> (hope there aren't too many typos... but here goes - kinda long)
>
> --Tom
>
>
> Cruise Review
> Queen Mary 2
> 6 Night Westbound Transatlantic Crossing
> June 2, 2008
> Southampton to NYC
>
> --Why.
>
> Last August, Linda and our 2 kids did a Transatlantic Crossing on the Queen
> Mary 2, and they all loved the ship. When they got back, Linda said that
> since I love ships so much, I needed to try the QM2.
>
> In February 2008, I booked a 3 day/4 night mini sailing on the QM2. We had
> 2 days at sea and 1 day at Princess Cay in the Bahamas.
>
> The QM2 isn't a traditional Caribbean type cruise ship. She's as much a
> history and art museum. There are a lot of exhibits on the ship detailing
> the history of Cunard, of transatlantic crossing in the past, and of ocean
> liners in general. Spending 2 days on her wasn't enough time to explore
> much of the ship. So I decided to do a Transatlantic Crossing on her and
> invited some friends.
>
> --Who.
>
> I invited fellow r.t.c.'r Charles and my co-worker Bill. Bill brought his
> son Michael, who had just graduated from college (Elon University in NC).
> My son Jonathan, who attends NYU, spent his spring semester in Berlin. His
> classes finished a few days before our sailing, so I asked him if he'd
> rather fly home or go with us. He opted to sail with us.
>
> In addition, we met r.t.c'r Mark(SF) and his friend Steve on board. They
> had actually joined the ship immediately after completing a sailing on the
> QE2. We had lunch and pre dinner drinks with them a few day.
>
> --Logistics.
>
> Our sailing departed on Monday June 2. Since it's kind of difficult to
> catch up with the ship at the next port if you miss the departure of a
> Transatlantic Crossing, we decided to fly in a day early, on Saturday, and
> then spend Sunday enjoying London.
>
> We booked a morning flight from Newark to Heathrow on Saturday. That would
> put is in London around 8:00 pm Saturday Evening. I had done that before
> for another cruise, and think that it helps reduce the impact of jetlag. We
> searched the internet for one way flights, and ended up getting them (on
> Virgin Atlantic) through Cunard. They were actually about $300 cheaper
> through Cunard ($500 vs. $800). We did pay an extra $75 (deviation fee) to
> ensure non-stops and the morning flight. We also purchased transfers from
> Cunard to get us from Heathrow to Southampton. It's over an hour ride.
>
> Since we would arrive late in the evening on Saturday, and had to catch the
> bus from the airport early Monday, we chose to stay at the Crown Plaza hotel
> near the airport.
>
> --Airport Check In... (uh, oh, this ain't good)
>
> Upon arriving at Newark, we immediately learned that our 8:00 am Virgin
> Atlantic flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems. They were
> scrambling to get everyone re-booked. At first they talked about taking us
> to JFK for a 9:00 am flight, but ended up putting all 4 of us on another
> 8:00 am flight from Newark on British Airways. We ended up on the last row
> on a 767. But we got on. Many others didn't. Some went to JFK for evening
> flights. Our plane actually had 5 empty seats, so they could have gotten
> more on. Upon arriving in London we got our luggage, and promptly waited 45
> minutes for the shuttle to the hotel.
>
> Checking in, we did have some problems getting no smoking rooms. but in the
> end, after a few trips to the check in desk, we all did. We caught a light
> dinner and went to bed. Jonathan would bring his luggage (4 months worth,
> including his computer and printer) and meet us at the hotel on Sunday. I
> packed formal wear, a second jacket and slacks, bathing suit, and other
> clothing for the ship for him, and brought it in a second suit case with me.
> Between us, we had a lot of luggage.
>
> The next morning, Charles and I headed off to London early. Bill and
> Michael stayed in bed longer and headed into town later. Charles and I took
> the underground to Tower Bridge, and then took a Thames River boat from
> there to Westminster. From there we walked up to Covent Garden. We hit one
> pub for drinks, and another for dinner. We even found a cell phone store
> that sold unlocked cell phones (Motorola) for £14 British (about $28). We
> also bought SIM cards for £5 that we used to call home with. We'll be able
> to use them on future trips to Europe by purchasing new SIM cards with
> minutes included. At least, that's the plan.
