Family Vacation Plans

Friday, July 31, 2015

The Queen Mary 2 with a family

Many people have asked us about our recent transatlantic crossing with the family on the Cunard Line Queen Mary 2. The fact that this cruise is 7 days at sea with no ports of call and that life on a Cunard ship is more formal gives many families pause in selecting it as an option. I suggest thinking again. Lots has been written about activities aimed at adults but there isn't much from the kids perspective.

Since this is a large ship we will break it out into several posts including:

Overall the family loved having a time disconnects and away from our normal routine. The ship was truly the destination and we enjoyed it. It was also a great way to travel to Europe. Rather than having jet lag we changed one time zone a day and easily adjusted. When we got off we were all rested and ready to tour.

North Atlantic Daytime Activities with Your Children

Things to do with Kids on Board the Queen Mary 2

By Mark Fitzgerald

Most of the activities on board aimed at kids are run through the Youth Zone but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty for them to try and explore. There are sporting activities, views, cultural events, games and things to watch.

Tennis atop the Queen Mary 2

The top most deck things like shuffle board and quoits. Often grade school children learn these activities in PE, so they were pretty excited to try them out on the ship. The basketball hoops had been removed but you can still use the court for other activities. The tennis court was fun to use but rumor has it after May 2016 both courts will be removed.

Of course there is swimming. The top deck has a splash pool between two hot tubs. The splash pool can be more than a few inches deep. Not much to see there. On deck 12 is the pavilion pool, a covered pool with a retractable roof. It was between 4 and 5 feet deep. The rear of the ship had two other pools. The pool connected to the zone was a family pool with a splash area and a 4 foot deep pool. The other pool was labeled adults only but we saw plenty of teens using it.

QM2 Library

In the Golden Lion Pub you could play darts. Down by the Illuminations theater there were a few board games, chess and puzzles. Youth could check out additional board games from the zone. Playing cards were available but not to keep. The library had a small teen book section.

The adult cultural activities may have some appeal to your kids. The lectures, at an hour, are a little long for most youth. Our kids liked the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts who performed Pride and Prejudice, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and other smaller shows. We also enjoyed the various singing and performance groups on board. There were also creative classes for art and acting.

Flower Fruit Carvings

There are also great vistas to explore. On deck 12 from 10 to 4 there is a viewing area that you can watch the bridge. No pictures allowed though. There are also viewing areas above and below the bridge on deck 13 and 11. Deck 7 forms a track to do an outside loop of the ship. Forward of the loop deck 7 opens to an observation deck. It is usually very windy. Inside the library and commodore clubs have similar views.

Galley Tour of the Britannia Restaurant

Lastly there are tours and demonstrations kids will be interested in. We all enjoyed watch the chef's perform a fruit carving demonstration. We were equally interested in a tour of the galley. There are also movies to watch in your cabin or the Illuminations Theater including the on board planetarium show.

Going on a family vacation builds memories, provides life changing experiences and helps teach about the world we live in. Take time to explore, enjoy and have fun. If the day time activities sounded interesting, you may also like the article about the evening events. You can also look at our entire list of Queen Mary 2 articles.

#QueenMary2withFamily
#ThingsToDo

#QM2

Dining and Evening Activities with Youth on the Queen Mary 2

Enjoying the Night with Youth on the Queen Mary 2

By Mark Fitzgerald

Dining on the Queen Mary 2 with a family is a lot of fun but often raises a few questions about food, dress code and evening activities.

Dinner in the Britannia Restaurant

First comes the food. For the younger folks in the crowd they have a separate menu. The menu only has a few choices and they tend to be standard kid favorite - spaghetti, chicken nuggets, hot dogs and the like. You are also welcome to order off of the normal menu. While they will not server smaller portions, there is lots more choice and have a good chance of finding something your kids will like. The Maître D' also told us that if we had specific requests they would work with us.

The waiter will be quick to point out that the items on the kids menu are made on demand so take a little longer to come out than a dish off of the normal menu. It was obvious with things like the chicken nuggets, it was made from scratch and when we sampled them they tasted delicious.

Parade of Chefs in the Britannia Restaurant

Our older children loved having the variety of choices from the menu. They also ordered an appetizer and sometimes a salad too. The challenge was understanding all of the ingredients and terms. To help we put together a glossary to help understand the menu. They all tried new things, some of which they like and others not so much. No one went away disappointed.

