Pre christmas break on queen mary 2

We booked a last minute four night cruise on queen mary 2 departing southampton on 11 Dec.The itinerary was calling at zeebrugge and Le Havre,been there many times but thought everything would be quite festive with various christmas markets and a chance to do some last minute shopping.The price was excellent value and the weather forecast looked good so we rang Bolsover and hastily packed our cases and were on our way to southampton from Yorkshire.We had a good journey down but now for the third time in Southampton the traffic was dreadful taking around an hour to move the last half mile to the ship which is getting to be a bit stressful.Finally we got on board after a swift check in,lovely welcome by the string quartet on board who instantly put me back in a relaxed mood,in fact the whole ambience of the music around the ship was so relaxing.The ship was beautifully decorated for christmas which all added to the festive atmosphere on board ,everyone we met was so friendly and on our last night we sang carols around the large christmas tree which was quite moving. we ate in the Brittania restaurant, had a table for two,excellent service and food.We loved the planetarium onboard but hate the scramble for tickets first come first served at 9 in the morning..we saw two films in the cinema and went to all of the shows in the theatre which were good .we especially enjoyed afternoon tea in the queens ballroom with white gloved waiters and once again fabulous service,delicious sandwiches,cakes and scones fresh and warm straight from the oven accompanied by a pianist playing songs from the musicals it was a lovely way to spend an hour after a day sightseeing.These four days felt like we had been away for a week it was just the relaxing few days away that we needed,much better value than taking an air and hotel city break