I found her to be a beautiful and fitting ocean liner in her design. Her exterior is traditional by my tastes, with her black hull and white superstructure, longer bow/forecastle and stepped stern/stem, and centrally placed funnel. Her interior decorations were also pleasing, particularly with the preponderance of Art Deco. The public room decks (7, 3 and 2) are well planned, although it did take a few minutes to figure out the "maze" on Deck 3 which skirted around the Britannia Restaurant to the Queen's Room and G32 Club.

The roster of speakers, from Bill Miller to PD James and Richard Johnson, with everyone else in between, was impressive. I can't comment on the shows in the main theater, as I don't particularly care for shows and only attended two for the whole duration of the crossings and cruise. They were fine, even impressive, especially with the "Special FX", but - again - I'm not a show fan. I attended one of the planetarium shows but hate to admit that I fell asleep during it; what woke me up was that the guy next to me started to snore.

The food in the Britannia Restaurant was very good; there were a few clunkers, but - eh - I guess that's to be expected. It's not like I starved. The food served in King's Court was very basic but substantial. I did dine in the Todd English extra-tariff restaurant and found it absolutely delicious and well worth the thirty-dollar cover charge. The Fish and Chips served in lunch in the Golden Lion pub was very good; I "lunched" there twice.

The criticism about service, at least in the Britannia, was pretty much true. Our first table stewards for the first crossing and the cruise were warm, friendly and competent, but they did commit some faux pas'. For the return crossing, our table steward was absolutely dreadful. The waiters in the bar were very friendly and competent, at least in my experience, and quickly came to know me and what I enjoyed. At times, they would let their hair down and horse around, which I found rather enjoyable. Although very professional, they were not the least bit stuffy. I was also at first amazed at what I considered were reasonable prices for spirits aboard the QM2 - about half the price as what one would find aboard most cruise ships. But then it quickly came to light that drinks were only half the volume. Sneaky, little devils! However, in the G32 club, especially after midnight, they increased the size of the drinks. Our cabin steward was an absolute sweetheart - he came to know our routine and was always there for us.

I had heard about the infamous "exploding toilets", and found it to be partially true. Our toilet in our stateroom went down the drain twice and had to be repaired. It didn't "explode" - it just wouldn't flush. The "fix-it" man explained that a good number of the toilets have developed leaks which does not allow the vacuum flush to work and are quick-fixed with a patch which will give out again; the problem will be permanently fixed when she goes through her first overhaul. Those things have to be expected during an inaugural season. The only other glitch was how the electronic locks on the cabin doors (utilizing our ID cards slipped into the slot-locks, waiting for the green light to flash) would sometimes "short circuit". One evening, very late, after spending way too much time in G32, I found my key wouldn't work in my cabin. My friend was down with a bug so I didn't want to knock and wake him, so I made my way to the Purser's Desk and found a long line of people waiting, electronic key-cards in hand. The poor, overwhelmed girl behind the counter simply muttered in her British accent: "My gawd, what is happening?" Once again - eh - it's an inaugural season.

Our stateroom (one of the cheapest, inside ones) was warm, inviting and rather spacious, much larger than what one finds on the shoe-box cruise ships out there, with plenty of closet space. Our safe did "short-circuit" (it kept opening by itself) and was fixed by security, who said that it is another re-occuring problem in some staterooms which will be dealt with during overhaul.

The gym was fine, although it could use some more ab/tummy weight machines (it has only one).