I wanted to do a westbound roundtrip transatlantic crossing which was on my bucket list. I come from the city where the original QM was built. I booked a Balcony cabin, sorry stateroom, (obstructed Deck 8) but was given an upgrade to a sheltered balcony on Deck 4. It may be an upgrade for Cunard but it felt like a downgrade to me.

Whilst clean and bed very comfortable it was dreary and dull. Furniture and tv scratched, voile curtain crumpled and torn and balcony rusted. Shower room was ok but there was a plumbing problem and you could not get cold water, generally lukewarm. I arranged for jugs of iced water to be delivered daily.

There was a constant clang clang noise coming up through strip drain in the balcony. Just as well weather was poor because the balcony was unusable due to the noise. Read more