Although not familiar with Princess ships, I cannot agree with many of the comments I read in "Queen Mary is NO Match for Crown Princess!". We have a few critical comments of our own and a few good points that contradict some of the criticisms of the "NO Match" comment. For comparison purposes, our experience is with Regent Seven Seas (all four of their ships in some 8 cruises, totaling more than 100 days, with 2 more planned), Crystal, Celebrity, Holland America, Royal Caribbean and several river cruises.

My wife and I traveled on the QM2 on the roundtrip NY-S-NY from July 6-19, 2010, with the ship full or almost full on both directions, to celebrate our 52nd anniversary, having traveled only once before with Cunard, on our honeymoon to Europe going over on the QE cabin class and returning 40 days later on the QM first class.

The ratio of space and crew to passengers is the highest I have been able to calculate among the large ships (of course, excluding Regent and Crystal), with more public areas and spaces than all or most other large ships. Only at peak hours (just before dinner) did we find the two bars close to the main restaurant overloaded. And only at peak hours of lunch and dinner did we find the the cafeterias/buffets on Deck 7 crowded for a short period of time. At no other time, anywhere on the ship did we find crowds or were forced to wait in line for more than a few seconds. Throughout the ship we saw more empty sofas and chairs than one would think in a ship with 2600 passengers. It also has 32 elevators in 4 locations spaced front to back, plus several others for specific destinations and wheelchair users, never having to wait more than a few seconds for one to arrive. We also found embarkation and disembarkation efficient, friendly and fast. Read more