2 Crossing Report s from QE2 's Transatlantic voyage on May 24 2002

Review 1 - By Hall Coons of Maryland, USA

Many thanks to Hall for giving me permission to repost his review here.  Originally posted to the linerslist on yahoo.

I had the great pleasure of crossing on QE2 from New York to Southampton on the May 24th sailing. Thought you all might like to hear my observations about the ship and the crossing.

Well the one "word" to some it all up would be ... Wow... This was my sixth voyage on QE2 streching back to 1975 and she just seems to get better with age. I was travelling alone on this segment of my trip, but quickly made fast friends with my dining room tablemates and various other liners listers on board.

Upon arrival at the pier on May 24 (thru terrible NYC traffic and tight security everywhere) I got a
good overview of the QE2 at dock and the ROTTERDAM docked in the next pier. What a perfect contract of ocean liner to cruise ship. From the exterior the QE2's lines looked sharp as ever. However, I would say the exterior black hull paint is looking a little old... a few small spots of rust and elsewhere the ship looked like it had many multiple coats of paint. This was in contrast to my 2000 voyage on QE2 when her hull paint looked brand new, but then the hull had been sandblasted and repainted in late 1999. It would be good if Cunard could do a complete hull repainting again.

Upon boarding the ship things began to look up. My cabin 2094 on Two Deck was a gorgeous single with dark wood panelling and gold carpet and drapes. Maintenance of cabin and care of cabin steward were excellent. I first headed for the Queens Room for early afternoon tea. IMHO the Queens Room looks just great in its latest incarnation, although I fear I am in the minority in this view.

Things got even better when I discovered that I had been upgraded to the Queens Grill dining room. Originally I had booked and paid for a Caronia Single, got upgraded to PG grade at ticketing, and now
on ship got upgraded to QG. The Queens Grill dining room and associated Grill lounge were completely redecorated in December of 2001. I will try to post some photos elsewhere of these two rooms.
They now sport a color combination of mauve, blue, gold, and white. It all looks very nice, but IMHO the mid 1990's Black / White Queens Grill design was the best.

The Theme of this crossing was "Great Atlantic Liners". Lecturers on board included John Maxtone-Graham, Des Cox, and Stephen Payne. The Maxtone-Graham lectures were one of the crossings
highlights being both informative and amusing. Des Cox spoke of his late 1950's experiences on Cunard Liners. Stephen Payne gave two presentations on the new Queen Mary 2. Although Paynes lectures were excellent, he did not present any new information that I did not already know. Payne did not have deck plans to present, which obviously were available to somebody at this time. However, he did
give good information on the ships construction techniques and basic design.

Weather for the crossing was unusually good, it was sunny every day, never rained once the entire crossing to my knowledge. Temps were in the low 50's to mid 60's. So you could not ask for better
weather on a NA crossing. The QE2 was late leaving NYC, we left at 5 AM the day after boarding, so we had to make up time to reach So'ton on Schedule. This had the advantage of forcing us to go fast, average speed for entire crossing was 28.2 knots and on the first day we were sailing at 30 knots. One day of moderately rough seas which just added to the adventure in my opinion.

Overall interior maintenance of the ship was good to excellent. Queen Grill and grill lounge were all new and looked it. The Queens Room, Chart Bar, Crystal Bar, and Caronia dining room all look in fine shape and very sharp. The library is heavily used and chairs could use some new coverings. The Lido dining facility looks like the large Cafeteria that it is....do any of these Lido dining area look REALLY good on any ship ??? The small pavillion dining area could also use some new furnishings. But overall the interior rooms of the ship looked excellent. Exterior decks and superstructure paint were all in excellent shape. Keep in mind that QE2 is 33 years old, she does not look her age.

One of the highlights of this crossing was the whole Queens Grill experience. The Queens Grill has a certain "Glamour" that I just don't think you find on any other passenger liner currently in service. My well travelled dining table mates were a great pleasure at each meal. I took most of my breakfasts and lunches in QG, why go to the lido if you could be here ?? The food was impressive with items like Beef Wellington, Chocolate Souffles, Duck a'l'orange, chilled pineapple soup, and a great seafood pastry pie. Service from our Finnish and British waiters was top notch. Virtually all of the QG waiters are western european. Our Finnish waiter had been with the ship for seven years. I must say I was impressed with how everyone dressed for dinner in QG each night, the women's evening gowns were often knockouts.

