Left:
The Queen Mary 2 towers above her terminal at Southampton,
just hours before sailing for New York....
"The only way to cross". Queen Mary 2 at Brooklyn,
New York...
Scheduled
ocean liner service between the USA & Europe...
Even today, Cunard maintain a scheduled transatlantic passenger service
between the UK and the United States, with at least
one sailing a month in each direction between Southampton &
New York from April to November, usually now taking 7 nights. You'll travel aboard the
largest ocean liner in the world, Cunard's Queen Mary
2 (QM2). 'Getting there is half the fun' - it's easily the
most civilised, romantic and exciting way to arrive in New York...
Crossing the
Atlantic by ocean liner needn't cost much more than a
business-class flight, as fares
for two people sharing the cheapest 'Britannia' stateroom start at
as little as £969 per person each way, children
from around £470 each way. And this includes 7 nights
accommodation, all meals & entertainment. However, prices vary enormously,
on popular summer crossings it can cost more, on the other
hand you can sometimes find
special offers from as low as £698.
Naturally, for millionaires the QM2 has more luxurious
suites, costing tens of thousands.
A transatlantic
journey on the QM2 isn't a 'cruise', it's a 'crossing', and
many people use the QM2 as their preferred mode of
transport between Europe & the United States. The Queen Mary 2
is no mere 'cruise ship', but a real ocean liner built with
the extra strength & power to withstand the rigours of the
North Atlantic in all weathers. The 2003-built QM2 took over the transatlantic service
in 2004 from Cunard's 1967-built QE2. This page has all
the practical information you need to plan, book and make a
transatlantic trip on the Queen Mary 2.
2013 transatlantic sailings:
Sailings for 2013 to be confirmed.
All crossings are
now 7 nights. The Queen Mary 2 usually
sails from Southampton at 17:00, arriving in New York 7 nights later at 07:00.
See
www.cunard.com to confirm dates & times and the
departure terminal in Southampton, as she uses several
different ones. * = Transatlantic sailing operated
by Queen Victoria, not Queen Mary 2.
2013 transatlantic sailings:
3 January, 30 March*. Sailings for the rest of 2013 to be confirmed.
The QM2 usually sails
from New York Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at 17:00, with check-in opening at 13:00 and
closing at 15:45. She arrives in Southampton at 06:30
seven nights later, although the odd sailing only takes 6 nights. See
www.cunard.com to confirm. * = Transatlantic sailing
operated by Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth, not Queen Mary 2,
taking 8 nights not 7.
Cunard one-way fares for 2012
transatlantic crossings:
Travelling as a couple or solo?
Inside
Britannia
Oceanview Britannia
Balcony
Britannia
Princess Grill suite
Queen's
Grill suite
Two passengers in 2-berth cabin, per person:
From £969
From £1,169
From £1,219
From £2,719
From £3,569
One passenger with sole occupancy:
From £1,868
From £2,218
From £2,306
From £5,668
From £7,368
Inside = cabin
without
window, Oceanview = cabin with porthole, see the
cabin accommodation guide. All other
staterooms & suites have a balcony, except the two Q3
Royal Suites.
Britannia =
allocated to the Britannia restaurant for meals.
Princess or Queen's Grill = allocated to the superior Princess
or Queen's Grill restaurants for meals.
How to find
cheaper tickets: You'll often find cheaper fares
if you buy your tickets from a cruise specialist such as
www.cruise.co.uk, which now has
online booking for transatlantic crossings
and cruises. Agencies such as cruise.co.uk can save perhaps £100 per
person or more off the official Cunard price, and you'll
also find cheaper fares if you shop for last minute deals and
late-season crossings, as
low as £799 or better, for example. However, be aware that in high summer
transatlantic sailings can get full many months in advance.
Round trip
fares: There are special 'round trip'
fares covering two back-to-back crossings with just 1 day in
New York, but if you plan to spend more than a day at your
destination you'll need to pay one-way fares each way. In
other words, for all practical purposes a round trip on the
QM2 means
buying two one-way tickets.
What does the
fare include? All Queen Mary 2 transatlantic fares include
your cabin accommodation, all meals & afternoon tea, on-board
entertainment such as shows, lectures, films, access to the
swimming pools & library, plus the tea, coffee & juices
available in the Kings Court self-service. The fare does
not include alcoholic & non-alcoholic drinks served in
bars or at meals, Canyon Ranch Spa access & treatments, or
internet access.
Also, a 'discretionary' fee
of around $11-$13 per person per day will be added to your on board account each
day as a gratuity for staff.
However, you can
also buy tickets direct from Cunard. UK & European residents can
check prices & buy tickets online at
http://book.cunard.co.uk or by calling 0845
678 0013. US & Canadian residents can
book online at
http://book.cunard.com
or call 1-800-7-CUNARD.
Ticketing arrangements:
Whether you book direct or through an agency, Cunard will send
you pre-voyage documentation including luggage labels, and you
will be given a log-in for a personal area on the Cunard
website. About 30 days before the sailing date you'll be
able to log in and print off an e-ticket for each passenger.
Don't worry if you don't manage to print off the e-ticket, as
long as you have some proof of booking you'll be fine for
entering the terminal and once at the check-in desk they will
have your booking on their system.
Visas: Remember that UK
citizens must go to the US State Department ESTA website at
https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov to obtain 'pre-approval' for
travel to the USA under the visa waiver system. This was
free of charge until recently, but a small $14 charge will be
made for this (about £9) as from late 2010. Although they
still call it a 'visa waver' programme, having to fill in a
form and pay a fee to obtain approval to visit sounds mighty
like a visa!
A journey from London to New York...
Take a fast train from
London Waterloo: Cunard no longer organise a 'boat train',
but fast
air-conditioned electric trains link London's Waterloo
station with Southampton Central every 30 minutes, journey
time 1 hour 17 minutes, fare £33.90. There's one at
12:05. A taxi to the
QM2's terminal costs around £7-£10.
Boarding the Queen Mary 2
at Southampton:
The Queen Mary 2 towers over her terminal in Southampton.
This is the City Cruise Terminal, but she can also use the QEII
Terminal, the Mayflower Cruise Terminal, or the new Ocean
Terminal. Check which
she will use for your crossing. Check-in is usually
13:00-16:00, sailing at 17:00...
Rounding the Isle of
Wight... After
dinner, the sun sets over the Isle of Wight as the Queen
Mary 2 heads for the Atlantic...
At sea on the North
Atlantic... Always
changing, sometimes foggy, sometimes sunny, sometimes
smooth & glassy, sometimes grey and brooding.
Each crossing is an epic voyage of 3,150 nautical miles
(3,625 statute miles), taking 7 nights.
The QM2 approaches the
Verrazano Bridge: In the
pre-dawn glow, small fishing boats are sighted, then the lights of Long Island
come
into view. The Queen Mary 2 heads towards the
Verrazano Narrows suspension bridge at the entrance to New
York harbour. It's not yet 5am, but the forward
decks are crowded, voices hushed in anticipation...