>
> Getting back to the hotel in the evening, Jonathan met us there (though
> originally I didn't see his luggage in my room so I panicked thinking he
> wasn't there - but they wouldn't let him put is luggage in my room for
> "security reasons"). We had drinks that evening in the lounge and went to
> sleep.
>
> Monday morning we met for breakfast and caught the shuttle to the airport
> around 9:00, where we met the Cunard representative. We waited almost an
> hour for the bus, and spent another hour or so going to 2 other terminal
> building before driving to Southampton. Upon arriving at Southampton, we
> saw glimpses of the QM2 as we made turns around the small streets near the
> pier. You never really get a good view of the ship, either in Southampton
> or NYC, like you would in ports in the Caribbean, Alaska or Europe. When he
> did his first crossing, Jonathan commented that. "it never felt like a ship,
> because you never really get to see the ship, as a ship". In Bermuda,
> Barbados, Antigua, and other ports around the world, you walk off and back
> onto your ship. It looks like a ship. But with a crossing you never really
> get to see your ship as a ship, since you never get off it.
>
> Boarding took less than 20 minutes to check in. They took our obligatory
> embarkation photo and we were off to the ship.
>
> --Ship layout, Cabins, etc.
>
> The Queen Mary 2 has a somewhat different design as far as decks from most
> other ship. Since she is primarily an ocean liner, they were able to get an
> exemption allowing her life boats to be located higher up (in terms of feet
> from the water line) than allowed per regulations. This allows for 3 decks
> of cabins with balconies to be placed below the life boats / promenade deck.
> These are called sheltered balconies. They are "inside the hull" like on
> the Sun Princess class ships and the early Voyager class ships. They look
> down to the ocean. There are also 5 decks of balcony cabins above the life
> boats, 1 of which has balconies partially obstructed by lifeboats. The
> balconies above the life boats have glass facings, and extend out from the
> super structure, like on the Grand Princess and newer Voyager class ships.
> Since the superstructure is indented from the lower hull, these balconies
> look down at lifeboats, not directly down to the ocean. Jonathan and I had
> a balcony cabin on Deck 5.
>
> Cabins are nice size. They seem about a foot wider than similar balcony
> cabins on Voyager Class ships (the only other ships comparably sized), most
> noticeable when walking around the beds. Also noticeable are more closet
> space than Voyager ships, and the bathrooms are larger - and nicely tiled.
> Showers are also more spacious.
>
> Deck 7 is the Promenade deck. There is a full wrap around promenade, with
> some access to the front of the ship (though not the tip of the bow). The
> promenade has no steps like on some ships. 3 Times around equals 1 mile.
> There are several spare propeller blades mounted like artwork out by the
> bow. The promenade has hundreds of "steamer lounge chairs" with green
> padding. However, our sailing was much too windy and wet to use them until
> the last morning in NYC after we had docked.
>
> The top decks 13 and 12 are primarily teak decking and have a solarium pool
> area, a large helicopter landing area, and a small outside pool. There are
> hot tubs in the solarium and near the outside pool. Near the front are
> basketball courts on both sides of the ship. Aft of the funnel (which
> incidentally was supposed to be much higher in the original design, but had
> to be shortened to allow it to fit under the Verrazano Bridge - it has 15
> ft. of clearance) is more open decking. The ship doesn't have the
> traditional large pool area with hundreds of deck chairs. With 40-50 knot
> winds the entire sailing the upper decks were closed off for almost the
> entire crossing. There are aft pools on the tiered stern on decks 6 and 8.
> We saw kids on one of the pools the day we embarked. That was it. The only
> pool and hot tubs that were used were the ones in the solarium.
