ROLL CALL Queen Mary 2- New England Sept 2, 2006

[desirod]

David and Dave will be on board. We are looking forward to meeting other family and friends of family.

 

David

 

TSS Olympia

TSS Queen Anna Maria

SS Canberra

MS Stella Oceanis

MS Harald Jarl

Regal Empress

Queen Mary 1 [Long Beach]

Sea Breeze

Rembrandt

SS Norway

Pacific Princess 1

Queen Elizabeth 2

Queen Mary 2

Regatta

[crossingfan]

David

 

Jeff and I will be on this sailing as well. I have sailed on the QE2 4 times and am looking forward to seeing the new "queen".

 

Rick

[rienreiter]

Gentlemen:

 

I am not on your sailing. However, please be advised that Pied Piper also has a group on this sailing so there should be plenty of queens on the Queen.

 

Happy Cruising!

[desirod]

Hi Rick and Jeff,

 

The Commodore Club is often called the Commodorothy Club. From after dinner till midnight it is the place to be. Everyone then goes to G32 until the wee hours. On my 2004 trip we had 2 FOD parties.

[desirod]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=361456 a parallel thread in the Cunard section of cruise critic

[crossingfan]

David

 

Good to hear from you!! I am looking forward to meeting you and hearing about your past cruises and your opinion of the QM2. The Comm. Club sounds like a lot of fun. I love the design of the room and the view over the bow reminds me of the Observaton Bar on the first "Queen Mary".

 

Rick

[desirod]

Hi Rick, Here is my review reposted from July 2004

 

FLAVOR:

 

The ship itself and passengers she attracts are great. One really

gets the feel of a liner form the Golden Age that we associate with

the grand MGM musicals. Food and beverage staff is not yet up to

speed.

 

Telephone calls to Cunard before the voyage never got me the same

answer twice. At one point laughter broke out in the background and

unable to hear the customer service rep.

 

Bar service was bad everywhere and waited 5-10 minutes for a drink.

The Brittannia Dining Service was worse than my QE2 Mauretania

service of 6 months ago which was unfit for a Dairy Queen much less a

Cunard Queen.

 

THE SHIP;

 

She is large, and dwarfs the Carnival Victory docked next to her. QM2

is elephantine in scale and Stalinist in her proportions. Mussolini

would feel right at home on her.

 

The flow planning and layout is excellent. QM2 is bigger than the QE2

and SSNorway combined yet is much easier to navigate than either of

them, especially the QE2. There are 4 distinct stairtowers that cover

all decks and the freedom of choice reduces the feeling of being too

big. Unlike the QE2 all stairtowers lead to Rome. QM2 has as many

public rooms as a ship half her size, but they are scaled larger. It

rarely takes more than 5 minutes to get anywhere. The ship does have

an uptown-midtown-downtown feel as one goes from the bow to the

stern, the public rooms get more festive.

 

The décor is retro Art Deco patterned after the Queen Mary 1 with

definite design DNA. The spaces on deck 3 are patterned after the

Normandie with a huge gallery leading to the Britannia Restaurant

with carved relief panels descending from the Dupas originals. The

galleries tween decks are also a Normandie copy. However they are

useful and fun when traversing the Britannia Dining Room when closed.

At the bow there are Queen Mary 1 style long galleries to sit and

watch the ocean on a cold day. The Illuminations Planetarium is right

out of Radio City Music Hall. Queens Lounge has the ambience of the

SSNorway's Club Internationale with the Rainbow Room thrown in. I did

not use the Winter Garden. The Royal Court Theater is not as well

executed. The only rooms out of context are the shopping mall ersatz

Victorian Golden Lion Pub, and the G32 disco which is out of Las

Vegas. The fake wood used everywhere looked it. I wish they had used

laminate in a more imaginative way. Late Art Deco used laminate since

at the time it was an exotic material. Overall I wish QM2 was more

adventurous in its interior design.

 

The cabins are finished in light sycamore with dark accents. We had

an obstructed balcony double on Deck 8. The room was a good size, but

the bathroom was too small, smaller than the bathrooms on the

SSNorway N grade and QE2 M4. I used the balcony only to take

afternoon naps. At night, I would prop the door open, turn of the A/C

and sleep to the sound of the ocean.

 

Her deck space is excellent and plentiful. The tinted windows on the

wind screens detach one from the sea. The winds on Deck 13 can be

severe even at 15 knots. The 7 deck promenade gives the feel of a

liner. The aft terracing is quite graceful and well laid out. The

deck spaces get progressively quieter as one works their way to the

bow.

 

The podded propulsion system gives hardly any vibration at all. The

ships rocking motions are a slight jiggle; however we had very calm

seas. The last night we were hauling 26 knots with authority and

stability.

 

QUEEN MARY VILLAGE

 

The people on board were very nice and only a handful that should

have taken the Carnival Dysentery instead. The 4 day cruises bring

out the worst passengers and was not the case here. I did miss the

international flavor and the eccentrics that are usually on the

crossings like my QE2 voyage 6 months before. Passenger complement

was a full cross section of young, old, mellow and festive. There

were 200 kids on board of which some behaved better than some

seniors. There was plenty of activities for all and each public room

and activity automatically drew the like minded.

 

This is one of the first adult cruises not traveling alone. I had my

brother, sister-in-law and personal friend aboard. I did run into a

QE2 tablemate and Simon Lasky a QE2 musician. A neighbor from home

was also on board by pure coincidence, and a friend whom I met on

Rembrandterdam 4 years ago. My cabin steward Jeremy was also a

delight. He too was on the Rembrandt with me. Socially I was not

alone for a minute with my family, previously known friends on board,

and the lovely new people I have met.

