for it.  I cannot believe the cruise company is being so inconsiderate of the people who’s entire cruise was essentially cancelled.  I can’t believe how uncaring the company is being and I can assure you I will never take a Carnival cruise in my life after hearing about this botch up.

I am curious to know if the cruise line saves money by not stopping at the origionally intended ports. The cruise line must have been aware that there was going to be an impact on the trip BEFORE they left Florida. I’d be mad as hell too. I’m sure Cunard made the decison knowing they would make some passengers angry, but didn’t want to risk a mass disembarking in Fl. It is also better to get 50% plus sundry expenses from the passenger than 0%. As far as public relations, it is a sad fact that people will tend to forget what happened, unless you are the victim.

Read this blog for the real story from onboard QM2…
http://www.jackatsea.com/index.html

This is an interesting series of stories on the QM2 cruise. However, many of you will not know that a similar (but less dramatic) event happened this year on the previous QM2 cruise round the Caribbean. My wife and I were on this, arriving back in New York on Jan 15th, the day this fateful cruise began. We arrived at our final stop at Costa Rica to be told by Commodore Warwick at 7am that we could not dock or tender passengers ashore. There was allegedly too big a swell. It was a glorious day outside. We left the coastline almost immediately, yet this was a full day stop. We were told at 8am that a new port of call would be arranged on the way back through the Caribbean, afterall we had a full day in hand and many islands to chose from on the way back to New York. Intially, many felt surprised that they did not wait a few hours to see if the shore trip would be OK later. At 10am Commodore Warwick announced in a very pompous and arrogant tone that all options to stop at another destination were not possible and they would now be heading home to New York. He did not explain why, although it was pretty obvious that Cunard had told him to get back as quickly as possible. They had another cruise to Rio and needed to have as much time in New York as possible. They could even save fuel by going slower. Poor old Cunard had to give a refund to all the passengers who had prer-paid day trips round Costa Rica since as they told us would still have to be paid to the local tour operators. The cost of a new port fee and the hassle to rearrange a stop was obviously too much. Cunard have no time built in between cruises to bother with this. Suddenly, our holdiay of a lifetime was technically over as announced by the Commodore’s message, yet we had 4 days to run and a full day in hand. We were, as the the Commodore said “on our way back to New York”. Even the crew were surprised. They had assured that Cunard always finds another port under such circumstances. Remember we had no engine trouble like the current cruisers. We did get back our $140 day trip money! Compared to the Rio cruise, we were lucky. We made 3 out of 4 scheduled stops. The QM2 is a fantastic ship and the service and cabins are amazing. The problem lies with the Cunard management. The whole operation is all cost driven with poor attention to the impact such cancellations has on its paying customers, and the fact that they are on a holiday of a lifetime. The Titanic disaster was caused by an ambitious master wanting to get to New York as quickly as possible. They are still doing this in 2006!

Jon Heylings, Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK

YES, A J GROSSE, I HAVE SERVED MY COUNTRY!!! Nice try!
I do have respect for my elders but certainly not those who appear pompous.  I agree everyone’s entitled to their opinion and obviously ours differ.  The people I know on board are not at all nasty, and if you ever met them I’m sure you would agree.  I wish you all the best.

Cunard would appear to have a claim against the port authorities in Fort Lauderdale because the PILOT not the ships crew drove it into the sandbank.Also. they are insured. It will not cost them a cent to re-imburse the 1000 getting off at Rio. Why attract all this bad publicity for themselves ???
Brian

We were also on the prior sailing that could not dock at Costa Rica.  We were up early watching the attempt to tender in to shore. We saw with our own eyes that although the sky was clear the swells were, indeed (not allegedly), exceptionally large.  The forward and back motion was so great that the small landing platform that comes out of the bow of the ship (used to board the tender boats) several times plunged completely underwater. Any passenger standing there would have been washed into the sea. As the tender they used to test the seas was raised back up, it was swinging wildly from side to side. It would have been irresponsible to let passengers off in Costa Rica. Commodore Warwick was not arrogant or pompous, he was clearly looking after everyone’s safety. In fact, he was extremely professional and most apologetic.  Perhaps another port could have been found, however the QM2 is so huge that not just “any” port would have been available at the last minute. We were also so far south that it would take a day to get anywhere else and we still had a long way back to New York.  We did not even reach near Jamaica/Haiti until the next night when (in a rare treat) we passed the QE2 at around 9pm sailing southbound. As it is, we did not arrive early in NYC on the 15th. We docked at around 6:15am and it took until 11am until all passengers were off. The ship was to sail again by 5pm that day.  Sorry for all the people who missed out on their stops, but be realistic - the cruise lines are all out there to make money. It may be our vacation, but they are not in the business just for our pleasure. When photos cost $27.00 a pop and there is a surcharge or fee for almost everything, including soda, and some cabins run over $35,000 for a 12 day cruse, is there any doubt that Cunard (or any other company) wants to maximize profits.  Once you get on board any cruise, expect to be shaken upside down by your ankles until every last coin falls out!  Those 1000 people all got full refunds AND a week on the spectacular QM2. Good for them.  I hope on our next sailing on the new Queen we should be so lucky!