>
> In addition to the outside promenade, Deck 7 has (from front to back) the
> Canyon Ranch Spa , the large Winter Garden lounge (where the art auctions
> are held), the buffet restaurants and the Grill Class dining rooms.
>
> Decks 2 and 3 are the major public decks. They contain the lobby, the
> shops, the Golden Lion Pub, the Chart Room lounge, Wine Bar, Champagne Bar,
> Coffee Bar, Casino, Computer Center, the Britannia Restaurant, and the 2
> large theaters, Royal Court and Illuminations. The planetarium is located
> inside Illuminations. Aft of the Britannia restaurant is the Queens Room -
> the large ball room, and behind it, the G32 night club, named after the hull
> number that the ship was assigned at the Chantier de L'Atlantique ship yard
> in France where she was built.
>
> While most of the ship is knock down dead gorgeous, Decks 2 and 3 have areas
> where the most hideous (but how do you really feel about them?) plastic
> paneling was installed. It depicts the 4 seasons. but the paneling is
> totally out of place, in my opinion, and made out of cheap looking plastic.
> To me, it almost looks like Joe Farcus sat there and held his breath unless
> they would let him have at least one small area on the ship to design. and
> that's what they gave him.
>
> In the front of the ship on Deck 9 is the Commodore Club (for martinis). On
> Deck 8 is the Library and Book Store. Deck 11 has an outside observation
> area overlooking the bow, and the small inside Atlantic Room.
>
> There are oil paintings of famous Cunard ships all over the Queen Mary 2. I
> love the artwork on her. There are a number of paintings by Stephen Card,
> but I like those by Gordon Bauwens more. Especially his painting of the
> Caronia in Stairway A.
>
> --Maritime Quest.
>
> The ship has 4 elevator / stairway banks, designated A, B, C and D. In the
> open areas of the elevator banks, and along the outside areas of the bow on
> decks 2 and 3 there are panels depicting ocean liner and Cunard history.
> This is called Maritime Quest. There are panels showing famous former
> Cunard passengers like Laurel and Hardy, Helen Keller, Jackie and Bobby
> Kennedy, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall,
> General Eisenhower, and Winston Churchill.
>
> There are also panels showing old Cunard advertisements, topics of history.
> like in the early days when they had live cows and live chickens on ships
> for fresh milk and fresh eggs prior to refrigeration. You can spend days
> reading about the history of Cunard and Transatlantic crossings.
>
> --Food and Dining.
>
> In our cabin categories (low level balcony for me, insides for Charles and
> Bill), we were assigned the Britannia Dining Room. We had a table for 6
> (for the 5 of us) on the upper level, overlooking the central area. We took
> late dining, but in the end, it didn't work out for all of us. Bill and
> Michael eventually switched to early dining - Bill didn't want to go to bed
> with a full stomach. The Britannia has open seating for breakfast and
> lunch. The Britannia club offers open seating in one section of the
> Britannia restaurant for dinner.
>
> On two nights we made reservations for the specialty restaurants, one night
> at Todd English, and one night at Chef's Galley (which is kind of like
> "Emeril Live" at sea).
>
> The buffet dining room (King's Court) is actually comprised of several
> sections, each devoted to different types of foods. Lotus features Asian
> cuisine. La Piazza is for Italian and Pizza. There is a Carvery. Chef's
> Galley is also in the King's Court area. These are open for breakfast,
> lunch, dinner and midnight snacks. Seating is along the sides with large
> windows providing views of the promenade and the ocean.
>
> The Gold Lion Pub offers British Pub style lunches (bangers and mashers,
> shepherd's pie, steak and mushroom pie, fish & chips, etc.)
>
> For the hoity toity, there are the Princess Grill and the Queen's Grill.
>
> On our Presidents Weekend sailing in February, Todd English was totally
> booked by the time we got on the ship. So this time, as soon as we boarded
> I did a reservation for both Todd English and Chef's Galley. Chef's Galley
> is done as a sort of Emeril Live at Sea. They do a cooking demonstration
> each night at 7:00, and the 6 or so tables are served the same meal as the
> chef prepared in front of you (though chefs in kitchens behind prepare what
> is actually served to passengers). The nights have different themes. One
> night was Asian, another was French, and another Italian. We chose the
> Italian night.
