MWillow

My best friend and her husband are on board with you. It's lovely to read your reports, thank you.

Wow, what gorgeous photos!

Thanks so much for letting us know!

That's a great idea, Hattie! I'd love to be able to have that kind of info at my fingertips instead of trying to remember where I'd seen it.

Does anyone know if the coffee card can be brought back onboard for the next cruise if you're unable to use up all ten drinks?

Ha! Would you believe we're also booked on her in July? Of course you would!

Thanks so much BlueRiband. We did back to back Sept./Oct. crossings last year on the QM2 for our first cruise ever and tried both types. We would have been perfectly satisfied with the sheltered version but are very happy with the change. We're hoping for some nice days again this trip to allow us to enjoy it. Cheers!

Hi everyone, I thought I'd let you all know I was just able to rebook our October 2015 NY to Hamburg and back transatlantic crossings to a better deal under the same reference number. We moved from a sheltered balcony to a regular balcony for the same price and they threw in free gratuities with the rebooking. We're from the U.S. and our original booking was made two months ago. I'm relatively new to cruising and have been keeping an eye on the fares. Happy sailing, everyone!

If you are a fan of Crosby Stills and Nash, and can wait until September 4th to sail, you're in luck.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/music-legends-crosby-stills--nash-announced-as-headline-act-aboard-queen-mary-2-on-transatlantic-crossing-4-september-2015-300021119.html

I, too, was confused with that statement on the website. As of last week, those detergent pods were free on the QM2. I think there were fancier alternatives for sale in one of the shops on board so maybe that's the conflict in information?

And you're sweet.

I can't wait to see your photos, pmb1, thanks for posting the link! Moving cabins was super easy. You leave everything you have hanging in your closets on hangers and the staff moves it for you, along with your suitcases which stay in your cabin, not outside the door. On such a fancy cruise, almost everything we took ended up on a hanger.

Honestly, brigittetom, we had no problem moving from QG. The only thing we missed was having such a huge room but found the balcony plenty big for the two of us. I guess we'll just have to book a Princess Grill room again to give it a try.

My husband and I have never vacationed outside of the US after 27 years of marriage and have never been on a cruise. Why did we decide to start with back to back cruises on the QM2 (transatlantic, Bruges/Cherbourg, transatlantic)? Just nuts I suppose but we're so happy we did!

As we were boarding our flight to NYC on September 26th a news alert came across about the air traffic control center fire in Chicago. We were SO happy to be boarding, and not on one of the thousands of flights that were affected by this mess. I wonder how many people missed boarding the next day because of it? We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express so close to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal that we were able to walk the 1.5 blocks with our luggage when it came time to board the next day. Perfection. After about 90 minutes, we were on board and exploring our gorgeous new home away from home from top to bottom.

We booked ourselves into three different staterooms for each leg of our voyage to check out the differences. We stared in a sheltered balcony on deck 4. 4029 had received some negative press here because it's across from a pantry but we weren't bothered one bit about any extra noise. After checking out our Brittania table allocation we found we were booked at a table for 4 instead of a table for 2 as requested. A quick chat with the maitre d' fixed that right up.

Our sailaway was complete perfection. Because there were 5 ships in Manhattan that day, we left later than 'normal'. Captain Oprey took his sweet time taking us out to sea right at sunset on the warmest, clearest night ever. What a magical start to our first real vacation!

We had booked late seating for this leg and early for the way back but found we enjoyed the late seating so much we changed that. Our only issue was by the time we got back from the 5PM movie and got dressed for dinner, all of the seats in all of the bars were pretty much full.

We enjoyed after dinner dancing in the Queens Room so much! We took daily ballroom dance lessons but the class was so full and short (45 min. including warmup time) it would have been so much better as a refresher for someone who already knew the steps. It didn't keep us from trying, though.

Our daily wake-up was coffee, juice and croissants from room service. It seems like an easy order but they only got it right a few times. No worries, though. We purchased the coffee card and had mid-morning cappuccino in Sir Samuels every day. We took advantage of alternate lunch in the Golden Lion a lot. I miss afternoon tea, but can't seem to convince my husband to wear white gloves and hover over me with a tray of pastries at 3:30 every day, dang it. We did the galley tour on both transatlantic legs. Don't be put off by the length of the line, it goes quickly and is very interesting. We did a wine tasting, which cost extra, but introduced us to three different wines which we eventually ordered at dinner. The wine list mark-up is probably equivalent to most restaurants. I had done my pre-cruise homework by searching for as many 'reasonably priced' bottles locally and we did Queen Mary wine tasting prep at home before we sailed. Difficult, I know. :-)

We took advantage of all of the planetarium shows, there were 4 in the 19 days. Yes, a lot of seats are broken but if you arrive about 10 minutes early, you should find good seats.

By the time we arrived in Southampton, I found myself SO happy we didn't have to get off with everyone else! We had booked Princess Grill for the short four day cruise and found out we had been upgraded to Queens Grill. Woo hoo! The room was gorgeous. We selected two bottles of spirits from the list and ended up taking them with us to our regular balcony room for the journey home. We requested a DVD player for our room and took advantage of it, even though the movie selection was tired. The Queens Grill food was some of the best I've had (and I've had some amazing meals).

I signed up for watercolor classes on the way home and kicked myself for not doing it earlier. The cost was $35 for the materials, the week of classes was free. The paints alone are worth $25 and there were probably $40 worth of additional materials provided. The instruction was very well done, and the man who sat next to me in class was 102 years old.

We experienced some wind force 10 days but the captain had the stabilizers out and we never noticed the dreaded white sick bags by the elevators that folks talk about.

The only hiccup in our trip was on the plane ride home. Our co-pilot never showed up for work so they cancelled our flight and told us we'd have to wait at least 2 days for another. Thankfully, my parents agreed to pick us up at midnight at a different airport almost 3 hours away. Thanks American Airlines.

So... first cruise ever... would we do it again? Evidently yes because we purchased future cruise credit while onboard. We will, however, take ballroom dancing lessons ahead of time.

Happy sailing!

We just did three back to back QM2 segments with a table for two request on each leg. We were allocated a table for four for the first, but were able to change it immediately. We found the maitre d' to be very accomodating.

Hi Jimsgirl, we received this yesterday from Cunard, hope it helps:

Dear Guest

I hope you are looking forward to joining us on board Queen Mary 2 this Saturday.

Please note that due to tidal restrictions Queen Mary 2 will berth slightly later than scheduled at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal Pier 88. In light of this, we would ask that you arrive for check in, an hour later than stated on your ticket.

We look forward to welcoming you on board. Bon Voyage! Yours sincerely,

Angus Struthers

Director, Cunard

Thanks so much, mariposa777.

Fantastic, thank you!

Thanks so much for posting these, what a treat! I am curious about the art events, there seems to be one every day. Do a lot of people attend these? Also, has anyone done a wine tasting and was it worthwhile?

Truly stunning, thank you!

Thanks much, brigittetom.

Does anyone by chance know if the scaffolding is currently still up/Grand Lobby still closed?

I just gave it a try and had no problem getting in.

Does anyone know if there's a wine shop within walking distance of the Manhattan terminal?