 

 

GAY AND LESBIAN TRAVELERS

 

Cunard tends to attract the demographic group, more so than many

other lines. There were about 250 gay and lesbian passengers on

board; 55 from Peid Piper's partial ship charter. The Commodore Club,

nicknamed Commodorothy Club from 10:30 to midnight and the G32 after

midnight are the LGBT hangouts. There were 2 Friends of Dorothy

parties. The people ranged from tweedy intellectuals, Bohemians, to

GUPPIES, and Prada poufs. Everyone was friendly and the crew

attentive.

 

ACTIVITIES AND ENTERTAINMENT

 

There was more than enough to do and could not attend everything I

wanted to. I attended all 3 Bill Miller lectures, the musicians were

good all around. The Vegas style shows do not interest me so I cannot

comment. The ship really does not have a British flavor at all.

 

CONCLUSIONS:

 

The QM2 is a great piece of hardware that the hotel staff has not yet

learned to manage. What keeps me coming back to Cunard is the

wonderful passengers she attracts, and great cruise format,

especially on the crossings. What Cunard does well it does like no

other, when it screws up it does so beyond one's wildest imagination.

When debarking it felt like leaving a familiar home.

 

David

[crossingfan]

David

 

Thank you for the excellent and entertaining review!! One would think that after 40 plus cruises that it would become routine. Well I am over the moon about sailing QM2.

 

It appears from recent reports that the food and service have improved. We sail with Celebrity often and it will be interesting to compare the lines.

 

Have a great day.

 

Rick

[desirod]

General Cruise Critic meet and greet is:

 

Official "Meet and Greet" will be on Sept. 3 at 2PM in the Commodore Club on deck 9 - forward.

 

Some of us will also be in the Commodore Club on Sept. 2 at 10PM after 2nd seating dinner. Everyone is Welcome. After all there are so many toasts to make and so little time.

[Funatabi]

David,

I too enjoyed the review. And to repeat, I also have heard the food has improved, but I'll let you be the judge of that, as you re-visit the QM2.

 

I've only been on two cruises before when I was a lot (LOT) younger. Unforgetable memories so want to do it again--so I'm booked.

 

I haven't added our names to the parallel roll call list, as I'm not sure of how this "roll call " thing works and what to expect. Is there a special area where the CC people gather in the Commodore Club? How do we know what/who to look for? Skiming the names on the list it seems some "family" are planning to attend. I know with the Pied Piper Group there should be plenty of family onboard, although not many postings in this thread.

 

Also, maybe somebody knows if any FOD meetings are being planned??

 

I'm flying to the States, with the cruise the highlight of my vacation, so am looking forward to a great time and experience.

[desirod]

David,

 

 

Also, maybe somebody knows if any FOD meetings are being planned??

 

I'm flying to the States, with the cruise the highlight of my vacation, so am looking forward to a great time and experience.

 

The TV and the daily schedule list the FOD parties.

 

Looking forward to seeing you

 

David and Dave

[Bill and Ray]

Bill and Ray, with the Pied Piper group. Mostly following the "general" Cruise Critic board for this sailing. Will try to make all the FOD and CC events.

[desirod]

How many in the Pied Piper group?

 

We are looking forward to meeting you two. There will be a CruiseCritic meetup 2pm Commodorothy Club Sunday Sept 3.

 

David and Dave

[rienreiter]

Hi Guys:

 

Back in early July I posted in here informing that I was not on this cruise but there was a Pied Piger group on board. Well, guess what? My partner and I will be on this cruise after all. It was a sudden decision that we made in late July so now we are on along with some other friends of ours (gay and straight); a total of 6 of us. See you on board!

 

Regards, Juan

[Bill and Ray]

Juan, so are you with Pied Piper or on you own?

 

Desirod, we never know how big until we see it. The group that is! I think we've meet a David and Dave before, or was it Dave and David?

 

There are only so many hours in a day and this is a short cruise. Sometimes the schedules for CC, FOD and Pied Piper activities conflict.

[desirod]

You probably just met me, since I met Dave after my last cruise.

Previous adult cruises

Regatta Nov 2005

QM2 July 4 2004

QE2 Dec crossing 2003--Pied Piper

Love Boat-- July 2002

SSNorway--Easter 2001

Rembrandt--New England--Aug 2001

 

Were you on any of those voyages?

 

David

[rienreiter]

Bill and Ray:

 

We are not with Pied Pier on this cruise. We've never done PP. Have you? I have booked with them for the QE2 transatlantic on Jan. 2, 2007.

 

We are flying up to NYC on Saturday morning. Are you driving up or flying?

 

Regards, Juan

[Bill and Ray]

Desirod, No, I guess our paths have not crossed. At least not at sea!

 

Juan, We've done at least 12 Pied Piper cruises. We always have a great time. We have to fly, now that the pier is not walking distance from the train. At least not a short walk! JetBlue just started service from Richmond to JFK, and we have been happy with the price and service. Except for the price and time to get from the airport to the pier. We are also flying them to LA (Long Beach) in October (AARP and Elton John). We need to get to Ft Lauderdale for our December 30 QM2 cruise, but have not settled on a route for that yet.

[rienreiter]

What a coincidence! We are flying up on Jet Blue also. Jet Blue has very convenient and frequent service from Lauderdale to the New York metropolitan area (all 3 airports). We are arriving at JFK around 10 AM and taking a cab from there to the pier (I think; we might have the local people pick us up).

 

I visit the northern Virginia area frequently as I have relatives there and almost always fly Jet Blue from Lauderdale to Dulles. I've also flown Jet Blue from Lauderdale to Long Beach, CA when I went to visit other relatives south of LA. Don't have any complaints about Jet Blue.

 

Regards, Juan (in back to normal south Florida)

[desirod]

Packing:):)

[rienreiter]

Packed and going to bed. Have an early flight tomorrow morning!