>
> I think the food in the dining room was as good as the food in Todd English.
> In fact I thought the dining room had better fish - I had the sea bass in
> Todd English, and wasn't crazy about it. Though the crab cake in Todd
> English was the best I've had, and the mandarin orange crème Brule was
> probably the best dessert that I've ever had. Charles and Jonathan gave
> high marks to the fillet mignon and the veal at Todd English.
>
> As I previously said, we chose Italian night in Chef's Galley. Attending
> the live cooking demonstration was one of the big highlights of the sailing
> for me. The chef prepared a shrimp appetizer, a pasta course of linguini
> and meatballs, and a main course of stuffed chicken on polenta with a beef
> stock & red wine sauce. I think the chicken on polenta was the best entrée
> I had all week.
>
> Some of the better entrees I had in the dining room were the cod the first
> evening and the beef Wellington the 5th evening. Jonathan especially loved
> the Caesar salad that you could get each evening.
>
> At the end of the sailing in the dining room the waiter/waitress give you a
> souvenir set of dinner menus for the entire week. Nice touch.
>
> I've read and heard that Cunard doesn't have good service. After 2 sailings
> I couldn't disagree more. Our 2 waitress in the dining room have been top
> notch. In fact Nina, our waitress from February has been promoted to Queen's
> Grill.
>
> --Dress.
>
> Cunard is Dress. If you don't like dressing up. Don't Go. Out of our 6
> evenings, the first and last were elegant casual - requiring jacket (but no
> tie). 3 Were Formal. 1 Was Semi-Formal - jacket and tie. Most people
> stayed dressed up for the entire evening. I even saw people in tuxes in the
> computer center at night, and in the buffet for midnight snacks.
>
> --Shops.
>
> In addition to the Logo Shop (which includes some items from Harrow's) there
> are a number of high end shops on board, including Armani, Hermes, etc.
> They had a nice "QM2 Transatlantic Crossing 2008" logo golf shirt. I got
> one in white. Lots of other QM2 merchandise as well.
>
> --Route / Voyage.
>
> Obviously, the route is from Southampton to New York. But not so simple.
> Ships are a bit limited in terms of where they can go. Looking at a
> navigation chart, there are places in the ocean with banks that are too
> close to the surface for ships to safely navigate across. The English
> Channel and Celtic Sea are such places. So are The Grand Banks of
> Newfoundland and George's Bank off Cape Cod.
>
> Sailing from our pier in Southampton, first we sailed past the QE 2 at her
> dock. We exchanged greetings with our horns. Then the ship sails down the
> Solent heading south-west and around the west side of the Isle of Wight. It
> then heads south east toward and into the shipping lanes, and then sails
> eastward out past Lands End (the south east tip of England) and the Isles of
> Scilly.
>
> Once into deep water it begins the first of the two "Great Circle Routes".
> They use this term because the shortest round viewed on a globe looks like
> an arc when depicted on a flat map or chart. The first "Great Circle" ends
> at the south tip of the Grand Banks, where the ship passed 15 miles south of
> the location where Titanic sank in April 1912. From there the ship begins
> it's second (smaller) more easterly "Great Circle" ending at the entrance to
> the shipping lanes south of Long Island/Nantucket into New York Harbor.
>
> For our sailing, we had 4 calm days, with seas in the 4-10 ft. range. But
> we had one day sailing through a storm. While I didn't hear the noon
> announcement, I would guess the waves were in the 15-25 ft. range.
