I was on this cruise to celebrate my birthday. The ship was nicely decorated for the Holidays with even a small Christmas tree in our suite. We got lots of chocolate in the suite, at tea, and in the Princess Grill. Only 4 other people showed up for the Cruise Critic gathering on the first sea day. This lack of interest has happened on the past few cruises, no matter what line. They were setting up for a wedding where we met so I felt like I was in the way. One of the ladies told us about the books written by the bar waiter, so I bought them and look forward to reading them. He graciously signed them for me. We didn't stay up for NYE, so were interested in what was reported in a blog by one of the other passengers. We were in the Princess Grill which was wonderful. I booked the Veranda Steakhouse for my birthday, the last evening. Should have stayed in the Princess Grill, it is much nicer, less hectic and has better food, although we did have a couple of kids in PG who let loose once in awhile. Did not expect that. Cunard overbooked the PG and offered us and some others a free cruise if we would downgrade. We refused the offer. We had sailed on the QM2 once before in the sheltered balcony they offered us which was okay, but I wanted to see how the PG was in comparison with when we were upgraded to PG on the QE2. I am glad that we did it, but don't think we will do it again. Been there, done that. We had been to all of the ports before, so didn't take any excursions even though we had quite a bit of on board credit. Our port schedule was changed when it was too rough to go to Antigua and St. Kitts replaced it. This was on Boxing Day which is the start of their Carnival celebration. Stores were closed except the port shops and there was a big parade and crowds of people. We had to tender there and in St. Lucia. The weather was pretty good except for rain off and on in St. Maarten. The ship is very nice but sometimes difficult to navigate. The Queen's Room was very crowded at times. The entertainment was great but we had to get there early to get a decent seat. This happens on other ships though. Having some free internet time was nice but it was so slow that I couldn't do much. Missed seeing the American football games, particularly the Rose Bowl, only British soccer was shown. The water in the outdoor pool was cool even in the Caribbean, so I went to the hot tub on the Grill deck. They even served tea and scones up there which was very nice. I was surprised that even though the children seemed to have their own pool, they were still in the pool that said it was only for age 18 and over. The warmer indoor pool was full of kids, so I only went there once. We received two lovely cups and saucers with the Cunard ship logos on them, wondered if everyone else had. We had discarded some of the luggage tags that we put on prior to boarding and then found out we were supposed to use them again for disembarkation. Have never done this before on any of our cruises. I still had one on my larger bag, but it was placed in the wrong area in NY, as was my other bag with a new, handwritten tag they gave me. It took me awhile to find my bags and the people there didn't seem to know what was going on. Not sure if we will ever go on a World Cruise, but if we do, it will not be on this line. I am getting used to the other lines which don't make me dress up. We did like formals in our younger days. My number of cruises is about to pass my age, so I guess that's why my tastes are not what they used to be.