Queen Mary 2 Reviews

My wife and I enjoyed a wonderful trip to New York on this marvellous ship. Even though we had force 9 winds for a couple of days the ship coped very well and we both kept eating and have added weight to prove it.

Although the service provided by the ship's staff was excellent, the ship itself did not provide the luxury we expected of Cunard ships. The stateroom was very small, and the furniture both in the room and on the balcony were of poor quality. It took us 4 days to get satisfaction before the balcony furniture was replaced. The paint on the original furniture was stripping off and in my opinion had not been attended to for a considerable period of time. In fact it should have been discarded as rubbish years ago. The boarding procedure at Cape Town was a shambles, it took us over 3 hours from the time we first reported to Cunard embarkation point to arriving at our stateroom, during which time we were hearded like cattle from one building to another to complete the embarkation process, ending with a very long walk to the ship's gangway. It was a similar shambles disembarking at Southampton. Both situations should have been resolved by Cunard before their passengers were affected. In spite of this we must compliment Iglu Cruises on their service, and attention to detail.

After 5 transatlantic journeys truly first class in every way the only way to travel to the BIG APPLE and stay 3 nights makes it truly magical

The cruise from Hong Kong to Sydney was very enjoyable but the stops before Darwin were not very pleasing. The stop in Boneo was changed from that advertised and the stop at Bitung in Indonesia was a maiden call and the place was not interesting enough for a visit. A period of four days at sea could have been avoided by scheduling an additional stop. The on-board entertainment was good. The programme was well filled, including a good bridge tutor. Some of the talks were not very good and Cunard has been informed. The Illuminations theatre when used for films has an annoying shiny stage which reflects the image on the screen. Music volumes in the planatarium shows there drowned out the commentary. These are the kinds of errors Cunard's staff should prevent or handle immediately. Food was good and the buffet speciality nights a real delight. 'Dwell time' in some ports was too short. In one, we waited over an hour for a World Cruise passenger to return to ship. We could all have used an extra hour on land but Cunard would not have waited for most of us if we had been late. The ship is due for refurbishment soon, so it will be interesting to see what is changed. We did not give enough attention to the time we should have spent at each end of the cruise. Time in Hong Kong and Australia was too limited and that is our fault as the excellent agent Iglu Cruise could have arranged whatever we wanted.

Brilliant ship. Oozes class. Fine dining. Princess Grill suite worth the extra cost over a regular balcony cabin. Lots of room plus a good sized balcony with 2 sunbeds. Princess Grill dining experience was excellent. We didn't use the Kings Court buffet at all. Plentiful numbers of bars; the Commodore was our personal favourite. Drinks a tad expensive tho! The service on board was exemplary in every area other than the photo studio who operated on complete chaos!!! Entertainment was superb. Daytime interviews with the likes of Sir Jackie Stewart & Sir Max Hastings a plus! I learnt to paint using water colours & did flower arranging too! Both courses at a nominal cost but really worthwhile. On the minus side the trips were much about nothing and too lengthy for our liking. Perhaps the ports didn't have much to offer! Cunard were unable to provide shuttle buses in Cochin & Colombo so passengers were at liberty (& risk?) to make their own arrangements. The only other complaint was that there were insufficient sunbeds on the Princess/Queen grills deck.

Southampton to Dubai. A very disappointing cruise. Saw nothing of the places we booked for and wanted to visit on this trip. Went through the Suez canal at night after waiting 12 hours or more (I believe it is cheaper than daytime crossing!). A container port is no substitute for Petra. Your arrangements for disembarkation were a disaster.We wasted two hours (in common with several others) trying to find a tour representative. When we did identify one our names were not on the list and we had to hire a taxi to get to the hotel. The City tour was also a fiasco. We spent over an hour walking because the guide and the coach driver could not find each other, this on top of a delay in starting of 30 minutes because someone failed to turn up.

We set sail on QM2 on 10th January, heading out through the Suez Canal to Dubai. Having done a Transatlantic on this ship we already knew that we preferred the Victoria and Elizabeth in terms of ship size and design. The Cunard liners are all wonderful and if I had to experience bad seas then these would be my ships of choice. In a choppy sea the pool at the back of QM2 barely lost a drop of water. The food (Britannia restaurant) was excellent, better than we expected and the service was first class. Our cabin on deck 6 had a sheltered balcony which would not have been my first choice but it was clean and well maintained and in a quiet area. The bed was extremely comfortable and the bedding very "snuggly" - I loved it! Unfortunately the authorities kept us waiting to sail through the Suez Canal (not Cunard's fault) and eventually we sailed through at night so saw virtually nothing. The delay also caused us to miss our stop in Aqaba in Jordan which was a great disappointment to those passengers wishing to go to Petra but, in truth, did not affect or disappoint us. In fact, the resultant 10 days at sea was very enjoyable to me as I love sea days. The main effect it had on us was entertainment-wise. Being at sea so long left us with the same entertainers for a long time and they were not of interest to us. Thank goodness we took the Rummikub with us! We didn't do any of Cunard's excursions, preferring to do our own thing. However, the free shuttle in Khor Fakkan dropped us right outside the Al Safeer Centre which seemed to have bargains galore and in which we could have spent at least a couple of hours. We wouldn't hesitate to sail with Cunard again but wish they would relax the rule about men needing jackets in the dining room every night. It isn't necessary every single night, particularly in hot climates. The theatre on QM2 is appallingly designed for so grand a liner and the Queens Room on the Victoria and Elizabeth is so much better in the middle of the ship. The Commodore Club also is a much nicer room on the two smaller ships.

Just returned from cruise on the Queen Mary from Southampton to Dubia. Although all the staff on board were excellent and the food was wonderful we did not stop in Petra as promised and we also did not go through the Suez Canal in daylight which was also listed as being the case in Cunards Itinary. Instead we spent 10 consecutive days at sea and went through the Suez in complete darkness quite quickly. The Captain did add an extra stop off in Muscat which was meant as a compensation for not going to Petra . We had been so looking forward to Petra as previously the stop off in Eqypt had also been cancelled. Although the food was excellent and the staff very good the entertainment was not as good as we had expected. On leaving the ship in Dubia everyone waiting to be taken to their various hotels waited in very hot sun for at least two hours a mix up with the port permits was blamed for this.

Excellent ship and service. Wheelchair user friendly although the shower in the disabled room was not so good . The pull down seat collapsed but a stool was provided that was not as convenient for the shower. All in all a great cruise

Travelled to Bruges on a 3 day mini cruise with my mum. Food and service were excellent. However the day at sea and in between meals I found boring. The entertainment program was centred around people of a certain age and very low key. Harpists, pianists, learning how to use an iPad, play bridge, ballroom dancing. We did a few quizzes and bingo to fill in some time but I wished I had packed my gym stuff just to pass the time. Given that there were actually a lot of younger people (under 60) on the ship I think the entertainment program could have been better. My mum is 70 and she was bored. Surprised at lack of facilities on the ship. Unless you have a lot of money and like drinking al day in a bar listening to harpists and pianists then there's not much to do on a cold day at sea. Also the standard of floristry for sale was terrible. I am a florist and my children make better arrangements. Again shocked that a high standard cruise liner has such a poor untrained florist on board. Wouldn't go on this line again, could not do 7 days but if you like doing nothing then it might be the one for you.