Can't keep a good Dame down. Encore trip on the QM2.

[Melburnian1]

Dames, with the cruise completed, could you please give a rating out of 100 for the various different aspects, such as room attendant attitude and competence; ship cleanliness; cabin features; dining options; food quality and quantity; entertainment; shore options and so on.

I'm sure with your experience you can compare and contrast it with other cruises you have done.

 

[Pushka]

Dames, with the cruise completed, could you please give a rating out of 100 for the various different aspects, such as room attendant attitude and competence; ship cleanliness; cabin features; dining options; food quality and quantity; entertainment; shore options and so on.

I'm sure with your experience you can compare and contrast it with other cruises you have done.

Ok. My experience. Out of 10.
Room attendant - 8.5. Sometimes I ran out of tea bags for example but he was on to it quickly but usually they just always top up.
Ship - 9. It had recently been refurbished and everything looked brand new. Best beds and pillows ever and I'm fussy about pillows. Linens were very soft and nice. Excellent new flat screen TV and the kettles in the stateroom were much appreciated.

We only did one shore excursion which was actually fun. But the shore excursion head person was incompetent. Had us arriving into ports on the wrong days. His presentations were wrong and showed little knowledge of the product. Shuttle service wasn't signposted so we missed it however it was free which is unusual.

Good quality - 8. Steak not up to scratch. Needed more vegetables. And flavor although last night the Arabic chicken was excellent. The dining room crew were excellent.
They didn't run the specialty Coriander (Indian) restaurant on our sector which was disappointing. The Maitre D - a zero. Useless as. The Entertainment Director - awful. But it didn't impact except when she spoke in this condescending plummy voice.
Entertainment ranged from 9 to a 5.

Much preferred Cunard to Princess. But Celebrity is still my favourite but it's a completely different experience.

 

[Pushka]

The Noro virus code red is a pain. And sometimes used as a reason to stop services that don't need to be stopped.

This is what they do in the buffet


One idiot was trying to push his way through the glad wrap. I'm glad this only occurred on our last day.

But their precautions are lip service. For instance they have a Country Fayre to raise money for charity. Consists of people donating clothes they don't want to take home then selling them. That should have been stopped but wasn't. Then there are the shops where people pick up things and try on clothes. That should have stopped. But it wasn't. Yet we weren't even allowed to have a jug of milk on the table. It's very inconsistent.

 

[love_the_life]

I would agree with most of what Dame Y said though my cabin attendant seemed much more on the ball. I loved the classical guitar concerts and the astrometry lectures though I thought the retired police detective wasn't very good (had him on a different line as well and again was only just ok as he rambled and didn't speak clearly enough for me).



The ship also had a reasonable selection of more premium wines if you wished to part with money.

 

[love_the_life]

Now off and at Conrad Dubai and Dame O is a little weary - it's hard work being a tourist!

 

[love_the_life]

Oh and to prove I do 'do feet' here is Dame Y in action.

 

[Pushka]

Last night was very windy around sunset. But had to try. Dame O showed me the sunset setting on the camera.







And sunrise this morning over Dubai.


And yes. We are both knackered as we hit Dubai running. Well, walking fast anyway.

Funniest line from Dame O. We had two spare seats at the Commodore Club and did not want to have our outspoken table mates to join us. She suggested we tell them we are 'Waiting for Godot'. But when we had to explain to others what that meant it seemed it was only a joke we could laugh at.

 

[Pushka]

Dubai. Seemed even drier than normal. We were allowed to disembark well before our allocated time and we simply sailed through immigration and into a cab. At the Hotel by 10.45am and allowed to check in. We had a quick coffee then off to the room to settle in. Dame got a great deal where we paid around $1000 for 3 nights club access in a twin. Large room also. Rack rate = $~ 1400! Bargain.

Off to Dubai Mall for a 3pm trip up to Khalifa.

Great sweet shops here. See, we are into Kulture.









Interesting

 

[Pushka]

Up to Khalifa after a bit of a queue.






We totally needed this



Off to the chemist to get some medications. I've got a cough and some kind of thing happening and pseudoephedrine is OTC. I think Dame O is sick of me coughing.

We are so weary that it's after 6pm for free drinks and we haven't even moved. Early night tonight.

Hopefully this will shut me up.

