Queen Mary 2
 

We are thinking of taking a trip on QM 2 in May 2006. BUT the sales pics etc indicate that the company may be 'stuffy' we are 'working' class people with a few 'bob' and are not comfortable in the company of 'posh' people. have we got it wrong?

It is all about marketing so it isn't surprising that the "sales pics" and so forth aren't going to depict "working class people" (which vastly outnumber the people who don't work I can assue you).

I'm not sure I agree that all "posh people" are automatically "stuffy" but you may you don;t have as much in common with some of them in terms of conversation topics, etc., and this is no time and certainly more money than anyone should pay to end up feeling uncomfortable.

You might get better answers about the overall feeling and ambience on this ship if you went to the discussions at www.cruisecritic.com or www.cruise-addicts.com

I'm no expert on anything about cruises, but I do know this. I know some very "posh" people -- non-working class types -- who take cruises. None of them would be caught dead on the Queen Mary 2. It is far too "pedestrian" and huge for them. They are into the very exclusive and small cruise ships.

On the other hand I know about a dozen people who have already gone on QueenMary2 cruises. All of them are working class people and all had a great time.

Please take this with a grain of salt, we took the QM2 on a cross atlantic trip last year, we are not cruise people, but we won it(sort of, long story)

Having never been on a cruise, we also expected it to be upscale, and yes, the ship is upscale, but not the clientle. It seemed that everyone we met were just normal middle class people, many whom had gotten a good deal from a travel agent. There are also a few different catagoriesof rooms and dining options, and I'm sure that the "posh" folks were staying in the suites and dining in their own private dining rooms, of which there were two. The majority of the people are just like you.
A crossing in May is very very cold, if that is the cruise you are thinking of taking, there is ablsolutely NOTHING to see in 6 days at sea. Although we liked the food in the alternative restaurants, which ran about $70-100 extra to eat in them, the food in the main dining room was just average, nothing to write home about.
HOpe this helps you decide.

I covered our April crossing on the QM2 on my attempt at a website/blog covering a busy upcoming year of travel. Here's the link:
http://home.comcast.net/~gardyloo/

Gardyloo.... that is a wonderful (and ambitious!) site. We're on the QM2 in Sept. (toes crossed). Do you remember the details of the car service from the ship?

I posted something on the Cruise Forum also.
Several family members want to take the six day Transatlantic Queen Mary2 June 2006 cruise as a birthday celebration/reunion.
We have shelved our plans because although the cruise itself is not unreasonable, the one way return airfare for us is astronomical.
In fact, Cunard will not commit until August for the cost of the airfare except to say that it will be $100 to $200 dollars more than a minumum of $550 to return to New York per person.
This makes even the children's fares about $1550 for the six day crossing and economy airfare in the least expensive cabin.

Have any of you booked your own return airfare?

We used Woodford, a local Southampton company, who were excellent. I believe the price for 4 of us (two of us to LHR and two to central London) was £90 or so.

http://www.woodfordchauffeurcars.co.uk/

Many thanks for that information. Travel agent offered a car service at 136 lbs.
90 certainly sounds a lot better!!...will check it out.