Under the Verrazano Bridge:
Cameras click as the Queen Mary 2 clears the Verrazano
Narrows bridge with just a few feet to spare above her
funnel and enters New York harbour...
Sunrise over Manhattan!
Once under the bridge, that famous New York skyline comes
into view, lit by the dawn glow...
Statue of Liberty:
The Queen Mary 2 passes the famous Statue as she turns
into the Brooklyn terminal...
Queen Mary 2 arrives in
Brooklyn:
The Queen Mary 2, just arrived in New York at the Brooklyn
Cruise Terminal at 07:00. Plenty of yellow cabs are
available, you can be ashore in Manhattan by 10:30, taxi
fare $35-$40..
All aboard for Europe!
Take a Yellow Cab across the Brooklyn Bridge to board the
Queen Mary 2 at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
The Queen mary 2 towers high
above the terminal. Check-in is usually 13:00-15:45,
and she sails at 17:00. Settle into your
stateroom or suite, then head up on deck for departure.
Sailing from New York.
The Manhattan skyline disappears astern, the Statue of
Liberty passes to starboard, a calypso band is playing and champagne
available on the QM2's after decks...
Inches to
spare... The QM2's funnel inches under the
Verrazano narrows bridge with just 10 feet to spare.
Incidentally, one of the QM2's two funnel-mounted Tryfon
horns (the starboard one) is borrowed from No.2 funnel on the original Queen
Mary, the QM2's other horn is a modern copy...
Out into the North
Atlantic... The band's playing and
champagne still flowing as the 'Mary heads out into the
Atlantic...
A smooth crossing.
Some days the Atlantic is grey and brooding, others
it's smooth and
glassy, some days are sunny, others foggy with the 'Mary's
foghorn booming out a warning...
Arrival at Southampton
at the QEII terminal. The original Ocean Terminal
where the first Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth and even
the Titanic docked is just around the corner, beyond
and to the right of the red-hulled ship in the far
background...
Take a taxi to the station (£7-£10) and the
next fast train to London Waterloo. They run every
30 minutes, journey time 1 hour 20 minutes, fare £33.90,
first class £57.70, no reservation
necessary, just buy a ticket at the station & hop on the
next train.
Welcome to London!
Here is the
'typical' transatlantic timetable, port transfer & journey information for most
westbound QM2 sailings. Although they normally follow this pattern, please check the
sailing time & check-in times for your specific date when you
book. If you find that something has changed, please
let me know. If
you plan to travel eastbound, see the
Eastbound information.
Are westbound or eastbound crossings better?
Train
connection from London to Southampton...
A fast train leaves London
Waterloo at 12:05, arriving at Southampton Central at 13:22.
This is only a suggested train, as trains run every 30 minutes
between London Waterloo & Southampton. By all means take an
earlier or slightly later one depending on your check-in time. No reservation is necessary for
London-Southampton trains, you just turn up, buy a ticket at
the station and hop on the next train.
The fare is £33.90 adult one-way, children under 16 half
price, children under 5 free. First class costs £57.70.
You can check train times & fares at
www.nationalrail.co.uk. You can
check train times & fares from anywhere in Britain to
Southampton using
www.nationalrail.co.uk. Direct trains run from
Manchester, Birmingham, Oxford, Reading, Bristol & Cardiff to
Southampton, so you won't have to cross London.
Beginner's guide to UK
train travel.
Train connections from Paris & other European
countries to London.
Taxi transfers
in Southampton...
Make sure you know which
of the four possible terminals
the QM2 is sailing from, the QEII terminal (dock gate 4), City Cruise Terminal
(dock gate 10), Mayflower Cruise Terminal (dock gate 10), or
the new Ocean Terminal (dock gate 4).
Map of Southampton, showing all cruise terminals,
Southampton Central Station & the historic Ocean
Terminal. A taxi from Southampton Central station
takes 10 minutes and costs around £7 to the Mayflower
or City cruise terminals, around £10 to the QEII terminal or
Ocean Terminal.
You'll find plenty of taxis waiting at the station.
Queen Mary 2
check-in & embarkation procedures at Southampton...
Check-in usually opens
at 13:00 and closes around 15:45. Cunard will give you a specific check-in
time on your e-ticket to stagger people arriving, but
you can arrive earlier if you like. Visitors are not
allowed on board, so anyone seeing you off will have to leave
you at the terminal. Cunard send you adhesive labels showing your departure date & cabin
number, remember to put one on each bag before arriving at the
terminal. When you get there your larger bags are
immediately taken from you, they will magically reappear
later in your stateroom. No bag should exceed 23Kg
(50lb) but you can take as many bags as you like as long as
they will all fit into your stateroom. You then walk
into the terminal and join the short queue for a ticket check,
then another short queue for the X-ray and metal detector
security check, then you join a long zig-zag queue (1 hour
plus) for check-in proper. At the check-in desk, you
show your e-ticket, your passport & your credit card for
on-board purchases, and a webcam photo is taken of each
passenger for security purposes. You also hand in a
brief health form notifying the ship of any fever you have or
any diarrhoea you've had in the last 48 hours. Each passenger
is given a credit-card sized plastic card which acts as your
embarkation card, cabin key and charge card for buying drinks
and souvenirs on board. You then go up the gangway onto
the QM2, entering the Grand Lobby on deck 3. Apart from
the time spent in the main queue (remember to have a reading book
& some
refreshments to hand), it's a painless process compared to
airports. If you feel like a late lunch, or just a tea,
coffee or juice when you board, you'll find the King's Court
self-service restaurant on deck 7 open for business and
offering all of these.
What's an
Atlantic crossing like?
The Queen Mary 2
is usually due to sail from Southampton at 17:00. This is
the most usual time, but please check for your sailing
date. Once on board and settled into your
stateroom, listen for announcements about emergency drill.
This is held at 16:00 and takes about 20 minutes. You
listen for the alarm bells, fetch your lifejackets from your
stateroom and go to your allocated muster station where staff
will brief you on emergency procedures and you'll listen to an
announcement by the captain. When it's over, return your
lifejackets to your stateroom and head up on deck for
departure...
Soon after 17:00
the QM2 sails, with a band playing on her aft decks and
glasses of champagne available (around $17). She is
sometimes moored facing upstream, sometimes downstream, and if
she's moored facing upstream at the City or Mayflower
terminals, she'll first head further upstream before
turning around, somehow managing to turn her 1,130 foot length
without hitting the far bank of the river or the small boats
moored there. If sailing from the QEII terminal there's
a turning basin nearby where she will turn round.
Southampton's
historic Ocean Terminal: Cunard no longer use the traditional
and historic Ocean
Terminal dock, from which the original Queen Mary, Queen
Elizabeth and even Titanic would have sailed. Indeed,
the old 1950 terminal building was demolished in 1983 and this
hugely historic location now looks totally unremarkable, a
freight dock with a couple of multi-storey car parks next to
it for vehicle exports. You won't know that you're looking at
it unless you know
where it is, so
see this map. It's just north of the QEII terminal,
just south of the City & Mayflower terminals.
