Brief review QM2 sailing September 20-29, 2023

[terry&mike]

Below is a brief review of our sailing on Queen Mary 2, September 20-29, 2023, 9 nights, from Hamburg to Southampton and on to New York. 

 

This was part of a 5 week trip that began in Milan, Italy at the end of August, and included a 7 night sailing on the Azamara Onward from Rome to Venice. 

 

We were in cabin 5114, which is an Interior cabin with a window overlooking the multi-story lobby. We had noticed these windows last time we sailed, and were curious to try one. We did not use the window option much, keeping it mostly closed, but I did watch the Guest Chorus perform one afternoon from the room. With the cabin being on deck 5 and in the center of the ship, there is very little movement here, well placed when the ship gets in some rough seas.  The cabin was in very good condition, and we found that we had plenty of storage for our belongings. 

 

Our sailing was a special "Festival of Food & Wine" themed sailing, and had some very good speakers onboard on these topics. The entertainment onboard was quite good, especially an afternoon show from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company. 

 

We noticed a definate decline in service from our last sailing (August 2022). Things like repeatedly having to ask to have our water glasses refilled, pouring our own wine multiple occasions. On a formal night, I ordered filet mignon cooked medium rare, it came out as quite well done, I cut into it and it was dark brown, and showed the waiter who then showed me the little wood stick on the plate that said "medium rare". I then pointed out that even though the stick said that, the steak was obviously very well done. He took it back, and it came out 15 minutes later, and it was then medium to medium well (brown inside); I went ahead and ate it, as DH was nearly done with his main course by then. Another time, when I ordered my breakfast, then DH ordered his, I asked the waiter if I could add a bagel to my order, and was chastized for not ordering my bagel at the time I placed my order. It felt to us that the dining staff were tremendously overworked, and had lost the joy for what they were doing. The previously experienced personality and attentiveness of the dining staff were missing on this sailing. 

 

We had booked into traditional 6pm dinner seating, but when boarded had been allocated to Anytime dining. About 6 nights into the cruise we found a waiter who provided good service and was personable, and then we just kept showing up and requesting his section for the last few nights, and things improved greatly. 

 

The food was all good to very good, but we both found that many items tended to be overcooked. The lamb was almost always a good choice when on offer. 

 

We purchased the 6 bottle Captain's Collection wine package for $310.00, and found some good choices. 

 

After having sailed on Azamara 2 weeks before this sailing, the lower caliber of service on QM2  was very evident to us. We still very much enjoyed the speakers, entertainment, meals, and classic style of QM2. I don't think we will sail them for a port visiting itinerary, but when it comes to crossing the Atlantic, this will still be our "go to" ship. 

[Kynance]

@terry&mike - thanks for you review - I enjoyed reading it. 
I was interested to see you had a similar issue to the one we had in June on the QV. We had late seating confirmed on our booking but found we had been allocated anytime dining. We tried it for a couple of nights and really didn’t like it - after some polite persistence we did manage to get it changed but I’m pleased to hear you managed to find a good solution as well. Dining is such a big part of any holiday so if it is not working, it just casts a big shadow, especially for us as we don’t normally go to the shows so it’s the evening highlight. 

[NE John]

Your cruising history is quite extraordinary!

You have a lot of other lines to compare Cunard to. 

[renji]

Thank you for the review, we embark in Quebec and will be in 5112, so right across the hall from you.  I’m wondering if you had wifi access from the room?

 

We are with anytime dining but I thought that might be a bit more flexible for us. We loved it on QV this summer. You don’t remember the name of the waiter you liked, do you?

 

I got the refreshment package so am hoping we can each start the night with a bottle of sparkling water and that will avoid the refill issue…

[Pushpit]

11 minutes ago, renji said:

I got the refreshment package so am hoping we can each start the night with a bottle of sparkling water and that will avoid the refill issue…

If you are on the lowest priced soft drinks package ($10 / $12.50 a night) you get soda water from the bar's soda gun, and what I found is they would give that at Britannia meals in the large 500ml glass. On the $30/$35 premium soft drink package or above then you can either have that or the 330ml smaller mineral water bottles (Perrier / Harrogate / Hildon). Maybe if there's 2 of you then they would present the larger 700ml / 1 litres bottles but strictly speaking that's not in the packages.

[renji]

I am on the premium soft drink package—on QV they have us large bottles but I’m also fine with multiple small. We drink mostly sparkling water and coffee so that seemed the right approach. 
 

I made the mistake of the full drink package and thought the wines by glass were awful, so will put that $560 (80x7) towards a few nice bottles over the week.  I did the commodore collection and liked the chablis but not the sancerre or montagny, so would rather just have bottles I like.  Maybe I’ll find something in a wine store in Quebec…

 

 

[terry&mike]

33 minutes ago, renji said:

Thank you for the review, we embark in Quebec and will be in 5112, so right across the hall from you.  I’m wondering if you had wifi access from the room?

 

We are with anytime dining but I thought that might be a bit more flexible for us. We loved it on QV this summer. You don’t remember the name of the waiter you liked, do you?

