QM Hotel............Disappointing at best.

[Cruznut2]

Good Morning CruiseMates! Back from Carnival Pride. Wonderful cruise great time as usual. Looooooooooooooooooong trip across country.
We stayed on Queen Mary the night before sailing. I loved the history and ambience of this ship. I do think they should not be in the hotel business. The housekeeping on QM was deplorable. It is bad when we had to lay towels over the floor to walk on. We found blood on the carpet and on the side of the box spring. The carpeting and bedding should be replaced throughout the ship. Disgusting. I would not reccommend this to anyone. The only plus was that the ship was next door to Pride and we were able to walk over for boarding.

Laura

[ready2gonow]

How sad, Laura. I'm sure there are a lot of people that don't stay there, due the condition of the rooms. With an investment, bookings would certainly increase.

[CruisinK n J]

Laura, I wondered if you'd like it. We stayed there last Easter. When I reviewed it, I commented on the poor housekeeping as well. Did you do any of the tours?

Judy

[Cruznut2]

Judy, No, we did not do any tours. We just walked around the village there. That is near dead, closed businesses and no one around. We walked on the ship and looked at the histroic things. I think an important part of the QM history is that she served as a troop ship during WWII. My uncle was one of the troops transported overseas on her. I saw hardly any mention of that very important part of her history. It all seemed to be focused on the famous people who sailed on her. I feel strongly that the ship should be just a museum for the world to enjoy. The hotel business is obviously not a priority for them.

Laura

[Mike M]

Laura,

I somewhat agree with you. While I saw the trees through the Forrest my wife thought the "hotel" portion of it was a dump. I was engrossed in the history and the internal elegance but I do have to admit that it was overshadowed by poor housekeeping, lack of fixtures and furnishings in much of the ship and was suffering from a lack of maintenance. Our first visit was in 2002 and sadly, it hadn't changed too much in 2004.

The ghost tour was the biggest joke I had ever seen. Some out of work actor gave the tour and made it look like a high school play instead of a piece of history or even entertaining.

Even with that, I strongly recommend that anyone who is lover of true ocean liners, at least visit the ship. It is well worth it to yourself and to get the old girl back to her old self.

Take care,
Mike

[Mean Dean]

You know, I would really love to visit this lovely Lady of the Seas, and I was considering spending a night or two aboard as well.

But after having read these posts, I don't think I would now.

Touring the ship sounds wonderful, though, and so do the restaurants. So maybe I would just stick to them.

Kind of disappointing, considering staying aboard would be a great warm-up to a cruise!

Dean

[rinker250]

We spent a night aboard her about 20 years ago and it was very crappy then.

There are some very nice hotels nearby so you're not stuck with the QM.

It was kinda neat to walk through the skin of the ship to view the submerged prop.

[Paul Motter]

Have to say, I had the complete opposite experience, however we splurged on the Winston Churchill Suite, and it was glorious.

The tough thing about the toiurs is that they are largey sewlf-guided. You really have to give yourself a day just to get lost on the ship. Some of the best historic artifactsa are deeply buried in the front bow, within museum cases but very hard to find. It isn'y just about the celebrities, a great deal of it is devoited to showibg cabins of all classes, the original silver, china and bedding, etc, A good portion of the self-guided tour is about the troopshgip era.

If you missed then sadly, you just missed it. I wrote an artricle explaining to people how important it is to dig in to the ship and find out what is there. There are maps, you need to use them. The engine rooms are amazing, as are many of the public rooms.

http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/...ylongbeach.cfm


Here is my article. Sadly, I do understand what you are saying about the lesser room's housekeeping. They should fix that. But I really feel you shouldn't knock the museum as i found it to be very extensive and informative.

[rinker250]

I should have been more specific.
Only our cabin was bad...I believe it was called a King Water View or some such like that (as opposed to a Queen).

The ship itself was extremely interesting...just don't let the aquarium fool you.


As Paul said...if you go, give yourself time to really explore.
I just recommend you bunk somewhere else.

[B D B G]

Josh Blue tore that ship apart!

[Mike M]

Originally Posted by rinker

The ship itself was extremely interesting...just don't let the aquarium fool you.
As Paul said...if you go, give yourself time to really explore.
I just recommend you bunk somewhere else.

Rinker: I agree with you and Paul, on that. It's what I meant in my statement about "seeing the trees through the forest.". The housekeeping and the upkeep is what I have an issue with. There are only "select" parts of the ship that are being kept up but the parts of the ship, including staterooms and ballrooms that are not being kept up are there for everyone to see and for those who DON'T take the time to look for the history and craftsmanship see nothing more than an old ship and this is an insult to the old girl.

Because of this, bookings will only go down, visits will decrease and the Queen Mary will end up going the way of the Norway and end up in the scrap yard in India. Not a fitting end to a true wonder of sea travel.

Take care,
Mike

[Cruznut2]

I had a note from Hotels.com asking about my stay at the QM. I wrote them a very frank email telling them what I thought. Within an hour I had an e-mail back from them. they are sending me $50 certificate good on my next booking through them.

Laura

[Mean Dean]

Laura,

But are you going to use it?

And if so, you're still faced with the dirty cabins. If not, then the certificate doesn't really do you any good!

Dean

[Cruznut2]

The certificates are good for my next booking through Hotels.com. I do not think I will ever be in California again. I plan to use the certificates for my stay in Ft Lauderdale before my cruise on Liberty in Sept.

Laura