Silversea or Princess Grill QM2 - My Thoughts

Interesting thread, thanks all.

We've sailed five times on Silversea, and will be on the second Muse voyage (despite apprehension about no main, no reservation necessary dining room).

We had experienced real weather, extremely rough seas twice on voyages (North Sea on Crystal, Pacific turn around on HA Alaska trip many, many years ago) and really enjoyed both experiences. So on the bucket list was a winter TA. Finally did it December two years ago.

Splurged and booked Queen Victoria suite on QE2, located bow between Commodore Club (Observation/Panorama Lounge equivalent) and Bridge (suite occupies 1/2 starboard side of both), with wrap around windows. All we could have wished for! Three of seven days were gale force 9, and the movement and dramatic waves were stunning.

That said, we'd never book a regular "cruise" on Cunard. Although cuisine and service in Queens Grill was superior to Silversea (with exception of Champagne), the butler service was actually old time "butler service," and the ship itself is a magnificent, true Ocean Liner, we found the omnipresent class system uncomfortable. And when we ventured beyond our privileged cocoon, the rest of the ship had the ambience of a Brit, older demographic Carnival experience. Long lines, surly service, cheesy entertainment.

All that said, you couldn't pay me to attempt the memorable winter crossing on the Cloud or any other Silversea, or even Crystal, vessel.

So, book the right ship for each desired voyage is my advice. :)

.... I have never had food that inedible .....

As English is not my mother tongue and just be be sure what you were writing i looked it up in the oxford dictionary. So your impression was that the food in the grills restaurant on Queen Mary 2 was not to eat. I question myself what to expect next week on the Silver Spirit in terms of cuisine fireworks. I also question myself which chef (french, italian, asian or just american) is operating your kitchen at home, and therefore must exceed the capabilities of the chefs onboard QM2. By the way, for some years the main chef on QM2 was an Austrian, Mr. Winkler, maybe that was the time you were on. What I'll not question myself is what some parts of our global society (those billions who do not know what a cruise ship is) would say to the food in the Grills restaurant.

kind regards

Of course, that is all relevant to a given situation. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel on these gorgeous vessels. Food on the Spirit will depend on the Chef. It will have no relationship to the QM2. I am sure you will enjoy your trip. My Chef at home is excellent with a large repertoire and he even does the dishes! There was no disrespect intended.

 

I would never think of comparing QM2 to anything SS. You might as well compare it to a river cruise. Apples/oranges.

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I shall be comparing it to a river cruise in April. You don't have to read it.

Apples are firmer whereas oranges contain citric rather than malic acid. Compared with each other there are few similarities, compared to each other there are many differences.

Of course, that is all relevant to a given situation......... There was no disrespect intended.

Thank you for the quick response.

I would tend to agree, that comparing an ocean liner to the ships of a small luxury cruiseline, is going to be laden with difficulties.

Many people do the transatlantic as they do not fly! Regular service makes this this possible for many who would not otherwise make the journey. It can be illness, injury, age or preference, or even religion! Also, the onboard ships hospital is amazing. It is well staffed and designed.

An ocean liner is built to an entirely different standards than any other type of cruise ship vessel, suited to its express purpose of crosssing an ocean, specifically the North Atlantic.

We encountered 125 mile per hour winds... high seas.. a five degree list. Was glad to be on an ocean liner!

The spa is amazing. It is large and well equipt and uncrowded. The relaxation areas and hydro pool environment is delightful. The gym has personal trainers with extensive experience (even as physical therapists). They offer every kind of service imaginable.

The library is unlike any other at sea. There is even a librarian.

I am not a Cunard cheerleader, but due to a serious injury in Bhutan last spring, I decided to take the hour drive to Brooklyn so that I could sail to England and back and recover a bit.

Sixteen days a sea is something I will not repeat under normal circumstances, but it was the right journey for the right time. I boarded on crutches and disembarked walking, and was carefully tended to during my voyage. Staff was very attentive to my needs.

All that said, I would only sail in the grill category.

Different ships for different types of travel. I'm going to the Galapagos on my first silversea voyage, which I know is not typical of the line either! Based on the itineraries I see, I could well imagine choosing Silversea again for its unusual ports of call. It's not the same old ports that I have done again and again on the larger cruise lines and now that my kids are grown, I can sail to suit myself!

