Can I get a quick comparison between Cunard and either Royal Caribbean or Celebrity?

My husband said he was looking for someone to talk about the ship.... wood, beautiful, tasteful, old world decor...not really any mention of that...

 

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Which is exactly what you would find on the QM2. I have never sailed Celebrity, but I do not understand from the Celebrity posters that "wood, beautiful, tasteful, old world decor" is generally not that line's decor.

I agree with Host Hattie - If one of your criteria was the interior design you should have mentioned it. But you can see what the ship looks like from the thousands of photos posted here or on Cunard's website.

The photos and videos don't tell you about the relative experiences. Food quality and choice; Dining atmosphere; Service; Public room ambiance; activities; etc... The commenters here and on the other two forums provide good input on those characteristics.

BTW - I think it is interesting to note that the Cunard forum contained twice as many responses to your question as the other two forums combined.

Which is exactly what you would find on the QM2. I have never sailed Celebrity, but I do not understand from the Celebrity posters that "wood, beautiful, tasteful, old world decor" is generally not that line's decor.

Most ships have "fake" wood due to SOLAS regulations. I found the QM2 & QV to be very elegant. Lots of nice granite on the QV. The Regal we took in 2016 was very elegant. The Piazza area was absolutely gorgeous. The Eclipse, which we've been on 3 times is more "modern" in appearance. Less stone & "wood" more shiny surfaces. Great MDR. There's 3 dining rooms on the Regal. None were really that nice. The anytime dining set ups seem to have smaller less beautiful main dining rooms. I tend to see this as the wave of the future. Probably more "specialty" rest. & a large lido/buffet.

What sets Cunard apart is not so much the ships but the atmosphere. Tradition, decor, dress code, are all part of the atmosphere. Some love it and enjoy it and others don't. It is definitely an older crowd too.

My personal take is, unless you know you will hate it, give it a try just to experience it once, even if you don't eventually make it your main cruise line. We all need side dishes from time to time. :p

You have to decide what is and is not for you. But Queen Mary 2 was designed to echo the grand public spaces of the great past transatlantic liners. The original Queen Mary in Long Beach was the inspiration for many of her spaces. A lot of understated elegance as opposed to the ritz and glitz that is common on many cruise ships today. Her teak wrap-around promenade deck is her social center rather than a pool. Another plus - no constant announcements. Just the Noon operational update.

Perhaps some other time you may look into sailing on her.

I am enjoying your comments!

We are about to take our first cruise (voyage?) on QM2. While I don't think we will become regulars due to our usual itineraries preferences I cannot wait to meet this liner.

Our favorite lines are Princess and Celebrity although we sail with all lines (skipping Carnival lately).

We are not doing a crossing, but a five day Halifax/Boston cruise. I am reading about atmosphere during TA crossings. How is it on shorter cruises like ours will be? How is pax?

My wife and I are Elite Plus on Celebrity; Diamond on Royal Caribbean; and 22 days on the QM2, including a crossing. Here is my take on this:

Food -- In the MDR Celebrity is a little bit better than Cunard, and Royal is a distant third. Alternatives are better on Celebrity. Buffet is not a strong point on the QM2. Ship wide food on Royal is so so.

Space Ratio -- QM2 wins hands down. Celebrity is pretty good and Royal once again is a distant third.

Dress -- Cunard is very formal; Celebrity has dumbed down it's formal to Evening Chic; and Royal has pseudo formal.

Ships -- QM2 is an Ocean Liner; it's fast, smooth and impressive; great wrap-around promenade deck; large open deck areas; classic, with a great library. Celebrity ships are bright, open and very modern. Well designed for an adult population. Royal ships are family ships with most areas for a younger active crowd. Loads of kids onboard.

Cabins -- QM2 has average, to larger traditional cabins; in hull balconies are great but you may not get to use them on a TA because of the weather. Ships are designed for longer itineraries. Celebrity cabins are bright and modern. On the larger size with even many insides coming in at 200 sqft. Royal has well designed, but small cabins. Once again, designed for families.

Service -- More of a ship, by ship thing. All offer great service. You may get a great steward, or maybe not on all these ships. Still some white glove wait staff on the QM2. Celebrity's staff is usually happy and personable.

Officers -- Cunard has a tradition and it shows; very British and loads of pomp, but all business. Celebrity's mostly Greek Officers are everywhere and interact with the passengers. They are fun, yet professional. Royal's officers are subdued and efficient.