About the old Ocean Terminal.
After turning around, the Queen Mary 2
heads downstream into the Solent, heading directly towards
Cowes on the Isle of Wight before making a tight turn to port
(left) in the deep water channel, passing Ryde to starboard
(right) and Portsmouth to port. The QM2 rounds the Isle
of Wight using the deep water route to the east (although this
looks like the long way round on a map) and heads out into
the English Channel. By breakfast next morning, you're
well past Bishop Rock lighthouse and out in the Atlantic...
Seven nights at sea
on the Atlantic. Cunard have slowed down their
crossings from 6 nights to 7 nights each way for the 2011season onwards,
although an occasional crossing still takes 6 nights, please
check for your specific date. This is two days slower
than it used to be, as the weekly service operated from 1946
to 1967 by the original Queen Mary and her consort Queen
Elizabeth took just 5 nights for the 3,150 nautical miles
(3,625 miles). There may be no coastline
or islands to see in mid-Atlantic (or even other ships,
usually), but personally I never tire of gazing at the
brooding waters of the North Atlantic. It changes from
day to day, sometimes smooth and glassy, sometimes choppy and
sombre, sometimes sunny, sometimes foggy with the Queen Mary
2's fog horn blaring at regular intervals. You may get
rough crossings especially in October, November or December,
but my crossings on the 150,000 ton Queen Mary 2 or 70,000 ton
QE2 have been rock steady all the way. You could be in a
5 star hotel rather than on board a ship! The QM2's
clocks are put back an hour at 2am on five of the seven nights
because of the time difference, giving you a welcome extra
hour's sleep in this direction. You will pass within a
few miles of the resting place of the Titanic (within 38
nautical miles on my own last westbound crossing) and an
announcement may well be made on board. Naturally,
you'll find a whole programme of entertainment & activities on
board every day, and if you really want to be bored you'll
have to work hard at it.
The QM2
arrives in New York at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at 07:00.
This is the highlight! Whether you're a natural early riser or not, make sure you're
up and on deck by 04:45 on the morning of arrival in New York,
as the arrival into New York by ocean liner is something you
will remember all you life. There's a forward-facing
observation deck on deck 10, immediately below the
bridge, accessed from 'A' stairway. You'll see the
lights of Long Island to starboard (the right-hand side) and
the Verrazano suspension bridge approaching dead ahead at the
entrance to New York harbour. The Queen Mary 2 passes
under the bridge with just a few precious feet of clearance
above her funnel, and as she does so the fabulous Manhattan
skyline comes into view. The QM2 no longer uses Cunard's
traditional terminal at Pier 90 on Manhattan itself, so she no
longer steams right past the Statue of Liberty, but instead
she turns to starboard (to the right) opposite the statue and
heads into the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, berthing within sight
of the famous Statue and Manhattan skyline.
Queen Mary 2
disembarkation procedures in New York...
A note explaining QM2
disembarkation procedures will appear outside your stateroom a
day or two before arrival. If you can carry all your own
bags, you can register for 'Express disembarkation' by
contacting the purser's office on deck 2 the day before
arrival. Once registered for Express Disembarkation you
can leave the ship around half an hour after she docks,
meaning around 07:30. Otherwise, coloured labels for
your bags will appear outside your stateroom the day before
arrival. You put a label on each of your bags and place
them outside your stateroom door between 20:00 and midnight
before arrival. Your bags will disappear overnight and
will be waiting for you in the cruise terminal next morning,
in an area marked with the same colour as your labels.
The colour of the labels also indicates which time you have
been allocated for disembarkation, and in what part of the QM2
to gather before disembarkation. The upper decks with
the more expensive cabins tend to disembark first (e.g. decks
9, 10, 11), other decks such as 4, 5 or 6 later.
Disembarkation takes place between 08:00 and 11:00, so you can
be sure of getting off the ship by 11:00 or earlier.
Taxi transfer from
Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to Manhattan...
The Tour
Office on deck 2 offers to arrange a private transfer by minivan to
any Manhattan hotel for a 'mere' $350, or they can sell you tickets
for a transfer bus to Grand central Station for $35 per
person. Both options are crazy, because a normal yellow taxi
from the terminal taxi rank to anywhere in Manhattan costs
only $35-$40 for up to 4 people and all your bags.
You'll find plenty of taxis waiting right outside the terminal
building, so this is an easy option. Enjoy the drive
across the famous Brooklyn Bridge in a traditional New York
Yellow Cab! The taxi ride takes 20 minutes. After
a classic Atlantic crossing, why not splash out on a night at
New York's classic hotel, the famous
Waldorf=Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue near Grand Central
Station?
Other hotels in New York.
Amtrak train
connections to Washington DC, Boston, Chicago & all points
west...
You can be at Penn Station by 11:30
or earlier, for onward train connections. Washington DC
is only 3 hours away by train, Boston 4 hours or less.
The 'Lake Shore Limited' train to Chicago leaves Penn Station
around 15:45 arriving in Chicago next morning, with
connections for all points west including Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Seattle. You'll also make the
afternoon 'Crescent' overnight train to Atlanta & New Orleans,
or the afternoon 'Silver Meteor' overnight to Florida. You can book any of
these trains online in advance at
www.amtrak.com, collecting your ticket from the
self-service machines at Penn Station. Note that between
New York & Washington or New York & Boston you'll be offered
two different types of train: The premium-fare 'Acela
Express' 150mph high-speed train with business class and first
class, but no coach class, and the slower but cheaper
'Northeast Regional' trains with coach class and business
class.
Beginner's guide to train travel in
the USA.
Amtrak train
connections to Toronto, Montreal & Canada...
Two daily
trains link New York with Canada, the 'Maple Leaf' to Toronto
and the 'Adirondack' to Montreal. Both trains leave New
York in the morning, so you'll need to spend the night in New
York. It's a very scenic run along the Hudson River
valley, past West Point Military Academy, Storm King Mountain
and Bannerman's Island. As it's name suggests, the train
to Montreal also passes through the scenic Adirondack
Mountains and past Lake Champlain.
Information
on trains from New York to Canada. Change in Toronto
for the famous 'Canadian'
trans-continental train three times a week to Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jasper & Vancouver.
Beginner's guide to train
travel in Canada.
Here is the
'typical' timetable, transfer & journey information for most
eastbound trans-Atlantic crossings. Although they
usually follow this pattern, please check sailing & check-in times for your specific date when you
book in case they are different. If you find that anything has changed, do
let me know. If
you plan to travel westbound,
click here.
Are westbound or eastbound crossings better?
Train
connections from Washington DC, Boston, Chicago & other US
cities to New York...
Amtrak trains runs
from Washington DC to New York in just 3 hours, Boston to New
York in less than 4 hours. The daily 'Lake Shore
Limited' links Chicago & New York overnight, with connections
in Chicago from LA, San Francisco, Seattle, etc.
