Been on 7 Cunard cruises now and enjoyed them greatly with a couple of minor exceptions. This was our first on QM2 and we were excited as she is Cunard's Flagship. However, we did not feel the on board experience was up to the usual Cunard standard. Good points, the cabin (12001) was lovely, seemed a little larger than same grade on the other ships. General ship interior is very nice, light and bright and clean everywhere. Ship layout is somewhat erratic, takes a while to get used to it, there are some quite long walks between venues. But then she is larger than the other two.

The bad points, well, we did not like the Kings Court Buffet compared to the LIdo Buffet on QE and QV. This one is very very noisy, no sound proofing, ie carpet anywhere, horrible seating layout (straight rows with little separation - like a canteen) and the food was not up to the usual high standards we have had before. its a bunfight at best. We tried for Planetarium tickets - notice says they are available from 09:00 on first come first served. I arrived at 09:00 to find 6 other people waiting. No-one came with tickets. So one passenger called the front desk. A very curt female arrived to tell us the tickets had all gone. I asked how could that be since it was now only 09:05 and we had been there since 09:00 and some of the group before that - and no tickets had been handed out - whereupon she told me very rudely: " Well I don't know, ask your fellow passengers!" - I took exception to that and told her no - that does not answer my question as to why there are no tickets - and that I did not believe her. Clearly these had already been given to a group in advance. I returned some 20 minutes later to find another set of people eagerly waiting at the Connexions desk - and so I advised them all tickets had gone - as no-one from Cunard was anywhere to be seen to let them know. This was disgusting. At least be honest !!

The staff do lack in many areas. Our cabin attendant never introduced himself on embarkation as is usual, nor did he advise us of the muster drill time, etc. In fact we only ever saw him once when he delivered a bowl of fruit. Bar staff, I ordered a diet coke, she opened a regular coke then gave me the evils when I told her I asked for a diet coke. As for the MDR - well once again Cunard assigned us a table in a dark corner by a service station - heaven knows how you get a good table - if anyone knows the secret please tell me - 7 cruises and not a decent table yet. And now we will be platinum! Read more