We chose to eat dinner every night in the Britannia and use other venues for lunch and breakfast. Each night the boys went up to the buffet for more and also availed themselves of room service.

On a standard crossing there are three formal nights. Cunard is very formal and many of their clientele sail with them because of the formality. As a result dress is frequently discussed on forums and boards. Cunard posts that "Children under 18 do not have a dress code but should adhere to the daily dress code where possible." Our kids really enjoyed dressing up but we didn't go overboard.

On normal nights our boys wore slacks, not jeans, and a knit shirt. They didn't have a jacket and that was just fine. Our daughter wore a dress or skirt, but nothing fancy. On the formal nights they wore a tie. We did have a tux for the oldest one that he had for school music performance. They all received a lot of positive comments from other passengers. Most of the teenage girls had on skirts but very few had formals or prom type dresses.

Performance of Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA)

There are a variety of options for children in the evening. The zone is available and can even be used to put younger kids to sleep for the night. Most nights the movies shown in the Illuminations Theater were family oriented. The family also enjoyed the music themed performances in the Royal Court Theater. Though the children were welcomed at the balls, it was late and they didn't seem interested. Swimming is also an option nail 10 pm.

One thing we found challenging was to find bathrooms near to these large venues, especially the Britannia restaurant. On the upper level you go out of the restaurant and head left and there is a small hallway heading towards Sir Samuel's that has a bathroom. On the lower level you have to leave the restaurant and turn left for women's, right for men, head to the end of the hall and turn again.

Going on a family vacation builds memories, provides life changing experiences and helps teach about the world we live in. Take time to explore, enjoy and have fun. If the evening activities sounded interesting, you may also like the article about the Youth Zone. You can also look at our entire list of Queen Mary 2 articles.

#Britannia
#FamilyFood

#QM2

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The Queen Mary 2's Kid and Teen Zone

By Mark Fitzgerald

The aft part of the ship on deck 6 is large area called the Zone. Aimed at providing activities and amenities for children, it is broken down into 3 age groups. It had programs for 2-7 year olds, 8 - 12 and 13 - 17 year olds. Our youngest was in heaven as she saw this has a chance to go to preschool each day. Each day had a theme, like pirates or space, for the crafts, activities and games.

The kids zone for 8-12 year olds and the Teen Zone did activities both in the zone and supervised out and about the ship. Lots of the games in the Zone were interactive group games, though they also had board and card games available for checkout. Out and about they had time exploring the ship, in the sports courts and scavenger hunts. They even had a time in the golf simulator, which is normally a paid activity. They also had a wide variety of Play Stations and Nintendo Wii games.

The Zone opens at 9 am and goes until late, with closures for the families to have lunch and dinner together. There is a strict protocol of checking kids under 13 in an out of the Zone. It involves stickers on the kids and parents ID cards. Those children also have to have a wrist band that identifies their emergency evacuation area. This was challenging for our 11 year old that is used to having more freedom to roam on his own. The teenagers on the other hand were free to come and go as they please.

QM2 Covered Pool, known at the Pavilion Pool on Deck 12

The Pavilion Pool, Deck 12

Behinds the Zone, on the deck of the ship were additional amenities for kids. There was a splash pool connected to a full size pool. There was also a playground pirate ship in the corner aimed at little kids. The Zone is where they keep the chess pieces for the large chess set on deck. With that said between the weather and the depth of the pool my kids preferred the covered pool on the top of the ship.

When you check in to the Zone the first time there is a fair amount of paperwork that needs to be filled out. They want to make sure of allergies, waivers and other standard legal stuff. At that time they give you and activity program that lists all of the themes and activities for the cruise. At the end of the crossing they have an awards ceremony and give the kids a certificate stating they crossed the Atlantic. Also based on their level of participation they also earn points. Those with the most points earned a prize.

On our particular cruise there wasn't more than 10 kids in each age group. They were primarily American though there was Welsh and English as well. Though the cruise ship had lots of Germans, they weren't hanging out in the Zone, which was English speaking. I loved that my kids had interaction with people from other cultures and area of the world. At first my kids were suspect about using the Zone facilities. It ended up being a important and liked part of their vacation.

Queen Mary 2 Activity Programme from June 21, 2015

Play Zone Activity Programme: