QM2 Review

Thank you so much for your very informative review!

Eileen

bennington wrote:
Hey all,

Just back from an 8 day "Romantic's Caribbean" on the new Queen of the
Seas QM2. My mom and I booked this trip last March, well over a year before
we left and received an alright deal on this trip. We have cruised with
Cunard before on the QE2 and knew what to expect from the Cunard experience.
We have also cruised with Celebrity and NCL in the past, this was our 10th
cruise overall. This voyage had four sea days and three days in port. The
port stops included St Marteen, Martinique and St. Thomas. The ports were
secondary, the main reason for this trip was to get away and see this new
ship. Below are some of the comments that I hope are helpful, there is some
criticism and there are also the positive.
The embarkation was quiet easy, we left our house around 9:00 and were
at the pier by 11:30. We unloaded the baggage and were in the terminal in
no time. After the security check we waited in line to check in for a few
minutes, had our ID pictures taken and set up our on-board accounts. We
were given embarkation number 6 and were on the ship by 1pm. The terminal
is set up very nicely for embarkation with Cunard banners hanging from the
ceiling showing the famous passengers from the past and giving some facts
about the QM2. We boarded the ship pretty quickly by skipping the
embarkation photo and were led into the Grand Lobby, it really is a
beautiful space. We were not led to our cabin by any of the standard Cunard
"white star service" and had to find it for ourselves. We tried to take the
elevators, but they were overwhelmed with all of the older passengers. We
ended up just taking the stairs up two floors to our fifth floor cabin.
Our cabin was an inside standard cabin (5129), it was very nice for two
people. The storage space was plentiful and there was even a personal
refrigerator that had our ice bucket and would later hold the water we
bought in port. The room had all of the necessities that one would need on
a voyage including a hairdryer (bolted inside the drawer in the main section
of the cabin), 2 bathrobes (that you can not buy), bedroom slippers, and
enough electrical sockets to run your devices. The televisions in the room
are all interactive; meaning you can book your shore excursions, buy your
wine for dinner, see what's for dinner, and activate your wake up call - it
was pretty efficient. The in cabin entertainment left a little to be
desired, the movies were not first run movies, they were more movies that
you could rent for 10 days for $1.99 from your local video store (some of
the selections included Oceans 11 and Choclat). You could rent first run
movies for 5.95, but I didn't even look at the list of movies. The in cabin
entertainment did provide the port talks, lectures from the different
onboard lecturers, videos about the old ocean liners and the disembarkation
talk. Overall the cabin was very nice with its clean lines, extensive
storage space and comfort (the standard inside cabin is 192 sq feet). Also
of interest to some may be the self service laundry on the different floors
in addition to the typical dry cleaning. This self service is free of
charge, but one does need to provide their own detergent.
After checking out the cabin, we went upstairs the Kings Court buffet
area. The King's Court is a very nice concept, allowing passengers to
choose from four different buffets for their afternoon meal and in the
evening it converts into four separate alternative dinning venues. When we
got up there it was chaotic to put it nicely. My mom even got in an
argument with the Assistant Maitre D' when he said they wouldn't have lemons
until the next day (we will come back to him later). It seems as though the
crew was very shorthanded and the area was not designed well for having
hundred of people wanting food all at once. It did get better later in the
week when passengers came more staggered to lunch, but it was not the best
first impression. In the afternoon the concept doesn't work too well since
the different buffet lines are so spread out, making passengers walk a
distance to get food from the different buffets and the lines get long
pretty quickly. I am sure this is different on a transatlantic voyage when
the schedules of passengers vary greatly, but in the Caribbean it was a
problem. Sail away that afternoon was delayed and uneventful, but it always
is exciting to leave from New York harbor!
We dressed for dinner after sail away, the pushed main seating back that
evening due to the sail away. We were assigned late seating dinner, even
though we requested early seating months ago. When we went to rectify this,
the maitre d in the Britannia restaurant informed us that there were
hundreds of people who requested early seating and the numbers could not be