However, the 'Lake Shore' arrives at New York's Penn station
in the early evening, too late for same-day connections with
the 'Mary', so you'll need to leave Chicago two nights before
the 'Mary sails and spend a night in New York before sailing
day. You can check schedules and fares and buy tickets
for any of
these trains online at
www.amtrak.com. Note that between New York &
Washington or New York & Boston you'll be offered two
different types of train: The premium-fare 'Acela
Express' 150mph high-speed train with business class and first
class, but no coach class, and the slower but cheaper
'Northeast Regional' trains with coach class and business
class.
Beginner's guide to train travel in
the USA.
Train
connections from Toronto, Montreal & Canada to New York...
Two daily
trains link Canada with New York, the 'Maple Leaf' from Toronto
and the 'Adirondack' from Montreal. Both trains arrive
in New
York in the evening, so you'll need to spend a night in New
York before sailing day -
Check hotels in New York. It's a very scenic run down the Hudson River
valley, past West Point Military Academy, Storm King Mountain
and Bannerman's Island. As it's name suggests, the train
from Montreal also passes through the scenic Adirondack
Mountains and past Lake Champlain.
Information
on trains between Canada & New York. The famous 'Canadian'
trans-continental train links Vancouver & Toronto three times
a week, via Jasper, Edmonton & Winnipeg.
Beginner's guide to train
travel in Canada.
Taxi from
Manhattan to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal...
A normal yellow
cab
from New York Penn Station or any hotel in Manhattan to the
Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
costs around $35-$40 for up to 4 people and all your bags.
Enjoy the drive
across the famous Brooklyn Bridge in a traditional New York
Yellow Cab! The taxi ride takes 20 minutes.
Queen Mary 2
check-in & embarkation procedures in New York...
Check-in usually opens around 13:00 and closes around 15:45. Cunard will give you a specific check-in
time on your e-ticket to try and stagger people arriving, but
you can arrive earlier if you like. Visitors are not
allowed on board, so anyone seeing you off will have to leave
you at the terminal then wave from the shore. Cunard will have
sent you adhesive labels showing your departure date & cabin
number, remember to put one on each bag before arriving at the
terminal, as when you get there your larger bags are
immediately taken from you. They will magically reappear
later in your stateroom. No one bag should exceed 23Kg
(50lb) but you can take as many bags as you like as long as
they will all fit into your stateroom. You then walk
into the terminal and join the short queue for a ticket check,
then another short queue for the X-ray and metal detector
security check, then you join a long zig-zag queue (1 hour
plus) for check-in proper. At the check-in desk, you
show your e-ticket, your passport & your credit card for
on-board purchases, and a webcam photo is taken of each
passenger for security purposes. You also hand in a
brief health form notifying the ship of any fever you have or
any diarrhoea you've had in the last 48 hours. Each passenger
is given a credit-card sized plastic card which acts as your
embarkation card, cabin key and charge card for buying drinks
and souvenirs on board. You then go up the gangway onto
the QM2, entering the Grand Lobby on deck 3. Apart from
the time spent in the main queue (have a reading book and some
refreshments to hand), it's a painless process compared to
airports. If you feel like a late lunch, or just a tea,
coffee or juice when you board, you'll find the King's Court
self-service restaurant on deck 7 open for business and
offering all of these.
What's an
eastbound Atlantic crossing like?
The ship
normally sails from New York at 17:00. This is the
usual time, but please double-check for your specific
departure date. Once on board and settled into your
stateroom, listen for announcements about emergency drill.
This is held at 16:00 and takes about 20 minutes. You
listen for the alarm bells, fetch your lifejackets from your
stateroom and go to your allocated muster station where staff
will brief you on emergency procedures and you'll listen to an
announcement by the captain. After this you're free to
go up on deck and admire the Manhattan skyline astern and the
Statue of Liberty to starboard (right-hand side). At
17:00 she casts off, and with a band playing on her aft decks
and glasses of champagne available (around $17) she heads out
to sea. Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty slowly
disappear astern, and the QM2 heads toward and then underneath
the huge Verrazano suspension bridge out into the Atlantic.
There is just a few precious feet of clearance above her red
funnel! An NYPD police boat follows behind (seeing you
off the premises?), and a police helicopter buzzes overhead...
Seven nights at sea
on the Atlantic. Cunard have slowed down their
crossings to from 6 to 7 nights each way for 2011 onwards,
although an occasional crossing still takes 6 nights, please
check for your specific date. Naturally, you'll find a
whole programme of entertainment & activities on board every
day, and if you really want to be bored you'll have to work
hard at it! There are no islands or coastline to see in mid-Atlantic (or even other ships, usually),
but personally I never tire of gazing at the brooding waters
of the North Atlantic. It changes from day to day, sometimes
smooth and glassy, sometimes choppy and sombre, sometimes
foggy, sometimes sunny. You may get rough crossings
especially in October, November or December, but my own
transatlantic crossings on the 150,000 ton Queen Mary 2 or 70,000 ton QE2
have been rock steady all the way. You could be in a 5
star hotel rather than on board a ship! The QM2's clocks
are put forward an hour at 2am on five of the seven eastbound
nights because of the time difference, giving you an hour's
less sleep in this direction - if there's one reason why a
westbound crossing can be nicer than an eastbound one, this is
it! You will pass within a few miles of the resting
place of the Titanic and an
announcement may well be made on board. On the last
evening at dinner you may catch site of the Isles of Scilly in
the distance (about 35 miles west of Land's End), and later
the lights of Cornwall twinkling to port. A first view
of Great Britain! You're now past the Bishop Rock
lighthouse an in the English Channel. Incidentally, a
modern transatlantic crossing is now two days slower than it
used to be, as the weekly service operated by the first Queen
Mary and her consort Queen Elizabeth from 1946 to 1967 took
just 5 nights...
The ship
arrives in Southampton at 06:30.
You'll need to be up early, at around 04:30, if you want to
see the ship round the Isle of Wight and head past Portsmouth
& Ryde and into Southampton Water, although this hardly
lives up to the spectacular arrival in New York on a westbound
transatlantic. There's a forward-facing
observation deck on deck 10, immediately below the
bridge, accessed from 'A' stairway. Otherwise, you'll
find the ship docked at the Southampton
Terminal when you awake, and the Kings Court & Britannia
restaurants serving a welcome cooked breakfast to send you on
your way.
Queen Mary 2
disembarkation procedures in Southampton...
A note explaining QM2
disembarkation procedures will appear outside your stateroom a
day or two before arrival. If you can carry all your own
bags, you can register for 'Express disembarkation' by
contacting the purser's office on deck 2 the day before
arrival. Once registered for Express Disembarkation you
can leave the ship around half an hour after she docks,
meaning around 07:30. Otherwise, coloured labels for
your bags will appear outside your stateroom the day before
arrival. You put a label on each of your bags and place
them outside your stateroom door between 20:00 and midnight
before arrival. Your bags will disappear overnight and
will be waiting for you in the cruise terminal next morning,
in an area marked with the same colour as your labels.
