An enjoyable cruise on the QM2, a great Christmas break and now looking forward to a great 2015

Last month I was lucky enough to attend our Christmas conference held on a three night sailing of the Cunard Queen Mary 2 to Bruges.

I hadn’t been on a Cunard ship before and I was more interested to experience the Queen Mary 2 than the others in the fleet due to her being a larger ocean liner.

I stayed in an outside cabin to the forward of deck six. When looking at the deck plan before we left it seemed that this cabin could be larger than a lot of the nearby ones on the same cabin grade due the way the ship was shaped. Our cabin was indeed larger and has to be by far the largest ocean view cabin I have seen or stayed in.

The ship itself was very vast and spacious indeed and it certainly took a bit of time to get my bearings when venturing around the ship.

I found the ship to be very well appointed, traditional and grand but not too old fashioned. Everything in the public places seemed to be in good condition and was spotlessly clean.

Although the ship and Cunard brand are quite traditional I didn’t feel by any means that there was a stuffy atmosphere.

I ate all of my dinners in the main Britannia restaurant, I found the service and food was how I expected it to be. The standard was certainly good but I must say that I didn’t find it quite as good as the likes of Celebrity cruises for example, more like P&O (which is by no means bad).

I also ate most of my breakfasts in the main Britannia restaurant and the service and food was good and certainly up to standard.

I did have a couple of lunches in the Kings Court buffet and I did find that the food and selection were very good and did exceed my
expectations, the deserts especially.

I didn’t get to see any shows on the ship but was looking forward to going to see the planetarium as this is a quite unique feature of the ship, unfortunately there were some technical difficulties which meant the showing I had booked was cancelled and I missed out on this which was a shame.

The Golden Lion pub was a good place to meet up for drinks and seemed a lot less formal than some of the other areas on the ship, there was even a dart board. I felt that the layout and atmosphere of the pub was good and was just right.

The nightclub G32 is quite different to look at than most other public areas of the ship with it’s fancy lights and alot of the decor being metal based. There was quite a mixture of things going on from live music, themed nights, karaoke and the general disco. The nightclub on the QM2 is one of the best I have seen on a ship and was quite lively. I was quote surprised that there was a smoking section in the upstairs area of the nightclub but personally think that this should stay as it didn’t seem to be having any impact on the non smoking area from what I could gather.

Before we sailed there was talk of very high winds and I wondered how much movement there was going to be. I was also a bit concerned as to whether we would be able to dock in Bruges as this can sometimes be cancelled due to bad weather. Well I shouldn’t have worried, during the first two days of the sailing I couldn’t feel the ship move at all. On the last day there was a small amount of movement which to be honest I quite enjoyed as a little bit of sway gives you more of the feeling that you are actually on a ship.

We did dock into Bruges and it was a very pleasant day there, it was cold but the sun was shining and there wasn’t too much wind. I managed to stock up on the chocolate I wanted to get for presents and also managed to sneak a nice crisp Belgian pint of beer in.

Overall the 3 night cruise was great ! It was really nice to catch up with many of my colleagues of whom I rarely get to see as well as having the experience and enjoyment of sailing on the QM2 which I would definitely sail again on given the chance.

I have had an extended break over Christmas and the New Year which has been great but I’m now looking forward to getting back into the swing of work and am looking forward to dealing with my clients and trying to make sure their cruise’s go well.

Thank you to all of my clients who book with me and I hope that everyone has a happy and prosperous 2015 !