accommodated. He put us on the wait list and said he would do everything he
could, we eventually received early seating later that evening. We received
a table for six on the ground floor of the restaurant, we waited for some
time and only had one dinning companion for the evening. The waitress was
extremely rude, when our seat mate asked for tea when she sat down the
waitress replied that she had to wait till dessert. When we received the
wrong item from the menu, she commented that that was what we ordered and
simply walked away without any further comment. The next afternoon we went
for sit down lunch during the sea day. We sat with a very nice table made
up of six people, but lunch took over two hours and that was without
dessert, we eventually excused ourselves and went upstairs for dessert. We
would be reassigned that night to another table for six with excellent
waiters, but that evening we were the only people the come to the table.
The food that we did eat in the dinner room was delicious, although every
night nothing ever was very enticing from the menu, everything we ordered
was delightfully prepared and very good. That was the last night we ever
ate in the Britannia dinning room, we decided that it was best to do the
alternative dinning options.
Like I said before the ship is BEAUTIFUL. It was the most beautiful
ship we had ever been on (QE2, Century, Horizon, Zenith, Meridian, Norwegian
Dream, Sea and Crown) The main lobby has a soaring atrium with shops like
Hermes and H Stern (all pricey). The champagne bar is intimate and the
chart room is very nicely decorated. The show lounge is basic and has some
terrible sight lines in certain spots, get there early if you want a good
seat - they go fast. The shows were typical cruise shows and not very
interesting. The Royal Academy had actors on board, but they performed
during the middle of the day - we did not go, but heard they were very good.
The cruise director, Ray Rouse, was very good and is a veteran of many
lines. Maureen Ryan is still on board with Cunard and hosted the two balls
that were held on this voyage. The Golden Lion Pub is a nice space and it
offers a pub lunch in the afternoons. The casino is small and the slots are
tight. The wine bar, Sir Samuels, is very nice yet underused. The seventh
deck is home to the promenade deck (3 laps = 1.1 miles). There are
literally hundreds of deck chairs that line this deck, the seat cushions are
not set out for passengers and one needs to fetch them for themselves.
Hopefully this will change soon with the deck attendants doing this in the
morning, but I would not count on this. This deck is wonderful on a nice
day! King's Court is also found on this deck as well as the Winter Garden.
The winter garden is a nice space, the seating is not very comfortable, but
its one of the spots for afternoon tea which is nice. The most talked about
space on deck seven is the Canyon Ranch Spa Club, it actually extends to
deck eight. This space is over 20,000 sq feet and is the largest spa at sea
and run by the acclaimed Canyon Ranch Spa. Prices were pretty high, but the
three day passport was not bad for $49.00, it included access to the hydro
therapy and steam suite - well worth it even if it had to be used in
consecutive days. Other spots to mention include the Commodore Club in the
front of the ship, a beautiful bar with a nautical feel. The library is
just marvelous and is the largest library at sea with over 8,000 volumes I
believe. Illuminations, the only planetarium at sea also doubles as the
movie theatre and lecture area, it works well (when the planetarium works).
The Queens Room is also a nice spot with the largest ballroom at sea, not
quite like the Queens Room on the QE2, but still good looking and a good
place to relax in.
Alternative Dinning Options - The night dining in the King's Court was
marvelous and a truly wonderful experience. We ate dinner in each of the
four dinning areas during the course of our voyage. These areas become
intimate alternative dinning venues at night via the use of blacklight lit
screens that separate the different areas. Lotus was by far the best
offering a multi course tasting menu of Asian cuisine. The Chef's Galley
was hosting a visiting chef from the Ritz - Carlton sponsored by Gourmet
Magazine, there is a sur charge of $30.00 for this option, but it includes
arrival champagne and red as well as white wine through out dinner. The
Carvery offered typical British country food all well prepared. La Piazza
offered appetizers that you had to go to the buffet table to receive, but
the main entree was very well cooked (although it was not the typical
Italian menu one would expect). All of the wait staff here were wonderful
and truly made this cruise that much better for us. They made us feel like
people not the masses that the main restaurant had made us feel. The
