Petulia

Thanks to your guide @Victoria2 in #5 it’s all loaded for me and I can now see my past cruise history. It’s helpful as we were starting to get our QE and QV cruises muddled up. 🤔 Think I should get the details printed out in case it all disappears again!

Thank you Kynance for your excellent review and photos of this cruise as we were also on board. Our first post Covid cruise was last September when we thought the QV looked very slick and span with her new carpets….and cabin curtains! Again we were very pleased with the condition of the ship. The MDR menu choices were limited as you mention and as a fish eater my main courses seemed to be rather similar, whichever fish was on offer. 🤔 One of your photos showed a spectacular sunset and being on the port side we had great views from the cabin on the return journey and also enjoyed pre dusk walks on deck 3 where the temperature was very pleasant. Finally I have to say that the sea conditions were the smoothest we have encountered over a whole voyage and we even managed to catch a brief glimpse of a whale splashing in the distance! PS We also attended the talk given by the Amethyst guitarist, a very talented musician.

On our last September cruise, we arrived at the Mayflower (which sounds better than it is!) between 12 and 1 it was very busy and very few empty seats left. We were told that boarding would commence at 1pm, which it did…..roughly. The QG passengers were called first and seemed to be seated in a specific area, but then we noticed a bit of a surge from other parts of the room. Hmm. After being called it was a very slow walk in a narrow corridor and Disney style zig zagging to reach security. I first visited the Mayflower terminal in 2001 and it doesn’t look as though it’s been updated since then. We very much prefer the newer Ocean Terminal which Cunard use to use.

Hi, I don’t know if you are cruising for the first time or on the QM2 for the first time, but either way I would just say that a cruise to Norway and the Fjords is an excellent choice. The QM2 is such a tall ship that the views from all the decks (and try the very top one) are spectacular. She looks very majestic whilst slowly sailing down a Fjord. Hope you both have a great time and perhaps take a sweater or two etc in case the temperature dips which it can do even in summer. Like they say in the Rockies …’you can have four seasons all in one day’.

There’s more than one terminal that Cunard use but looking at the Southampton Cruise Ship Schedule for 2023 it seems the QM2 will be using the older less spacious? Mayflower Terminal…106 berth. Our last cruise on the QV departed from there and the room became very crowded until finally standing room only…and QM’s capacity is larger. It was 1pm before the first call for the Grills passengers to form a lengthy queue to access security screening. Much prefer the Ocean terminal. 😏

Did the website crash shortly after 1pm or was everything already booked? The messages I saw were ‘Room not available’ or ‘Itinerary no longer available……’ I tried for a number of different grades of cabin.

Thank you @Windsurfboy for sharing your thoughts on the QM2 and Princess Grill. We’ve done a couple of cruises on this ship but not in that grade of cabin, so it’s good to read your positive feedback. We’ve done rather more cruises on QV and QE and are familiar with the Princess Grills on those ships and to be honest have found the cabins, as the ships age, rather tired and dated looking, including their bathrooms. The QM2 is a very impressive ship, certainly from its exterior, but in reality may be a bit of a Curate’s Egg for some of its passengers! 🤔 BTW can I ask who was the Captain on this voyage?

Depends which ship/ships. On the QM2 we enjoyed the ambience of the Chart Room particularly when the Jazz band were playing. But we do love the library and bookshop and its little tucked away lift. On the Vistas the Commodore Club is our preference principally for its location and forward looking vistas. The bar is also a very impressive structure in its style and displays.

I too have been sent this email for cruise H420. The words ‘somebody’ and ‘Specsavers’ spring to mind! 😏

Not sure if this has already been mentioned but we always pack a few small magnets to attach various ship printouts of events , itinerary etc to the cabin wall. Hook shaped ones are also useful for hanging toiletry / makeup bags with handles. Should you forget them then buying a souvenir magnet in each port of call is a nice handy alternative. Cunard also sell a variety in one of their onboard shops.

I have to agree with the comments above. We found the QV in great shape when we. spent two weeks on her last Autumn. New thick carpets in the public areas and we also had smart new curtains installed in our cabin. There seemed to be no lack of staff and the service in the MDR was excellent as was our helpful and cheerful cabin steward. The outside areas were well looked after and the rear of deck 9 was filled with chairs, tables, sofas and masses of sun lounges. Musical entertainment provided at lunch times, a takeaway food area, a bar and swimming pool drew lots of passengers in the good weather. We’ve booked again for this coming year and are sorry to hear that she will be moving to Europe in 2024.

We recall Bernard Warner being the Captain of the QM2 in October 2006, it was our first cruise on this ship.

