For anyone who's ever booked a cruise through me, (or cruise.co.uk), you'll know we pride ourselves on our customer service. Part of this service is calling people back after the end of their cruise to make sure everything went according to plan and that they enjoyed the cruise. The service doesn't stop with us collecting your money like with some companies, we like to make sure you enjoyed the cruise we booked for you.
Following on from these calls though I've been noticing a trend with the disembarkation process from Cunard and I was wondering how many others had experienced this......
Anyone who has sailed with Cunard for at least the last ten, fifteen years will tell you that their standards are dropping but it appears that their disembarkation procedure is becoming a bit of a shambles, (according to the people I've spoken to anyway).
I spoke to one gentleman, an avid Cunarder, who put his luggage out the night before,went down to collect it in the morning from his collection point, (he had priority disembarkation so was one of the first down), only to find a suit bag with three expensive suits was missing. It was only after several calls/letters/emails to Cunard by him and one from myself pointing out that the gentleman in question spent nearly £80,000 with them last year that the suits turned up, over a month later, in a terrible condition in the lost property. In Cunards defence on this occasion they did pay to have them dry cleaned and delivered the next day.
But this isn't an isolated story. I've been hearing dozens of tales of lost bags, bags separated in different collection points, luggage piled up any old way and long queues to collect it. The worst of it is though is that every person has said the collection point for their luggage had gone unsupervised by anyone from Cunard so there was no one keeping order and no one to turn to for help.
Now in fairness these may just be isolated incidents, they may just be exaggerated stories from grumpy passengers, (we've all met them onboard), but the amount of stories I've been hearing does have me a little worried. So have you returned from a Cunard cruise lately?
What did you think about the disembarkation process?
Did it go smoothly? Was it as bad as I've been hearing?
Was there anyone on hand to help if something did go wrong?
Let me know yours thoughts here and as always......
Happy cruising.
We arrived in Southampton 10 May on-board Q Victoria. After a wonderful cruise, the luggage reclaim was a bit of a shambles. With my wife, we took around half an hour to find all our cases, which were spread around the 'shed'- we had been in an A1 balcony cabin. Whilst the cases were generally dropped (dumped?) by stateroom category, as was disembarkation, there was inadequate allowance for each category of passenger to find their luggage and the process deteriorated into an unruly scramble. Fortunately this didn't detract from the quality of a fabulous holiday on a great ship.
ReplyDeleteWe also arrived on Southampton on board QV. We had 4 suitcases, all labeled with Silver tags. I do not know how it happened, but the tag disappeared from one bag. As all our bags look the same, there was a lady from Cunard who recognised the bag and told us to look at the place were the bags without labels stand. So yes, it seems to be some disorder, but there were definetly a lot of people from Cunard who could help.
ReplyDeleteWe returned to Southampton on Queen Victoria on Sunday 5th June, disembarkation couldn't have been smoother, we were driving out of the port within 20 minutes of having left the Brittania Restaurant meeting point onboard. Our bags were in the reclaim hall in the section for our coloured bag tags no problem. Cunard and port staff were on hand and very visible, although we didn't need them. Must also mention compliments to the Port car parking company, very smooth transition from terminal to car!!
ReplyDeleteWe disembarked from Queen Victoria following our recent med cruise. As always we did not place our luggage outside our cabin the previous evening but opted to carry it off ourselves. That is the only way to avoid potential chaos in the hunt for luggage in the terminal. We were off the ship and on our way home by 7.30am.
ReplyDeleteWe disembarked from Queen Elizabeth 31st May from our first ever cruise which was to Amsterdam, Zeebruge & Le Harve. Couldnt fault the cruise or disembarkation proceedure. Luggage labelled correctly and found where it should be. Was on the coach 10mins after leaving the ship. Beats Airports hands down Well done Cunard for an Excellent experience!!
ReplyDeleteNow looking forward to others.
PMGW
I have travelled on Cunard since 1976 and in the last four years on the QV and recently on the QE and I agree with the above Annonymous we have have had excellent service before and after leaving those ships. mistakes are made
ReplyDeleteWe arrived back on 5th June on Queen Victoria and found disembarkation to be very efficient. We were in the hall approximately 5 minutes so no problem. There were plenty of staff present to help guests.
ReplyDeleteFully agree about the luggage collection arrangements on the 10th May after leaving QV. It was the worst we have ever experienced. A real shambles. Began to worry we would miss our coach it took us that long to locate our luggage.
ReplyDeleteDoesnt just happen on these mega liners. Two of our fellow travellers (out of 320 pax) had missing bags in the depature hall on Whisper. Hard to believe on a ship where the staff pack and unpack for you, and all seem to know you by name.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how good customer service other staffs offer, the experience will always be rated as a whole. I hope Cunard will settle problems like these and be more organized in disembarking luggage.
ReplyDelete