My full review of my short trip on QE2 - Festive Getaway E723 - Southampton to Zeebrugge - December 14th 2007 to December 16th 2007.

Arrived at the departures lounge by taxi and were guided by a Cunard lady to join the queue. Everybody else had checked in their large cases but we didn’t see what to do so just took them onboard ourselves.  This was more hassle, but also more reassuring as we didn't let them out of our sight!  Overall it was very like checking in for a flight.  However next time I will figure out where to put the bags!  From the upstairs viewing platform in the departures lounge at the QEII terminal, we got a wonderful view of our beautiful gigantic ship, home for the next couple of days.  There is an outdoor viewing area giving one of the best views of the Queen available anywhere - absolutely tremendous.  Most passengers didn't know you could do this.
 

Queuing to Check in for our 'Voyage'

Looking down from the viewing lounge to the main lounge

On the outdoor viewing area getting  my best ever view of the huge QE2.

We got a spectacularly NAFF photo taken while boarding - it would have been MUCH better to either use the ship itself as the backdrop, or to wait until we were in the beautiful Midships Lobby.  Arrival on board at the beautiful mid-ships lobby and, despite it being over 20 years since I’d been onboard, I got this odd feeling of being at home.  I instantly felt comfortable.  I’d been told about the harpist, but although the harp was present, there was nobody playing it.

The baggage steward took our cases and insisted on showing us to our cabin (‘stateroom’) despite not knowing where it was, I had to direct him but managed to take him right to the door despite my 20+ year absence. The cause for the confusion was that our cabin (2154) had been created in a refit in 1999 out of a former storeroom so didn’t fit into the normal numbering system for the ship.

Watching the QE2 take on huge amounts of food from the viewing area

QE2 Cabin 2154

QE2 Cabin 2154

One of my immediate strong sensations of being onboard (apart from excitement and joy), was of how similar her wood-lined long corridors felt to the original Queen Mary, which I’d visited 10 years previously in California. It was quite striking at times. The forward lobby outside our cabin, with the computer learning centre and its display cases outside was very reminiscent of QM1 indeed.

The cabin itself was beautiful and champagne on ice and strawberries were waiting for us, and the cabin TV was playing jolly Christmas music (that's going to be an abiding memory).  Looking more closely, there were some areas of the cabin that needed a bit of TLC and that a pernickety person might have been annoyed about, but not me, I was just glad to be onboard. We had some noise from the mooring equipment up forward on our deck and the shower temperature was a bit temperamental. 

We hung up our tuxedos and immediately headed upstairs because we were starving… our staircase took us to the Lido where there was a long queue of people already.  These were people who were used to normal cruise ships where this is the main dining option…. Not on QE2 though… we turned the corner and strolled straight into the middle of afternoon tea being served in the iconic Queen’s Room.  Absolutely fabulous.

Rob getting stuck into the cucumber sandwiches and a few cups of afternoon tea in the Queens Room

Me in Queens Room, with a vast plate of sandwiches, cakes and Scones in the background - all served by white-gloved waiters.

Me (hyper excited) and Rob in the Queens Room on QE2

At this point I was completely overwhelmed with pent-up anticipation, excitement and memories from long ago… it was all I could do to stop myself jumping up and down on the spot. The white-gloved service was impeccable, even when we asked for more than our share of the delicious (but small) sandwiches.

We had about 45 minutes before the emergency drill, so headed off for a quick explore. The Grand Lounge was something I remembered strongly and it completely bowled me over to be standing there again after so long. The sparkly ceiling had gone. The dramatic double-staircase had gone, the dance floor was covered over with chairs and I could see that the shops upstairs were more closed in at the sides than they had been, but it was still basically the same room as I remembered, and I was fighting away tears.
Memories were flooding back from nearly 21 years ago, and I have a terrible memory so this was an unusual sensation! I saw the Theatre for the first time ever and was rather bowled over by it too, it had a lovely quite atmosphere. We also found our restaurant for the evening – the wonderful, cosy Britannia Grill. The Chart Room looked lovely, and so did the Crystal Bar. The pub just felt wrong to me, completely not in keeping with the ships ‘feel’. At times it made it feel like a ferry. The smokiness from the Chart Room and pub was an issue too, and twice drove us away from this area.

