On the Queen Mary 2 to Europe

Embarkation

Embarkation was fairly straightforward no major glitches. We did have to wait a little bit in a very subdued lounge but being one of the 1st ones on the ship embarkation went pretty smooth.   Our luggage was delivered to our room in a timely fashion.  Compared to other ships we were pleased with the embarkation.

Our room

We had booked rooms in the Princess Grill and could not have been more pleased. The YouTube videos and photos online do not do these rooms justice. They are well designed, roomy and comfortable and they are actually bigger than they appear in a photo. They were the nicest rooms we've ever been on in a cruise.   The beds were comfortable. The linens were high quality and the bathroom was spacious even with a tub.  You also get to eat in the Princess Grill.  From what I could determine the Queen's Grill rooms are only slightly larger and you eat in the Queens Grill restaurant which uses the same kitchen as the Princess Grill restaurant.   The only difference I could determine was the selections of foods is slightly less in the Princess Grill, but for the most part you can pretty much get what you want within reason.

Princess grill restaurant

Overall the food and service in the Princess Grill restaurant is excellent. The staff was dedicated to meeting your requests and the food quality was high.  One needs to remember, however that this is a British ship and the cuisine can best be described as British. It is old school continental to some degree. Highlights of the food in the Princess. Grill were the beef, especially the Chateaubrion which was absolutely outstanding.  They also prepared lobster and seafood to perfection and the desserts in general are pretty good. Our immediate table servers however don't know how to read a table.  They could be described as hovering.  Almost trying too hard to make you happy the end result was they frequently. Interrupted our conversation and didn't pay attention to what was going on.  Alternative dining like the steakhouse and buffet were not appealing and the few guests we spoke with gave both poor reviews so we had all of our meals in the Princess Grill.

Wine

The wine selections offered on the Queen Mary 2 are excellent and they are reasonably priced. You can actually circumvent the world of wine based on the selections that they have.  One of the evenings we dedicated to trying Middle Eastern wines and we were able to have a Chardonnay from Israel as well as a Cabernet from Lebanon that were some of the best in the world.  We very much enjoyed our wine selections and again, you really couldn't beat what they have.  They have the opportunity to side-by-side taste all five 1st growth Bordeauxs.  We did it and it was a great idea and you almost will never see that happen. They also had on the wine list one of the rarest wines in the world a Hungarian Tokaji Ezenncia which is the 2nd time I've ever seen it in my life and the evening we had it it was the 1st time I have ever drank that wine and it is phenomenal.  Our wine sommelier Sherwin, is a second level Sommelier in the court of Master sommeliers,  he is learning and young but provided great wine service.

Entertainment

I generally don't attend many of the entertainment venues but the few that I did attend were very good. I also found that the dancing in the Queen's room was fun to watch. I'm not a dancer but there were a few highly trained as well as professional dancers on the ship and when you go and watch them it is quite remarkable.  The main entertainment for us was the wine and the food but I could highly recommend the other venues. They were pretty good too.  There were too many daily activities to mention with many general interest lectures so you could be constantly busy. 

Overall Impression 

The Queen Mary 2 cruise is one of our better cruises.  For us it was elegant and restful.  The seas were calm though we were told it was a little unusual in that most cruises had more swells and motion so we got lucky.  We would go again.