This was a surprising good cruise. It was only a four night cruise and the destination was Princess Cruises' private beach resort in the Bahamas, Princess Cays. Queen Mary 2 tends to do voyages of six days or more and so this would mean a break in her stride. Also, the ship has a sophisticated, cultured atmosphere. A day at the beach is not what she usually does. Nonetheless, QM2 put in a top-notch performance.

It was immediately apparent on joining the ship that this cruise would be different than the three Caribbean cruises that I had done on QM2 during the course of the winter. On those ten day cruises, the majority of the passengers were British even though the ship had sailed round trip out of Brooklyn. In addition, they tended to be an older crowd, fifty-five and above with only a few young couples. On this cruise, the majority of the passengers were Americans and there were many young families with children. However, while this caused a slight difference in atmosphere, these passengers, like their predecessors, soon became captivated by the ship.

The first thing that people noticed was that there is something to all this talk about QM2 being an ocean liner rather than a cruise ship. Because the ship is designed to cross the Atlantic in less than six days, she is both fast and capable of handling rough weather. On this voyage, she employed her speed so that by the morning of the first day she was off the coast of Virginia, well away from the cold of New York, and by the morning of the second day, in the Bahamas. Similarly, QM2 showed her seaworthiness by easily handling a storm that she encountered the first night. There was a slight motion but the dining rooms were full and the passengers were out and about at the casino and the shows. Read more