>
> I got the following coordinates from my GPS:
>
> Southampton:
> N 50' 54
> W001' 25
>
> Beginning of First Great Circle (south of Ireland):
> N 48'58
> W010'54
>
> End of First Great Circle (at southern tip of Grand Banks), and beginning of
> Second Great Circle:
> N 41' 30
> W048' 51
>
> End of Second Great Circle (entrance to shipping lanes into NYC):
> N 40'52
> W066'46
>
> NYC (Brooklyn Pier):
> N 40' 41
> W074' 01
>
> --On-Board Activities.
>
> Ok. so you have 5 days and 6 nights at sea. what to do?
>
> The outside decks have 40-50 knot winds. The North Atlantic tends to be
> cool and rainy. So you're not going to spend 6 hours by the pool getting a
> tan. Even the promenade deck was virtually useless the entire sailing. Too
> windy. Too wet. Too cold. This isn't sailing 4 knots between St. Thomas
> and St. Maarten. You're doing 25-30 knots on the North Atlantic. Some days
> are calm and other days you're looking at 15-25 ft. waves.
>
> So. since the outside areas of the ship are off limits (due to the weather).
> everything has to happen inside the ship.
>
> There are lectures. On our sailing, John Maxtone-Graham, noted maritime
> historian spoke each day between 11:15 and 12:15 in the Royal Court Theater.
> He was great. We attended is talks each day. There were other lectures by
> noted authorities on forensics (they talked about the JFK assassination, and
> the OJ trial), and on World War 2 history.
>
> Inside Illuminations they hold theatrical performances, but the most popular
> activity there is the planetarium. There is a large dome that is lowered,
> and 150 seats totally recline. Shows last about 25 minutes, and are
> repeated every 30 minutes in the afternoon. Performances in German and
> French are also given.
>
> Other activities include: wine tasting, single malt Scotch whisky tasting,
> afternoon tea in the Queens Room or in the buffet (with English scones,
> raspberry jam and whipped cream), piano recitals, trivia, bingo, art
> auctions, and the ever present bazaar type tables with inches of gold, old
> tee shirts at half price, 50%% off watches, etc.
>
> The casino tends toward the quiet side. One night was smoke free.
>
> The computer center has things like Excel training, and Rosetta Stone CD's
> if you wanted to start learning a foreign language.
>
> There is a lot to do on board. but to be totally honest. after about 2 days.
> I wanted a Port. I'd have taken even one of my less favorite ports. like
> Jamaica or Trinidad. Oh, well.
>
> Next time on the QM2. I'm thinking Northern Europe. Maybe the Fjords - my
> favorite itinerary. Maybe the Baltic's - love Copenhagen. Maybe the
> British Isles (golfing in Ireland and Scotland). I did a future booking to
> get a cabin credit, but left it as an open booking, not picking a date or
> itinerary.
>
> Have to study the brochures. see what we come up with for next year.
>
> --Odds and Ends.
>
> Tipping is handled automatically by adding $11 per day per person onto the
> shipboard account.
>
> The upstairs section of the Royal Court Theater doesn't have a wrap around
> aisleway. you need to climb over people to get to the top and far rows. not
> a good design.
>
> The downstairs section of the Royal Court Theater has temporary seats
> between the permanent rows of seats. Not a very good design IMO.
>
> The upper deck has a lot of wasted space. I'd like to see them add another
> covered pool. The solarium is too small.
>
> The care of the ship it top notch.
>
> Announcements are kept to a minimum. The commodore does a noon
> announcement.
>
> Internet out in the middle of the Atlantic can be a bit "iffy" at times.
> Initially they use British satellites, and later English satellites. Even
> the TV programming changes at that point.
>
> Candles - several evenings in the dining room, we had lit candles on our
> tables. First time I've seen that.
>
> There are Self Service Laundry facilities on board. In fact, most decks had
> an inside cabin with washers, driers, and ironing boards.
>
> Photographs and Cruise DVD's are more expensive than or Royal Caribbean, but
> alcoholic drink prices seemed cheaper. The ship has Stella Artouis, Becks,
> Bass Ale and Guinness on draft.
>
> I'm probably missing a hundred things, but Charles and Mark(SF) will most
> assuredly provide more insight than I've given here.
>