Is a Four Night Cruise on the QM2 Representative of a Longer Cruise?

[tring]

We are thinking of trying Cunard for the first time and would be particularly interested in the QM2.  If we do a 4 night itinerary from Southampton to Hamburg, round trip, would it be representative of a longer Cunard cruise of a week or more, or would it have more of a party cruise atmosphere?  We do not want to commit to a longer time initially if we do not need to do so, but the idea is to get a flavour of Cunard, which we may book again of we like the cruise line, so a short cruise would need to fulfil that requirement.

 

 

Edited July 18 by tring

[Host Hattie]

One thing to consider is that the Hamburg round trip is 2 x 2 night cruises. It's not the same as a longer cruise but it can be a good introduction to the ship.

[Pushpit]

I tend to just do one way, but I've done (um) a lot of shorties and have several more planned on all 4 ships (for a while, QE does Sydney - Melbourne and back). They are different, and the big thing you miss is the flow of several days at sea and balancing your time against the activities. Some activities don't make a lot of sense if doing just one night, such as the craft based sessions, and some of the Insight lectures have a sequence to them. But to take that last example, the Insights also make sense as a one-off, I assume the lecturers are told to make it thus.

 

In Hamburg you will get one port experience and it's not a bad one since the range of activties that Cunard plans is fairly wide ranging and that magnificent city has lot that you can do under your own organisation. But it's a slightly less relaxing experience than normal port days where there is no embarkation/disembarkation.

 

From talking to other people doing this, there is one comment which often overlaps with something you said - can I actually "cope" with a longer sailing, perhaps their partner is a bit unconvinced. Firstly I'm sure you will cope, in fact it's easier than the shorties in many respect. But my impression is that once on board you quickly realise what an amazing and truly unique ship that QM2 is, so will want more, not less. The next up is a Crossing to the USA, which is 6 to 8 nights, a slightly different atmosphere to that, but one that I very much enjoy. 

[bluemarble]

In my view, the four night QM2 cruises to Hamburg are not truly representative of a longer QM2 cruise. That's not to say they aren't a reasonable introduction to what Cunard and QM2 have to offer, but they are different.

 

As @Host Hattie has indicated, the call at Hamburg is a disembarkation/embarkation port for many passengers. There will be considerable turnover on that day which makes it atypical of a cruise with more conventional ports of call. There will tend to be a bit more of a party atmosphere as well since those on just one or the other of the 2-night cruises will probably want to cram as much as possible into their two nights.

 

The passenger mix will be different on those cruises since naturally there will be a higher number of German passengers than is typical of other cruises. All announcements will be in both English and German for example and a few of the daytime events (which you may not even be aware of from the English daily programme) will be conducted in German. Nothing wrong with that of course, just something atypical about cruises to/from Hamburg compared to other cruises.

Edited July 18 by bluemarble

[tring]

Thanks a lot for the replies, much appreciated. 

 

We are now looking at a 4 night Rotterdam round trip in June next year, with an overnight in Rotterdam.  We have gone into the booking system to try a mock booking and see there is no parking included or OBC, which is fairly standard on P&O cruises.  No other perks either.  Is that the case with all Cunard cruises?  No problem if there are no offers, but just wondering if I have missed something.  There seem to be a number of cabins in the location we are considering, so no big rush to book.

 

We have done lots of cruises, some fairly long ones, on numerous cruise lines.  We have done more on P&O or Fred, though the itineraries are the reason we normally choose our cruises.

 

Edited July 18 by tring

[bluemarble]

8 minutes ago, tring said:

Thanks a lot for the replies, much appreciated. 

 

We are now looking at a 4 night Rotterdam round trip in June next year, with an overnight in Rotterdam.  We have gone into the booking system to try a mock booking and see there is no parking included or OBC, which is fairly standard on P&O cruises.  No other perks either.  Is that the case with all Cunard cruises?  No problem if we do not, but just wondering if I have missed something.  There seem to be a number of cabins in the location we are considering, so no big rush to book.

 

Being from the US, I'm not the expert on this. But my understanding is that the Cunard Fare benefits where you have your choice of on board spending money, car parking or coach transfers only apply to cruises of seven nights or more. That's what I'm seeing when I pretend I'm in the UK and try test bookings on the Cunard UK website. The options to select on board spending money, car parking or coach transfers do appear on the cruises I've tried of seven nights or more but not on cruises of six nights or less.

