Wonderful to cruise again!

[Mickb]

Just back from a short 3 day cruise on the beautiful QM2 - her first commercial voyage after more than 600 days of pause! It was simply wonderful to be aboard again. Check in with the COVID testing was a bit tedious but everyone did what they could to speed things along. We were in PG so we’re asked to arrive at the terminal at 12.30 and were in in our cabin by 13.45 and at lunch by 14.00. There were some glitches - the cabin heating didn’t initially work, the toilet stopped working during the second night - but these items were quickly rectified once reported and problems were to be expected after a pause of that length. We cruised down channel to Plymouth then across to France, then into Cherbourg for a day’s  stop and then back to S’ton. The food and service in PG was outstanding and it was obvious that the crew were delighted to be back with passengers. The second evening was a black and white gala evening and I would say that 90% of the passengers made a huge effort. It was a very glamorous evening. We are traditional and really enjoyed dressing up after 20 months of lockdown etc - Traditional Cunard at its best! Everyone wore masks moving around the ship and we saw no exceptions to this. We felt very safe.
We can’t wait for our next trip on QE in March.

[exlondoner]

Thank you for this report. It sounds a wonderful trip. Do you know what % full she was? And were there any signs of what had been done at the refit?

[57eric]

Thanks for posting!

[Marion B]

Mickb,

   It warms my heart to read this.  Thanks for posting.  We will be happy to sail on Mary's sister Elizabeth soon, but I am really waiting for the day when we board Queen Mary 2.

[Host Hattie]

Great to have a report from the first cruise back, thank you for posting.

[bluemarble]

3 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Do you know what % full she was?

 

I can answer that for the current cruises just underway this evening for both QM2 and QE. These are the counts reported to Southampton VTS by those ships.

 

QM2: 1578 guests + 1298 crew (≈ 59% guest capacity)

QE: 1329 guests + 1007 crew (≈ 58% guest capacity)