It was on my husband's "bucket list" to cross the sea on a real ocean liner, and this is the only one sailing today. We also love to ballroom dance and were intrigued to try "the largest ballroom at sea". We travelled for a special event (landmark birthday) on a westbound crossing, Southampton to New York (7 nights).

We enjoyed the QM2. Particularly making the crossing from the UK to North America, it was very moving to think about the history of immigration and how much more challenging the sea travel was in days gone by. Cunard is very focused on their history and we were kept continually aware of it; the ship itself has big posters up in all the hallways about the history of ocean travel (for example, at one point they transported a champion racehorse for a prestigious race in the US; he didn’t win!). That whole experience of reliving the past was definitely a highlight, and it was enhanced by the rather old-fashioned formality of the ship (dressing up every night!). They take the dress code very seriously so you need to bring on more luggage than we are used to doing (men: 3 nights in dinner jacket, 4 nights in suit or sport coat; ladies 3 nights in evening gown & 4 in cocktail dresses. No reprieve even the night before you disembark. Very limited places you can go in the evening if you don’t dress – really just the buffet and one lounge).

The other highlight for us was the ballroom dancing. Crystal is pretty good for this (way better than any other line/ship we’ve been on), but cannot hold a candle to QM2. So if you are keen to dance on board, definitely try Cunard. The dance floor is much larger and rectangular so much more like dancing on shore and it’s so much easier to follow the “line of dance”. They have 2 orchestras that play for dancing and they are both very good. Their regular dance band plays “strict tempo”, which is important for ballroom. They are also kind enough to announce every dance, which is helpful when 50% of the passengers are Brits who dance “International style”, and we are “American style” dancers who don’t actually do the Quickstep normally and could confuse it with a very fast Foxtrot. Read more