The colour of the labels also indicates which time you have
been allocated for disembarkation, and in what part of the QM2
to gather before disembarkation. The upper decks with
the more expensive cabins tend to disembark first (e.g. decks
9, 10, 11), other decks such as 4, 5 or 6 later.
Disembarkation takes place between 08:00 and 11:00, so you can
be sure of getting off the ship by 11:00 or earlier.
Taxi transfers
in Southampton...
Note that
the Queen Mary 2 can use any one of four different terminals in
Southampton,
either the QEII terminal (dock gate 4), City Cruise Terminal
(dock gate 10), Mayflower Cruise Terminal (dock gate 10), or
the new Ocean Terminal (dock gate 4).
Map of Southampton, showing all cruise terminals,
Southampton Central Station & the original historic Ocean
Terminal. A taxi to Southampton Central
station costs around £7 from the Mayflower
or City cruise terminals, or around £10 from the QEII terminal
or Ocean Terminal.
You'll find plenty of taxis waiting at the terminal, although
there can be a long wait as there are so many other passengers. The
taxi ride takes just 10 minutes.
Train
connection from Southampton to London...
A train leaves
Southampton at 10:30, arriving at London Waterloo at 11:49.
This is only a suggested train, as trains in fact run every 30 minutes
from Southampton to London, so just take whichever the next
train happens to be when you get to the station. No reservation is necessary or even possible for
Southampton-London trains, you just turn up, buy a ticket and hop on the next train.
Southampton-London costs £33.90 adult one-way, children under
16 half price, children under 5 free. First class costs
£57.70. You can check train times & fares from Southampton
to London using
www.nationalrail.co.uk. Cunard no longer organise a
special 'boat train' in connection with QM2 sailings. You can
check train times & fares from
Southampton to anywhere in Britain using
www.nationalrail.co.uk. Direct trains run from
Southampton to Reading, Oxford, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol & Cardiff, so you won't have to cross London.
Beginner's guide to UK
train travel.
Find a hotel in London.
Onward train
connection from London to Paris & mainland Europe...
Onwards to
Paris: Allow plenty of time for onward connections,
certainly several hours, and maybe stay in London overnight.
For Paris, take a UK domestic train from Southampton central
to London Waterloo (no reservation necessary, see the section
above), then take a taxi or Underground across London to St
Pancras Station. Eurostar runs every hour or so from
London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord in central Paris,
journey time 2 hours 20 minutes. For a beginner's
guide to Eurostar travel,
see the
Eurostar page. You can book tickets online in
advance at
www.eurostar.com, and you should indeed pre-book, as
London-Paris prices start from just £39 in advance but over
£170 if you wait and buy on the day of travel.
Onwards to
other countries: Scroll back up to the top of this
page and pick a country from the menu on the left. This
will show you how to get from London to any country in Europe.
Having crossed the Atlantic on the luxurious Queen Mary 2, how
about taking the
Venice Simplon Orient Express vintage luxury train to Italy?
This runs on most Thursdays from April to October, and takes
24 hours from London to Venice.
Facilities in all cabins: Even the cheapest QM2 cabin
(or
'stateroom' as Cunard calls them) features comfortable beds, a
private bathroom with shower, sink & toilet, a dressing table,
TV, a small coffee table & chair, 240v UK & 110v US style power sockets,
pay-per-minute
internet access,
soap, shower gel, shampoo & conditioner, bathrobes, plenty
of wardrobe space,
room
service menu and a solid
electronic safe for your valuables that's large enough for a 14" laptop.
A bedtime chocolate is delivered to your stateroom when the
steward turns down you bed.
Which type of cabin to choose?
There are a
bewildering range of staterooms on the Queen Mary 2 at varying prices,
but they basically fall into these categories, in ascending
order of cost:
Standard Inside:
An 'inside' cabin means it has no window, but even though this
is the cheapest option, these staterooms are spacious,
beautifully designed and have all the facilities mentioned
above. They all have double or twin beds for 2 people,
although some rooms are fitted with an additional two
drop-down upper berths making a 3- or 4-berth room. Some
cabins are wheelchair-accessible. Allocated to the
Britannia restaurant. Typically 155 sq ft.
Standard Atrium
View: There are a handful of 'standard inside'
cabins on decks 4, 5 & 6 which have a small window opening
onto the atrium above the Grand Lobby. They have double
or twin beds for 2 people, but none of these rooms are fitted
with additional berths. Also allocated to the Britannia
restaurant. Typically 161 sq ft.
Standard
Oceanview: These are 'outside' cabins meaning they
have a small non-opening porthole for sea views. Some
seasoned travellers will tell you that with no coastline or
islands to see on a 6 day transatlantic crossing, a window is
unnecessary. However, I enjoy seeing where I am and love
gazing at the vast and always-changing waters of the North
Atlantic. Paying the extra for a Standard Oceanview is
well worth it in my book, both for the views and the natural
light. These staterooms have double or twin beds for two
people, but some rooms are fitted with an additional two
drop-down upper berths making a 3- or 4-berth room. Some
are wheelchair-accessible. Also allocated to the
Britannia restaurant. Typically 194 sq ft.
Britannia Premium
Balcony: The cheapest cabin type to have its own
balcony, allocated to the Britannia restaurant. They
have a double or twin beds for 2 people, and a few cabins have
a 3rd berth in the form of a pull-out sofa bed. Be
careful: Most Premium Balcony rooms have a small
balcony cut into the hull on decks 4, 5 & 6. However,
there is another series of Premium Balcony rooms on deck 8
with glass-fronted balconies, but these have a severely
'obstructed view' as they look out on the side of the
lifeboats and not the sea. Make sure you know which type
you are getting - decks 4, 5 or 6 for the sea views.
Before shelling out the extra cost for a room with a balcony,
remember that at 25 knots on a windy transatlantic crossing
the balcony may not get much use. Still, the French
windows let in a lot of natural light making for a very
pleasant room. Typically 269 sq ft, including balcony.
Britannia Deluxe
Balcony: Also allocated to the Britannia restaurant,
these are a tad smaller than the Premium Balcony rooms, but
have a glass-fronted balcony higher up in the ship's
superstructure. Typically 248 sq ft, including balcony.
Britannia Club
Balcony: Similar to a Britannia Deluxe balcony, but
allocated to the single-sitting 'Britannia Club' restaurant, a
separate off-shoot of the main Britannia restaurant.
Typically 248 sq ft, including balcony.
Princess Balcony
Suites: Suites with balcony, all allocated to the
Princess Grill restaurant. Typically 381 sq ft,
including balcony.
Queens Balcony
Suites: Various types of suite, up to and including
the extravagant Grand Duplex suites, all allocated to the
Queen's Grill restaurant. All have balconies, except the
two Q3 grade Royal Suites. Size
varies from 506 sq ft to 2,249 sq ft.
Standard inside stateroom. The beds can be
arranged as a double (as here) or as two singles.
The shower & toilet are behind the photographer.
Premium Balcony stateroom.
French windows lead onto a small balcony cut into the
hull. The beds can be set up as a double (as here)
or as two singles.
