Cruise Passenger > Reviews > Review: QM2

Review: QM2

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4 Mar 2012

My feet hurt. I’ve only been on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 for about three hours and I think I’ve walked a marathon course just having a quick look around. This is a BIG ship – not one of the giant floating cities of some lines but a real ocean liner, just twice the size of the old Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. The statistics are impressive: 151,000 tonnes, 345 metres long, 2,620 passengers served by 1,253 crew and facilities spread over 13 decks. Walk twice around Deck 7 and you’ve covered a kilometre.

And, as I’ve found out, by the time you walk around all 13 decks, it’s time to seek out the dedicated Art Deco Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar. First impressions? She’s a very stylish ship. Cunard has a long history of ocean voyaging and it clings to tradition while operating the youngest fleet afloat. The most obvious signs of this lineage are the Princess and Queen’s restaurants and lounges that are excluded to the likes of steerage-travelling Leonardo di Caprio and Britannia-decked me. But the trade-off is classical décor throughout where you expect to see Noel Coward or Jackie Kennedy sweeping down the stairways. And the Britannia Restaurant is hardly steerage – in fact it’s the most elegant space on the ship.

Our cabin, oops stateroom, is nice too – light and airy with lots of space for two people to mill around. But the balcony, while large, has high walls and a slightly industrial feeling of a ship designed to cope with whatever the sea offers, rather than a fair-weather floating resort. While my voyages are more Marx Brothers than British royalty, I find my shoulders straighten and I flick my cuffs when the many British crew bid me welcome or give me directions. I’m gratified to learn that my ship has the largest library at sea, hopefully packed with Jane Austen and Georgette Heyers (I haven’t discovered it yet). And I suspect Sandra is hoping that the largest ballroom at sea is packed with an endless array of Mr Darcys as potential dancing partners.

The recent disturbing events on Costa ships has dented the surging bookings on cruise ships. And I note we’re doing our lifeboat drill before departing Adelaide’s dock. So it’s reassuring to be on a ship where the very lines and construction quality suggest she’s been built to last.

Imagine a restaurant that can serve 1,100 main courses in 30 minutes. Then imagine the kitchen required to produce those meals in that timeframe. Now put it all at sea where flat surfaces can take on a life of their own and boiling oil isn’t always your friend. This morning we were all offered a tour of the galley of the QM2 Britannia Restaurant and it was very impressive. Of course, the statistics are mind boggling – over 30,000 eggs used each day (and 15 tonnes of meat), 240 staff – 160 chefs and 80 galley hands. But the whole vast area gleamed with industrial efficiency and clinical cleanliness while Karl Winkler, the Executive Chef, took us through the challenges of provisioning and menu creation for this number of guests.

While those who haven’t cruised often ponder how they will fill sea days, those who have done so muse about how there aren’t enough hours in the day. Our galley tour meant we missed the talk by Paul Brunton from the State Library of NSW about the voyages of Matthew Flinders. And we had to rush back to our cabin because we were off Portland and an 11.15am rendezvous with the Endeavour, the square rigger that is a replica of Captain Cook’s vessel. As we drew alongside a helicopter appeared for the inevitable PR shots of the old and new ways of crossing the ocean.

The comparison could not have been more stark – we thought the sea was very calm until we saw how much the smaller ship was pitching. However they had one advantage over us – armaments – and there must have been hearts other than mine that almost stopped when we had a very loud two-gun salute from directly abeam.

I expect most of the ship’s company of both vessels were struck by the almost inconceivable development in ships over just 200 years. And we think, as we so often do, how heroic those crews from an earlier age must have been to sailing from home for years into uncharted waters and to unknown lands. But now it’s time to check out the Canyon Ranch spa with its acqua-therapy and ice fountain.

For some passengers the most British element of a QM2 cruise is the dulcet tones of the Commodore giving us the ship’s noonday position. But for the rest of us, the best indicator that the ship is a not-so-tiny slice of Britain is the Golden Lion Pub on Deck 2. It looks like a pub, down to the dartboards and beers on tap but even better it has pub grub. Four of us get together for lunch and the orders range from beer-battered fish and chips (with mushy peas), a curry and rice, bangers and mash and, for the health conscious, a ploughman’s lunch. All were exactly as promised – pub food at its best with no airs and aspirations.

Sadly, there was barely time for a lap of the outer decks before it was time for afternoon tea in the grand Queens Room – take a seat and the best china, excellent tea and great scones with raspberry jam and clotted cream. Perfect. So perhaps it was a mistake to decide that the best way to stay awake after the calorific overload was a cup of strong coffee at Sir Samuel’s (that’s Sam Cunard, the founder). The coffee may not have been as strong as an Italian barista would have delivered but it was good enough.

Fortunately, the crowded Daily Program revealed that Paul Brunton from the State Library of NSW was in the library to answer questions about the diaries and maps of Matthew Flinders. The library is not just well endowed with a wide range of books but it has excellent views forward over the bow. But most of us were crowded on the starboard side to look at Flinders original writings about Australia and to ask the erudite Mr Brunton questions about the exploration of Australia. Even in the few minutes we had the flow of entertaining information was impressive. I left the library with new knowledge that Captains Cook and Bligh had independently given the name ‘Booby Island’

Sometimes the English language is just too complicated. Cunard is a very English sort of shipping line (and certainly not a mere cruise line). So of course you’d think that the premium restaurant on board the QM2 would be an English restaurant. And it is: the Todd English Restaurant that overlooks the stern on Deck 8 is a very sophisticated setting for a wide range of excellent meals. Counter-intuitively, its name comes from the eponymous chef who was born in Amarillo, Texas and lives in Boston.

One of the joys of cruising is that meals are free. However, there’s a price to be paid for that in eating what would be regarded in land-based restaurants as ordinary food. Quantity – yes, quality – no. So these days, many cruise lines offer premium restaurants where you pay extra for much better cuisine. The Todd English Restaurant is slightly different in that it has a surcharge per dish rather than per meal. $US18 for my beef tenderloin with oxtail ragu, whipped truffle potatoes and tempura fried French beans was money well spent. And you’ll never hear me lament $US5 for a very good banana crème brulee.

Meanwhile, the coastline of Australia passes by. The last two Australian ports for QM2 are Melbourne on Sunday and Sydney on Wednesday. Then the ship does what it does best and takes off for the world, with Asia then Europe as its next areas to explore. Melbourne is a maiden visit for QM2 and helicopters overhead, boats all over Port Phillip Bay and camera-wielding onlookers lining the foreshores prove that it’s a big event. The Herald-Sun runs a photo of QM2 with the Endeavour on the front page – but sadly it’s one from a helicopter and not my shot of the ships with Sandra in the foreground that I posted here earlier.

The Wednesday visit of QM2 to Sydney is special, too. This will be the ship’s second visit to Sydney within a month but the first time that she’s not at Garden Island but is tied up at the Overseas Passenger Terminal instead. The captain told me that this has required a special buoy to be placed in Campbell Cove for her bow line. The 345-metre, 151,000 tonne ship is the largest ship to tie up there – and, unlike many tax schemes, she just clears the muddy and murky bottom of the harbour. It won’t be a good day for harbour views from Wildfire or Quay restaurants.