Itineraries -- Cunard is world wide and all their ships will do some World Cruise segments. Celebrity and Royal are slowly moving into other markets, but their bread and butter is the Caribbean. Celebrity will do more European cruises than Royal. Cunard has self serve laundries; Celebrity/Royal only have laundry service.

We enjoy all three of these companies; for any long cruise (like a TA) there is no better ship than the QM2.

Celebrity's S-class is our favorite all around ships. We think the Q-class ships of Royal are great, but lack in the food department. Royal owns Celebrity and they are on an upswing. Carnival owns Cunard and I'm sure that doesn't help in maintaining that wonderful Cunard tradition. (IMO)

Can't make a mistake here,

Kel:D

It looks like the OP has moved on to the RCI board and has booked with them. Everyone has their own comfort level and having a high loyalty status on RCI gets them perks that they would not get as first timers on Cunard.

How unfortunate that she didn't specify what where important considerations to them. All of our comments are now too late to be of any help and she probably won't even see them.:confused:

Which is exactly what you would find on the QM2. I have never sailed Celebrity, but I do not understand from the Celebrity posters that "wood, beautiful, tasteful, old world decor" is generally not that line's decor.

The Solstice class Celebrity ships have a more modern interior. More glass shiny metal. That sort of thing. We do like the Eclipse a lot. We also did the Regal Princess in 2016. Not so much wood(the wood is fake, by the way on all ships)Lots of shiny stone & such. Really very elegant in the Piazza area. The wood you see on Cunard is actually mostly synthetic. There are some wood veneers, but that's about it. "SOLAS" prevents much wood being used due to flammability.

Are there chair hogs?

Are there chair hogs?

One or two couples (possible red tops) from 08.30, but nothing on the scale of P&O etc, being in the hundreds from 06.00

It is an unwritten Cunard protocol, that one takes breakfast, then back to the stateroom to change and take a stroll to the Sun decks, to select your bed position.

Beds are vacated on taking lunch or afternoon tea.

After all, we are Cunard

Are there chair hogs?

Omnipresent on all lines! Cunard's seem less aggressive or nasty if you remove stuff from their little private empires!

I am by no means a Cunard fan girl, nor do I have much nostalgia toward the past, but I consider a TA on Cunard QM2 a personal bucket list item.

Among Cunard ships QM2 to me is particularly fascinating, being the only modernized ocean liner. It's sharp hull, high promenade and sloped aft are all quite unique among modern passenger ships and appeal to me deeply. I have done TA's on all three lines mentioned and enjoyed them all but the TA on QM2 was indeed special.

That being said, I do not find QE and QV necessarily more interesting than any other Vista class ships.

We have cruised with both Cunard and Royal Caribbean.

I would strongly recommend booking the QM2 for a transatlantic. She is a one of a kind, an ocean liner. The ship is very elegant, classic and a transatlantic is the quintessential ship experience.

It's wonderful to be able to try different cruise lines. But, I think you would always cherish the opportunity to cruise on the Queen Mary 2.

Jonathan

To quote a previous poster, as this explains the experience quite sincincly.

There are many ways to cross the Atlantic, but QM2 is the only way.

I have cruised on Celebrity, Royal and QM2- the ship is lovely and reminds me of ships from yesteryear. It does have an old world feel- very elegant. It's much more elegant than any of the Royal ships. Celebrity ships are more modern and sleek, so they don't compare to the QM2, which dare I say is Titanic style.

I've sailed QM2 three times as a regular passenger (not in a suite or Britannia). The food in the main dining room was very standard, wedding style food, which wasn't anything to write home about. I could have lived with that, but the service was very bad and if you did ask for anything- the waiters were not very pleased or helpful. I ended up eating the majority of my meals in the buffet.

I am doing a TA on 7/28/17 and I'm sure it will be enjoyable. I will give the main dining room another try, but if the service is poor- I'll eat in the buffet.

I cruised with Royal Caribbean twice and don't like cruising with RCL any more. Their food is below average. The buffet is the worst among all that I have tried. But their entertainment is the best! So if you rate entertainment more, then RCL 's new ship's are perfect for you.

I cruised with Celebrity twice. Food on Eclipse was excellent. Food on Reflection MDR was just ok. Not 5.5 stars. Holland America MDR food is better. I think Celebrity has downgraded since RCL bought Celebrity.

