QM2, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I have just spent the last weekend on Cunard’s flag ship, Queen Mary 2 (QM2), a very enjoyable 3 night slow trip to Bruges and back. I’ve been to Bruges many a time but never sailed with Cunard so was very much looking forward to this 1. QM2 has so much to offer and is draped in history. 2015 will see Cunard celebrate 175 years of sailing with many special anniversary cruises and reconstructions of itineraries. Most of which will be based from Liverpool including seeing all 3 Queens together in the Mersey on the 25th May. This will be a fantastic site and I am sure the evening Firework show will compete with the very best New years eve celebrations that Sydney, Australia have to offer.

Arriving into the docks to park my car was a different experience, a great big hanger with loads of Union flags hanging from the ceiling. A lovely site.

The Bad.

Boarding the ship was the usual slow experience having to show my room card to anyone that stood in a door way wearing glasses and holding a clip board. I don’t get it, how can I get card checker 3,4,5 and 6 with-out passing the first 2? Surely by the time I get to the 3rd checker I have been well and truly vetted by the previous. Now that’s where cut backs can be made.

Boarding the ship took me into the beautiful Grand Lobby and this was as good a Lobby as I had seen. So beautifully laid out and as traditional looking as you would expect from Cunard.

Off to my cabin via lifts that you would never know had moved. The cabin was an outside on deck 6, cabin number 6018, I had drawn the short straw, just 6 cabins towards the middle in the same category and I could have been enjoying another 30% or so more space. Check the deck plan, cabin grade ED.

So my time had come to get a look at this ship.

I wanted to look at the Illuminations theatre where the Planetarium shows take place. These show last approximately 23 minutes and tickets are normally available just outside in the Connexions area. There was nothing spectacular looking about the theatre, just traditional, comfy and large, this place was all about the show. I saved this experience to the last evening but disaster, my most anticipated experience was to be postponed due to a technical fault and with no more days left onboard I will now have to wait until next time!!

Cunard has a class dining system, Inside, Outside and Balcony cabins dine in the beautiful elegant Britannia restaurant where as those booking the Princess and Queens Grill Suites have their own restaurant, fair enough I think.

Now for me my meals where very tasty, cooked as I had required and served in good time with wine and chilled water constantly on the flow.

Too be honest I have not cruised with many cruiselines and no Luxury cruiselines so comparing the meals was not an option, for some of my colleagues though they were not too impressed and felt it did not compare well against the likes of Celebrity, Princess and Oceania. I look forward to sailing with those guys.

That bottle is just a sweet $200!!!

The Golden Lion Pub was nice, very spacious, lots of sofas and tables, Sky Sports, Karaoke, quiz nights etc, perhaps an extra bar man or 2 would have helped.

Great place for meeting friends.

The walks along the corridors took me a while, they were full of History, commemorative plaques, photos, drawings, medals, anything to do with Cunard’s History.

Did you know Cunard rescued all the survivors of the Titanic?

QM2 has the largest library at sea, over 8000 books and it’s not laid out like your local library situated bang in the middle of a 70’s housing estate. Each section has its books neatly assembled in traditional, stylish polished book cases, not a bit of dust to be seen anywhere. It even has a magazine section with all the latest releases covering all your favourite gossip mags, music mags, fitness mags etc.

Due to the weather, dry but extremely cold and windy venturing onto the decks was a one of and lots of photos taken.

This is where I came across the ugly, parts of the ship, bar area for example was falling apart, signs faded and only 1 month to go before she starts her world cruise. TLC definitely needed.

Back indoors and QM2 was making efforts for the Christmas feel. I am sure once all completed will look great, and to top it all a great Gingerbread village.

All in all I personally think this is a lovely ship with lots of space in all areas, a good variety of entertainment, plenty of opportunities to learn about something new, eat well, drink well, rest well, shop well, play hard and feel proud to say you’ve sailed on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2.

These pieces of art can be found in the main Lobby area and picture the worlds continents, look at the American one, I have zoomed in on the 3rd picture, what great American Idol can you spot? Someone had a sense of humour and Cunard decided to keep it up once it was pointed out.