Re: Queen Mary 2 Review - Transatlantic Crossing
- From: "sheree" <shereenospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:30:15 -0400
sounds like you had a nice time. the ship sounds very nice and you're
right, you need the time to explore.
sheree
"Tom K" <tkanitra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:484f34da$0$4998$607ed4bc@xxxxxxxxx
(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.
.
- References:
- Queen Mary 2 Review - Transatlantic Crossing
- From: Tom K
- Queen Mary 2 Review - Transatlantic Crossing
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