Does Cabin Grade Affect Brittania Placement?

I am thinking of the buying the lowest category of cabin on the ship. Does that mean I will have the worst placement within the dining room of the Brittania Restaurant? What other problems might I have?

[Marc Thompson]

I don't think so. I had the lowest grade cabin and at our table were people in the highest grade Britannia cabins. I found no difference in service based upon cabin grade, other than that which is not included in your cabin grade. For example, the Britannia-grade cabins have a pretty limited selection of room service items (nothing at all like the extensive QE2 room service menu) while a friend who was in Queen's Grill actually ordered off the Queen's Grill menu for his room service meals on a few nights. He also had a butler who packed his suit cases at the end of the trip. I managed to do it myself in lowly Britannia class.

Marc --

Thanks. Could you discuss whether having the lowest grade or cabin (1) caused you to have to embark/disembark later, (2) caused you not to have access to anything, or (3) caused you not to get 1/2 bottle of sparkling wine when you got on board

[Marc Thompson]

Having the lowest grade cabin does not cause any delays in embarking or disembraking. Embarking is done on a first-some-first-served basis unless you are in Grill class or a member of the Cunard World Traveler Club (7 or more Cunard voyages, I think). In those esteemed catagories you have a special check-in line. (However, on the 12/15/04 QE2 transatlantic, there were more Grill/World Traveler Club members in the special line that passangers in the regular line, cuasing regular passengers to board before the esteemed passangers wo got in line at the same time. In any case, the ship does not leave until everyone is on-board at 4:30 or so.)

Disembarkation is done by deck number or final destination. Hence, having a lower category cabin does not effect disembarkation in most cases. Cunard does not drag its feet in getting people off as they have to board the ship again starting at noon! Delays are caused by Customs, passengers not following instructions and trying to jump the gun, and other things. Believe me, Cunard is hustling people off as fast as possible so they can hustle the next 2500 people on in a few hours!

As far as I know, I had access to everything except the Grill dining rooms and lounge.

I got a full bottle of sparkling something when I boarded, but I think that was because I have been on many Cunard voyages. Whatever it was, I never opened it (although if I had thought about it, I would have shared it with my tablemates at dinner).

What more can I tell you?

On my recent QM2 Carribean cruise, they disembarked Deck 9 first, and then Deck 10 (mostly Grill-level cabins). Cunard promoted the fact that the Grill passengers were to be disembarked first (to the Grill passengers, anyway). For all the passengers, the disembarkation process seems to proceed very smoothly and rapidly, and is extremely well-organized.

Embarkation is a different story. For my recent trip, it took more than three hours to embark, in what was truly a disgrace of disorganization and non-communication. Unlike New York, in Fort Lauderdale, Grill passengers did not reach any special Grill line for embarkation until they were almost on the boat.

[lexxity]

No having the lowest grade cabin makes no difference in your table allocation. We have had no problems getting on or off, except in fort lauderdale where some darling passengers thought they would just ignore the customs announcements being put out for them, hence we missed our flight! Otherwise disembarkation is done on self-help first, this is where you carry your own stuff off. Never done this and don't think I ever will! Then it was Q and P grill classes then it was on a coloured system, this usually relates to your flight, if you have one, or deck number. The coloured tags are given out the night before dis-embarkation and are put on your bags which you will leave outside your door. At southampton it was done on deck level, my tip is to get yourself a glass of juice or cup of tea and take yourself up to the promenade deck and relax for one last time, before leaving and entering the real world again!