My husband and I just returned from our 25th anniversary cruise on the Queen Mary 2, from South Hampton to New York. Everyone says that a Trans Atlantic cruise is a once in a lifetime event, I agree.

However, we were very disappointed. Yes she is a beautiful ship.. .but the service is poor, except for in the dining room(Queens Grill), where the food and the service was excellent.

Because this was our 25th, we purchased a suite, category Q4, and paid more for the two of us than we have ever paid for a whole family. Cunard sells themselve as being the most luxurious liner. . don't believe it. The rooms are nice. .but the details are wrong. Instead of being a one bedroom suite (like on Disney and the newer Celebrity ships) it was a large, L shaped room which was poorly designed. When you turned the lights on, they went on in the WHOLE cabin. .you could not select zones. . Same with the drapes. I would get up early to do my Bible Study and had to read by a tiny, too short lamp , next to the too large couch so that I would not wake my husband up. Details make or break the experience.

The cabin category is located at the front, or back of the ship, on each side, and the balcony offers no privacy. The steps to the upper deck are right there, and anyone going up or down had a birds eye view of the balcony. We were hoping to spend some quiet time on the balcony together . . oh well. .

The service was horrific. When we boarded, no one offered assistance to help us find our cabin, we basically had to find it our selves. ON all of the other cruises we have been on, the concierge comes to introduce herself and let us know what is avaialble to us. . on this cruise she left a letter on the bed. WE didn't find out some of the services, or even where the room was until the day before the cruise ended.

Our cabin "butler" was mediocre, at best. . not a resource as they are on other ships. The maid was fine.

Internet service was not available in the room, and it was VERY hard to connect, even in the computer center. They ended up refunding our package because we could not ever get on. .the system kept going down. My husband was unable to connect with his office.

And disembarkation in Brooklyn was a nightmare! We chose (never again) to book a post cruise hotel through Cunard. They were 35 minutes late in getting us off of the ship, and then were finally able to leave, the line through customs was 30 -45 minutes long. We chose not to wait and take the bus, we took a taxi and finally arrived at the hotel at 12:30. . had we waited, it would have been another hour or more. So much for a beautiful day in New York. They wanted to pick us up 4 hours before our flight the next day.. .again we chose to take a cab . . . adding at least 2 hours onto our time in NY City.

Overall, I would rate the experience a 4/10. I am glad I did it once, but will not chose this cruise line again. They charge top dollar for a medium quality experience.