Standard Oceanview stateroom (daytime). The beds can be
arranged as a double (as here) or as two singles.
The porthole does not open. The shower & toilet are
behind the photographer.
Standard Oceanview stateroom (night-time): Some
standard staterooms are fitted with two drop-down upper berths,
one is shown open here. A cot (crib) for an infant can be
provided on request.
Above: A standard
cabin, looking towards the door. The shower & toilet are on the right,
plenty of wardrobe space on the left, with a safe for valuables.
The en suite
toilet & shower of a standard staterrom...
Your allocated
restaurant: Each stateroom is
allocated a restaurant. Most cabins, including the
Standard inside, Standard Oceanview & Premium Balcony, are
allocated to the Britannia restaurant, a magnificent
two-storey 1,300 seat restaurant spanning decks 2 & 3 and reminiscent of
the grand dining saloons of the great ocean liners of the
past. The more expensive staterooms are allocated to the
more intimate Princess Grill on deck 7, and the very best
staterooms to the Queen's Grill, also on deck 7.
Your fare includes all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) in
your allocated restaurant, as well as afternoon tea in the
Queen's Room or King's Court. It does not include
drinks, bottles of wine start at around $30 and real ale
lovers can choose Old Speckled Hen or Spitfire for around $6 a
bottle. The food is excellent, and you choose from a
menu of half a dozen different starters, main courses and
desserts, which changes every day.
Optional
dining venues: You can also choose to eat any given
meal in the informal King's Court self-service restaurant on
deck 7, or 'pub grub' in the Golden Lion pub on deck 2,
instead of your allocated restaurant. It's entirely up
to you and how you feel at the time! The Kings Court has
several distinct buffet areas, including the 'Carvery' for
English food, the 'Lotus' which specialises in Asian food and
the 'Piazza' where you'll find pasta and pizza.
Todd English
restaurant: For a $20 per head surcharge (lunch) or
$30 per head (dinner) billed to your on-board account, you can
eat in the Todd English restaurant aft on deck 8. Run by
celebrated American chef Todd English, the food here is superb
and well worth the surcharge, I strongly recommend trying it
at least once or twice during your crossing. You simply need to
call to reserve a table in the morning.
Room service:
If you'd rather eat in your cabin, every cabin has free room
service from a simple menu including burgers, pasta, cheese &
crackers. You can order by phone at any time, it's all
included in your fare. However, if you order any drinks
from room service, including soft drinks, these are charged at
bar prices. You can also choose to have breakfast
delivered to your stateroom, except on the morning of arrival.
Just hang the breakfast order form on your cabin door before
retiring.
Which sitting?
The Britannia
restaurant has two sittings for dinner, 6pm & 8.30pm, and you
can request a sitting when you book. When you board the
QM2 you'll find a note confirming both your sitting and table
number for dinner in your stateroom. There are no
specific sittings or allocated tables for lunch or breakfast.
On-board entertainment is arranged so that both sittings can enjoy it,
although the 6pm sitting gives you the rest of the evening
free, and is arguably more relaxed than the later one.
If you've young children,
see the section below. The Princess & Queens Grills
have no sittings, you can dine any time you choose when the
restaurant is open, although this makes it a little less
sociable than the Britannia.
The Britannia restaurant, seating almost 1,300
guests at 246 tables spread over two decks and three
levels. You make your lunch or dinner choice from a
varied 3-course menu...
A roast dinner in the Britannia restaurant. You may
find lobster, snails or even frogs legs on the menu...
The Todd English restaurant.
Well worth the $20 (lunch) or $30 (dinner) surcharge, the food is world
class. This is a garlic prawn starter...
The King's Court
self-service restaurant. If you prefer, dine informally in the
King's Court on deck 7. These are desserts & butter sculptures...
There is no
shortage of bars and other watering holes on the Queen Mary 2.
They include the Chart Room on deck 3, the Golden Lion pub on deck
2, the Veuve Cliquot champagne bar on deck 3 and Commodore Club
forward on deck 9. The Commodore Club has an adjacent
(and sealed) smoking room called 'Churchills' with cigars for
sale. Personally, I'd suggest the Chart Room for
cocktails before or after
dinner, as it's near the social centre of the ship on deck 3,
but for general quiet reading, working on my laptop and
generally getting away
from it all, the Commodore Club with its forward view over the
bows is my top choice. Drinks are not too expensive:
A tea is $1.50, a glass of wine perhaps $5, a cocktail $8. Although I'm a non-smoker 99.9% of the
time, one of Havana's Montecristo number 2 cigars ($22) and a 1979 Armagnac
($17) were sound recommendations from the barman on the
last night of our return crossing...
The
Commodore Club: Coffee, tea, wine or cocktails,
with a great forward view over the Queen Mary 2's bows.
A huge model of the QM2 sits in a glass case behind the
bar...
Martini,
anyone? If you want to research the many
different types of martini, the QM2 is the place to do
it...
The Chart Room:
Another martini, this time in the elegant and relaxed Chart Room lounge on
deck 3.
A daily programme for the
following day is delivered to your stateroom each evening.
It shows details of the entertainment and activities on board,
along with navigational & itinerary information and the
opening and closing times of all restaurants, bars and other
facilities. There's an ongoing programme of shows, plays
& lectures. For example, recent crossings featured talks
by John Cleese about his work on Monty Python & Fawlty Towers,
excellent lectures by an expert on New York skyscrapers, an
edited version of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' and
Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of being Earnest'. The QM2
also features the world's only sea-going planetarium, called
the 'Illuminations'. And of course there are several
live bands on board, with dancing every evening, sometimes
themed such as the 'Black & White Ball' and 'Ascot Ball'.
If it's disco you prefer, you'll find that in the G32
nightclub. You'll
also find the Canyon Ranch spa on deck 7, offering a wide
range of treatments from manicures to massages, Jacuzzis to
saunas. If you
want to be bored, you'll have to really work at it...
Royal
Court Theatre: Plays by Shakespeare or Oscar
Wilde, dance shows or (as here) lectures. The
tall bloke in the middle is John Cleese...
Pavilion
Pool: The Queen Mary has several swimming pools.
This is the indoor Pavilion Pool on deck 12, complete with
hot tubs and a bar...
Queen's
Room: An elegant afternoon tea is served here every day at
3.30pm with cakes and sandwiches. In the evening, it's the largest dance floor
afloat...
Library:
The excellent library and bookshop are forward on deck 8,
'A' stairway, beneath the Commodore Club...
The Grand Lobby sports several
boutiques on the upper level, selling souvenirs, clothes, watches &
jewellery. You enter the ship here, and the purser's office is here,
as well as the Red Lion Pub and Chart Room bar...
The Canyon Ranch Spa offers sauna,
pool, manicures and massages...
You won't be the only family on
the Queen Mary 2, especially on her transatlantic runs!
You'll find plenty of entertainment for children in the 'Play
Zone' at the aft end of 6 deck.
Arrangements for children &
pregnant women on the Queen Mary 2...
