Our cruise offer was to fly from London Heathrow early morning to JFK airport and cruise back from New York to Southampton, which was scheduled to leave New York at 16.30 local time.
We boarded the aeroplane on time even though engineers were working on a fault with it.
After almost an hour the captain informed us that the fault could not be fixed quickly and we were disembarked back to the terminal and given €5 vouchers for a snack.
A replacement aircraft and crew was being prepared for a 12.30 take off.
We discovered that there were 41 passengers on the flight doing the same cruise and some of them started to telephone their travel agents and Cunard to see what arrangements would be made for us as it was now likely that we would not arrive at the cruise terminal in time for the scheduled departure of the ship.
Initially they were told that the ship would not wait and that on arrival in New York arrangements would probably be made to return us to London on other flights.
This seemed very unsatisfactory and eventually a BA customer service manager became involved and we were told that Cunard were trying to arrange for the ship to wait for us but they could not guarantee this and we were given the option of cancelling the cruise.
Many passengers were getting very stressed at the lack of information and the uncertainty of the arrangements.
Everyone (some reluctantly) eventually decided to take the chance and stay on the flight.
Boarding commenced at 11.15 but announcements from the flight deck informed us that there would be a further short delay as they were waiting for bottled water to be brought on board.
The aeroplane eventually took off at 14.45, over 5 hours late and it was not until the final hour of the flight that we were told that the ship was going to wait for us.
Upon arrival at JFK Airport we were given priority disembarkation and a special gate was opened at US Immigration to speed us through.
We arrived at the dock at 19.30 and following a very fast embarkation the QM2 set sail for Southampton.
As we had been awake since 3am and because of the time difference we were very tired and went straight to bed.
The following day we started to enjoy the cruise and found QM2 to be as magnificent as described in the Cunard brochure.
Every day there was a host of activities to suit all tastes and sometimes we found that we had to be selective in our choice as there just weren’t enough hours in the day.
The on-board entertainment was excellent with some outstanding artists performing.
The guest lecturers were very interesting and covered a wide variety of subjects.
The food was generally of a high standard, although it was occasionally let down by not being served piping hot, which is frequently common with mass catering.
There was however plenty of choice.
Our cabin had a sheltered balcony which is surrounded by the metal superstructure of the ship.
This offered some protection from the elements at this time of year but if one wanted to sunbath in warmer climes there would be no view from the recliners.
During the last few days of the cruise the sea was rough with gale force winds but QM2 handled magnificently and there was hardly any movement on board.
The cruise itself was an excellent experience and it was a shame that we had such a dreadful start.
Anyone considering this transatlantic cruise should fly at least a couple of days beforehand to avoid potential stress and to enjoy the delights of New York City.
