My Cruise to New York on Cunard Queen Mary 2 – Part 1

September 20, 2017 4 Comments

It seems like an absolute age ago that I set sail on the Queen Mary 2 as a guest of Cunard for Transatlantic Fashion Week. It honestly was a dream trip and I have so many photos I've had to split them into two posts. I've decided to share the trip in a bit of a diary style with a snapshot of what I got up to and what I wore each day. This post is my Cruise to New York on Cunard Queen Mary 2 days part 1 and the rest of my trip will be up next week as well as a post with more detailed info and photos on the Queen Mary 2 itself and my cabin. Plus I ALSO have a vlog coming as I filmed every day I was there too so subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven't already and you'll get a notification when that goes live.  If you didn't catch my What I'm Packing Post then have a nosey as it gives a bit more info on the cruise itself and why I was invited.

There is a slight mix of photos in the post, my pictures shot on the Olympus Pen and pictures by the fabulous Chris Ison who was the photographer on board. Thanks to him for the snaps of me in my evening outfits and spraying Chanel!

DAY ONE

After a long trip down to Southampton I boarded pretty easily onto the Queen Mary 2. Checking in and security is kind of similar to flying but much much quicker and so good that they take your bag when you arrive at Check in and it is delivered straight to your cabin. Good job as mine was wicked heavy considering how much I packed. I was staying in a Britannia Balcony stateroom and mine was towards the front of the boat. When I arrived in my room I found a lovely spacious room with king size bed, seating area, balcony and bathroom. I'm going to do a much more detailed post on my room separate to this but it was lovely and light and much bigger than I expected. I also had in my room some gorgeous gifts from Cunard; a fluffy robe with my initials and my blog name embroidered on it, a swim cover up by the brand Melissa Obadash who had a pop up boutique on board and the most amazing gift ever A FURLA HANDBAG!! Furla has just opened a boutique on board the Queen Mary 2 and I had been gifted the classic Metropolis bag in black. Such an incredible surprise and if you saw my insta stories I got really emotional as I was so overwhelmed. There was also a lovely chilled bottle of fizz too and a card from the girls at Cunard welcoming me onboard. After a flurry of photos I headed to the other blogger Marta's room where we promptly jumped up and down, drank champagne and squealed about how excited we were to be on board and how spoiled we felt.

Cunard Queen Mary 2 southampton
Cunard Queen Mary 2 balcony stateroom
Cunard Queen Mary 2 sail away party
Cunard Queen Mary 2 sail away party
Cunard Queen Mary 2 sail away party

OUTFIT DETAILS
jumper | trousers | shoes | bag | sunglasses

After grabbing lunch and quick outfit change we both headed off to the Sail Away party on deck. It was such a lovely sunny evening and we got to meet everyone on the trip including Chris the photographer, Ruth from Cunard and Sharnaz and Lauren the press ladies. And of course we drank more fizz and fought against the wind to try and get some outfits snaps. A reoccurring theme of the week, ha ha. 

That evening we ate in the Britannia restaurant. The Britannia is an incredible restaurant with high atrium ceiling and would be our restaurant for most of  the week. The staff were lovely and really happy to accommodate my gluten free needs. It was a non-formal evening so I just dressed in simple black trousers and a little sequin jacket but I'm sorry to say I'm a bad blogger and don't have a photo.

Cunard Queen Mary 2 Britannia restaurant

DAY TWO

Day two started early with a tour of the ship starting in the Grand Lobby (pic below). It was good to see the ship as a whole but my word did I end up more disorientated than ever. The ship is massive. 13 decks, 5 restaurants, a planetarium, a theatre, ballroom, kennels, a library and shops galore. The Queen Mary 2 has had a recent refit and the whole place was full of such intricate detail and some amazing features. I found to get your bearings that you just need to make your way around the ship and eventually you start to learn where stuff is and there's plenty of maps around.

Cruise to New York on Cunard Queen Mary 2
Cunard Queen Mary 2 cabin view
Cunard Queen Mary 2 cabin view

It was such a beautiful day and the sea was so calm. I loved just sitting on my balcony in the sunshine. After lunch and a swift costume change we headed to deck 3 for the launch of Chanel's brand new fragrance Gabrielle. It was so lovely to hear more about how the fragrance was created and lots of details about the new bottle which although has the basic no 5 shape has been given a modern makeover with many more intricacies than you'd think from the thickness of the glass to the detance between the corners!! Incredible really.  We were also very lucky to be given a bottle each to keep. It smells divine, its a light fragrance with four floral notes and really pretty.

bella freud tshirt striped skirt casual outfit
bella freud tshirt casual outfit
Chanel Gabrielle perfume
Cunard Queen Mary 2 Godiva  cafe

OUTFIT DETAILS
tee | skirt | shoes | bag | earrings | sunglasses

Later in the afternoon I headed to the Godiva coffee lounge and had the most gorgeous almond milk latte which I drank and did a bit of people watching.