 

I got the refreshment package so am hoping we can each start the night with a bottle of sparkling water and that will avoid the refill issue…

The wifi only worked in our room if we went and stood, or sat, up against the door. In the public areas, it worked very well. We were given a flyer that stated Starlink was available in public areas of the ship currently, and will be available in the rooms at a later date (December, I think?). We purchased the Premium internet plan. 

 

The waiter we liked was named Agung, and he works in traditional dining on deck 2, tables #314 and that area. As we had been mis-assigned to Anytime, we worked out with the traditional matre'd to come down to deck 2 at 6:25pm and see if someone didn't show up for Agung's section from the 6pm traditional seating. 

[Desert Cruisers]

This summer, we were on the QE for 26 days in Alaska.  Definitely noticed that all is not well when it comes to Britannia DR service.  Something was just off.  Not sure if it was low morale, poor training,  poor management, or a combination of factors.  My husband was also chastised - for not placing his cutlery properly on the plate so that the waiter would know that he was finished. 

[Winifred 22]

8 minutes ago, terry&mike said:

The wifi only worked in our room if we went and stood, or sat, up against the door. In the public areas, it worked very well. We were given a flyer that stated Starlink was available in public areas of the ship currently, and will be available in the rooms at a later date (December, I think?). We purchased the Premium internet plan. 

 

The waiter we liked was named Agung, and he works in traditional dining on deck 2, tables #314 and that area. As we had been mis-assigned to Anytime, we worked out with the traditional matre'd to come down to deck 2 at 6:25pm and see if someone didn't show up for Agung's section from the 6pm traditional seating. 

I had that table with twice on QM in August and September. Great waiter Agung  I think the other chap was Jose with him ? They had my preferences down to a tee. My soft roll would be waiting for me. Head waiter Roy great chap too. I just had the table for one as a solo. I am on again in November but he said he was going home for the dry dock and not back until December which is a shame or I would have asked for that table again. 

Edited October 1, 2023 by Winifred 22

[renji]

51 minutes ago, terry&mike said:

The wifi only worked in our room if we went and stood, or sat, up against the door. In the public areas, it worked very well. We were given a flyer that stated Starlink was available in public areas of the ship currently, and will be available in the rooms at a later date (December, I think?). We purchased the Premium internet plan. 

 

The waiter we liked was named Agung, and he works in traditional dining on deck 2, tables #314 and that area. As we had been mis-assigned to Anytime, we worked out with the traditional matre'd to come down to deck 2 at 6:25pm and see if someone didn't show up for Agung's section from the 6pm traditional seating. 

thank you, very helpful info!

[terry&mike]

2 hours ago, Winifred 22 said:

I had that table with twice on QM in August and September. Great waiter Agung  I think the other chap was Jose with him ? They had my preferences down to a tee. My soft roll would be waiting for me. Head waiter Roy great chap too. I just had the table for one as a solo. I am on again in November but he said he was going home for the dry dock and not back until December which is a shame or I would have asked for that table again. 

Yes, Jose'! I had forgotten his name. So kind and helpful. We really enjoyed them both. 

[Pushpit]

2 hours ago, renji said:

I am on the premium soft drink package—on QV they have us large bottles but I’m also fine with multiple small. We drink mostly sparkling water and coffee so that seemed the right approach. 

My preferred drinks are the same. I've found it hard to get the Premium Soft Drink package to pay its way, it's quite a lot of coffee needed to make it add up. You really need to be into the mocktails or the Fentiman drinks to get that to be good value. So either I just don't bother with a package at all - and I almost never hit $30 in a day - or make do with soda water on the cheaper package rather than mineral water, then pay as you go on the coffees. It would be nigh on impossible to get in $20 of coffee each and every day, I feel. The large 1 litre Hildon and Harrogate waters are only $4.50 including service fee, coffees around $5. 

[Thaxted]

11 hours ago, terry&mike said:

We noticed a definate decline in service from our last sailing (August 2022). Things like repeatedly having to ask to have our water glasses refilled, pouring our own wine multiple occasions.

Since you mentioned your less than stellar service in Britannia, I thought I should add we too noticed that service in the dining room was not as good as it has been in the past, especially at dinner. We had asked for a table for two for this year's July 6 crossing, but were seated at a table for four. The maitre d' quickly found another table for us, but our waiter seemed distinctly unhappy to see us. He never smiled and even the simplest requests, like coffee at the end of the meal, were met with a sour face, grumbles, and an occasional complaint. By a stroke of bad fortune, when we sailed home on August 11, we had the same waiter with the same attitude! Fortunately, his assistant was more pleasant and obliging. To be fair, the dining room seemed a bit short of staff, and anytime dining may have made it more difficult for waiters to keep track of their tables. 

[Classiccruiser777]

Presently onboard QM2 en route to Quebec. As with the OP, we requested first seating and told by our TA we had it but when we arrived onboard were told we had “anytime” dining. We don’t care for having different tables with different waiters each evening so will work to do what we can to minimize the randomness. Just our preference.

 

Overall the food and service is good, our cabin steward, Eugene, is excellent and the interior of the ship is very nice. The exterior is in need of serious work with rust being widely evident. I have always been impressed on how well maintained Cunard ships appear to be but this time QM2 is not up to par. In a few weeks she will be in the shipyard for some much needed work, the hull and superstructure will hopefully get sandblasted followed by a much needed coat of new paint.