Traveling on the Queen Mary 2

With five weeks of travel under our belts, we boarded the Queen Mary 2 (QM2) in Southampton to return to the US. We'll have seven days for the crossing, perhaps the easiest way to avoid jet lag.

The QM2 is Cunard's flagship. Entering into service in 2004, the ship is over 1,100 feet long, has 19 decks and can carry 2,600 passengers. Built for crossing the Atlantic, QM2 has four stabilizers, a maximum speed of 30 knots and a cruising speed of 26 knots. As a comparison, a typical cruise ship has two stabilizers and cruises at 20 knots. While a current Atlantic crossing is spread over a week, QM2 could actually make this trip in five nights.

With 15 restaurants and bars, a theater, casino, lectures, library, retail stores, spa, fitness center, planetarium, and five pools, we should be plenty entertained for a week. While there is no longer a 'steerage' passenger class, there are a couple of areas reserved for higher-paying passengers (Cunard Grill passengers). I guess we'll have to do without entering the special dining area, lounge and deck area reserved for such "Cunardists".

Being somewhat non-fussy travelers, the only possible downside of QM2 travel is the need to observe the enforced formal dress days. On the designated formal evenings, passengers must dress-up for dinner and remain so dressed in the evening to use just about any of the ship areas (entry into buffet restaurant and one public area is permitted). We're much more comfortable avoiding formal dress requirements or changing into more casual clothes after a formal dinner. Watching a theater show or wandering through the ship's public areas in a business suit or a tux seems very unusual. Nonetheless, we'll go with the flow and see how it goes - we can always retreat to our cabin.  

With Internet service on board being slow and costly, blog updates over the next few days may be few and far between.