My wife and I were married this past August. We had been planning our honeymoon for over a year before I even proposed. Of course we had planned an amazing month long adventure with the crossing only being a small portion of it. As thing came closer to needing to finalize what we going to do, most of our trip had been eliminated for various reason, and the crossing became more of the reason to go to London than anything. After reading alot of the reviews on here we decided to take the crossing from Southampton to NY as we'd get just a little more time on the boat (an extra hour a day). After dealing with some transportation headaches getting to Southampton, and a horrible hotel stay the night before our voyage, we arrived at the dock. Not much to look at there, but you're not expected to. Our boarding time wasn't until 3pm but needed to be out of our hotel room by 11am so we figured we'd hang around the dock and maybe take a stroll into the somewhat nearby city for lunch. Didn't have time for that however as we went to check in and they sent us right on into the boat. That was a very nice little bit. Neither of us were really ready for the photo that was taken right before boarding the ship as we had that horrid night sleep and just disheveled. As soon as we set foot onto the ship it was breathe taking. Really big WOW factor. We were ushered to an elevator by some nice porters, and directed to where our room was when we reached our floor. The room was amazing for the amount of money we paid (I think it was $2k with a non-obstructed balcony for each of us) with a good bottle of champagne chilling in some water. We ha just stepped out to look at the port from out balcony when our porter knocked on the door with our luggage. This really countered a lot of other reviews I had read here. Once unpacked we headed down to the Golden Lion Pub to grab our drink cards (seriously a must for those who drink a lot of soda), which don't count for in room soda's by the way. There we met Sydnee who pretty much became our bartender from that moment on. Great guy with a good attitude. ~Dining~ When time for dinner came, we got dressed up and headed down to the dining room. We opted for the second dinner as we are both late people and the early dinner was just too early for us. That first meal honestly put a proved alot of the negative comments I've read here about the service. My wife and I showed up on time but were forced to wait until our table mates showed up to order. Normally not an issue, but they showed up right before the stopped taking orders (about an hour into dinner). We decided that we wouldn't be doing the dining room again at that point. The food was pretty darn good, but the wait staff was just too over worked. The Kings court was actually one of our favorite places. It was great for breakfast and afternoon tea. Occasionally we had lunch there and one night we did the "Chef's Galley," where they close The Grill and turn it into a demonstration kitchen. You have to make reservations for this, so do it as soon as get in your room. The menu is themed and different every night. My wife and I went to the Indian night, at which point we realized we didn't really care for indian. We tried to make reservations for the next night but it, and every following night, were completely booked. Another option is the Kings Court for dinner where they close off the different sections, except one which still offers buffet style, and they become small restaurants. We made a reservation for one of these but ended up not caring for the menu that night and went on to try the dining room again. This time the service and food were much better. The wait staff had even realized we were gone and apologized for the service the first night. We ended up eating in there every night after that.~Fun~ Being as we are both fairly young, it was somewhat hard to fin stuff to do during the day. This wasn't too much of an issue as we are both late sleepers. When we did wake up we would go to the pub, look through the shops (which are pretty good), go to the planetarium and/or a movie, or just explore the ship (I took about 800 photos) which is massive. The movie experience wasn't great. They were all movies one could get on dvd (and they were DVD's), and they had some issues getting it to play right from time to time. The casino was pretty fun for those that are into that kind of thing. My wife and I had more fun with the coin push machine more than anything. They seemed to have alot of gambling related events which might have been fun if our pocket books were fuller. Either way it was a good place to hang out, have a cigarette, and look out onto the waves. ~Weather~ The weather wasn't too great for outdoor events most of the time. It was cold and rainy and a few days into the journey we hit a terrible storm. Almost the entire ship stayed in their rooms that day. We had severe grade wave that rocked the ship pretty bad. Aside from that, as we were told my many that kind of storm was extremely rare, the sheer speed that the ship travels makes it hard to do much outside. Once we came close to the U.S., the weather warmed up pretty quick and sitting in the pool became reasonable. The theater shows were really much better than I had expected. The rock/opera medley they did was extremely good. The dance review was also great. We both wished they offered more though. The Golden Lion was another great place to hang out. We didn't have much of a chance to visit the other bars though as we had grown too fond of the Golden Lion. Like one of the other reviewers said, the Commodore's Club looks very much like 10 forward from Star Trek TNG. One night we ended up in the pub during a Karaoke night. Initially we were put off by it, as we aren't karaoke people, but a few minutes into staying there, we were singing along with everyone. It was honestly one of the best moments of the voyage. ~Cost~ The cost of onboard things was what we had expected. Generally it was over priced, but so is everything at Disneyland. The stuff at the duty free shop was pretty well priced though, and I regret not getting more stuff. The souvenirs weren't too bad. Buy them later in the cruise and you'll save a few bucks. The photos and dvd from the journey were pretty horrible though. Especially when you know they're just digital photos. If you buy multiple things though you do get a small break. If you are a smoker, the cigarettes are amazingly cheap (especially if you're from NY or CA). The booze was pretty pricey though, though not as baas I had expected. My wife doesn't drink or drive so I rarely have the chance to enjoy a drink while we're out. This was something I had been looking forward to while on the ship. I didn't get to do it too much though because the cost of a drink was a little high, aside from beer which I don't drink. We were worried after reading a lot of the reviews that our budget might be too small for the ship, but we walked away with only a bill of under $100. It can be done cheaper if you don't get the drink cards, $34 each, don't take any sodas from the in room fridge, go up to the purser right away and take off the automatic daily gratuity, don't charge anything to your room, and don't drink. Granted all of that is hard, but it can be done.~Final Thoughts~ All in all we both had the time of our lives. We knew we were going to need the relaxation of the voyage after our few days in London, and were very right on that fact. There was no real rush for anything. Initially I was pretty concerned with the dinner dress code thing, but that's really not that bad. All the staff was really great and friendly. The decor of the ship and rooms was fantastic. We are already planning another trip aboard the QM2 for this summer. The key to enjoying this voyage is to just enjoy it. Not many people today get the chance, or want the chance, to take this historic crossing. If you find something that does not appeal to you, find something else to do. A lot of people, including ourselves, get hung up in one area of the ship and forget that the thing is huge. Explore.

As a final thought, don't let the adds fool you. There are plenty of younger people on the boat. We believed that we would be surrounded by 50+ year old people, but that was not the case. It was a good mix of ages, though yes, leaning towards the older crowd. There is a limited amount of purely young person activities though, but that is not this ship's target market. There is an arcade (remember those?), though we never were able to find it. -Jim