To give an example of the atmosphere, at the table next to ours was a handsome twenty year old guy travelling with his mother (also beautiful). One night it was his birthday, and the fellas mother had John Maxtone'Graham come to their table to present the birthday gift, which was a gold rolex watch. Well that's the kind of thing you just don't see on the Carnival Spirit !! Des Cox sitting at a nearby table with his two teenage daughters was doing his best to hook up the eldest daughter with the rich American guy....and it may have worked. In any event the Queens Grill had top notch food, service, a fun group of passengers to dine with, and an overall atmosphere of glamour.

Nightly entertainment on QE2 has never been that good in my opinion, and this is still the case. The ship just does not have the showroom facilities like the new ships. I only went to one of the production shows and it was just okay. However, daytime entertainment is a different story with excellent speakers in the large theatre on past and future liners (described above) and other topics like the Concorde and Antiques.

One of the best things on a crossing is just settling down in your reserved deck chair on sun deck, reading a book, and enjoying afternoon tea on deck.

Met up with fellow liners listers Karen and Hans Sogenberger (sp?) one evening in the Princess Grill Bar for drinks. They were fun to meet and we enjoyed this small bar which is now open every evening
as a "champagne" bar. Also met up with another liners lister Barbara Huff in Chart Room bar one night for drinks, Barbara is on the ship until mid July.

We arrived on So'ton right on time early Thursday morning. The Queen had easily made up the time lost in the 12 hour delayed sailing. But for me the sailing was not really over, as I sailed with British friends the next day on CARONIA for a short five day European Cruise.

Review 2 - Crossing the North Atlantic - "Nobody Does It Better" by Karen Segboer

Many thanks to Karen for giving me permission to repost his review here.  Originally posted to the linerslist on yahoo.

Maybe someday soon, that musical question will be answered. The Queen Mary 2 is well on her way to completion, with first steel having been cut this past winter at the shipyard in St Nazaire, the keel ready to be put in place on our country's Independence Day and her first sea trials coming up this Fall. She will be ready to hand over to her owners from the shipyard by the very end of this year and should enter service by January 2004. The QM2 will take the place of the QE2 on the North Atlantic route when the QE2 goes to Europe permanently in 2004. There are plans right now for the two queens to pass on the North Atlantic only once in the new ship's inaugural season, which is a shame. Brochures with the routes and itineraries and rates should be available by the end of the summer for the new Queen.

The May 24th 2002 North Atlantic crossing from New York to Southampton took decidedly longer getting off than expected. It was Fleet Week in New York Harbor and security was tight as a drum. At first, when our ship was late leaving the Passenger Ship Terminal, we thought it might have been because of the delays and the traffic. Perhaps half the ship couldn't embark? Later we discovered that she had significant mechanical problems which required repairing a leaky condenser and kept us from leaving port until very early the following morning. I was sad for the folks who'd never taken that magical trip down the Hudson past Lady Liberty and under the V Narrows Bridge, past those skyscrapers that make New York gleam in the late afternoon sunlight. Unless they stayed up VERY late, they'd miss it this time.

Once underway, the ship turned on her charm. Captain Warwick kicked it up a notch or two by speeding up to an average of 28.5 knots every evening for the next few nights to catch up for the time we lost leaving New York almost twelve hours late. The QE2 handled just like only an ocean liner can. She plowed right through the North Atlantic and got us where we had to be on time. Although we heard about Force Twelve winds and high seas on the trip before us (QE2 coming westbound from S'hampton), our trip was smooth and without as much of a ripple. We had a few chilly days interspersed with a few bright, sunny ones.

This trip was themed "The Great Atlantic Liners" and offered such guest speakers as Australian maritime archivist and television producer Des Cox, John Maxtone-Graham and Stephen Payne with the Queen Mary 2 Project Team: Jeff Frier who is now the senior naval architect for Carnival Ship Building London and Deputy Project Manager Jean-Remy Villageois from the shipyard building the QM2 at St Nazaire. Retired Captain John Hutchinson was also onboard giving lectures on his days flying the Concorde and Shirley Stoler was a featured speaker, giving talks on handwriting analysis. I'm not quite sure what either of the latter had to do with the great Atlantic liners, but they were both entertaining.

