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Recent QM2 Transatlantic - some notes.


FennoExpress
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We completed our crossing on 13th July. It was an eastbound and our third, the main motivator for booking was to see the ship after the Remastering. We loved every minute of the voyage, gained several inches on the waist and left the ship longing to get soon back on board again. Embarkation was fastest I've ever seen, we were in our cabins about half an hour after arriving in the terminal. Fellow travelers were quite different than on our previous voyages, more children and teenagers and younger couples. As on the previous crossings our cabin was DF category obstructed view balcony on deck 8 forward, with a large orange lifeboat in front of the balcony. This is our preferred cabin location, as we like to use the gym, deck 7 promenade and Commodore Club, all within short distance. On the Atlantic crossing the lifeboat is no nuisance as we spend so little time in the cabin - and of course the scenery is quite monotonous anyway.

 

 

On the whole the ship is looking fantastic. I don't think she was that worn out in 2015 but now all the public areas look splendid. The new carpets work very well in the lobbies and elevators, but on the cabin corridors they look a bit odd. The Carinthia Lounge is a huge improvement over the Winter Garden and seemed quite popular at times. Kings Court is also much better, but its still a buffet and we do prefer the Britannia for lunch and dinner. We all felt that the food in the Britannia was not quite as good as it used to be, but dinner service was flawless, during lunch the waiters were a bit less interested in doing their work. Our first table assignment was in the very last corner of the upper level, right next to the galley doors, but after a discussion with the Maitre d' we managed to get a nice table for four on the lower level from the second evening on. This time we decided to try the late seating and I think it was a better, at least on an Eastbound as you lose one hour every noon so lunch, afternoon tea and an early seating dinner are just too close to each other. Late seating also gives you the chance to see the passing of the bridge in New York and still good time to have a drink before dinner. The Verandah looks beautiful but we did not eat there, the 50$ cover charge is just too much for food you've already paid for. Breakfasts we took in cabin, except for one morning when our order card was not collected and we had to descend to the KC. We reported this to the room service and they promised to look into it, but never heard from them again. Some OBC would have cured our disappointment :D

 

 

Entertainment was in our opinion good, especially the Cunard singers and the Chart Room band. Planetarium was working and quite popular. We didn't attend any lectures on this crossing as they weren't interesting to us. My friend took part in the Behind the scenes-tour which he liked very much. He was fifth on the standby-list when he enrolled on the first seaday but still got in, so it pays to try. The weather was not on our side, with persistent fog for first five days and temperatures around 15degC. But the sea was almost dead calm the whole week. We had the CWC gold member's 120 minutes internet plan, but the service is still as slow as ever, loading a single photo took several minutes.

 

 

Then some critics. The new handles and knobs in the cabin cupboards and drawers are real finger killers, the edges are dangerously sharp and difficult to use. They may look art deco but sure aren't user friendly. There were two nasty holes on the shelf where the TV used to be, why didn't they just put a panel over it? Looks quite rude this way. Overall the cabins are the most dated looking part on the ship, even though the new bed covers, pillows, lamps and pictures do their bit very well. I hope that in the next remastering they concentrate on modernizing the bathrooms, especially the showers.One place which made me sad every time I visited was the Book Shop. A sorry shadow of it's former self, there wasn't even a single Cunard postcard for sale. Mind you, neither was there any freebie cards in the cabin folder, do I smell some carnivalisation here :confused: Drinks are very expensive, even the tea served in Commodore Club has gone up to about 3,5$ as they now have some fancy golden pyramid brand in place of Twinings. One day I made the mistake of ordering a soda water there, it was 4$ :eek: We like to drink a bottle of champagne every now and then and luckily they still had some Delamotte left, but we had to ask for it as only Laurent Perrier is now offered in the menus. Cunard logo merchandise range is minimal and very cheap looking, almost exactly the same as sold on QE last year.

 

 

Captain Wells was his amusing self and overall the service was very good, more committed and enthusiastic than on the QE. The stateroom service manager working our deck was from Finland like us and she came to meet us one morning in the Commodore Club for a nice chat. Disembarkation was not as well organised as on previous times but we still managed to exit the ship before 10am.

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Freebie cards? We've been sailing Cunard for seven years now and I've never heard of that.

 

They're usually in the folder on the desk, along with a sheet or two of stationery and some envelopes. They were there when we were on 7/6-7/13. IRRC, the cards in the bookshop never were free.

 

I got very lucky in the bookshop--found two Cunard Logbooks. I guess someone was clearing out a storage locker somewhere.

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Freebie cards? We've been sailing Cunard for seven years now and I've never heard of that.

 

Quite often there would also be a display of QM2 postcards to help yourself from, Just to right of the Guest Service Desk as you queue.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Agree with FennoExpress comments on the drawer handles. We did a round trip TA this summer--just 2 months apart. I usually had to use a cloth to open the drawers because of those sharp edges. And thought the cost of water or soda high. Seems like they could at least "throw those in for free" with meals in the dining rooms. Otherwise very enjoyable crossings--except for the weather over which they have no control. Fog horns both ways.

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