Cunard

My favorite cruise ship is the Queen Mary 2

I have cruised over 40 times within the last 21 years and my favorite cruise ship is the Queen Mary 2 from Cunard. I have cruised on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Holland America, MSC Cruises, Seabourn, Regent, and Cunard. I have the Platinum Standard on many cruise lines and six times I sailed on QM2, once each on the smaller queens.

The first time my wife and I went on Queen Mary 2 it was for our 30th wedding anniversary and therefore we choose a balcony. The other two times we booked a balcony with an obstructed view and once were lucky to be upgraded. In Canada actually is was great to have a balcony with obstsructed view as you were protected from the cold wind. for our 35th anniversary we went back to QM2 for the first segment of the World Cruise from New York to Cape Town. We booked relativly late and there were only interior cabins left - I prefer a balcony, but this was the trip of a life-time.

Why do I like the Queen Mary 2 better than other ships I sailed on? To be fair I do not want to compare a balcony on the Queen Mary 2 to a Suite on Holland America or a Minisuite on NCL.

I am looking for a good deal for a Queens Grill Suite, but they are not often discounted. So it might be 2025 before I can check the suites out. As soon as I have experienced the suites, I will write about it. Please wait for my comparison suite with suite.

First of all, I love the understated elegance and class of the ship; stylish like a nice old ocean liner, just more comfort probably (I never was on the Titanic).
The food, even in third class (a balcony is still third class) the food is great. I mentioned before, I love great food and a lot of it (I sometimes take two or three entries), I love meat (but no cheese) and I love heavy red wines. For lunch we usually went to the buffet restaurant on the Queen Mary 2, they have four different stations: a meat carving station, an Asian food (most of it is not Sushi, but cooked in the Wok, I love a steak medium-rare, but not raw - that means I do not love Sushi), an Italian food section and the last one changes in their style on a daily basis. For dinner I always used the Brittany restaurant, only once we went to the pay-restaurant "Todd English", which was $ 35 per person for dinner for our anniversary. The food was great, but so is the food in the Britannia Restaurant.
I was only disappointed by two minor items (had not to do with food, but with the surroundings) that changed from the first trip to the second/third trips. On the first trip on the formal nights the ladies received black napkins if they wore a black dress, this was discontinued. The Queen Mary 2 used to have only Wedgewood China, even for the buffet and even the coffee mugs were made by Wedgewood. On the third trip, some of them were replaced by cheap cups made in China. Probably because they were cheaper. I believe that it did not make a big difference financially for Cunard, but I did not like it. \

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