Inside Cabin, Brittania Class, QM2 Eastbound Transatlantic crossing review

[terry&mike]

1 hour ago, Jack E Dawson said:

Your travel story is an important one and a lesson we should all heed. I'm hearing similar stories from friends. What if you had been in Denver or Chicago instead of Washington DC. The old adage of arriving at the embarkation port the day before departure may need updating to 2 or even 3 days before if traveling by air. I can't imagine how physically and emotionally stressful the whole ordeal must have been for the two of you. According to the US DOT, if United couldn't get you there on one of their flights they have committed to put you on another airline that could. They are exempted if it is weather causing the delays/cancellations but I don't recall all of the NYC airports being closed for 2 days during that time period. You might have a reasonable claim against United for the added travel costs. Here is the link to the DOT web site.

Jack

https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/airline-customer-service-dashboard

Thank you, and I agree, had we been in our home state of Florida, this would not have ended well!

 

When we've been to a port city multiple times, we usually do day before fly in. I will say that going forward we will focus on 2 or more days before fly in, or at least until things normalize. I came home and immediately changed our flight in to Panama for next March to 2 days before sail away, rather than our previously booked day before. Even though the flight is direct and short, and should be no problem - lesson learned. 

 

Given the state of air travel currently, this sort of thing is happening frequently. We met a couple on board who were flying in from Richmond, Virginia, the day before the sailing, and arrived on the afternoon of the sailing, after 4 flight legs and about 20 hours of travel. We were in the Galapagos in March of this year, and 5 people were 2 days late joining the tour due to flight delays/cancellations. In the past, there have always been the occasional issue, but never anything like this. 

 

All of the airlines were having issues on the afternoon of August 4 for a storm that had rolled across NYC, and there were lots of cancellations. Could they have gotten some planes out later, I think in a pre-Covid world yes, and they would have. I feel that with the staffing shortages at airlines, baggage, and air control, and then with the planes not coming in to turn around, they used weather as the reason as this saves them money.

 

On the morning of August 5, our cancellation notification stated "Operational Issues", but 30 minutes later we received a cancellation notification stating "Weather". We noticed on the display boards that several airlines had cancelled a couple of morning flights already, and so were not interested in getting moved over to another airline and taking the chance of playing the delay/cancellation game while sitting still. We felt our time was running out and we needed to be pro-active. 

 

As to the money, we filed a claim with our Chase Sapphire Reserve card for Trip Delay/Interruption and will likely be compensated. We've already received the money back from the plane tickets that were cancelled, so financially all is a wash. 

 

Someone mentioned booking flights with the cruise line, but this would not have gotten us to the ship, merely gotten us our money back for the Cunard sailing if we didn't make it, which was not our focus. Our goal was to be on the QM2 transatlantic sailing and enjoy that experience, and also to board our next ship departing from Southampton a week later.

[Bedruthen]

#21

 

We are having a few days in Washington before our Transatlantic next month. We have a train booked to get us to New York, but I will certainly make a note of your resourceful solution, should we encounter any delays. Congratulations on making the crossing, but what a nightmare!

[butterfly55]

On 9/3/2022 at 4:06 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

Thanks for an interesting review and photos.  Do you have any pictures of when you had tea?

 

The over the head of the bed storage areas, I noticed, were present.  Have seen this concept on other ships (most over the sofa, if there is one--Celebrity and HAL).  How is one supposedly to make use of these, safely?  

Thank you for your very informative post and pictures. I am thinking of booking a 13 night cruise over Thanksgiving so you gave me great information. QM2 has been a dream of mine for years and the cruise I am looking at is such a great price.

I think that is a great idea of the overhead storage area. I have a diary and books I read plus my husband and I both have kindles so that might be nice for that. With the lamp in the night stands, there is usually not enough room for all of that. Plus do they give out a daily paper with all the activities and information on it? It will be a good place for that also.

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by butterfly55

[terry&mike]

10 hours ago, butterfly55 said:

Thank you for your very informative post and pictures. I am thinking of booking a 13 night cruise over Thanksgiving so you gave me great information. QM2 has been a dream of mine for years and the cruise I am looking at is such a great price.

