Epiblog

No sparkling wine in our cabin when first boarded. It (half a bottle) came on 6th day.

A lot of TV channels in the cabin in different languages including German, French, Spanish and Japanese, but the best films and programmes seemed to be on the foreign language channels!

Slippers (mules) were supplied with bathrobes on request

The daily 'bugle' is a bit cramped in layout terms and not as user friendly as on other ships. Not much variety of activities on board

More courses at dinner than on P&O - starter, soup, salad, main, dessert, cheese and bics, coffee and petit fours - if you can eat it all!

Lovely silver cutlery, Wedgwood china. Proper glasses and fabric napkins in buffet

First Loyalty event was good - never been offered so many drinks. Second was less good maybe because we sat near the dance floor – or was it because our first voyage was considered to be part of the 2024 World Cruise whereas our return trip wasn’t?

Formal/themed nights were well adhered to, especially on the westbound leg and especially in the Queen’s Room

Very little Transatlantic merchandise was available on the ship

Service in the main dining room was very slow especially on the first night/morning

We never had to wait for a table for two.

We found that sitting near the front in the theatre makes for a far better experience

The jazz band was brilliant as was the party night in the Queen's Room

Finally if you want to sail transatlantic, QM2 is probably the best choice. She's built for it and copes well with rocky seas. Best to travel in the summer. We had no choice but to travel now as we had post COVID cruise credits to use up by a deadline but the weather was very iffy (cold and wet) which meant we didn't walk the promenade deck much or sit on the balcony

But it was worth having a balcony on our transatlantic adventure, if only to be able to enjoy a cup of tea overlooking Southampton on disembarkation day!

Keep Checking In!

I have more work to do on the blog - for example, there are videos to upload.

Although the Internet on board here is excellent, it still struggles to upload videos to Youtube (where they are stored for the blog) so I'll post them when we get back home.

Saturday 11 May

Our last day started in the usual fashion. After an OK performance in the morning quiz, packing commenced.  The weather was more pleasant today, but it was still a bit bracing for a walk around the promenade deck and we had packing to do and end-of-season football matches to watch.

We had a lovely salad lunch in the buffet.  As on most days we lost an hour at 12 so we were now on UK time.  Elizabeth dashed down to the Queen's Room to have a quick listen to Mark Ashford, the classical guitarist who dined with us a couple of nights before. It was then time for the ship's choir to perform in the atrium. They had an enthusiastic audience and were well supported by the four Royal Court singers who had trained them.

Guest choir giving a performance on the last day

The guitarist who joined us for dinner one evening

It was soon time for the final round of the Progressive Quiz. We knew we were in 4th place but our score was not enough to move us up the table. However we were then able to exchange the winning stickers we had for gifts and got a Cunard drawstring backpack and tea towel.

Our winnings as a result of our achievements in the onboard quiz

Assistance Dog - called Oakley - and yet I thought that Cunard didn't recognise them.  It could be that it's one of those dogs that warns its owners if he/she is about to have an epileptic attack or similar

We had an unopened bottle of Cava so we invited Veronique for a pre-dinner drink and then we had our final dinner which, true to form, was slow. It was then time to put out our cases for collection. 

Friday 10 May

Usual morning routine - bridge class and quiz. The quiz today was really hard.  Lunch was in the pub and Veronique joined us there.

Another ship - as we get nearer to civilisation ....

We had a relaxing afternoon but the weather was still really iffy. As usual we went to the Progressive Quiz. The questions suited us really well and we won!!

Tonight was our last gala night - the Masquerade Ball - so we quickly got dolled up and headed to the dining room. Again we ate with Veronique and again service was slow. However we made it to the show but had to sit near the front as we were quite late in. What an experience! The show - Broadway Rocks - was great and we found it particularly good as we were so near the performers. The company sang and danced their way through well-known musicals including Hairspray, Wicked, Tina, West Side Story and Bodyguard.

We then had a wander around the ship and came across a Jazz group - Dixieland Jazz. We reckon not to be big fans of jazz but they were amazing and we really enjoyed it. We weren't sure what to do next so decided to see the show again - that's a first for us and shows how much we enjoyed it first time round.

This time we were front and centre. The show was again brilliant and a little emotional for the cast as it was their last show and they would be leaving the ship in Southampton having been on board since November 2023.

Thursday 9 May

Another wet and miserable day dawned and the sea was a little rocky. Graeme went for his usual bridge session and Elizabeth found a comfy seat in the Carinthia to wait for the quiz. She had got at least halfway through the quiz before Graeme appeared, but we managed an acceptable 14/20.

Queen Mary

Champagne Bar

Disco in G32 from the upper storey

Main restaurant

Memorabilia on the walls and card/games tables

We skipped lunch today as we planned on having afternoon tea.  Elizabeth settled down in the cabin to watch Mamma Mia 2 only for it to stop part way through and a completely different film begin.  Elizabeth and the ship's TV are not best friends!

Queen's Room

King George V

Main Restaurant

Golden Lion pub

Illuminations - waiting for the talk to begin on the naval war between the US and America before war was declared

With Veronique

Queen's Room

Graeme went to a talk on the naval war between the US and Germany before war had been declared between the two countries.

Veronique joined us for dinner. A single man was on the table next to us so we invited him to join us.  It turned out he was an onboard musician - Mark Ashford, a guitarist from Market Harborough. We all had a good chat and, even though service was again slow, the meal passed quickly.

Golden Lion pub

The Chart Room

Main restaurant

Art Gallery - the route to use to get to the Queen's Room without going through the restaurant

We then went to the Big Band night.  We knew that Till Bronner would be playing his trumpet and we had heard that he was very good. He was late to arrive and only played two pieces and then had a break by which time we were ready for bed.

Wednesday 8 May

The excitement today was "An Audience With" and a Question & Answer session with veteran actress Anne Reid of "Coronation Street", "Dinner Ladies" and "Last Tango in Halifax" (among others) fame. She was wonderful. At nearly 89 years old her hearing and sight we're going a bit but she entertained us with humorous stories of her career and people she'd acted with. We were surprised/pleased to see how many Americans clearly loved her and the programmes she'd been in.

We had arranged to meet Véronique for lunch in the dining room and we had an enjoyable time chatting with her.

The Progressive Quiz was on a little earlier than usual. We were amazed to learn that we were in third place overall but we don't imagine that will be the case much longer.  Graeme then realised that he'd mislaid his beige jumper somewhere and that it could have been missing for up to two days. A bit of detective work led us to realise that he'd left it on the back of a chair in the pub and Graeme and jumper were once again reunited.

We went for an early dinner but it still took nearly two hours 😱 so we had to race to the 8pm show 'Rhythm of the Night' which was one of the best shows we've seen on a ship.

It was party night in the Queen's Room. We met up with Edwina and Sue from Derbyshire and had a good dance which meant Graeme could watch.  Some of the crew led the dance routines and we all had fun with YMCA, the Macarena etc.