DaisyUK

We have been on QM2 twice and QE once and had a fabulous time on both. We did also enjoy this cruise; we were just a little frustrated with the Grills dining at times.

Ref the cabin - you did not oversell it. It was sublime! You did warn me about it during heavy weather and we had a couple of nights of rocking and rolling, but other than that it was great.

Believe me, we did make our feelings known! And, to be fair, the guys in the QG - Ico and co - did everything possible to improve matters. In fact, they are the reason we will most likely return. They could not do enough for us, an absolutely great team. We are a bit weird about sending things back and then having to wait for a replacement. Most times, we will just go without and maybe have a dessert.

Here are our notes/thoughts from this, our first, QV sailing. To be honest, it was a bit of a mixed bag. On the positive side, we found embarkation and debarkation to be efficient and well organised. Every single member of staff and crew whom we encountered were friendly and helpful, and our suite was one of the nicest, if not the nicest, cruise ship suite we have stayed in (Q1, Aft). Another positive surprise was the quality of the excursions. Perhaps we were just lucky, but 3 out of 4 of the guides were really good and made the places we visited come alive. The 4th was actually pretty good also, but even she couldn’t make the places we visited come alive (for us)! On the negative side, the lack of consistency on the food front was disappointing. When we cruise, the quality of the restaurant/s is very important to us, particularly in the evenings. On this sailing, out of 12 evening meals, 4 were very good, 3 were acceptable and 5 were poor. We decided to try the Steak House in our quest for excellence and even that let us down, in that my husband ordered the Wagyu medium rare and it came well done. It did taste good though, so not a total loss. We missed many of the shows because we prefer to dine early, so did so immediately the restaurant opened at 6.30 pm which didn’t give enough time on many occasions to get to the theatre for 8pm-ish. The few shows we saw didn’t wow us, so this wasn’t really an issue. We quite enjoyed some of the Insight lectures, but would have liked to see more variety. I know everything can’t be perfect all the time, and we did enjoy the cruise but it didn’t quite live up to our expectations on this occasion.

Just back from the QV and the early showtime was 8pm and the later one was 9.30pm I think, although it may have been 10pm. We found it a little tight to eat dinner from 6.30pm and be at the show for 8pm and missed the show on several occasions.

Yes, this is something I have wondered also!

Agreed, today's programme is less than interesting to us also. I did enjoy the Faberge talk yesterday, even though the last 20 minutes was taken up with sales spiel! Looking forward to a nice, relaxing day today doing nothing very much which is a luxury in itself.

Hope it's OK to jump into this thread. We too are on this sailing. I'll post a review at the end of the cruise. Embarkation was remarkably smooth for us also. We arrived at the port at 12.30 pm, and were in our room by 1pm . All very smooth and organised. As mentioned above, last night was B&W night, and everyone I saw was dressed up to the nines. Lovely to see everyone in their finery. Agree with LadyL1's comment about the constant attempt to upsell in the Spa. Irritating, and an insult to the intelligence. Other than that, I enjoyed my treatments.

Day 2 and I've already worn 4 pairs, so feeling vindicated😅

That's the best suggestion of the day!!

Indeed - not so many places to dress up these days and I do love shoes. With the advantage of driving to the port, packing so much isn't really an issue so I'm just going with it! Yes, maybe we'll bump into each other onboard. Safe travels...

Safe travels! I do have a portable rail also, which is currently taking the strain!

Thank you exlondoner. It will be our first time on QV, but not Cunard. Very much looking forward to it, if I can just get my packing finished! As LouChamp rightly pointed out, a first world problem and all a bit tongue in cheek, but I am currently looking at my 8 pairs of shoes (excluding trainers and travelling shoes) sitting neatly by my suitcase. Prior to reading these posts, I thought I had done quite well, but apparently not!😅 Good news is we are driving to and from S'hampton, so no airports or security to navigate.

Thank you for the reminder! We are in a 1, deck 7 so the USB points will be handy.

We board QV tomorrow and am in my usual mode of panic-packing. I don't know why it is that packing beats me every time. I'm a pretty organised person and I decide what I'm going to take, but somehow when everything's just about finished I cannot resist taking one last look through my clothes and adding things willy-nilly, especially shoes. How do you all limit your packing, or don't you?

Enjoying reading about your sailing and hope you continue to enjoy. Great pics, thanks for sharing.

I was just browsing through these threads, which I haven't noticed previously and was surprised that there is no mention of Strictly. Is anyone watching it? Or perhaps it's considered to be a bit beneath those who do ballroom dancing and of no interest to those who don't? We love it, and look forward to our Strictly Saturday evenings as the evenings draw in.

Beautiful cats. Love that photo of them cuddled up together.

Same here - always get the use of both bathrooms, the main reason we book it.

Absolutely stunning pics, thank you so much for sharing!

I had an email from someone onboard who said that all grills suites are being updated - no further detail though..

Unless I've missed something, I haven't seen any pics yet and I think the website pics are computer generated?

Oh yes, now you mention, I recall reading that. Well, they certainly have their work cut out. All very exciting!

How long will QM2 be out of action? This looks like a LOT of work!

Thanks Keith. So it’s just the fact that aft is a more desirable position that makes the aft suites more expensive?