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Cunard Line

Queen Elizabeth 2

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Mark Miller
# previous cruises: 6
Date of Trip: August 17, 2001
Itinerary: Europe

Our first cruise on the QE2 took my wife and I from Southampton to Gibraltar, Majorca, Barcelona, Lisbon, La Coruna, Santander, and Bordeaux. We booked this cruise very early and got an astonishingly good rate for a Caronia class cabin. The ship is a beauty and the itinerary was superb...7 ports of call in 12 days is wonderful.

The public rooms of the QE2 are maintained impeccably. The most recent refit shows and, based on what I saw, the ship has a unified design concept that works very well. The Caronia restaurant epitomizes restrained elegance while making us feel that we were in a better class of restaurant than the Mauretania passengers. The Grand Lounge, however, is not a superbly suitable location for shows. The seating is not tiered appropriately enough and the room's sight lines are compromised by pillars.

The Queen's Room, while dated architecturally, is actually charming in its anachronistic design. The library and bookshop, while small, are outstanding. The bars are good and nicely maintained. One problem, though, is that too many events are scheduled in the Golden Lion Pub which is not suitable for either a large crowd or nonsmokers. The Yacht Room (disco) is very nice and comfortable. The pool deck is small, but it's nice to see that Cunard uses better quality rubber deck chairs on the pool deck and good old fashioned teak deck chairs everywhere else. The shopping area is sufficient - actually wish they had more QE2 souvenirs and variety available for purchase. The Heritage Trail is a nice touch showing displays of Cunard memorabilia.

The food in the Caronia restaurant was outstanding. The freshness and variety of the food was sufficient for my tastes. The presentation of the food almost exceeded the quality of the food! This was probably the first and last time that I'll be served on multiple plates with doilies or have a finger bowl presented for my usage - I'll never look at a sandwich for lunch the same way again! The food on the Lido was of uneven quality...the meats were overcooked, but the swordfish that I ate was as good as any restaurant that I have experienced. The midnight snack at the lido was also repetitive in cuisine and presentation except for the Grand Buffet evening. One note, though, Cunard should inform its American passengers that male diners in their restaurants are required to wear a jacket and tie each night. Our brochure led us to believe that there would be "casual" dress evenings. Fortunately I packed enough ties to get by, but I did pack some shirts (nice casual long-sleeved shirts) that never got worn due to the dress code.

Our cabin was classified as a "special value cabin" - these do not exist anymore which is a shame. Our cabin did have some shortcomings, but they were to be anticipated given the discount provided for our cabin. We heard the chains of the rope that ties the ship to dock at each port of call; our cabin was aft on one deck and was subject to significant up-and-down motion while on the North Atlantic and Bay of Biscay. On the plus side, everything worked, the beds were comfortable (but quite small), and there was plenty of storage space for our luggage.

The passenger list of 1775 people including 1450 british people (we're American) and the entertainment was decidedly British in flavor. Also, of those 1450 Brits, about 80% of them were elderly. Nevertheless the entertainers did put on a good show. Jim Bowen, the Hot Rhythm Orchestra, and Broadway Bound were all extremely entertaining. My wife enjoyed Tommy Bond (a young Liberace). The comedian/singers Bobby Davro and David Copperfield (no not the magician) were o.k., but very British in their humor. The guy (I can't think of his name) who plays three instruments has to go! Even the elderly were walking or wheeling themselves out of the Grand Lounge.

Except for one Cunard shore excursion, Cunard provided good excursions at a fair cost with first class vehicles. Their complimentary shuttle buses in and out of each town were well run as well. The ship actually is short of activities on days at sea - I'm not one of those guys that enjoys napkin folding or watercolor classes. There needs to be a bit more going on - whether it's more trivia contests, presentations, or even horse races at sea, Cunard needs to provide some activities for those of us who don't want to sit on a deck chair and read/sun all day

As stated earlier, the passengers were mostly British and elderly. We did meet some nice people from most age groups, but given the distance, we won't be having dinner any time soon with our shipmates.