This was Queen Mary 2’s and Cunard’s big cruise of 2015, it’s 175th anniversary cruise. We embarked at Hamburg and sailed to New York. But the 175th anniversary cruise was technically supposed to start at the first port of call after Southampton, Liverpool, and continue first to Halifax, Nova Scotia and then to Boston before finally ending up in New York on the morning of July 14. This was apparently the route that Samuel Cunard took on the first transatlantic voyage of Cunard in 1840 on a ship called the Britannia. And true, there were commemorative moments to last a lifetime. But there were also unexpected events and occurrences onboard that make you wonder about some of Cunard’s policies.
The journey up the River Elbe at dinnertime a few hours after we boarded on June 30 was a highlight of the cruise. We sat at our window-side table for four on deck 3 in the Britannia Restaurant upper level and watched all the sights drift past including first the Cruise Terminal that has not been completed yet and then the Lion King. There were also hotels waving white sheets and flags at us as well as lots of onlookers lining the banks of the river.
On July 1 in Southampton we got treated to a performance by the Irish Guard sent down from Buckingham Palace for the day. My husband attempted to crowd into the elevator to make the journey up to deck 13 to take movies of their performance. But there were too many members of the Irish Guard at the same time. So he hiked up to stand in a big crowd. Still he held his camera up high enough to film all the marching and music. He felt as if he was witnessing the Changing Of The Guard at Buckingham Palace itself.
The next port of call, Liverpool, was a little more disappointing at first. During the day certain members of the public there decided to perform in the water quayside. One man rode on a hose, performing circus tricks which I thought were inappropriate for the occasion. But that night on deck 6 I got to witness a spectacle of fireworks against the backdrop of the Liverpool waterfront around Albert Dock which is a World Heritage Site including the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building, and the Port of Liverpool Building. Aft on deck 6 we were high enough up to be on the level of these historic buildings, and we got lots of movies and snapshots of the fireworks exploding over the harbor.
Although it wasn’t part of the 175th anniversary celebration, we enjoyed sailing past the Irish Coast after we left Liverpool. You could see the dark hills very clearly from 3 miles out to sea. We especially appreciated getting very close to Kinsale where the Lusitania sank on May 7, 1915. The captain made a speech about it at lunch and sounded the ship’s whistle to commemorate those who lost their lives that day. Of course the Lusitania was a Cunard liner.
Once we reached North America the next port of call was Halifax, Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Provinces of Canada, a place I never thought I would visit. It was all quite a surprise, and right at breakfast we discovered a highlight of the trip sitting on a small island in the middle of the harbor, St. Georges Lighthouse on St. Georges Island. It’s owned by the Canadian Park System. But the lighthouse keeper doesn’t live there anymore. And no one visits except on special occasions. We had the best vantage point of anyone for filming a helicopter landing on St. George’s Island and taking off again. We also got to observe the fortifications from the island’s history.
Later in the afternoon the ship was serenaded by Scottish bagpipers all dressed in kilts on the quayside. We didn’t have to leave our cabin to enjoy this performance. Apparently Nova Scotia means “New Scotland”.
That night due to the exceptionally deep harbor we got to sail around the city right next to the quay. Up on deck 7 we could see the bridge at sunset and hear dinner goers sitting out on patios calling up greetings to the ship while passengers called down to them. The historic Citadel gave us a twenty-one gun salute as we sailed past.
Again in Boston on July 12 we were treated to a night-time harbor tour once it grew dark out. That was followed by another round of fireworks which we could watch from our cabin.
But unexpectedly the last morning of the cruise on July 14 at 5:30AM in the morning I took my best photo of the trip. We woke up early because we were doing self-disembarkation. I looked out the window and captured a shot of an antique fireboat in the harbor against the skyline of Manhattan including the new Freedom Tower.
But while we were enjoying all these iconic sites other things were going on onboard the ship that made you doubt Cunard’s judgement. We were sailing from Southampton to Liverpool when we started to hear loud knocking and tapping in the walls and floors of cabin 4072, which was our original assigned cabin. We complained. The purser’s desk on deck 2 sent the cabin steward up to examine things. He couldn’t find the source of the tapping. So they assigned us another cabin, 5062 which was apparently vacant. But when we were out on the Atlantic we heard tapping in that room, too. We started to really look around the ship. My husband heard tapping next to the Royal Arcade Theater entrance on deck 3. Finally it became all too obvious what was going on. Ladders suddenly started to appear in the hallways on deck 5. I even took photos. They took sections out of the ceiling and left them that way for days while they worked. Up on deck 7 in the King’s Court we started to hear hammering during lunch and before dinner. It became the accompaniment to our meals.
At another time our toilet wouldn’t flush. We called the purser’s desk. The purser flushed it from outside the cabin. But it kept on getting clogged repeatedly. In addition our shower had problems draining.
None of these things occurred on the going voyage to Europe that we took on June 3. None occurred three years before during the summer of 2012 when we sailed on the Queen Mary 2 right after the last refit in December of 2011.
The ship seems to be driven too hard. I hope it lasts until the next refit in June of next year, 2016, in Hamburg. They have to do a world cruise before then and they plan to sail around Cape Horn of all things, which sounds pretty extreme. I think it would be a good idea, for instance, to disembark passengers on one day and board passengers the next day instead of the same afternoon. That way Cunard might have more time for maintenance.
Review of Cabin 5162:
Deck 5 was a sort of "blah" deck. It's not deck 4 which is right above the Britannia Restaurant and right above the Royal Arcade. It's also not deck 6 which is right below deck 7 where you have the King's Court dining area and also the promenade deck where you can take walks "outside". We only lodged there because our chosen cabin, 4072, became uninhabitable due to construction noise. We especially didn't care for our cabin steward, John, whom we nicknamed "Big Bad John". He was always not making up our room. Or he forgot the towels, etc. We also didn't like the fact that the toilet kept on not flushing and the shower got clogged. In addition who wants a ladder parked outside his cabin? That's what we had outside 5162.