This was our third Queen Mary 2 cruise and our 145 total cruise. After our first QM2 crossing my wife and I were determined not to repeat using it. However wanted to go for 6 weeks to Germany and Cnard was th3 only one taken us to Germany and back to New York with 6 weeks in Europe. We took the QM2 to Hamburg in September, again with reservations. Well, what a surprise, the staff, the entertainment, the people, the cruise director, the Captain, the conferences and the luck of having the director and members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with us, made it one of our top five cruises. And then we took the QM2 in Hamburg stopping in Southampton, what a difference, a large group seem to be weekenders going for a quick trip to England with that type of attitude, it most have change the atmosphere, the staff was not nice, actually some front desk attendants were rude, totally different from 6 weeks before. The conferences were poorer, although some for the German group would have been interesting if I could understand them. The cruise director was like night and day from the prior one. I wonder how much difference the new Captain made to this poor crossing. Our room attendant was 5he same from our previous crossing and was great, so were the dinner servers. Fortunately we enjoy our dinner partners both crossings. Even the entertainment with the same people was poorer in this crossing. Needless to say, after giving the highest marks to our crossing from NY to Hamburg, we were extremely disappointed in most of the categories on our Hamburg- NY crossing!