This may come out as somewhat of a negative review, but let me say for a cruise
line such as "Cunard" we had slightly higher expectations than the "run of the
mill" mass market cruise line. So that you are aware I am not a negative person,
read some of my previous thoughts such as my
Celebrity Galaxy 2006
review and all of my
Aruba trip reports.
It simply came down to Cunard, and the Queen Mary 2, being a bit of a disappointment after reading all of the glowing reports on the Cruise Critic Cunard forum. I have a feeling most of the info on Cruise Critic is from the perspective of Cunarders who have not sailed the Caribbean aboard a Cunard ship, but mostly transatlantic cruises, and I suspect the "atmosphere" is different.
Below are the basic highlights I can recall. Having visited some of the same ports on our last cruise, we decided instead to stay on the ship and relax. I shall refer you to my reviews of excursions for these islands from our trip in 2006. All of the information is the same, with the same tour guides still in business and receiving excellent reviews on Cruise Critic.
The ship is huge and by far the most beautiful I have seen.! The public rooms were the most comfortable I've experienced on any ship. My personal favorites were the Chart Room and the Champagne Bar next door. Overall I took about 2300 photos so there will plenty of photos of the ship and her interior. Christmas decorations were very nice, more plentiful than other ships we have sailed in the past and tastefully done. By far the best of other ships we have sailed. There were a lot of poinsettias. I saw some photos recently of the Caribbean Princess Christmas sailing and there was not a single poinsettia. Reggae Christmas music played on the Queen Mary 2 through Christmas day on the P.A.
Overall the cruise was like all the other "mass market" cruise lines. Were we disappointed by that aspect, yes, a little. At one time the line may have been considered luxury, but unless you are a passenger staying in a suite, this was like any other cruise. From what I could figure out and in speaking with other passengers, if you are traveling in Princess or Queens Grill accommodations, you will have a more "upscale" experience, otherwise...it was like Celebrity and Princess EXCEPT it is BRITISH. American bacon or English or Canadian bacon? English sausage or American sausage. Baked beans, grilled tomato, sautéed mushrooms etc. as a side at breakfast, no problem. I love the tomatoes and always look forward to them at the breakfast buffet when we go to Aruba during the summer. The resort where we stay has a pretty big influx of visitors from the UK.
There were only 1200 Americans aboard and 42 different nationalities aboard the Queen Mary 2. Service in the Britannia dining room was spotty for breakfast but our Hungarian waiter at dinner, along with his Indian assistant was fabulous. We eventually figured out if you arrived at breakfast early, say a half hour after they opened, as long as your waiter understood English, everything was perfect! My parents generally went to breakfast in the dining room 15 minutes before closing and service was worse and eggs always overcooked. With my grandmother choosing to use her wheelchair instead of her walker we did not visit the buffet for breakfast.
We usually hit the buffet for lunch, food was fine, but the layout was maddening with food being set out in 4 different closing times and some duplication. It was a mystery tour each and every time. One section is always open, the other three sections for lunch closed at 2 pm, 2:30 pm and 3 pm respectively. What a disaster on days in port when of course people were streaming back from their tours at 2:30 pm or so. You have never seen so many people in one small space. Food knocked off trays and stepped on on the floor. One day they reopened one buffet and the line of people waiting for food extended down the corridor almost out the door.
My Mom was in line at the grill wanting to order a hamburger. Instead of posting someone at the end of the line to close it, they just cut into the middle of it and say, sorry we are closed. I was surprised my Mom did not freak out. She was already in line and just like that told, basically go somewhere else. Not quite how you would be expected to be treated on Cunard. Dh and liked to eat lunch a bit later and would always get a good chuckle watching people who would be standing on line for tea which was roped off until 3:30 pm. In 12+ cruises I had surely never seen anything like it.
The Boardwalk Cafe, on deck 12 was only open on days in port. We loved it the first couple of days before the other passengers "found" it. Delicious onion rings, good burgers cooked to order and a decent little salad bar which was never too badly "picked over". They even had a choice of a couple of desserts, I think two or three cakes and fresh fruit. My grandmother loved that they also served "fresh" coffee.
