 |
| Then |
 |
| and Now! |
 |
| Nice Christmas decorations |
 |
| Cecilia danced with everyone including me! |
 |
| the floor was always crowded with dancers, much more than can be seen here |
 |
| the largest dance floor of any cruise ship in the world! |
 |
| Happy times for all |
So far, I don’t love the Queen Mary – 2 like I do the
Crystal Serenity. The food is mediocre
compared to Crystal, and every time you ask for anything even remotely out of
the ordinary, they charge you for it. If
you drink a lot, you should stay drunk until you get the final bill to soften
the blow. Even the soft drinks in the
refrigerator cost; you’d think this was Marriott hotel or something.
But then again, if you fly coach class, what can you
expect. To be sure, there are higher
grades of cabins as well as restaurants that guests can sign up for at a hefty
price. The Brits are good at defining
class, but I still think that overall there is a lack of attention to detail
and customer service that differentiates some cruise lines like Crystal from
lesser forms of life. For example, I went to breakfast after stretch class this
morning. I filled a cup of hot water for
my tea and dropped a green tea bag into the cup. Looking for honey to sweeten the tea, I asked
a neatly dressed worker standing at attention with perfect skin and finely
detailed lipstick outlining a pretty smile where the honey was. Without even turning her body, she pointed
glibly at a spot somewhere behind her, dismissing my request without further
effort. THIS would never happen on
Crystal…..ask and you shall receive. You
walk into an eating-place and they greet you by your name, escort you to your
table and insist on carrying your food after you complete your sojourn at the
buffet line. And the food selection is
out of this world. Oh well, at least I
won’t be tempted by the dull and drab food served on the QM-2. I might even lose weight, which I would be
very happy about.
The QM-2 actually is quite beautiful and it will be further
beautified after they take it to dry dock next year for refurbishing. Mahogany and other wood colored walls, rich
colors and a nicely flowing floor plan frames the interior of the ship creating
an intimate and comfortable environment.
This is all the more vital considering the size of the ship and the
number of potential travellers… around 2500 (Crystal has about 650+). I love the splendor and magnificence of the Royal
Court Theater and Illuminations. The
rooms are nice, I can’t complain, the bathroom functional and clean, really the
cruise ship is quite nice…..except for one thing.
Really, the dining rooms are only OK. Nothing really special, plain vanilla
wrapping, more like tables placed strategically to fill an empty void. Ok, I’m being a little harsh; the Britannia
dining room has a little charm and elegance as you enter the two-story
restaurant, but where we were sitting in the corner on the upper level seemed
cluttered. Indeed, I was worried for one
of the Serbian waiters who is 6’ 7” because his head was usually dangling
dangerously close to the ceiling. Later,
I gave him a lecture on posture since his head was always tilted forward to
better regard the dwarfs in his midst.
This being a holiday cruise, families and children were
plentiful. Cruisers of all ages, those
young and fit, children and adolescents, fit adults and the usual assortment of
overweight couch potatoes hanging on for dear life struggling to get from one
restaurant or bar to the next, rather than miss one calorie or drop of alcohol
that was awaiting consumption. Fifty
countries were represented on this particular cruise, quite remarkable by any
standards. By contrast, Crystal cruises
demographics are much more homogeneous; old rich folks set in their ways
spending down their retirements in semi luxury, knowing their days are
numbered.
According to what I have been told, the QM2 has the largest
dance floor on any ocean liner in the world.
God, strike me down if I am wrong!
I have been told this by a number of individuals. The famed Queens Room is the venue I was most
anxious to see and experience. Did it
meet up to my expectations?
A picture is worth a thousand words, and you can judge for
yourself. There are 6 dance hosts to serve the unaccompanied ladies especially
from England and the US who are the most eager to cruise on the QM2 for this sole
purpose. Other guests as well as the dance hosts filled the dance floor, at
least for the first few days of the cruise.
The floor was indeed large but it could be larger because the Queen’s
room had plenty of room for expansion.
Instead, a large and comfortable seating area filled the perimeter of
the room where people could mingle and drink tea or any cocktail of their
choice. I really liked the ambience of
the room, the floor was large enough and the entire atmosphere was special – a
floating ballroom dancer’s paradise.
There were indeed too many guests dancing to be really able
to move fluidly along the line of dance.
To be sure, there were dead stops, bumps, changing directions, short
stutter steps, and other innovative maneuvers that were needed to stay afloat
on the dance floor, while surviving the wavy to-and-fro sway of the massive
cruise ship -moving south along the Atlantic Ocean. Some dancers were beginners; some of these thought
themselves advanced dancers - flailing wildly on the dance floor. But surprisingly, there were a hefty number
of really good dance couples, the most I’ve seen of any cruise in my life. And I was fortunate to have a traveling companion
who is a competition level dancer, who shall go unnamed, but I also danced here
and there with a few other ladies of varied abilities as always.
Besides the ambience, the one remarkable aspect of dancing
on the QM-2 was the live band. This was
no fly-by-night cookie cutter five some planted in the same place every night
playing their 30-40 odd ballroom songs weighed down with rumbas, that rapidly
becomes predictable and boring after the third night. The apathy and lack of expression, the tired
routine, and the predictable breaks taken at precisely the exact second
documented in the daily schedule. This
was not what we experienced on the QM-2.
Rather, the band numbered eight, was vibrant and alive. The
Queens Room Orchestra was really a fine band.
And there was a vocalist to boot.
The first thing that came to mind to compare it to, albeit I’m sure to
the comparison band would find this an insulting exaggeration, but
nevertheless, they sounded much like the Empress Orchestra that plays at the
Blackpool Festival. To me, there are simply fabulous. And their repertoire of songs is never
ending…..i’m guessing at least a hundred.
Truly, I cannot remember more than a couple of songs being repeated so
far.
Well, I didn’t come for the food, I didn’t come for the
destination – the Caribbean, I didn’t come for the other amenities that the
QM-2 offers. I came for the music and
dancing and I have not been disappointed.
Truly, the QM2 is a floating ballroom dancer’s heaven.
While writing this piece, I have become inspired to write
another blog about cruising, meant for the many people that I know that really
have resisted the temptation to cruise.
I will reveal what a day in the life is like on a “sea” day and will
hopefully inspire some of my friends to reconsider their closed minded view
that cruising is a passive, boring and mind-numbing imprisonment. More later………
No comments:
Post a Comment