Pregnant women
require a letter from their doctor or midwife. Pregnant
women cannot travel on the QM2 if they have entered the 24th
week of pregnancy by the last day of the voyage.
Children under 12
months are not carried on QM2's transatlantic service.
You just have to wait till they're older!
Children aged 12-24
months travelling as the 3rd or 4th person in a stateroom
travel free. However, a child sharing a stateroom with
just one adult is charged the adult fare.
Children over 24
months sharing a stateroom with two adults are charged the
rate for the 3rd or 4th person in that stateroom, which is
usually around half the normal adult fare. However, a
child and one adult sharing a stateroom would both be charged
the adult fare. Having said all this, you may see 'Kids
go free' deals, so shop around.
The Play Zone &
child care...
The Zone is aft on
deck 6, staffed by a team of friendly young British-trained
nannies. It has a toddler zone for ages 1-3, a Play Zone
for ages 4-6 and 'The Zone' with various computer games and
other activities for older kids up to 17. There's plenty
to do, and activities such as treasure hunts or ship tours are
organised by the Play Zone team.
Children from 1 to 7
inclusive can be left free of charge with the nannies in the
Play Zone during its opening hours, 09:00-12:00, 14:00-17:00,
18:00-24:00 (shorter hours apply on the first and last
nights). In other words, you can sign them into the Play
Zone at 9am, pick them up at noon and take them to lunch, sign
them back in at 2pm and enjoy an afternoon show, pick them up
at 5pm and take them to the children's tea provided in the
King's Court 'Chef's Galley' area between 16:30 & 17:30.
Then you can check them back into the Zone at 6pm until
midnight, leaving you free to enjoy a formal dinner and
evening entertainment while the kids play happily in the Zone and
later settle down and fall asleep in front of some cartoons.
Outside the Play Zone, children 1 to 7 must always be
accompanied by an adult around the ship.
Children 8 and up to
17 can also use the Zone, signing themselves in and out.
They are free to wander the ship solo.
Cabins & dinner
sittings...
If you have young
children, it's worth asking for a cabin towards the stern of
the ship. We were given a stateroom at the extreme
forward end of deck 6, whereas the Play Zone is at the extreme
aft end of deck 6. That meant we had to walk a sixth of a
mile from cabin to Play Zone to sign the kids in, then a sixth
of a mile back again to get changed. It proved
impossible sign the kids in at 6pm when the Zone opens, walk
all the way back to the cabin, get changed into formal dress,
then walk forward again to the Britannia restaurant for a 6pm
sitting.
From this experience
on our outward crossing, we changed our sitting for the return
crossing to 8.30pm. The evening then worked better,
although some after-dinner films or shows finished after
midnight so could not be attended without leaving early to
collect the kids. The dinner tended to take up much of
the evening. A stateroom near the Zone, and dressing for
the 6pm dinner sitting before taking the kids to the Zone,
might be the ideal solution, but my wife's and my opinion is
divided!
If you've small
children, remember to take your folding buggy (= 'stroller' in
American). It's a big ship!
The heritage
trail: The
Queen Mary 2 is filled with paintings, information panels
and even interactive screens telling the history of Cunard
Line, its ships, and the famous people who crossed the
Atlantic aboard them.
There is no
baggage limit on the Queen Mary 2, either in terms of weight or
the number of bags. You can bring what you like, as long
as it all fits in your stateroom. However, for
safe lifting by staff, no one item may exceed 23Kg (50lb).
Bags are taken from you on arrival at the terminal and they
reappear in your stateroom on board. At the end of the
crossing, they are transported ashore for you. See the
embarkation & disembarkation arrangements in the 'practical
information' above. If you plan to go one way by ship,
the other by air, one advantage of taking the ship on the
return leg is that you can take as much shopping as you like!
Dress code...
Cunard sometimes
have to fight off a 'stuffy' image, and it doesn't help that
they produce a dress code as complex as a Virgin Trains saver
ticket restriction. One of three dress codes will apply
each evening after 6pm in all the main restaurants. You'll be
told which dress code applies
on which night in the pre-voyage documentation and in the
daily programme delivered to your stateroom.
Formal:
The works! This means dinner jacket & black tie (= 'tuxedo' if
you're American) or at least dark business suit for men,
evening dress for ladies. At least three nights of a
7-night crossing are designated 'formal'.
Semi-formal:
Jacket & tie required for men. Cocktail dress or trouser
suit for ladies. No jeans or shorts.
Elegant casual:
Jacket required for men, but tie optional. Dress, skirt
or trousers for ladies. No jeans or shorts. The
first & last nights of a transatlantic crossing are usually
designated 'elegant casual'.
Dressing up is part
of the fun, but if you really don't want to play the dressing
up game you can wear casual clothes on any evening you like in
the King's Court self-service restaurant (though even here
Cunard suggest that 'casual' should ideally include a jacket
for men after 6pm). T-shirts or shorts aren't permitted
in any restaurant after 6pm.
Payment on board...
Everything on board, including drinks in the bar, books from
the bookshop, massages in the spa, purchases in the shops or
internet access, is billed to your on board account. You
simply show your cabin card and sign for the payment. At
the end of the crossing, the total is automatically deducted
from the credit card you gave them at check-in. You'll
get a summary of your account delivered to your stateroom
half-way across and at the end of the voyage. Just be
aware that Cunard follow the American practice of quoting you
one price but charging you a slightly higher price, as all bar
prices shown on the drinks menu will have 15% added to them
automatically as a gratuity.
Internet & mobile phone access...
Mobile phone access is
available on board throughout the crossing, although it isn't cheap,
you'll need to ask your phone network for their rates. Internet access is
available throughout the QM2, both in your cabin and in all
the public areas including bars but excluding the theatres &
restaurants. Payment is by the minute, and it works well
with good download speeds. You can
pre-pay for a 'bundle' of minutes (for example, you can buy
120 minutes for $47.95 or 240 minutes for $89.95, which works
out at about $0.38-$0.40 per minute) or simply pay as you go
for $0.75 per minute (2010 prices), or do a mixture of both
during your crossing. You can spend the minutes
individually, so for example you can log on to download
emails, log off to compose replies offline, then log on again
to send, thus only using a few minutes of internet time.
To use your own laptop, simply click on the
'Qm2_Guest_internet' internet connection and open a web
browser to see the log-in screen. Register with your
name & cabin number on this log-in page and the cost will be
billed to your QM2 stateroom account. If you don't have
your own laptop, the Cunard Connexions rooms on deck 2 or the
library on deck 8 have self-service internet PCs which you can
use for the same rates. You'll find power sockets for
laptops (both British 3-pin and US 110v) in your cabin, and
(if you hunt for them) British 3-pin sockets in certain areas
of most bars including the Commodore bar on deck 9 forward and
the Chart Room bar on deck 3. Man in Seat Sixty-One's
tip: I found that the Commodore Lounge on 9 deck
was the quietest and nicest place to work, there's a 3-pin
power socket near the skirting in the 'bridge wing' far side
of the lounge.
