Queen Mary 2 (QM2) Review

Cunard QM2, Voyage M722 June 15-22, 2017; Room 9062

Review for Transatlantic Cruise on Queen Mary 2 (QM2)
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pspesq
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jun 2017
Cabin: Queens Suite

I write to give you my wife’s and my impressions of our crossing last month from New York to Southampton on the Queen Mary 2. Because I strive to be objective, there are positives and negatives. On the whole, the positives outweigh the negatives, but that said, this is no Seabourn, Crystal, or Silversea.

Cunard extols its boarding experience as an example of the benefits afforded Queen’s Grill passengers; fortunately for Cunard, that is not so. We arrived at the pier, dropped off our luggage and were sent to the back of a Disneyesque line to check in. The Cunard rep assured us this was the correct line for us, after having being shown our Queen’s Grill tickets. After waiting approximately 20 minutes and finally making our way to the second position in line, one of the Cunard reps came over to us, apologized for their error, and ushered us to another line—where we found ourselves in approximately the fifth position. As we continued to wait in our new “expedited” line, we waived to the couple who had been behind us in our prior line as they proceeded on, having finished their check in. After finally making it to the front of line two and checking in, we were sent to the “special” area for Grill, Diamond, and Platinum Cunard members. It was a small spare room with insufficient seating where we stood against the wall and waited for our number to be called to board the ship. In fairness I suspect we probably did board earlier than the passengers not so "elevated" who waited in their far more spacious and more adequately furnished area.

Having finished my venting on the check-in process, let me discuss the ship. Although much too large for our taste, I tell you in fairness it is impressively appointed and comfortably furnished. It is sparklingly clean and constantly being maintained both inside and out. Our biggest complaint about the physical plant is that the layout of the ship makes it very difficult for passengers to navigate. On most ships, the public rooms are either in the front or back (yes, I know, it’s fore or aft) which makes it easier to get from place to place. For some reason, the QM2 has placed both the Britannia Restaurant and Kings Court (the main restaurant and the enormous grazing buffet, respectively) in the middle of the ship. This makes it impossible to get from one end of the ship to the other on the three busiest decks without either going up or down a deck or two, passing over or under, and then returning, or cutting through those rooms while those using those dining areas are eating. As you can imagine, this is hardly enjoyable for anyone involved. This is complicated further by the fact that the Britannia Restaurant and the main theater (the Royal Court Theatre) each are two decks high which makes the navigation even more complicated (this results, for instance, in deck 3 becoming decks 3 and 3L at points).

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