Although booked in an outside M category cabin, we were graciously upgraded to a P3 cabin and were able to enjoy all the treats of the Princess Grill with our friends from Great Britain. I was able to catch up with all the Cunard news, as well as find out what's new regarding the QM2 during our long, leisurely dinners nightly. Stephen Payne made sure there was caviar each evening and Andrew Nelder, maitre d' hotel for the Princess Grill, held nothing at all back during our trip. This past week onboard was reminiscent of another trip we three did on QE2 a few years ago and very like our very first cruise together on the Rotterdam V back in 1991. We grew to gather at that table for breakfasts and lunches, too, just to pick up conversations where we'd left them the evening before. There's nothing like six full days at sea to really and truly relax and have time for continuing conversations with good friends.

To make our trip even more lovely, we were invited to join Captain Warwick in his cabin for cocktails several evenings. He was traveling alone this trip, unlike the last time we were onboard and had the chance to meet his lovely wife then. One evening held out an invite for drinks with Chief Engineer Willy Robinson in his cabin. On yet another evening we were invited to The Wardroom by the president and officers of the Wardroom for cocktails. In between, everyone was either planning or going to smaller, private parties nightly. On another visit to the Wardroom, we were privy to the Captain's and crew's questions to Stephen Payne regarding the QM2 after a presentation was given to them privately by the Project Team.

Back to our trip: I personally think the food and service on QE2 has gotten better, if that's possible, from my last trip onboard. She IS "simply the best", as the song goes. The Lido area continues to be one of the better run self-serve food areas at sea. In the dining room, we had our choice of a' la carte dining, what Cunard calls "Simplicity" dining - which means eating healthier - with such items as chilled fruit cup, grilled Dover sole, sugar-free parfaits and vegetarian specialties. Then there was the wonderful entrees: roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and lamb curry, Scottish salmon, game terrine, chilled devon stone crab, seafood pie with puff pastry, Dover sole on British night; on another evening, roast stuffed duckling, veal, rack of lamb, pastas, everything from English fish and chips to American style roast turkey. And the desserts were to die for: coffee and Kahlua mousse, marzipan and raisin stuffed baked apple, baked rum and raisin cheese cake, sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce, bread and butter pudding with orange marmalade and hot vanilla pod sauce, German black forest cake plus sorbets, ice creams, frozen yoghurts with sauces. And not a pot for me to wash afterwards or a menu to plan all week. A working wife's Nirvana.

The week was filled with information about the Queen Mary 2. I was able to look over some excellent and very real-life computer generated animations of the various cabins and public rooms on Jean-Remy's laptop. It's amazing what computers can do now in the making of a ship. As far as the regular outside cabins are concerned, to me they seemed a bit on the small side and somewhat narrow. With the darker paneling, they looked to be smaller than I would like a cabin to be. I wasn't impressed with these, but we shall see what they look like in person. We'll be "visiting" the ship in France during next February, but I'm not sure how far along building will be. It's proceeding quite rapidly, as it's all prefab and ready to go, being constructed in "groupings" of blocks.

The QM2 suites, on the other hand, looked exquisite - large, roomy and very originally designed as far as lay-out. There are several "double decker" suites, complete with spiral staircases, floor to ceiling windows and wrap-around decks. These seemed to be lighter and brighter in contrast to the standard cabins, which truly needed more of a light touch.

The public rooms run the gamut from a light and airy winter garden to a fully equipped business center, a planetarium and a university at sea. I'd never heard of a winter garden on a British ship, so I asked Stephen about that. He simply shrugged and said "why not?" Why not, indeed.

Back to the QE2. The ship is in fine form. I've finally gotten used to those high backed chairs in the Queens Room after missing the leather club chairs after the last refurbishment. The cabins continue to be well-maintained for an "older" ship. We spent much of our time in the Chart Club before dinner and discovered the excellent band
("Energy") in the Yacht Club towards the end of the trip for after dinner. Daily afternoon tea was up on the Sun Deck, where you could bundle up against the North Atlantic while sipping a hot beverage with sandwiches and sweets. Hans took advantage of the spa facilities and I got a pedicure. Our cabin stewardess was a sweet girl from Ireland, Orla, who took excellent care of us. I couldn't have asked for a better time, and I'm anxious to go again as soon as possible.

Our few days in London afterwards was an extra added treat. The night of our debarking, we all met back at the Payne house for dinner and reminiscing. Next day, we went to Harrod's (oh, that Food Hall!) That morning we spent on a Thames River cruise to Greenwich and did the British Airways' "Eye" before going to afternoon tea at the Savoy.

My usual question to myself after a cruise is "would I do it again?"

Yes. In a heartbeat. I just hope the new Cunarder is half as good as this ol' girl. I had a fabulous time onboard.

Karen Segboer