Smoking...
The QM2 is
entirely non-smoking apart from the open decks and the
Churchill smoking lounge forward on deck 9 next to the
Commodore Club.
Taking your
dog...
Yes, you can take
your dog across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2, but they
will be kept in the ship's kennels during the crossing and
(except for guide dogs) are not allowed in the guest areas.
Contact Cunard for details.
Laundry...
As well as a
hotel-style pay-per-item laundry service for laundry collected
from your stateroom, you'll find a small free-of-charge
self-service laundrette on most cabin decks. These have
washers, driers, free detergent sachets, iron & ironing board.
This came in very handy on both our outward and return
crossings on a 5-week trip to the States, as we arrived in the
US with bags full of clean clothes and arrived back in Blighty
without a huge laundry backlog! Also useful for ironing
dress shirts that have become creased in the baggage...
Visiting the
QM2's bridge...
There are
no official 'bridge visits', but there is a viewing room behind
the bridge with two large soundproofed windows so you can see
what's going on. It's normally open 09:00-16:00 on sea
days, although it's closed in bad weather. The entrance
is on the port (left-hand) side of the ship on deck 12,
accessed via 'A' stairway.
If you really haven't got the time
or money to go both ways by sea, you might want to go one-way by sea and the
other by air. You can often find one-way QM2 fares with a 'free' air fare
in the other direction. If you're British and a shopaholic, the obvious
advantage of going out westbound by air and back eastbound by sea is that you
can shop in New York and bring back as much as you like, as there are no baggage
limits on the Queen Mary 2. And you'll have the leisurely voyage back home
to look forward to at the end of your trip. However, for my money (not
being a great shopper), westbound is much better. There's the growing
anticipation as you near America at the end of an outward westbound crossing,
there's the significant advantage of 25-hour days as the clocks are put back on
5 of the 7 nights due to the time difference, and best of all the spectacular
arrival into New York harbour in the early morning, with that Manhattan skyline
lit by the rising sun. When you're enjoying your evenings on the town (or
rather, the ship) until late at night, the 23-hour days on an eastbound crossing
as the clocks are put forward can be a killer! On the other hand, if I
were an American heading for Europe, I might well be tempted to head out by sea
eastbound, returning west by air.
Forum for cruise reviews,
questions & the latest advice...
A good place to find advice &
reviews about the Queen Mary 2 and other ships, and to post your own questions
and reviews of your trip, is the online cruise forum at
www.cruise.co.uk.
The QM2 was built in 2003 at St
Nazaire in France, by Chantiers de l'Atlantique, the same shipyard that built
the famous French Line ships 'Ile de France', 'Normandie' and 'France'.
The Queen Mary 2 is no longer the biggest passenger ship in the world in terms
of Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT), as the Queen Mary 2's 148,528 tons have now
been exceeded, first by Royal Caribbean's 154,000-ton 'Freedom of the Seas',
built in 2006, and then by the 225,000-ton 'Oasis of the Seas' in 2009.
However, the QM2 remains the tallest, longest and widest ship ever built, at
1,132 feet long and 148 feet wide. For comparison, the original Queen Mary
is just 81,237 tons GRT, 1019 feet long, 118 feet wide, and the Titanic was only
46,000 tons, 883 feet long, 93 feet wide. She uses an unconventional
propulsion system: Four large diesel engines and two gas turbines generate
electricity, and this powers four electrically-powered propellers each housed in
a 'pod' attached under her stern. The rear two pods swivel to steer the
ship, so the QM2 does not have a conventional rudder. The propellers face
forwards rather than backwards, and give her a top speed of around 30 knots (1
knot = 1.1 mph), although she normally crosses the Atlantic at 23 to 26 knots.
Queen
Mary 2 Wikipedia entry.
Buy a 1:1250 model of the Queen
Mary 2: The souvenir shop on board QM2 on deck 3 has a couple of
models of the Queen Mary 2, but neither (in my opinion) are particularly well
detailed, and yet they aren't cheap, either. If you become a QM2
aficionado during your crossing (highly likely!) and want a top-quality model of
the QM2 to sit on your shelves or desk, I highly recommend the 1:1250 Queen Mary
2 model at
www.classic-ship.de. It is hand painted in die-cast metal. You
can buy either a full hull version in a glass case for 339 euros plus shipping,
or a waterline model without a case. The models are small enough not to
take up too much room, yet are superbly detailed. You will not be
disappointed!
Books about the Queen Mary 2:
The book by John Maxtone-Graham is beautifully written and illustrated, a great
souvenir. It's also available in the bookshop on board the QM2.
Buy books in the UK from Amazon.co.uk...
Buy books in the USA from Amazon.com...
The last word on Transatlantic travel...
The Man in Seat Sixty-One says:
"I have come to realise that staggering round a transatlantic liner in a
dinner jacket with a martini is the normal, rational, reasonable way to
cross the Atlantic. Heading for an airport and strapping yourself to a
flimsy aluminium tube is an unfortunate and eccentric aberration."
In
addition to the QM2, some regular freight ships carry a
limited number of passengers, and there are occasional
crossings by other cruise lines - UK agencies listing both
freighter and cruise line voyages include
www.strandtravelltd.co.uk
& www.cruisepeople.co.uk.
A US agency booking passenger travel by freighter is
www.freightercruises.com.
Also try
www.freightertrips.com. There are links to
other websites about travel by freighter at the top of
the 'shipping' section on the useful
links page.
www.hotelscombined.com
is probably the best hotel search system I've seen, a free search tool
which checks all the main hotel booking sites (Opodo, Expedia,
Booking.com, Hotels.com, AsiaRooms, Travelocity, LateRooms and
others) to find the cheapest hotel rates. Set up in
2005, it's probably the best place to start for booking any
hotel online in any country, worldwide.
If you get as far as Los Angeles after your transatlantic
crossing, it has to be the
Hotel Queen Mary, doesn't it? She makes a good
base to explore the Los Angeles - Hollywood - Disneyland
area. The original Queen Mary of 1936 has been
permanently moored at Long Beach in California since the
late 1960s, some 25 miles from Los Angeles Union Station
(about a $90 taxi ride), and it's undoubtedly the most
fascinating place to stay in LA. The hotel consists of
most of the Queen Mary's original first class cabins, and
there are plenty of restaurants and bars available on board,
too. Hotel guests can more or less wander the ship at
will, and even sign up for ghost hunts at night on board
(and yes, from my own experience there is definitely
something going on on that beautiful but ageing ship!).
Wood panelled art deco interiors have been preserved,
although a few modern items have been installed such as
televisions, and (as we worked out from a historic deck
plan) in some cases two of the Queen Mary's original cabins
have been knocked into one hotel suite by turning one of the
en suite bathrooms into a connecting corridor. She is
one of the most atmospheric places I have ever stayed.
Above: The
Queen Mary at Long Beach, California...
Above:
Cabin 401 aboard Hotel Queen Mary
A first class cabin
deck, now part of Hotel Queen Mary...
