HYPE, HISTORY AND REALITY -- 3 Nights ON QM 2 IN AUSTRALIA

Since her launch in 2004 I have been fascinated with QM2 -- and still have the very first QM2 brochure. The opportunity to experience all the hype, history and compare it with the cruise experience reality on this ocean liner ( as opposed to a cruise ship) came a few months ago, when Cunard released a 3 night sector at the very beginning of their inaugural around Aussie cruise -- from Perth (Fremantle) to Adelaide -- this being a part of QM2 world cruise.

By the standard of the widely-cruised Cruise Critic members, we are cruise novices in our mid 50's and mid 60's. Our last cruise was 5 years ago on MSC Musica in the Mediterranean. Before that we took a few cruises on what are now called medium size ships of 77.000 tons. These ships were all 4 to 7 years old at the time of our sailings. They included P&O Aurora (from Perth to Singapore and Aussie Coastal) , Sun Princess (now permanently in Australia and apparently deteriorating because of poor maintenance), and Celebrity Galaxy (no longer with that line) to Alaska and West Coast. Read more