Our dining room waiter and his assistant as well as the sommelier were terrific and made much of the cruise. There were a couple of nights my Mom could not find an entree which shall we say, suited her. There is no "anytime menu". For us this was a pretty big drawback. My Mom is a picky eater and I don't really eat much in the line of exotic. One night we asked for a steak, any old thing they had and were told "no". Another night my Mom just flat out asked for an option other than what was on the menu and was offered spaghetti with meat sauce. This was only after our waiter ran and tracked down the assistant maitre 'd for permission. If you like goose, duck, lamb or venison you will be very happy. I know my dh was  . Salmon was dry the two times we ordered it. Many times fish was pan fried (ick). Caesar salad, though not on the menu was available every night at dinner, seemed like a bottled dressing and inconsistent.
CClientele was much more "mature" than other cruise lines we have been on, Carnival, RCCL, Princess, Celebrity, NCL, with the exception of HAL. Noise makers and hats were waiting for us when we arrived at diiner. New Years Eve was spent in the ballroom listening to "big band music" while watching a very packed dance floor of ball room dancing couples. Besides the "disco" G32 it was the most "happening" place. The other public rooms all had countdowns to midnight and entertainment such as the Jazz trio, the Strings Ensemble or one of the pianists. The "pool band" played in the Grand Lobby. I think Cunard did this to attract the overflow from all of the public rooms, but there is no seating. Probably the biggest shock to us was there was NO poolside parties whatsoever. And it was not due to weather issues. Our stop New Year's Day was St. Thomas. Still quite balmy even at night.
Funny story was that we had a sneaking suspicion that the Queens Room would be PACKED for New Year's Eve. We had late seating dinner so my husband gulped down his dinner and joined by my dd, went to the QR to secure a table for the 6 of us. I guess he got there about 9:15-9:30 pm? We arrived maybe a half hour later at most. Once I ordered my drink and got my grandmother situated I decide to take a stroll next door to G32. Would you believe the place was empty? I am sure it filled up rather quickly later. Understandably, children under 18 were not allowed in the disco, but for dh and I the disco would have been a much more fun venue for celebration. If dh and I were not with the rest of our family we would have definitely spent the night on the dance floor there. Both G32 and the Queens Room had balloon drops. FWIW, the DJ at G32 played music from the 60's-80's. No rap or hip hop, definite middle of the road. Appropriate for 98 or 99% of the guests.
Our cabin was a category "B" in hull balcony. If money were no object we would have preferred an open balcony. We both scuba dive and just felt the balcony was claustrophobic. When you still down all you see around you is white metal, looking up seeing the sky. We ended up not spending anytime out there with the exception of weather checks and watching the ship slip in and out of ports. The cabin itself oth, was VERY spacious with tons of storage. The TV had a variety of channels, most of which, except CNN, received great reception even at sea. There were about 4 movies which rotated. They were edited for TV so no worry about the kids. Both our cabin stewardess, the one who serviced my parents and daughter's (she bunked with my grandmother) cabin were excellent.
With the size of the ship, there is tons of walking. Using the stairs dh and I did not gain but a few pounds from all of the walking we did back and forth to different venues. No alcohol and we probably would have lost weight. We are not drinkers at home but like to have a cocktail before dinner and a nice bottle of wine with dinner while cruising. Our cabin was toward the stern and luckily so were two of the swimming pools, one, one deck down (kids pool- Minnows) and the other three decks above. Dh added a pound and I added 4. Not bad and easily remedied. Already gone!
Dd was NOT as fortunate. We warned her to be careful, but alas she has learned a very hard lesson and gained 11 pounds! On an originally 90 pound frame, this is not a good thing. For the first time, we gave her some "freedom" on the ship and she certainly made use of it by eating her way through the buffet at lunch and breakfast. Children are not allowed to charge anything on their key card. Our dd had a cabin credit and we had to wait until we had accrued enough charges on our cabin after using our cabin credit until Cunard would transfer her credit over to eat up some of our charges. Just the way they did it. The pursers desk also "mis-figured" our cabin credits, not to our advantage, but we knew it upfront and did not spend money we knew we did not have. You know that expresssion, "If it sounds to good to be true, it usually is."
In conversation with Cunard since we have been home, they say that the purser's office on the Queen Mary 2 is a huge source of complaints for them. We are still trying to have internet charges taken off dd's account. I know this makes no sense. She cannot charge right? Our internet "packaged minutes" showed up just fine on our account. Again, Cunard and other passengers dh met while standing on line that last morning, said this is an ongoing problem. Dh had purchased an internet package of minutes in that he needed to work the first few days of our cruise. Internet connectivity was fine. The network was much faster though off hours such as very early in the morning or very late at night.