I think that is a great idea of the overhead storage area. I have a diary and books I read plus my husband and I both have kindles so that might be nice for that. With the lamp in the night stands, there is usually not enough room for all of that. Plus do they give out a daily paper with all the activities and information on it? It will be a good place for that also.

 

They do give out a daily program with the activities and information on it. I found it to be a very good example of one of these ship programs because it had all of the necessary information in a time line order, but it also had some larger feature boxes promoting certain speakers or performances with some extra details. When we switched ships to Princess their program gave only the time line for entertainment, such as Don Downey or Paul Baker, 7pm and 9:30pm - if you don't know these people, you don't know that in the first case they are singing folk music and the second case Broadway tunes. Both ended up being good, but it would be nice to have an idea. Most of the mass market ships are using their programs to market things for sale such as Spa Specials, Events in the Shops. It was nice to have an actual program on Cunard with details. I will try to attach some photos below. 

[butterfly55]

Thank you Terry and Mike. I can't make them bigger to actually read them but I can see that they look very informative.

[Host Hattie]

There are some examples in the Welcome sticky at the top of the board

[butterfly55]

I don't see the Welcome sticky.

[BklynBoy8]

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2116229-welcome-to-the-cunard-board-here-are-some-useful-links/?do=getNewComment

[2BACRUISER]

7 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

There are some examples in the Welcome sticky at the top of the board

A lot of them no longer work and just take you to an error 406 page. I found this when I was doing research for my cruise. It may be my chrome browser and it's possible they may have been updated since then.  Most just take you to the FAQ page. 

Edited September 7, 2022 by 2BACRUISER
Add info

[Host Hattie]

The link to 2022 Daily Programmes takes you here 

https://morethangetaways.wordpress.com/m219-programs/

 

 

 

[rakkor]

I've daily programmes from March uploaded on my blog under the daily programmes menu

 

https://blog.rakkor.uk/blog/daily-programme/q208n-northern-lights-march-2022/

 

 

[wynkys]

Thank you for a very positive and informative review especially after your stressful journey to the ship.

[butterfly55]

On 9/3/2022 at 7:25 AM, terry&mike said:

Hello all, although we are only returned from our trip a couple of days and still catching up on life, I thought I should get something on the boards based on the recent conversation about no comments from Brittania passengers.  

 

A short bit about us, husband and I are 62 and 57, retired, live in the Sarasota/Bradenton area of Florida. We take 4-6 international trips per year, and travel by land and sea. We have visited more than 100 countries and have been on more than 40 cruises. We have cruised on many different lines from the small ships of Ponant and SeaDream to the larger ships of the mass market lines like Princess, and even a couple of goes on Carnival. Our favorite size ships tend to be the 700-ish passenger size ships of Azamara, Oceania. We have sailed in all types of cabins from Interior to Suites, with Balcony cabins tending to be our go-to.

 

We sailed the August 5-12, 2022, Eastbound crossing from NYC to Southampton, in an Interior cabin #5030 on the Queen Mary 2. This was our first Cunard sailing, and our first transatlantic sailing. This was part of a longer trip that had us start in Washington, DC to visit my Mother for her birthday. Continue on to NYC, then join the ship. We disembarked QM2 in Southampton on Aug. 12, and boarded the Island Princess in Southampton on the same day for a 16 night sailing visiting England, Ireland, Iceland and Greenland, returning to Southampton on August 28. A few days extra in England, and then back home to Florida.  

 

We showed up at the Red Hook pier in Brooklyn via Uber around 2:10p for boarding; we had a 2:45p time slot on our boarding passes. The line was long, but it moved along relatively quickly, and we were onboard in about 45 minutes.  We felt it was handled well, and things seemed organized. 

 

As I was becoming a bit "hangry", we proceeded directly to the buffet to grab something quick to eat. In the overload of boarding, being hungry, etc, I don't recall my impressions of the buffet, only that I loved the sleek and clean decor, and that it worked well for getting something to eat. We then went to our cabin, and found our 2 bags waiting. Our room attendant came by and introduced himself, and showed us the cabin amenities. We were very pleased with the cabin, although small and an interior, it felt cozy rather than claustrophobic.  The decor was lovely, with pale woods, and white linens dressed out in the standard blue and gold accessories.  The bed was a King, which was incredibly comfortable, some of the best sleep we've had at sea. There was one sitting chair with a small round table, and a desk chair at the desk area. I felt the storage to be above average for a small cabin, and had no problem placing our things about in an organized manner. There was a coffee/tea setup, which we used daily.  There was a full bottle of Pol Acker sparkling with 2 glasses chilling in the mini fridge.  The bathroom was small, but again, very good storage. There was a small shower stall with curtain, and Penhaligon's toiletries.  

