Summary:
Boarding at Quebec was relatively quick and straightforward, EXCEPT. The man handing out stateroom keys gave my wife a totally different key belonging to a man in another stateroom. No problem you might think. You would be wrong. We were confronted by a series of brown faces at the ganglplank who would not let er abord. Yes of course they already had her photograph in their system. Yes her surname is the same as mine. But they bleated in unison that she was a security risk and could not board. In was only when we found an Englishman - who turned out to be an ntertainments freelancer that we were treated with civility and something begam to happen. The standard of crew on Queen Mary seems to be far lowere than that of the other Queens. It has few East Europeans 9 in my experience the best) not many Indians and a very larwe number of Phillipinnos - some of who cannot understand english when it venture beyoud the simplest phrases such as Gud Mawning sah. We found an excellent Russian from Kaliningrad - formerly Konisberg - who could not have done more to help, when they closed the buffet five minutes earfly. So I do not wish to be critical of the stadd - as the standard varies widely. The captain, whoi used to command tankers for Shell - whicch must have been an easier job- is excellent. Unlike the other Queen captains, he does not speak for too long, is readily understood, and surprisingly amusing. Senior officer staff are also good and helpful.. On this trip we visited Canadian ports in Quebec and Nova Scotia, Some are such small communities and so cut-off that t hey genuinely seem to welcome 2,000+ passengers descending on them. This made for a vry good port experience and as the distances are small, most venues can be cisited on foot. The exception is Alexandr Graham Bell`s house in Sydney, Nova Scotia, to which there are no public buses and no taxi that will take you. so we missed that. But Halifax was wonderful and very welcoming.` New York is of. course, blighted by US immigration. Everyone, including all the Phillipinnos had to vacate the ship: there were unconfirmed reports that a few had absconded. The lines for the rest of us were endless and many people had to line up twice after being directed to the wrong line. The ship docks in Brooklyn, since it is too big for the Manhattan piers. But there is a new ferry service which goes directly and regularly to Wall St and places beyond. Cunard has become rather mean about its food portions. Some of the starters wewe the smallest that I have seen anywhere. This did not bother the amwricans, who simply ordered to or even three. Trays are unavvilable at the buffet, apparetnly toi reduce the amount of food people take, But again the Americans simply asked a waiter to bring their food to the table The French dinner in the special resturant was cancelled in favour of a Steak and Burger deal. At about $40 over what you have aleready paid, this tempted few. I did not meet a single American who wanted this typoe of food. They were sailing to Europe to try something else. .