It’s been a few years since we were on the QM, so can’t comment on her current state. But if you were thinking of travelling in the Grills I would say the location of the restaurants is in a far nicer location on the QV and her grills sun decks are far superior also. We were on the QV in Sept/Oct and we’re impressed by her condition, spotless brand new thick carpets and everywhere seemed clean and tidy. We even had smart new curtains fitted in the cabin whilst on board. It was our 3/4th time on the QV and found our cabin and general state of the ship to be very satisfactory. She had had a refit earlier last year.

Recalling from memory didn’t the three Queens all used to start and end their world voyages on the same day? I know this to be true in 2016 because we were boarding the QV for a cruise to the Canaries on May 10th and all three ships were in Southampton docks, all having left there on Jan 10th. A great sight to see even though the weather was a bit meh! Just a day or two back there was a programme on TV from Liverpool showing the past event when the three Queens were visiting the Mersey at the same time and even performing some fancy manoeuvres on the river! I recall that there was always a bit of a hoo-ha when all three met up…which rarely happened.

We’ve always gone for a P2 grade cabin on the Vistas, on decks 5/6. Not sure of the advantages of paying extra for a P1 cabin just above on deck 7? The lifeboats are below these balconies and don’t spoil any views but all the PG’s being so central are convenient for reaching all parts of the ship. And just a matter of moments for accessing decks 11 and 12…by lift.

Hi Groryjm, it has been interesting to follow your comparison review, not to mention seeing all those cocktails! During the early to mid teens (2011….) we did a few cruises on Celebrity on M and S classes and enjoyed them all. The last cruise was in a midship Celebrity Suite shortly after Luminae opened. We also had a wonderful very proactive concierge called Sylvia. For the last several years we’ve been (mostly) cruising on Cunard and very recently again on the QV, which we thought looked very smart indeed for our enjoyable Med cruise. But for a change, although the itinerary is fairly similar, we have just booked a Celebrity cruise for next year. For us it will be interesting to see if the Celebrity ‘vibe’ has changed from what we remember and to see if we prefer the rather less formality than we’ve been used to on Cunard! Many thanks for all the pics of the Northern Lights and the ports of call in your review.

It does rather, but the clouds did move away and the weather was perfect all day. Even better for the short ferry ride to Portofino next door. ☀️☀️

Firstly I have to commend the Quercus hand wash as it gave a lovely rich lather and with frequent hand washing we got through rather a lot of it. When the bottle was just half empty our lovely stewardess would refill the large bottle. We had two wire shelves in the shower of our QV cabin with the large shampoo and body wash bottles stored on the lower one. I used the upper shelf for my own toiletries. It worked well for us.

Yes. ‘Essential maintenance” they called it! 😄

Hi, having just completed a QV cruise, I have to say we found the ship in very good order after its revamp visits to Belfast and Tyneside earlier this year. Brand new thick carpets in many areas provided excellent soundproofing especially between decks (cabins) and hallways. There seemed no shortage of staff who were always pleasant and hard working. All very neat and shipshape! 😄

Hi HH, no we haven’t had a questionnaire as yet. From memory they used to arrive pretty soon after embarking?

Hi, just been catching up with your very informative thread Host Hattie since disembarking the QV last Friday. Thank you also for the lovely pics and pleased to learn that you did get ashore at some ports. So sorry to read that your hubby’s onboard experience was so disrupted and hope you are both fit and well now. We enjoyed our cruise and the great weather certainly helped, two sunny sea days en route home…that was a bonus. 🌞🌞

The front page of many of todays UK papers featured a lovely happy picture of William and Kate hand in hand with their three children ready to start their first day at their new school. Tomorrow's headlines will be so poignantly different. We saw photos of the Queen on Tuesday and so todays news has come as a shock. So very sad and upsetting. R I P 🕯

Hi and many thanks for your review and also post 21 detailing your frustrated (by others) attempts to get to NY in time. 😯 Well done on your resourcefulness and pleased to hear you had a good transatlantic crossing. Our first cruise on the QM2 also involved flying to New York but from the UK, we’d booked a fly/cruise package. So it was down to Cunard to get us there in time, which they did. Your photo reminds me of the cabin we had allocated, having made a late booking and therefore no choice. The cruise, in 2006 was also visiting New England states, Newfoundland and Canada, as far as Quebec. It was October, but great itinerary and hope that you enjoy yours in 2023. PS The only time we’ve ever had a problem with transatlantic flights / connecting ones was with United! 😕

Great to hear you are back on board, it’s been more than a while! Hope the rest of the cruise goes very well for you.