QE2's 590 seater Cinema/Theatre.

Britannia Restaurant

Mauretania Restaurant

The boat drill saw us at our muster stations in the Queens Grill Restaurant – the best on the ship. I was impressed at how thorough this was and how everybody actually paid attention. I wasn’t particularly impressed at the Queen’s Grill itself though, I preferred our Britannia Grill.

The next thing we did was iron our shirts in the ship’s laundry – this was actually quite fun – I’ve never ironed my shirt on a classic ocean liner before! I presume this was an original room from the ships earliest days, it certainly felt like it. Having found this quite easy, we re-visited the next night too instead of using the in-room collection service.

QE2's Daily Programme for Friday 14th December, 2007, The Festive Getaway

Then it was time for sailaway from Southampton. We headed up to the bow. The atmosphere was almost like being at a religious service – very odd/nice indeed. The fog was making QE2 sort of glow in the darkness. This area of the ship was in simply amazing condition – the deck looked like it had just been laid and everything was spotless. There was a delay while a technical fault was fixed (an electrical breaker in one of the 2 mammoth 44MW electric motors) and I started to panic a bit that the trip might be cancelled… but we went to get some champagne from the yacht club and brought it back with us in time for the departure, following P&O’s Aurora (and later overtaking her).

We got some more champagne from outside the yacht club but it was getting too cold outside so we moved inside to get a proper look at the Yacht Club (vastly expanded since my previous 1987 trip).

Ironing my shirt in QE2's Laundry

Fetching some Veuve Cliquot from outside the Yacht Club for Sailaway

My first look at the 'new' yacht club

We then headed off to prepare for our first dinner on board... Informal, but still more formal than I'm used to!  And boy, what a dinner. Christina and Francis were our waitress and waiter and they were asbolutely exceptional. Our restaurant (Britannia Grill) only catered for 108 people, but we counted 13 waiters at all times, 3 or 4 wine waiters, a lady (Maria) dedicated to cheese and handmade chocolate (and breakfast pastries). And 2 or 3 maitre d’s.

Friday night dinner - our first experience of Britannia Grill - I had the smoked salmon (awesome), the tomato soup (awesome), the iceberg salad (fab) and the Haddock - which was truly mindblowingly good.	The menu from Saturday lunch - but we dined in the Lido - which was possibly a mistake, after reading this!

That evening was mostly spent in the lovely yacht club, having decided to give the dreadful entertainer in the Grand Lounge a miss… I was starting to feel that the Grand Lounge was more tacky than Grand. Not the room originally designed at all, and not the room it had been in 1987 either. The quality of the shops above it were also not a patch on the ones that had been there 20 years previously. The Chart Room, while nice, was too smoky for me and my chest infection.  I thought the Golden Lion pub was truly dreadful - bring back the Theatre Bar.

Day 2 and the first thing I did was to flood the bathroom due to the list the ship had to starboard (it was tied up to that side in Zeebrugge).  We had breakfast in the Lido - which was fabulous (freshly made omelette).  It was strange to be in this space on the ship - on my last trip in 1987, it had been a big swimming pool with a vast retractable glass roof (Magradome).  We then had a wander out onto deck.  It was sunny, with a clear blue sky, but only a few degrees above freezing.

QE2's Daily Programme for Saturday 15th December, 2007, The Festive Getaway

We had a bit more of an explore, and some lunch in the lido, but then my cold got the better of me so we ironed our fancy shirts for dinner and then I retired for a few hours before the gala formal dinner.

I wasn't feeling at all well after my rest, but I made it into my Tux and then to the dinner table - mainly so that I wouldn't ruin Rob's dinner for him.  I had a VAST bowl of tomato soup because it was the only thing I felt like, it then perked me up and I had some desert - some lovely crunchy apple and cinammon pastry creations in lovely ice cream, AND a second desert of Orange Sorbet.  It was then that it hit me that the first time I'd ever had Sorbet was in 1987  in the Mauretania restaurant on QE2.