 

[love_the_life]

Being a tad hard of hearing and absolutely ratso tonight I think younger Dame could cough all night and I still won't hear her. I feel terrible that she may have picked it up from me as now I am fine!

 

[Pushka]

Being a tad hard of hearing and absolutely ratso tonight I think younger Dame could cough all night and I still won't hear her. I feel terrible that she may have picked it up from me as now I am fine!

As I'm about to lose my voice it is looking suspiciously like I caught a 'something' from one of our table mates. This is nothing like Dame O had. Lucky for her.

 

[love_the_life]

A slight hiccup with the room - perhaps hot water was an optional extra that I forgot to book! So reported the lack thereof to the lounge staff who promptly arranged for the engineering department to look into it. Upshot was they didn't fix it so now we have a lovely big suite on the same floor as the lounge which is very convenient for aged persons like us!

 

[love_the_life]

We were somewhat slower today - somehow it was 9 am before we managed to get to breakfast in the lounge but then spent the morning and early afternoon on the hop on hop off bus. Some retail therapy occurred in the fabric and gold souks but then we seemed to get a tad lost finding the correct bus stop again. Finally made it back to Dubai Mall for a late lunch of quesadilla and a non alcoholic mohito each. Then a taxi back to hotel and a loll around the pool till lounge canapés (which served as dinner). Black mark against the hotel - no bubbly on offer in lounge but we had several glasses of white to make up instead. Absolutely beat so early to bed....again! Aging has not a lot of upsides to it. Poor Younger Dame is still coughing though assures me she is feeling better (right, as if I believe that!). Off to the land of nod with our last full day tomorrow.

 

[Pushka]

Hot hot hot. QM2 in port until around 1pm their next port being Muscat. I reckon people would be saying it was good to get away from hot Dubai but Muscat temp is going to be 45!

Caught the hoho bus today doing the red line which is modern and new Dubai. A quick foray into the fabric market saw the purchase of two camel hair pashminas. A great buy at $50 each. Around the creek on a dhow then into the spice and gold markets. And more damage done but paid for in cash.

I rather long trudge to find the next Hoho stop and ended up back at the original stop.

Fabric market

Our abode



It takes us ages to turn all the lights off - these are everywhere. One of us will turn off a light in one room to have the other one turn it on again.

 

[Pushka]

Much nicer day yesterday






Dame O is worried I'm going to flake on her I think.

 

[love_the_life]

No I'm fine with Dame Y's barking as I mostly can't hear it. As I know the code to open the safe and retrieve all her goodies inside, the thought of Dame Y expiring doesn't worry me at all :mrgreen:
i am such a caring person.

 

[Pushka]

Dame O has done well scoring us a 6pm checkout. She will be off earlier and I can check out there and into the club until 9pm. Score.

 

[Melburnian1]

Dames, notwithstanding one of you commenting a couple of pages back on 'inconsistent' safeguards against norovirus on the ship, for those of us who have not been on a cruise, how much of a concern do you perceive it to be?

Do you rate the chances of travellers on larger cruise ships coming down with this as minimal and hence exaggerated by the media, a real threat, or something in between?

Are older folks (say 70 plus) generally more at risk from what you observe as non-medical professionals or do you suspect it doesn't 'discriminate' by age, sex, ethnicity and so on? Do you find good standards of personal hygiene, apart from being commonsense, are the best way to minimise one's chances of being afflicted or if nonovirus is on the ship, will it 'get you' irrespective as to what precautions you take?

 

[Pushka]

I think Dame O can fill you in one that one Melburnian as she experienced it on a luxury cruise Silversea.

We've had Noro alert on 2 cruises now and never suffered it. I think it's a matter of luck.

To be honest it wouldn't surprise me if the QM2 issue was people gorging on the chocolate that was available everywhere on Easter Sunday and which was free. I had a truffle and it was so rich I wanted to only heat half. Plus so many older folk have a preoccupation with prunes. And the consequential side effects.

Today was a luxury day to Burj Al Arab for a spot of afternoon tea.

 

[Pushka]

The hotel provided a nice Audi even though we had asked for a regular taxi. I thought it was OK at 70 dirham ($25) as it's quite a distance and so we arrived in style.



The foyer was awash with people snapping away including us.







But first Jumeirah Beach Hotel