Just returned from a back to back cruise on the QM2. First was New York to the Caribbean calling at St Thomas, St Kitts and Tortola and then back to New York, followed by the transatlantic crossing to Southampton. I will mention the start of the trip as it is info I would have been interested in pre travelling. The layout of the ship is covered well in other reviews so I will not go into detail about that.

We booked with UK company after seeing an ad for the trip on the back of the Sunday Times travel section about 8 weeks before we sailed. We chose the voyage because we had never been to the Caribbean, love New York and always fancied doing a transatlantic crossing. We were a bit worried about travelling with Cunard as we had a very bad experience on the QE2 about 16 years ago and a pretty unsympathetic response from Cunard at the time. (As a consequence they have missed out on our money for all that time.) Anyway the QM2 sounded a lot better than the old QE2. There was an added incentive of travelling to New York on the new Silverjet service from Luton to Newark. This is an all business class flight with beds and proved to be excellent, although some people joining us the next day had a 10 hour delay due to mechanical problems. Nevertheless we had a fantastic experience. Bath travel had booked us into the Marriott Marquis in Times Square for 3 nights pre cruise and that was a brilliant hotel too. Although the first impression was of a massive impersonal hotel, the room was enormous and luxurious and the position of the place is excellent. We would definitely stay there again. There is a great hotel called the Edison just opposite that has a wonderful dining room for breakfast. There can be a queue but it moves fast and breakfast is excellent and great value.

We joined the QM2 at Brooklyn (transfers were arranged for us by the TA) in the afternoon and there was a long queue to board but all went smoothly albeit slowly. We had a stateroom on deck 5 with an in hull balcony. I was worried about the in hull balcony after reading various reviews but found it to be perfect for us. We didn't spend much time on the balcony but the light and space it gave was wonderful. I am not keen on too much sun so was happy for shade if I needed it in the Caribbean. As it happened we were so busy on shore or on the decks and at the shows etc that we were hardly ever in the room. But when we were there it was nice to have the extra space. Our room steward, Emma was super efficient, very friendly and helpful. There was a launderette on the deck below that was closer to us than the one on our level and it was actually fun to do a bit of laundry during the second week, to get back in touch with reality. I was grateful for advice from the cruise critic boards to take fabric-conditioning sheets, as these are not supplied. Also fantastic advice was to take the double adapter plug as the sockets in the stateroom are very close to the desk so you can't plug in anything that has moulded plugs. My DH was a bit skeptical about packing a plug but was grateful that we did in the event. Also remember to take highlighter pens for the daily programmes as there are very few announcements and you need to read your daily programme to plan your day. Another great thing we took on advice from other members was a hanging shoe holder. There was no problem in the stateroom with smoke smells from previous occupants, but we avoided the pub and the casino because of smoke. The air conditioning couldn't cope and I just didn't want to get it on my clothes and transport it to the stateroom. I wish there were non-smoking cruises. Some days the Mayfair shops smelled of smoke, which is not good when they are selling clothes. We especially enjoyed the RADA acting classes and the shows on the Caribbean leg of the trip. I wish they had a 2-week rota of shows as most were repeated the second week. Read more