[tring]

2 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

 

Being from the US, I'm not the expert on this. But my understanding is that the Cunard Fare benefits where you have your choice of on board spending money, car parking or coach transfers only apply to cruises of seven nights or more. That's what I'm seeing when I pretend I'm in the UK and try test bookings on the Cunard UK website. The options to select on board spending money, car parking or coach transfers do appear on the cruises I've tried of seven nights or more but not on cruises of six nights or less.

 

Thanks for that, looks like that explains it as I thought I had seen it on other cruises I had looked at, but they were probably for a week or more. 

 

Come to think of it, we have never done a P&O cruise of less than a week, so may be the same with them.  By the time we get to Southampton, a short cruise is not worth bothering with normally, so any short cruises we have done are usually with Fred Olsen, sailing from the North of England.  We would be looking at combining a Cunard one with a longer jaunt to the South.

 

[Pushpit]

Just in case you haven't spotted this, you can generate some OBC by being a shareholder in Carnival plc. Plus some for being an armed forces veteran, via DDS.

[Clewgarnet]

In my experience, the service on the Hamburg 4-nighter isn't great. My sister was left waiting for drinks on several occasions, while I ended up filling my own wine glass because the sommelier was nowhere to be found.

 

I've got a TA booked for next year, and I'm hoping the service will be better then. I hope so, because QM2 holds a huge space in my heart.

[Victoria2]

I have done four nighter 'party cruises' to Hamburg on QM2 in the past and had a great time.No problem  with service at all and whilst I don’t think it’s representative of a TA experience, they were very enjoyable trips with a girl friend and others.

 

We also had a shortie Hamburg segment on a Baltic cruise on QV last year and the atmosphere definitely changed during those few days to a more party atmosphere. Not our thing but  it didn’t affect our enjoyment at all.

[Clewgarnet]

57 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

I have done four nighter 'party cruises' to Hamburg on QM2 in the past and had a great time.No problem  with service at all and whilst I don’t think it’s representative of a TA experience, they were very enjoyable trips with a girl friend and others.

 

We also had a shortie Hamburg segment on a Baltic cruise on QV last year and the atmosphere definitely changed during those few days to a more party atmosphere. Not our thing but  it didn’t affect our enjoyment at all.

Hopefully the terrible service on mine was just a one-off, then. It was purely in the MDR that we had issues. Everywhere else was the usual Cunard smiling efficiency, but the MDR was terrible.

 

I'm guessing by your reply that Starlink isn't affected by the Crowdstrike issue that's taking down worldwide IT! Hopefully it won't affect your port visits.

Edited July 19 by Clewgarnet

[Victoria2]

5 minutes ago, Clewgarnet said:

Hopefully the terrible service on mine was just a one-off, then. It was purely in the MDR that we had issues. Everywhere else was the usual Cunard smiling efficiency, but the MDR was terrible.

 

I'm guessing by your reply that Starlink isn't affected by the Crowdstrike issue that's taking down worldwide IT! Hopefully it won't affect your port visits.

No although Sky News was off air for a bit but Sports 24 and The Open isn’t affected so this cabin has happy passengers!👍

 

Fingers crossed for your shortie. QM2 is my least favourite Cunard ship and my last shortie was donkey's years ago but I could never fault the service we received and  hopefully, normal excellent service will resume for you.

 

[tring]

11 hours ago, Pushpit said:

Just in case you haven't spotted this, you can generate some OBC by being a shareholder in Carnival plc. Plus some for being an armed forces veteran, via DDS.

 

Thanks, yes DH has shares so knew about that.  I have a blue light card, which I was going ot ask about if we book as it has been accepted by P&O.  

Edited July 19 by tring

[Pushpit]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

Thanks, yes DH has shares so knew about that.  I have a blue light card, which I was going ot ask about if we book as it has been accepted by P&O.  

I have a Blue Light card too (as an army medic for the NHS) but unfortunately the brief period where that worked on Cunard ended some time ago. So it's just P&O, Fred. Olsen, Disney and Princess.

Edited July 19 by Pushpit

[ovccruiser]

My very first cruise experience was on QM2 in 2004, her second cruise. It was a 4 night cruise two ports of call and a day at sea, that which got me hooked on cruising. Hamburg is a great place to go with a lot of history.