Muster was terrific! Just reported to an assigned public room. Did not put on the life vest until the end of the demo. Never had to go out onto the deck. Kids are given handwritten bracelets with their muster station id.
Take some extra time your first day or two to get to know you way around the ship. There are plenty of diagrams/maps, but it is a little tricky with that 3L deck. If we had not specifically sought out some spaces I probably would not have found, as well as which elevator was the easiest. For example, our cabins were at the "D" stairway end of the ship, but to get my grandmother down to deck 3 and the Britannia we needed to walk down to "C" stairway to get to the entrance...
Make sure you get up to the bridge viewing area. It is only open on sea days 9 am - 4 pm, so time is pretty limited.
Planetarium is neat, but a movie not the "traditional" type of planetarium like you would find at the Hayden or Fels.
Hand sanitizer was present at the buffet but only the main entrance to the dining room, if you used a side entrance there was none. To do all over again, I would tuck one of those "personal" size ones in my bag.
New Years Eve and Champagne? VERY interesting indeed. We were led to believe that you would need to purchase Champagne if you wished to imbibe on New Years Eve. They set up tables at a couple of places around the ship stating that if you preordered they would deliver it to you at your stated time wherever you wished on the ship. Hmm, my first question was well, "what if we want it in the Queens Room?" How can you find us and what if we are not there because we cannot find a seat? This was our first "lead" by the bartender that we "should" get there early and that yes, that would be "the" place to be on New years. The bartender also told us we really "needed" to pre-order because last year they ran out.
Generally found the whole thing kind of odd because when we cruised on Celebrity glasses of champagne flowed freely on New years shortly before and after midnight. Same for my parents and the rest of the family on RCCL. The cheapest "sparkling wine" their "house Pol Acker (you will receive a half bottle as bon voyage from the captain) was $5.50 a glass or $27 bottle. Least expensive champagne was a half bottle of Veuve Clicquot for $39 or Perrier Jout $52. Well, surprise, surprise, wouldn't you know, 10 minutes before midnight sitting in the Queens Room all of a sudden dozens of waiters and waitresses seemingly come out of the woodwork with "complimentary" sparkling wine (the Pol Acker I am sure)?
The "real" New years downer? We are usually fairly early risers so did not bother us too much, BUT there were a LOT of extremely unhappy people New years morning when they were told the day before what time to report to US Immigrations on the ship NY's morning. We were on deck 5 and had to "report" between 7:15 and I think 7:45. There were very long lines 'because customs showed up late! Was any of this Cunard's fault? Of course not. We were docked in St Thomas and no one could get off the ship and "back into the US", without first going through Immigration.
Clothing/dress code/attire. The Cruise Critic forum made it out to be that the Queen Mary 2 would be ultra formal. This was not the case. Even the Kings Court for lunch, I was told on the forum in no uncertain terms that coverups were not acceptable anywhere but the pool. There were people at the Kings Court in coverups at lunch and towards the end of the cruise even in the dining room for breakfast. Yeah, it was a pain in the neck running back and forth to the cabin and changing our clothes, but we followed the rules and then began taking advantage of the Boardwalk for lunches when it was available. More on that later.
For the semi-formal nights requiring a cocktail dress or trouser suit. My Mom, dd and I all wore cocktail dresses, my grandmother wore both (LOL, on different nights), we were overdressed. MANY many women went with not trouser suits, but just plain old pants with a top. Some had "frilly fancy" tops, some did not. Like I think I said, the "jackets required" rule for men was not enforced until about half way through the cruise. Two nights we saw the same man wearing denim jeans in the dining room with a sports jacket, so I guess that made it okay??? I guess because it only said "no jeans" for women on the semi formal nights, that it made it okay? The "tie required" rule was not enforced and in our section of the dining room at least, there were a number of men who did not wear them and wore their jackets in and took them off before sitting down and plopped them on the back of their chair. My Mom had an interesting theory that #1 this was a Caribbean cruise, thus less formal and the guidance given on cruise critic for the most part is/was geared towards transatlantic passengers. #2 Family cruising together over the holidays with their young adult children who are not accustomed to their parent's "tastes" in cruising and thus the sub par dress. This however does not explain all the women dressed in pants.
On the other side of the spectrum, on the formal nights many dressed to the "nines", the women even wearing fur stoles!!! Yes, on a Caribbean cruise. I hadn't see one since my great grandmother's in the '60's. Guess they are back in style?? I know you have cruised pretty extensively so are aware of the "changing into comfortable clothes after dinner debate". There were just a few. Personally I would have felt EXTREMELY out of place, more so than wearing just a pants suit when a cocktail dress was indicated.