Most of us want respect above all things, and most companies only give you enough to get by now a days. Cunard Line discribes in their pr that they offer Legendary Service, 5 Star, White Glove service.  Well let me tell you our story.  We did not recieve any serice on our cruise.  We heard people all around us in the dinning room ask if any one was ever going to come to their table during breakfast and offer them a cup of coffee.  Another man asked how many times his oatmeal was going to arrive at the table cold.  And when I informed our water that we never recieved our second course, when the third course was placed in front of us, his answer was “yes you did” when I flagged down someone in charge and asked him if he would bring us our second course, he left the table came back and told us the same thing “that we had recieved our second course” I informed him at that time that I did not want to spend my first night at sea trying to convince someone in the dinning room that we never recieved our second course.  He insisted a third time, that we received our second course.  I had to argue with a manager in charge to get our second course.  Can any one tell me what is wrong with that picture.  Our second course should have been brought to the three of us immeidately, no questions asked.  Because we where not drinking alcoholic beverages, it also took 45 minutes to get a coke and diet coke to the table.  We where on our desert when our soft drinks arrived.  The next day I requested a meeting with the restaurant manager.  I was treated like I was inconviencing them, and they could not understand why I was not happy that it took 45 minutes to get two soft drinks, and all our courses dilivered to us, without have to convince two people that a mistake had been made.  It only get worse, our shore trips where nothing like what was discribed in print.  Everyone on our tour asked the driver to take us back to the ship, that we wanted the tour to end, because the tour was driving around the island in bumper to bumper traffic, breathing fumes from all of the vehicles in front of us, while the trip was discribed as a safari.  When we got back to the ship we went to the ships library and looked up the work safari in the dictionary.  safari- watching or observing animals in their natural habitate.  Does any one discrible a natural habitate a paved road thru the center of the island main street, where we saw no animals at all, a safari.  We had to demand our money back, and a completely wasted day breathing in car fumes.  Another tour was discribed as a train ride.  It consisted of a 20 minute train ride and a 2 hour bus ride the long way back in bumper to bumper traffic.  Should it not been discribed as a bus ride and a very short train ride since the train ride was only 1/7 of the total tour time.  Another tour was a bicycle tour.  A asked what the taraine would be and I was told paved roads.  I asked how if the whole trip was on paved roads, their answer “100 % is on paved roads”  There was “zero paved roads”  and when you got on several areas of the dirt, mud and gravel path you where “yelled” at by the tour guides to “keep pedaling, keep pedaling, don’t stop or you will get stuck in the gravel” so muched for “100 % paved roads” one person had to be trucked down on the back of a old broken down truck because of the gravel and dirt roads where to difficult for her to handle.  Just one more lie form the cruise line.  When I got back to the ship I showed a trip staff member pictures I asked for from one of the guides of the bicycle trip so they could see what the roads where like.  I asked if they had been on the tour, and the ansered ” Oh yes, we have a rep from Florida who goes on every single tour, so he knows exactly what they are like.  I got the trip discription out and read it out loud to them, and then showed them the dirt, mud and gavel we road on during our tour, they where “silent” another lie.  How many times will Cunard Line lie to it paying customers.  How many times will Cunard Line disrespect it customers.  It is sad that they do this to customers or is this what they discribe as Legadary Service and 5 Star service.  I get better service at McDonald’s and when I ask for an order of french fries that is what I get.

I’ve just read all the comments and can’t believe all the whinging. I’m sure if you were all regular cruisers who understood the importance of safety. Have you ever been on a tender in high swell? Didn’t think so. So Costa Rica was no option. And as for turning up un-announced at some other port, she’s a big girl, not many ports would have space for her at short notice. Especially as the carribean if flooded with other ships at this time of year. You know its not as simple as parking a car. Nothing to do with costs. Cunard and are commited to service, which is why the name had carried on for over a century.
Unfortunately, its the clientel the company is attracting that is the problem, mostly whinging Pomms! People expect everything for free these days.
I’m pretty sure the commodore was not arrogant in his announcement as he is the most quiet and professional captain you could meet. Which is why he is Commodore.
It really gets on my wick that people expected a full refund. I’m sure if it were your business you would not be too happy, plus think of all those crew members who will not make their usual salary because of this. I’m sure their salary is made up of a basic, which is peanuts and then the gratuities that everyone is supposed to pay. Unfortunately this is not added in the price of the ticket. But is their wage. Think of the stress and inconvenience this caused them,  Working 10hours a day and really trying to give you the best of the best service.
50%was plenty compensation especially considering the amount of food you probably ate!!!
Thankyou for this opportunity to put my point across

wrong email this is right one

Christ,what a bunch of crybabies