We've sailed Cunard 9 times including 6 Transatlantic crossings on the QM2. We love the interior design of the ships, so many lovely spacious public rooms where one can relax and enjoy the experience. We love the variety of things to do on board from the good fitness center to the engaging enrichment program lectures. Most of all we love the excellent jazz music on board including the regular offerings in the Chart Room in the evenings, and on this crossing, some performances by the Theater Orchestra in the Carenthia Room.

Unfortunately on this crossing we were disappointed by the quality of the food and service. This is most likely because we had booked Queens Grill class and had high expectations. Those expectations were not fulfilled. We did enjoy our large stateroom and spent a lot of time there, and in the end our expensive upgrade paid for the extra space. While in my dreams I would re-design the stateroom space so that a private sleeping area and a real dining area would be created, but as it is, it is lovely and extremely spacious.

Now on to food: I've learned to avoid the King's Court buffet altogether. With the refit of the ship, the design of the space is much improved, but the food quality has not changed a bit and is still low level cruise ship buffet quality, nothing luxurious here. So we had almost all of our meals in the Queens Grill restaurant. Unfortunately we consistently bumped up against mediocre to poor execution, and even bad presentation. One night we had to send back our main course ordered from the main menu because it was inedible. It even looked ugly causing our server to comment. We've never sent a dish back before on 21 cruises on many lines, and I don't know how a fancy restaurant would let such food leave the kitchen. When we ordered a special meal off menu (had to be ordered 1 1/2 days in advance), it came out not as ordered and of low quality. At least it was edible. Service was like a busy coffee shop with us constantly waiving our arms to get the staff's attention for more water, more coffee, a dessert order etc. At one point our server gave us bad attitude in a loud voice when we asked for some relish to go with our hot dogs at lunch. The next day he reminded us to fill out our comment card in our stateroom. What planet was he living on? Who trained him? Was he eager to lose his job? This is not luxury cruising. Read more