A Ship Isn’t Just a Ship
Before I sailed on Queen Mary 2, I thought I knew the sort of cruise ship I liked.
Light. Bright. Contemporary. Lots of glass and open spaces.
Dark wood and traditional interiors? Probably not really me.
And then I sailed on Queen Mary 2.
And I really, really liked her.
Not because everything was perfect. It wasn't. There were things I'd expected to be exceptional that turned out to be surprisingly ordinary. But there was something about the feeling of this ship that I hadn't expected at all. And it reminded me of something that's very easy to forget when we're choosing a cruise.
A ship isn't just a ship.
Some ships make sense for certain journeys
We often start planning a cruise with the destination.
Where do I want to go?
The Mediterranean?
Norway?
The Caribbean?
Alaska?
Then we look at the ships going there and compare itineraries, cabins and prices.
But sometimes I think we need to turn that around.
Because there are journeys where the ship matters every bit as much as the destination.
Queen Mary 2 is one of those ships.
I joined her in Hamburg and sailed to Southampton. It was only a short taste of life onboard, but it was enough for me to know one thing with absolute certainty:
I would cross the Atlantic on her in a heartbeat.
Would I automatically choose her for a Mediterranean cruise?
Maybe not.
Would I consider her for the Baltics or perhaps Norway? Yes, I think I would.
But a transatlantic crossing?
That's where, for me, the ship and the journey suddenly fit together.
She feels different
There's a solidity about Queen Mary 2 that's difficult to explain until you're onboard. She felt strong. Safe.
Built for the sea rather than simply built to entertain people while travelling across it. And then there are all the little things that remind you of her history.
One of my favourite discoveries was walking along a corridor lined with photographs of famous passengers from another era — Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and glamorous faces from years gone by.
And strangely, one of the things I remember most is the floor.
It goes uphill.
That sounds ridiculous until you're used to walking along perfectly flat corridors on cruise ships. Suddenly you're walking up the gentle curve of the ship, surrounded by photographs from another age, and it really does feel as though you've stepped back in time. Those are the things a list of facilities can never quite tell you.
She wasn't as grand as I expected
This was perhaps my biggest surprise. I'd expected Queen Mary 2 to feel much more formal and perhaps even a little intimidating. She didn't.
Yes, there's tradition. There are formal evenings. There are beautiful Art Deco spaces and people who very much enjoy the opportunity to dress up. But there were also ordinary people doing ordinary things. And there was a fascinating mixture of nationalities and reasons for being onboard. Some were on holiday. Some were travelling home. Some had joined in one port and would leave in another. Others were staying aboard for much longer journeys.
I met a lady travelling with her animals who told me that although it was a beautiful ship, she'd be spending most of her time up at the kennels. For her, Queen Mary 2 wasn't really the holiday at all. She was how they were getting home. And I loved that. It made me realise that while we often talk about Queen Mary 2 as a cruise ship, she still has that wonderful sense of being a ship that takes people somewhere.
I didn't love everything
I think this matters too.
Sailing on a ship doesn't mean coming home and pretending every single thing was wonderful. I'd been particularly looking forward to the food and, yes, the famous afternoon tea.
For me, both were rather ordinary.
Not bad.
Just not exceptional.
Some of the evening entertainment wasn't particularly to my taste either. Although I loved being able to dance properly — and the dance hosts are a lovely touch — there were evenings when I found myself heading to bed much earlier than I normally would on a cruise.
Me. Going to bed early on a ship.
I know.
But something interesting happened.
It didn't make me like Queen Mary 2 any less.
Because I'd found the things that were mine.
Finding your place on a ship
For me, that was the Chart Room. Give me one of their lovely cocktails and somewhere to sit in there and I was very happy indeed.
I loved the indoor pool and actually went swimming — something I rarely do on a cruise ship. I could have spent days in the library (the largest at sea). I loved the lectures. One was about dark matter, which could quite easily have left me wondering what on earth was going on, but the speaker made an incredibly complicated subject fascinating and understandable. I loved being able to dance on a proper dance floor. And I loved my sheltered balcony. On a ship designed to cross the Atlantic, it suddenly made complete sense.
I didn't need to love every venue onboard.
I just needed to find the parts of Queen Mary 2 that felt right for me.
Perhaps that's something we forget when we're looking at ships online.
We compare how many restaurants they have. How many bars. Swimming pools. Shows. Activities.
But nobody needs everything a ship offers.
You need enough of the right things for you
.
The right ship changes the journey
I came home still preferring bright, contemporary ships. Queen Mary 2 hasn't suddenly converted me to dark wood and traditional interiors for every holiday I take. But she has changed the way I think about choosing a ship.
Sometimes the destination is the star and the ship simply takes you there.
Sometimes you choose the holiday because you desperately want to experience a particular ship.
And occasionally you find a journey where the two belong together.
For me, that's Queen Mary 2 and the Atlantic.
Perhaps that's why a short sailing didn't feel quite enough. I was only just beginning to understand her peculiar layout, work out how to get from one place to another and discover the spaces I liked when it was already time to leave.
I think Queen Mary 2 needs a little time. And one day, I'd very much like to give her that time. Because perhaps the question when choosing a cruise isn't simply:
“Where do I want to go?”
Or even:
“Which ship do I like?”
Perhaps it's:
“Which ship belongs on this particular journey?”
And sometimes, that makes all the difference.
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