 

We dined every night in the Brittania Dining Room, 6:00pm early seating, on the upper level to the left as you enter, at a table for 2.  We found the service to be excellent from both the waiter and the wine steward, always very attentive. We thoroughly enjoyed the food, and found only 1 dinner to be "meh" with the others being very good to excellent.  We also dined in Brittania for most breakfasts and/or lunches, as we are not big fans of buffets. We were always able to find something on the menu that appealed to us. We purchased the 6 bottle wine package at $299, and enjoyed one bottle each night with our dinner, plus purchased a 7th bottle individually. We were happy with this choice, and found the wines on this package to be enjoyable. We dined one night at the Steakhouse, and found it worth every penny. A beautiful space with elevated service, and wonderful menu selection. We had pre-dinner cocktails a couple of nights in a couple of the different venues, and found the service very efficient, and the drinks made well. 

 

We loved the Queen Mary 2. More of an ocean liner feel than a cruise ship feel, we enjoyed the elegance of the decor in the public rooms, the art on display, the historical memorabilia of the Cunard line, and the high end finish outs. I took full advantage of the activities onboard including the Planetarium, an afternoon play, interesting lectures, and so on. I read every scrap of historical photo or fact posted from the lowest deck of the ship where the crew "High Street" is to the highest deck of the ship where the cabin doors and hall light fixtures are notably more posh. I expected to be bored at some point during the sailing, but was quite busy.  Hubby took a few naps, read, relaxed mostly. We attended afternoon tea together one day and loved it. Also walked some laps on the deck one day, and visited the gym on another day. A few nights we went to the shows after dinner and found them entertaining. 

 

Our theme nights were Red and Gold, and Roaring 20's. We brought along appropriate semi-formal wear for those evenings and were happy we did. The other evenings we wore clothing we would generally wear for a nice dinner out in Sarasota. In the day we wore casual to smart casual clothing. 

 

Our crossing was mostly uneventful, with one medical emergency during the middle of the night on Day 2 where a passenger had to be airlifted via helicopter off the ship and flown to Halifax.  

 

We enjoyed our sailing so much that as soon as we returned I booked us on a 14 night Canada and New England sailing for 2023 on the QM2. On this sailing we will be in a BB Balcony on Deck 11, as we think there will be some scenery that we will want to appreciate from our balcony.  We are also trying the later 7:45pm seating. 

 

Please let me know if you have any questions, and I will try to answer them. 

Thank you for your extensive review. I was quite interested in it because I will be in an inside cabin on the 5th level and wondered what our room will be like. I am traveling in QM2 next month for 13 nights to the Caribbean. As you know there are very mixed reviews on CC regarding the ocean liner. QM2 has been on my bucket list since it was built and even though we are traveling at the end of the hurricane season, the price was too good to pass up.

How did you find the toiletries and what ones are included other than shampoo? What about soap for the sink? My husband and I both have sensitive skin so try not to use toiletries with perfume in them.

How prevalent is mask wearing? What about required hand sanitizing?

[BklynBoy8]

10 hours ago, butterfly55 said:

Thank you for your extensive review. I was quite interested in it because I will be in an inside cabin on the 5th level and wondered what our room will be like. I am traveling in QM2 next month for 13 nights to the Caribbean. As you know there are very mixed reviews on CC regarding the ocean liner. QM2 has been on my bucket list since it was built and even though we are traveling at the end of the hurricane season, the price was too good to pass up.

How did you find the toiletries and what ones are included other than shampoo? What about soap for the sink? My husband and I both have sensitive skin so try not to use toiletries with perfume in them.

How prevalent is mask wearing? What about required hand sanitizing?

 

During our recent sailing I will assist you with our experiences.....

Our location was Deck 10 Mid Ship Princess Grill.....

We actually were sailing from NYC in the hind portion of the Hurr Fiona....

