We just got back last night from two weeks on the QM2. We took a car from Southampton to Heathrow and flew from there to Minneapolis and then on to San Francisco with our fifteen month old so we are pretty exhausted. I'm surrounded by mounds of laundry.....sigh...

We had a wonderful time. The ship is gorgeous. The transatlantic portion was so relaxing. At night we went to dinner and ballroom danced while Madeleine went to the play zone to be cared for by the British nannies (they're great!). My parents got on in Southampton and then we went to northern and western france and Spain. My favorite ports were Bilbao and Vigo (we went to Santiago de Compostela).
The ship is very luxurious and elegant. The food was great in the regular restaurant and there was NO nickel and diming or "upselling" like I've experienced on other mass market cruise lines. We did have to pay for soda and alcohol but that was about it. We felt we got great value for money. I love Seabourn but until the baby is older, we'll probably take a couple more QM2 cruises because of the great children's program and the elegant feel of the ship.
Interestingly, on the European segment, there were almost 2000 Brits, 267 Americans, 196 French and a smattering of other nationalities.

We also had a very nice stay in New York prior to embarking. Thanks Denyse, the Intercontinental was great and only $132 a night!

Julie, I'm so glad you and Chester and Madeleine had such a good cruise. Can't believe she is 15 months old already.

Sounds like it was a fantastic trip Julie.

I have experienced the QM2 and agree that the ship is extremely elegant. The crew is so very efficient BUT they never smiled, joked or called you by your name.

I have been tempted to try the QM2 but haven't because of how expensive it gets as a single for a decent sized cabin with an unobstructed balcony.
Lynn

Lynn, single supp always a problem, at least Regent never goes over 40%.

Hi Julie,

We also enjoyed very much our transatlantic QM2 cruise a couple of years ago. Actually, we considered going back this year and taking the sailing you were on. I was very motivated because I love that particular area of Spain. We also loved the Brittania restaurant and thought the food and service was excellent. The only area of the ship I didn't care for was the casual buffet area on top (Kings court?). I thought it had a terrible layout, very confusing.

Well, unlike some of the rest of you guys, we did not care for the QM2. We booked a cruise on her last November, kind of at the last minute, as they were running some great deals, and I was dying to go somewhere. (Unfortunately Regent did not have any itineraries available that would work for us around that time.)

We booked a Queens Grill suite so we could have the dedicated dining room with single seating (we hate having to eat at a specified sitting). We were suprised when we got to check in, as they upgraded us to a Penthouse Suite. This turned out to be the best part of the cruise for us - we ended up spending most of our time in our room and on our HUGE balcony (with the Penthouse Suite, we were allowed an unlimited supply of our drink of choice - beer - for "FREE"). Everywhere else, we had to sign for everything, and I hate that!

It was also just too many people for us - we are definitely small ship people. But, there were a lot of folks who really enjoyed the cruise, particularly thouse who like the dancing.

I think the only way we would ever sail on her again would be a return from Europe to avoid the airplane flight. Like Peggy said on another post, we really hate to have to fly both ways - my husband especially does not like it. We can handle one way, but really don't like having to fly over and back.

David, you're right, there isn't the intimacy of a small ship and the relationships with the staff. There were, of course, some exceptions, particularly the staff who were drawn to the baby in King's Court.
Most of the time the ship didn't feel crowded. There were a few exceptions. Sometimes we had to look for a couple of minutes for a table in the Queens room for afternoon tea.
For us, being able to go over to Europe with the baby not cooped up in a tin can was a major plus. The return flight from London was really hard and we were in biz. And, of course, the British nannies gave us some time to ourselves and Madeleine got to play with other kids and do fun activities.
In all fairness, the Queen Mary is not a mass market line, it's a hybrid between mass market and luxury. The per diem rate is definitely higher than Celebrity or Princess. But they had lots of the touches that luxury cruises do like complimentary shuttles into town all day and laundrettes on board with free machines and detergent. The signing for drinks didn't bug me too much and we did the auto-tip so we didn't have to deal with individual tipping.
We had to move cabin between B2B and they moved all our stuff for us. From my own research, I don't think they have good single supplements. A friend was going to join us but they would have had to pay 100% single supplemement.