My husband and I have sailed many times on Silversea, and will be with them again in April. Have always enjoyed it greatly. We have also done quite a few transatlantic crossings on Cunard over the years -- a few on QE2 and a few on QM2, and have always enjoyed that as well. It's a very different experience, and it depends on what you are looking for. We have generally been in Queen's Grill, although once in Princess Grill. The cabins are large and wonderful, cabin service outstanding, and food excellent. We have all of our meals in the Grill Restaurant, and never go to the buffet. There is a Grills Lounge for drinks, tea and crumpets, etc., quiet seating, and special entertainment some evenings, as well as a "Concierge Lounge" with coffee, snacks, newspapers, and a concierge to help with things. We love sea days, so a crossing is perfect for us. One of the things we like best about a crossing is the Enrichment Programs and guest speakers. We have heard (and met) some really outstanding ones over the years, including, for example, P.D. James. We generally spend some time in England, and then take the ship back to the US. We would never take such a large ship for a cruise that has port stops due to the crowds, etc. But I expect we will be doing more crossings in the future.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

We sailed QM2 one time in 2014.

We used it as transportation at the end of a cruise on another line to leisurely make our way back to the USA from Southampton in lieu of flying.

We would not sail on it other then a crossing for some of the reasons the OP mentioned including the size of the ship.

With that said:

We had Queens Grill. I thought that the service and cuisine (subjective) at the Queens Grill dining room was the best we have experienced. It is small and intimate and I liked that we had our own table for the entire time. Unlike other lines including Silversea, the specialty restaurants on board QM2 do pale in comparison to the Queens Grill so we had all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner there).

We did think the enrichment was superb including the Planetarium and the Lecturers.

For those who like to dance they certainly have an impressive ballroom. We are not dancers.

We also enjoyed learning the history of Cunard and the QM2 and we like to walk so we walked the entire ship each day and as we walked we would stop to read and look at photos on many of the walls around the ship.

Interesting about smoking. For us it was too cold to get outside except for one day. Yes we notice cigarette smoking in a certain area of the outside wrap around deck. I believe it was in one location where it was annoying. With that said on the Silversea Spirit one day at sea we walked the outside deck of the ship where the pool is located and each time we came to one area of tables where smoking is permitted to us it was just as bothersome if not more then the QM2.

We did enjoy the lounge that could be used by those in the Queens and Princess Grill and would have a pre-dinner drink there and we did enjoy the concierge lounge.

Again it is a totally different experience because of the size of the ship/number of passengers carried and the fact that the entire ship is not of one type of category.

I am not sure if we would do it again or not just because we had that experience but since we had the time it was much nicer for us then flying back to the USA on that particular trip.

Keith

I tried to make it clear at the off that I was producing a totally non-objective report of how we found travelling on the QM2 compared to SS. Which is not to say that one or other is ''better'', rather that, for us, certain factors and features of the experience differed between the 2 experiences and that, on balance, SS worked better for us.

Clearly, there is some confusion. Identical things cannot really be compared if you think about it; non-identical things can. Therefore it is perfectly reasonable to say that one prefers one thing compared to another even when the two things are quite different. For example I prefer skiing to reading Proust - I think it safe to say that those two things differ yet I can prefer one to the other. I prefer SS to the experience on the QM2 and tried to list my wholly personal and non-objective reasons why I've come to that conclusion. I do not pretend that this is an exhaustive comparison nor that it is of any consequence or importance to anyone else but I hoped it might be illuminating to anyone with similar wants and needs.

Finally, I'm glad it has provoked some discussion and differing viewpoints, and most respondants seem to have grasped the notion that what I wrote was not meant to be an exhaustive review, merely the disjointed and illogical observations of an amateur cruiser.

Picking up on Keith's post the nice thing is we don't have to do just one or the other. We can do whichever we want whenever we want for whatever reasons we may have. I have sailed QG on both the QE2 many times and twice on QM2 and I agree that the only way I'd ever sail QM2 is on a crossing. I can't imagine trying to get on and off her repeatedly throughout the course of a cruise with many port stops.

....... I can't imagine trying to get on and off her repeatedly ......

You are right in this respect to a certain degree. On our QM2 WC we had ports every 2/3rd day as well as overnights (Sydney, Hong Kong ..).In all the ports it was very well organized although sometimes 40 busses were waiting at the pierside. What slowed the process down were most of the times the officials and not the handling of the pax on board.

On the other hand the smaller Seabourn ships (now in Windstar hands) with just 200 pax were our favorites, because you normaly just could walk "off the boat" and be in the middle of the city in no time at all.

The disadvantage on the smaller boat is with no doubt the handling of the sea in open waters. This is were QM2 belongs to and then you can dance in the Queens room even when a storm is outside.

What I obviously missed out is to recognize the "Class system" on the Cunard vessels, which was mentioned several times above. Except the different dining venues there was no difference to see during the day. All people shared the same library, theatre, bars, reading windows etc.. Maybe I do have a blind spot to things like that.

All in all we are really looking forward to the SS experience.

Kind regards