Being 1st time cruisers we chose the queen Mary 2, purpose of the trip really was to get to new York without flying and to have a very sophisticated passage.
Boarding at Southampton is relatively easy and they are very organised. We found our luggage in our stateroom on arrival, sadly our case was badly damaged, they tried to repair it without success, we're told to claim off our own insurance. When we got to new York we had to buy another case to return home as it was so badly damaged.
Room: very noisy, did not sleep for the duration, had noisy neighbours, pursers reply was to change rooms for us during the night to an inside cabin and return to our much more expensive cabin in the morning!!!! Cabins really need a lot of money spending on them, very poor, shower trays full of marks, decor very dated. Tv didn't have many stations.
Very noisy neighbours and the balcony has metal doors between cabins, this heightens the noise.
Cabins are very small, the bathroom is the size of a small cupboard at home.