Food: Fare price includes all food offered in the King's Court (buffet set up for breakfast, lunch and supper), afternoon tea in the Queen's room and the Britannia Restaurant (assuming your fare is for a Britannia stateroom, and not one of the higher end staterooms). Only if you choose to eat at the special Todd English Mediterranean-inspired restaurant (which I never did) do you pay extra...

Drinks: This is a bit tricky but the way I perceived it was if they bring it over to you (exception: after-dinner coffee or tea, still water with meal), you pay for it. And if you drink one of the beverages from your stateroom fridge, apart from the starter complimentary sparkling wine, you pay for it. Be aware that just about anything beyond water and post-dinner coffee or tea in the Britannia restaurant, you pay extra for, including mineral water and 7-up. Alcohol with the exception of the complimentary wine, wherever you get it, will be extra.

However, in the King's Court, in addition to water, tea and coffee, one could serve oneself orange juice and cranberry juice (so therefore, no extra cost).

Activities: All shows (theater & dance) I went to were included in the fare price. Planetarium, gym & library usage, drama classes, lectures & poetry readings in the fare price. Although I didn't used them, using the pool/jacuzzi, playing ping-pong or quoits, all seemed in the fare price.

The only activities I did which were not in the fare price were the spa and usage of internet; anything one does associated with the spa was extra. There were some courses that I saw one had to pay extra for...wine tastings, learning how to make martinis... anything associated with alcohol or classes where one needed some accessory to learn I noticed were extra.

That's about all I can think of...

Have fun deciding! Daniel

And sitting in a deck chair....all snuggly...watching the ocean go by = FREE!!!!!

Thanks Daniel and Leanna..That helps enormously..

A quick follow-up: How about all the other restaurants on the ship (besides Todd English) - like the Golden Lion etc..Do we pay for those also?

Todd English is the only one listed on their site with a surcharge..

Thanks again,
S

The Golden Lion is the only other place I can think of where one gets food (if one is in Britannia class). I didn't go (bizarre as it may seem) but I'd be surprised if one paid extra for the fish & chips there, given that the high-quality Britannia restaurant is in the fare price. Between all the food options in the King's Court (which consists of the Carvery, the Lotus, the Piazza and the Chef's Galley) and the Britannia restaurant, I tell you, you'll have all the food choices you could ever want (and more) in the fare price.

Most everywhere else: Commodore Club, Chart Room, Veuve Cliquot Champagne Bar, G-32 Nightclub, Winter Garden, Queen's Room (excepting afternoon tea, which is in the fare price)... mostly it's beverage service, which you pay for...

Hope this helps! Daniel

Thank you all!

Ah - it has been a wonderful read ... I am going on the Caribbean Christmas / New Year cruise this year - and really cannot wait.

Has anyone out there been on a QM2 Caribbean trip?

Thank you Daniel. This helps a lot.

S

G'day Daniel. Enjoyed reading your experience. One thing I'm interested in is the "dress code" and how serious they are.

We'll be on a 8 week worldwide journey and our sector is UK-New York in August.

I have read many 'conflicting' blogs on the web and I'm not sure what to be packing. Have read ladies need ball gowns and the guys need tuxedo (or suits) - can't see our suitcase having much room for them.

Would really appreciate your advice.
Thanks in advance
Cheers from "down under"

Hi jgbg,

If you want to eat in the Britannia restaurant on formal nights (which comes as part of your package), a formal dark suit or tuxedo for men; women wear a formal dress (no pants suit). Some lee-way for formal national dress. This is de rigueur. Even the semi-formal nights for men is jacket and tie; elegant casual nights... jacket no tie. I didn't once see people in jeans, sneakers, T-shirts or everyday urban wear there... I even felt a bit guilty wearing the same black bow tie for each formal night (didn't think to vary the colours) .

However, if you don't wish to dress up, you can always either get room service or eat in the King's Court area. Uber-casual is perfectly fine in the King's Court. For Afternoon Tea in the Queen's Room, things are not so strict, but I still felt like I wanted to wear my nice shoes, slacks and a dress shirt for that.