The first night of the cruise was of course elegant casual. The next two days we were at sea though, so both nights were formal. The 3rd formal night came two nights later at sea enroute from Panama to Bonaire. Christmas Eve we were in port so dress was semi-formal. Christmas day we were at sea enroute to Grenada so was our 4th formal on our 7th night (out of 15) of the cruise. The last formal night was New years eve.
Laundries as you probably already know are available aboard the ship free of charge. In that they were free, they were VERY busy. If you like to sleep past 8 a.m. or take a nap before dinner, MAKE SURE YOUR CABIN IS NOT near one. My parents were unfortunately right across the hall and the laundry was a chat area for folks ironing and waiting for the washers and driers. I don't do laundry on vacation so couldn't tell you much else.
Spa and Beauty Salon. My grandmother had her hair washed and blow dried as well as a massage and made out just fine. I had made two nail appointments online (I think if memory serves me correct, it must be 3 weeks prior to sailing). The reply was prompt. Once on board I made it a priority to confirm the appointments after reading on cruise critic that people had reserved online and boarded only to find no appointment. Just so happened that before we even got to the cabin that there were some folks set up from the spa/salon near the Grand Lobby. Stopped with my grandmother so she could make her appointments and asked them to confirm mine. Everything there was just as should be. LOL, we went up to our cabin and 'lo and behold, there on the bed was an envelope with the confirmation with my two appointments. Everything at the spa and salon was expensive, BUT I do admit, that tech did a great job on my nails and the nail tables face the bow on deck 8. Nothing like a relaxing hand massage while staring out over the vast sea. Grab a book at the library, across the hall afterwards and then pop up one deck to the Commodore club. Dh and I found this a great spot to "hide" from the rest of the family.
The Kids Zone had a variety of activities for every age range, their hours are comphrehensive and nights and days in port the zone is open and free of charge. This is a nice touch. With that said, Cunard finds a greater influx of families with children over the holidays than they do throughout the year with their standard clientele. To handle the overload Cunard, we found from talking to the staff, brings in college students. We had no problem with this. Dd enjoyed her time there.
On port days you must sign up your child in advance in order for them to plan their staffing for the day. Rightly due to security concerns, parents, regardless of the child's age, were required to drop off and pick up their child and sign them in and out.
On New Years day I went to the Zone at noontime to pick up my 12 yo dd for lunch. I buzzed the door for entry and no one answered. While standing pondering what to do to get someone's attention, luckily the phone at their reception desk rang. A staffer from the nursery came out to answer the phone. Seeing me she promptly told the party on the phone that she would return their call. I have no idea if it was a personal call.
She buzzed me in and I told her I was there to pick up my dd so she led me into the area for the 10-12 yo's. There were 2 boys playing air hockey, another child playing a game and dd working on a jigsaw puzzle. The staffer from the nursery then said, "Emily, get up". At first glance Emily could have been a child. Turns out she was a staffer who was laying on the couch watching TV and dozing.
Upon questioning dd after departing she stated that Emily was tired because she was up late with her friends, naturally New Years Eve.
Our dd is 12 yo and especially as an only child very capable of entertaing herself. I still though am concerned at the lack of direct supervision. There was no lock on the inside of the door to prevent someone to leave the Zone, only on the outside to get in. If our dd had the notion to leave and roam the ship that is one thing, but as dh and I discussed later, there were no precautions at disembarking to prevent her from going ashore by herself or with a stranger or even a family member with a different surname. This was the only problem we had with the Zone and it's staff. Dh is writing a letter to Cunard to inform them of the incident as well as some unrelated issues.
Soda cards. We purchased 3 for the 3 of us and I have to say this was the first time that we have cruised that waiters/waitresses, especially around the pool area, went out of their way to ask if you wished a refill, did not glare at you if you requested a drink etc. You want three sodas? No problem, they never even asked to see all three cards, one was plenty. Service on sodas in the dining could have been a bit better, but you cannot have everything right?
Disembarkation in ports was orderly. Ships tours always met in the theater. Tendered ports you had to line up to get a ticket but they ran four tenders at a time so it went QUICKLY. About 10- 10:30
am they would announce that tender tickets were no longer needed. We tendered in Grenada, St. Lucia and Tortola. I "think" we were "supposed to have tendered in Dominica but did not.
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