Assistant Maitre D who my mom had the argument with the first day, became
our friend. Graeme (who is from Scotland) was very nice and would talk to
us every evening to make sure that this cruise and the dinning experience
was what we wanted. He is being transferred to the main dinning room, so if
you are on a future cruise tell him hello from us and know that you are in
good hands. The other alternative dinning venue was Todd English. One can
eat here for lunch or dinner ($20 or $30 extra). The menu is Mediterranean
inspired and the service is very good. We found the alternative dinning to
be the best option on this ship and would continue to do the alternative
dinning until the main dinning room service was brought up to an acceptable
level.
The ship is so large that two out of three ports were tender ports (St
Marteen and St. Thomas). The tender service was smooth and painless.
Martinique was a little dirty, but the people were extremely friendly and
there were some great deal on leather goods. Overall the ports were
lackluster and overrun with jewelry stores, much more so than in the past.
Three other things of interest that happened over the course of the
voyage included a false alarm of the SOS call, an emergency evacuation and a
mysterious unoccupied boat that the ship circled back to view. The false
SOS call happened around 10pm one night, the seven short and one long
sounded four times and scared many of the passengers. Many came up to their
muster stations with their life vests, the staff captain eventually got on
and told everyone that it was a glitch in the system. This incident was
never talked about again. The evacuation was of a member of the
entertainment staff who was loosing blood in excess. The night before he
was air lifted out they made an announcement asking for donations of blood,
which many gave and the captain altered the ships course in case of an
evacuation. He was helicoptered out on the next day, thankfully the
thirteenth deck has a helicopter landing area and he was taken off without
much trouble. Later that evening, the officer on watch spotted something
that needed to be investigated. Around 7pm the ship was turned around and
later came upon an empty boat with no one in it, just floating out there.
It was quite odd, both of the props were up and there was wood that
surrounded the boat. The captain came out on the bridge, looked and took a
photograph - the ship then left, most of the passengers didn't even know it
happened.
Disembarkation appeared to be orderly. Every passenger was assigned a
lounge to wait in and were called off by need to get off and then by floor.
This appeared to work well, but backlogs did occur. Cunard hired
individuals to facilitate this process who were most unhelpful and when
answered a question would answer, "I don't work for Cunard, so I don't
know." After we disembarked we were greeted at the end of the gangway with
hired help shouting to us where the baggage colors were, it was chaotic!
This section was one of the worst debarkations my mom had seen since our
first cruise our of New York on the Meridian in its maiden year with
Celebrity. It was pretty bad and a terrible way to end the cruise, but most
of our bags were all together. We left the terminal after going through
customs and waited for my dad to pick us up.
Summary:
The Bad:
* The crowd on this ship was a little older and less able to get
around than on many previous cruises (oxygen tanks and jazzy chairs were
everywhere)
* The service was not where it should be - in a year, the ship
will hopefully be up to Cunards standards and that is when we will sail on
her again
* You felt like you were on the world's largest cruise ship when
you needed to get anywhere, long walks were common (but that can also be a
positive)
* Early on, you felt like you were amongst a large crowd, but
this feeling dissipated through out the course of the voyage
* Disembarkation was horrific in New York
The Good:
* The ship is beautiful and is truly a wonderful ship to sail
on - you hardly ever felt the ocean, the ride was so smooth
* The food was always well prepared and in a good variety
* The promenade deck is the most pleasant deck to walk around on
any ship
* The cabins are very comfortable
* Alternative dinning was AWESOME - Todd English and the Kings
Court
* Canyon Ranch Spa - was a pleasant experience
* The largest library at sea is unbelievable.

Overall - This ship isn't for everyone nor is it for every itinerary. This
ship attracts an older set due to its more expensive and longer voyages. In
the Caribbean one feels that this ship should be out on the open north
Atlantic and not stuck doing a cruise ship route. I would also wait a year
until prices come down and the service improves until I cruise on her again,
but I will be back - she will become a legend in her own right, just give
her time to mature gracefully!