 

We had Body Lotion, Body Wash, Shampoo, Conditioner, Hand Soap. They also on request gave my DW bar soap that she liked very much. It was not perfumed that I detected.

 

Hand Sanitizing containers all over. Every Restaurant had a Crew Member with a Bottle offering you to Dab on the hand. But in all other Public Areas there were plenty of stand with HS's available.

 

Masks were very noticeable and worn by many and of course also not worn by those. We personally took enough for the 14 days 2x to change each day and extra. The ship will supply you masks but the grade Hospital/Drug Store Grade. They worn KN95 like we took with us.  

[terry&mike]

20 hours ago, butterfly55 said:

Thank you for your extensive review. I was quite interested in it because I will be in an inside cabin on the 5th level and wondered what our room will be like. I am traveling in QM2 next month for 13 nights to the Caribbean. As you know there are very mixed reviews on CC regarding the ocean liner. QM2 has been on my bucket list since it was built and even though we are traveling at the end of the hurricane season, the price was too good to pass up.

How did you find the toiletries and what ones are included other than shampoo? What about soap for the sink? My husband and I both have sensitive skin so try not to use toiletries with perfume in them.

How prevalent is mask wearing? What about required hand sanitizing?

I would not worry about the hurricane season issue, ships are great at altering itineraries to avoid major storms when they are a factor. 

There was shampoo, conditioner, body wash and body lotion. I requested bath soap and was given some from the room steward. I also have sensitive skin and none of the products irritated me. They had a very light scent that was not cloying. 

We found mask wearing to be "some did, some did not". And we found crew members with hand sanitizer at the entrance to the dining venues. 

I'm very excited for your cruise. We enjoyed QM2 enough that when we returned we booked again for 2023. We booked a 9 night transatlantic crossing for late September, in an interior cabin that has a small window that looks over the lobby; and then we will stay on the ship and move to a balcony cabin for a 14 night Canada and New England sailing. 

[butterfly55]

10 hours ago, BklynBoy8 said:

 

During our recent sailing I will assist you with our experiences.....

Our location was Deck 10 Mid Ship Princess Grill.....

We actually were sailing from NYC in the hind portion of the Hurr Fiona....

 

We had Body Lotion, Body Wash, Shampoo, Conditioner, Hand Soap. They also on request gave my DW bar soap that she liked very much. It was not perfumed that I detected.

 

Hand Sanitizing containers all over. Every Restaurant had a Crew Member with a Bottle offering you to Dab on the hand. But in all other Public Areas there were plenty of stand with HS's available.

 

Masks were very noticeable and worn by many and of course also not worn by those. We personally took enough for the 14 days 2x to change each day and extra. The ship will supply you masks but the grade Hospital/Drug Store Grade. They worn KN95 like we took with us.  

Thanks for your reply.

[butterfly55]

1 hour ago, terry&mike said:

I would not worry about the hurricane season issue, ships are great at altering itineraries to avoid major storms when they are a factor. 

There was shampoo, conditioner, body wash and body lotion. I requested bath soap and was given some from the room steward. I also have sensitive skin and none of the products irritated me. They had a very light scent that was not cloying. 

We found mask wearing to be "some did, some did not". And we found crew members with hand sanitizer at the entrance to the dining venues. 

I'm very excited for your cruise. We enjoyed QM2 enough that when we returned we booked again for 2023. We booked a 9 night transatlantic crossing for late September, in an interior cabin that has a small window that looks over the lobby; and then we will stay on the ship and move to a balcony cabin for a 14 night Canada and New England sailing. 

Thank you terry&Mike. My husband is afraid we will like it that much also and only want to go on QM2 or the other Cunard ships.😂

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, butterfly55 said:

Thank you terry&Mike. My husband is afraid we will like it that much also and only want to go on QM2 or the other Cunard ships.😂

This can be a very expensive mistake.😀 We first went on Cunard in1997, and loved it, and our bank balances have never recovered.

[IB2]

On the TA just completed, a batch of guests had a horror story to tell about their arrival at JFK, the failure of the Cunard transfer and their almost missing the ship.  I won’t post any more details since it was a tale told over dinner and I am not sure I would remember the details correctly.  But staying in NYC or Southampton (or Hamburg) the night before the crossing starts seems much more sensible than risking flying in on the morning of sailing.