So far, I like Princess' Regal Princess more. The live band is classy!

I will definitely try Cunard QM2 this year!

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I haven't cruised with Cunard yet, but we don't find Celebrity's food weaker than HALs. 5 times we cruised it with them was excellent.

At least not worse than HALs.

I agree that food on Celebrity and HAL (and Princess) are better than on any other massmarket lines.

In three weeks we will be able to compare Cunard's food quality to Celebrity's. :)

I've sailed QM2 three times as a regular passenger (not in a suite or Britannia). The food in the main dining room was very standard, wedding style food, which wasn't anything to write home about. I could have lived with that, but the service was very bad and if you did ask for anything- the waiters were not very pleased or helpful. I ended up eating the majority of my meals in the buffet.

 

I am doing a TA on 7/28/17 and I'm sure it will be enjoyable. I will give the main dining room another try, but if the service is poor- I'll eat in the buffet.

My experience has been completely different. I live with a great and creative cook and the MDR food is high quality, as is the service. Anything and everything I asked for was provided, with pleasure. After the first two nights the wait staff knew want I liked and made sure I had it.

What could you be asking for that would make the waiters displeased?

The buffet is adequate, but in no way measures up to the quality of the MDR. Moreover, there is NO SERVICE in the buffet.

So to be clear, if you are not happy with the MDR service you would prefer the buffet self-service?

My take on the three lines:

Cunard: very traditional; formal dress is formal; outstanding in terms of lectures and daytime entertainment activities; friendly group of passengers with a nice mix of (mostly) American and British passengers; food is excellent (but buffet is confusing and below par); great library

Celebrity: very nice ships; good entertainment and nice facilities; nice choices for specialty dining and main dining room food is above average

Royal Caribbean: more choices for activities on board (rock climbing, wave rider -- at least on the big ships); food average but some good specialty restaurants; fun cruise

 

The real difference between the three lines in my opinion are the passengers: Cunard has older seasoned passengers who are well-traveled and very friendly; few children; Celebrity has a great mix of passengers in terms of ages, with more families, but still 40-60 is the general age range; passengers are primarily American and a lot of repeat cruisers; Royal Caribbean has more children and young adults; a more lively atmosphere; more active.

I agree with most of the above save I found QMIIs buffet on par with any ship I've been on.

I'd add that I much rather the Timber and Brass of Cunard to the Chrome and Glass that's overtaking pretty much every other line.

We have just returned from our first Cunard voyage across the Atlantic and back (our 38th cruise with 6 different cruise lines) and to be honest we were totally underwhelmed! The best thing about the ship is the fact she gives a calm ride in rough seas! In spite of 'remastering' our inside cabin on Deck 6 had a shabby, tiny shower cubicle with the dreaded shower curtain that clings....please Cunard get rid!

The design of the Kings Court buffet is dreadful, a central food station with no trays to carry your food to the table, so if you can't find a table nearby you have to walk backwards and forwards carrying plates of food and drink along a fairly narrow passageway....in my opinion a safety hazard. Consequently we ate lunch and dinner in Britannia restaurant and breakfast in the pizza/pasta area of Kings Court which was quieter.

We have sailed twice on Celebrity Eclipse and think the cabins/bathrooms are far superior, the food equally as good and the buffet a far better layout, entertainment probably equally as good.

Having said that I would still recommend you try QM2 purely because she is an ocean liner, not for any other reason.

Well with all live to Celebrity and like to Royal none of them has trays.

I like that QM2 compares to Celebrity in food quality. I was worried.

Sorry you didn't enjoy....

We just returned from our first Cunard cruise on QM2.

We loved this experience. QM2 is a great liner. We enjoyed overall ambiance, ship design and decor, service, absence of crowds, interesting features (Planetarium for example), cozy stateroom, pools, great smaller scale entertainment and performers.

However we were a bit surprised about pretty average quality and variety of food in Britannia dining room. I'd say it is weaker than on Celebrity, Holland or Princess... and I cannot say it is much better if at all than on RCCL and even NCL lately.

We did enjoy Kings Court buffet. While it is a bit repetitive (or highly repetitive) we did like selection of pates, cold cats (prosciutto & jamon), sushi corner etc.

All positives outweighed restaurant experience, but I am surprised such a nice line has weaker food,