No disappointments...

48 hours ago we returned off a 17 night voyage on the QE to the Med & Adriatic. Not been on a Cunard cruise since last October and as I've been reading some of the comments over the past 12 months about various aspects of Cunard - particularly many negative postings, I was not too sure how I'd find Cunard this time around.

I will summarise, we found Cunard to be once more a wholly excellent and top class experience:

Embarkation - immediate and faultless.

Stateroom - immaculate plus my wife's favourite - a tea tray.

Staff - pleasant, professional and well motivated.

Dining - excellent, prompt and first class service.

Food - varied, well prepared and of the highest quality

Entertainment - professional, beautiful costumes and a good variety

Lectures - great balance, well presented and most informative.

All in all, no criticism of any person in any area of the ship. A great cruise from beginning to end and we feel that Cunard could have done no more than to have made our holiday any more enjoyable than it was. We're not blinkered and have plenty of cruises under our belt as they say, but we have no complaints about the "Cunard Experience", yes a few differences, a few changes, but nothing to reduce or minimise our cruise. This can be confirmed by our booking for another Baltic cruise next year on the QV.

By the way, this is our personal view based on our experience.

That's excellent news, I'm so glad you had such a good time. Was that the QE2 50th Anniversary cruise ? I wanted to be on it myself but things didn't work out.

Were there many special events ? How were they ?

Were there many special events ? How were they ?

I was also on this trip. The whole QE2 thing was well handled. There were five designated QE2 days where the events were linked to specific themes. These were: Triumph of a Great Tradition, The Falklands, Moving in Royal Circles, I Name This Ship and The World's Flagship.

On each of these days, the speakers in the Royal Court Theatre - Chris Frame, Commodore Warwick and Maureen Ryan - addressed aspects of the theme. In addition, on the day itself, there was a Q&A, hosted by Paul O'Loughlin and featuring the Commodore, Maureen, Captain McNaught and Captain Hashemi, the current master of QE who is also a former QE2 officer. Every one of these events was very well attended.

On each of the days, there was a Gala Dinner with a commemorative menu which included some pictures and narrative around the days theme. There were also a number of Show & Tell events, where we were encouraged to come along and share stories about and memorabilia from the QE2. Messrs Warwick, McNaught Ryan and Frame attended each of these, as did Captain Hashemi. There was also one of these for former QE2 crew members - of whom there were quite a number. These were fascinating events with some great memorabilia being displayed and some remarkable experiences being related - including one man's view of the pre-maiden voyage 'shake down' trip, which didn't go entirely to plan, apparently.

On each of the designated days, there was also a QE2 Trivia competition in the Golden Lion. We had a cookery demonstration by the legendary Oldroyd brothers, which featured QE2 dishes. There was a Country Fayre and a QE2 Ball in celebration of the ship. There was some QE2 memorabilia which was available to purchase and a decanter set from the final voyage was put up for auction. In short, there was lots going on.

In my opinion, the anniversary was well handled and no QE2 enthusiast could have felt shortchanged. We were really glad that we were on board and able to celebrate - and remember - our favourite ship

Sounds wonderful, I'm even more sorry I missed it now. I'll just have to make more of an effort for the 60th !

Which Baltic did you book? We are on the 7/16 out of Hamburg on the QV.

Excellent. Thank you for posting your positive experiences. We are booked on the QM2 embarking TOMORROW!!! - Sorry, a little excited. Happy to read such a positive post.

I'd do my happy dance but I'm too busy doing handstands. :D