Personally, though, I can't imagine going on the QM2 and NOT dressing up; to me, it is part of the magic of the whole Cunard experience. It may seem a bit of an anachronism, but nevertheless passengers seemed to relish and even participate with gusto on the formality aspect. Perhaps some will disagree with me on this point, but I'd recommend flying London to NYC instead if one truly doesn't wish to dress up (only exception here is those unable/unwilling to fly). I must add that it was in the Britannia restaurant that I met my social companions for both crossings (go for the table for 8!), who provided wonderful memories. Besides, missing the Britannia, you're missing out on a terrific several course meal that comes with the price of your ticket.

If it helps, I got one of these cylindrical "Sky Roll" suitcases for easy transporting of my suits and accoutrements. That, plus one roll-on suitcase and a small carry-on backpack seemed to work quite nicely for me. Otherwise, you may wish to ask a Cunard representative about renting a suit on board; this I can't help you with....

Anyhow, just my 2 cents. Have fun figuring out what you'll do! Cheers from Montreal Daniel

G'day Daniel .. thanks for the feedback. We are booked - we are going - yee hah .. no backing out, but why would we, we're so-o-o looking forward to the experience .. LOL

Just wanted to make sure that if we did go to all the effort of carting the extra clothing around for 2 months and then "dressing up" for their occasions, that everyone else did as well. I realise you can't compare the two, but we went on a Greek Cruise last year (different liner) and went to the trouble of getting all dolled up only to find half the other people didn't bother! So thanks for your reply.

(Think it has convinced hubby that he HAS to pack his tux/suit.) Thanks for the bow-tie tip .. we'll make sure we pack a few different coloured ones

Cheers from "down under"

(PS. We were over in your neck of the woods last year as well! Simply loved Quebec!)

hi daniel, thanks for the report. my ex and i sailed 3 times ny to southhampton on the QE2 . our first voyage was at the time carnival i believe bought cunard and announced they were retiring the QE2 but building the QM2. the QE2 was a real ocean liner design: smaller and less top heavy than the QM2 but lacking any grand multi story space aside from the theatres. I understood QE2 was built on the "cheap" as it was felt jet travel would totally eclipse trans atlantic crossings. apparently cunard then had to spend fortunes constantly up grading the ship. some of the commissioned art work was stunning and was rounded out by fabulous historical stuff from cunard collections.

i always enjoyed the captain announcing when we were near the point where titanic went down! we were always able to dump the dress up clothes w/ friend in london as we flew back from heathrow. a return flight was included in our tickets and for $250 the first year we were able to upgrade to the concorde!

we always had the cheapest cabin in the dining room class that allowed open seating. our room steward on the first crossing was a dining room manager on the second and we got a tour of the kitchens. all food came out of the same place and just the setting was different. if lobster was on the menu would could have seconds if we wanted.

we were in our forties and definitly lowered the average age of the passenger list. people were friendly however, but i believe surprised bordering on shock to find an opely gay male couple in their midst.

one crossing we wanted a 2 top ( i think it was a big anniversary). they were very hard to come by and when we didn't get one my ex let the purser know i was suffering ( a white lie) from tourette's syndrome. boy they found a two top pdq

cheers
AndrewDavid

Haha

Times have definitely changed on the QM2. I think all of our dining companions and staff in the Britannia restaurant assumed that Derek & I were a couple (I think they thought when we described ourselves "as friends" that we were using the old-fashioned euphemism LOL; we might be Gay, and Derek may be the queeniest thing to set foot on a Cunard vessel since the Queen Mary consort herself baptized the QM1, but little did they know, we really ARE just friends with zero romantic inclination for each other (I'd be afraid what I might catch LOL)). For photo shoots, they would have us squeeze close together and the Asian waiter they had sing me Happy Birthday wearing lip liner hardly looked the straightest fellow himself. It really was all rather hilarious.

Speaking of old-fashioned euphemisms, there were also cocktails in the Commodore Club for "Friends of Dorothy", but the primary meeting place for Gay men seemed to be the spa and the G-32 nightclub. I was surprised for a non-Gay cruise how cruisy things were!

Thanks for sharing your experiences,

Daniel

My crossing in 2007 was so enjoyable that I have booked to cross again this year. Great way to arrive in the UK, then take the train to Scotland for a golfing vacation. I will fly home and deal with jet lag when it doesn't make much of a difference. You have to go.