August 18-25
Queen Mary 2 is unique. It is the only Passenger Liner that has been built in nearly 40 years. This distinguishes her from the numerous Cruise Ships, that regularly launch from the great yards in France, Italy, Finland and Germany.
A Liner is built to operate fully in rough weather, crossing the great oceans. It needs not only perseverance, but also speed. A Liner plies her trade between two separate ports as a mode of transport, and must arrive no later than promised.
A Cruise Ship is a floating resort, which mostly sails with one home port, visiting destinations en-route. Passengers are adverse to rough seas, so care is taken to adjust routes to ensure the comfort of her mainly aging passengers.
QM2 sails between Southampton and New York once a month, and has cruising duties between them. For instance, after we disembark from our seven day sailing, the ship continues with new and old passengers to explore the Norwegian fjords.
Size
We thought that Queen Elizabeth, on our Yokohama to Vancouver sailing, was huge, at 300m long, width (beam) of 32m, just over 2,000 passengers, tonnage of 92,000 GRT and max speed of 23 knots.
Spare propeller blades
Queen Mary 2 is even more awesome – 345m long, beam 40m, 2,695 passengers, 149,000 GRT and 31 knots maximum speed. Interestingly, QM2 has three times the tonnage of the Titanic (46,000 GRT), but only slightly more passengers (2,543). I guess, they have done away with the ‘Steerage’ class….
It is a beautiful ship – broad, beautifully designed corridors, lined with huge bronze friezes with motives from the great continents. Paintings, archive photographs and sculptures are found everywhere, surprising and delighting. There are some interesting exhibitions about the ship and its predecessor, including celebrity passengers.
Dining
The two main restaurants are supplemented with various ‘higher class’ restaurants. The Britannia, all stiff white table linen and bustling waiters and sommeliers, seats 1,350 guests for a five course dinner (plus petits -fours and coffee). Shirts with collars and buttons for the men are mandatory – on Gala nights, a Dinner Suit is desired, but a smart jacket is accepted. It is completely astonishing how the kitchen and waiting staff (mainly from the Philippines) can make each meal seem effortless and pleasurable in just a few hours.
The Kings Court is a casual buffet restaurant, for those passengers wanting to pile the food high and wear casual clothes. Very popular – in fact so popular that there is always a scrum getting somewhere to sit.
Entertainment
There are three major entertainment venues. The main theatre is the Royal Court – a state of the art large, full width proscenium stage. Audience capacity a staggering 1,105 – bigger than many West End or Broadway theatres. All computerised LED moving lights, LED video screens, flying tower, and a really kick-ass sound system with all radio mikes.
The seven piece Royal Court band – four brass, pianist/keyboard, guitar, drums – was superb. Especially, faultlessly carrying guest stars with complex numbers after rehearsals of no more than an hour or two.
The Royal Court group of singers (four) and dancers (ten), are simply brilliant. High energy, highly complex routines, ambitious meshing of musical numbers, leaving the audience happily exhausted at the end of each show.
All shows were not as accomplished, but clarinetist Kenny Martyn was outstanding as a full blooded musician and lovely entertainer, bringing back memories of the Benny Goodman era.
The second entertainment venue, Illuminations, is a large lecture theatre hosting not only lectures, but movie screenings. It also transformed into a planetarium – the only such on the high seas!
The third, the Queens Room, is meant for ball room dancing to the tunes from another ship’s orchestra. In hours between dancing, other events are held there, such as stretching classes, workshops on flower arranging, etc.
Then there are a plethora of other entertainment venues – the G32, a nightclub, with a superb live band, the ‘Fourtunes’ (get it?), the Commodore Club, with intimate piano music. Several bars, including a champagne bar, a cigar bar (!), a British Pub, casino and a library. And that’s without a mention to the shops, art gallery, photographic studio, library and so on.
Exercise
Not succumbing to the lure of nearly 24-hour eating, there is deck seven. This is the promenade deck, encircling the whole ship. Not only for boarding the lifeboats, but for saunters / walks / runs. Two laps equate to 1.1km, and three, 1.1 miles.
For the more athletic passengers, the large gym is packed with mean looking machines in tight formations. There is unfortunately no room for spreading out a mat for floor exercises – resulting in some people taking positions in the corridor outside the gym!
Three pools, one for children, a scattering of whirlpools and deck games complement the offering. Alternatively, deck seven is huge enough for rows and rows of comfortable loungers – for reading, drinks and nibbles or just snoozing.
Like the Queen Elizabeth, QM2 has an extensive spa, which we largely avoided after our experience from the QE. The spa depends solely on selling its various ‘wellness’ services, including massages, acupuncture, weight management, wrinkle management (!), etc. So they are in constant ‘sell’ mode – once they have you, you are subject to up-selling pressure.
Peter needed to tame his ‘wild man’ hair, so used the barber service. At least they could not try to sell him a second haircut! The result was weird and not quite wonderful. However, it would settle in time for the big wedding, in a weeks time.
Laundry
It is also worth mentioning that each passenger cabin deck had a laundry room. As per the Queen Elizabeth, it was, for us, furthest away along the long, long corridor. Also, as per Queen Elizabeth, there were only a few washing machines and tumble dryers, so an ongoing scrum and lucky dip as to getting to use a machine. The atmosphere could vary between anxiously hostile if somebody hogs a machine to a resignedly chummy and collegiate atmosphere.
Peter was very lucky in getting to an iron and ironing board, to provide a pre-gala dinner unwrinkeling service to shirt, trousers and linen jacket…
Cabin
Our cabin, or as Cunard has it, Stateroom, was lovely. Probably the most comfortable bed we had since embarking on our world trip in March. A sitting area, gorgeous shower and a balcony that was ‘sheltered’ enough that we could hang out our washing to dry instead of using the bad old tumble dryer.