That evening was the first Formal night on board and it was the Black and White Ball. I was so excited to get dressed up into my black ballgown with a pop of red from my clutch bag and shoes. Before my trip I'd asked my hairdresser Natasha for some up do ideas and she suggested a sleek bun for this outfit which I'm pretty happy I managed to do myself! Go me!! To finish off the look I wore a pair of statement black earrings.

After photos on the incredible staircase in the Grand Lobby we headed to Britannia restaurant again for dinner and then drinks in the Queens Room at the Black & White ball. There was lots of dancing going on but I have to say I didn't partake as I'm not really the waltzing kind. Instead us ladies headed up to the Commodore Club and had some yummy cocktails.

Queen Mary 2 Black and white ball dress
Queen Mary 2 Black and white ball
Cruise to New York on Cunard Queen Mary 2

OUTFIT DETAILS
dress | shoes | earrings | bag

 DAY THREE

Rather ambitiously me and Sharnaz decided to get up at 5.30am to see the sunrise but sadly it was much too foggy and rainy a day to see it but we did get some snaps nonetheless. At that time in the morning the ship was eerily quiet and kind of spooky. We gave up on seeing the sun and I headed back to bed and then woke up at 9.30 to breakfast being delivered to my door which was such a treat. No photogenic avo on toast for me, nah I went full english!!

Later that morning we all headed to our first Transatlantic Fashion Week event, the Karl Dunkley Grosvenor Shirts Fashion Show. It was a great start to the fashion events and a really fun show.

Cruise to New York on Cunard Queen Mary 2
Cunard Queen Mary 2 pool deck
cunard Queen Mary 2 breakfast
cunard Queen Mary 2 breakfast
Cunard Transatlantic fashion week catwalk show
Cunard Transatlantic fashion week catwalk show
chinos and striped tee outfit

 

OUTFIT DETAILS

 

| top |

| trousers |

| bag |

 

 

chinos and striped tee outfit
furla store opening Cunard Queen Mary 2
furla store

That evening we stopped by the brand new on board Furla store which was having its grand opening complete with a handbag shaped ice sculpture. All laid out like the NYC store I visited last year they had several of the core pieces from the new collection. My favourite was the pink bag with the removable glitter flap! LOVE!

That evening was the second of the Formal nights which began with cocktails with the Captain in the Queens Room followed by dinner that night in the Verandah restaurant. I wore the pink dress which so many of you messaged me about on instagram. Again my hairdresser had given me some hair ideas and suggested a textured french plait with the end tucked under which I gave a good blummin go at and apparently it looked very nice!
The day at sea had been quite rough and I have to say most of us were feeling a bit queasy which was such a shame as it was the best food we had all week. My lobster was INCREDIBLE! I headed for one cocktail at the pub but then headed to bed where my room felt like it was on a pirate ship theme park ride (which you might have seen on my insta stories) but I did eventually fall asleep.

pink fishtail gown outfit
pink fishtail gown outfit

OUTFIT DETAILS
dress | bag | shoes | earrings

Cunard Queen Mary 2 Verandah restaurant
Cunard Queen Mary 2 Verandah restaurant

So that's what I got up to on my first few days of the cruise. I hope you've enjoyed having a read. My second Cruise to New York on Cunard Queen Mary 2 post is going to be even bigger as there is the Julien Macdonald show to share as well as all the snaps from when we arrived into NYC so stay tuned for that.

Let me know if you have any questions at all about the cruise and I'll do my best to answer them in the next post x

You can shop all my cruise outfits below.

 

Debs 

x

Bang on Style

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4 Comments

  • laura September 20, 2017 at 5:04 pm

    Love ALL the outfits and LOVINGGGG the sleek bun too!!!!

  • Rob Holloway September 20, 2017 at 11:15 pm

    So pleased that you enjoyed your QM2 cruise and your chosen outfits look fantastic on you .
    I so enjoyed that selfie of you having breakfast , very relaxing and yummy.
    One thing about Cunard we love is the choice of hot items on the breakfast menu
    Paul Cunane of our FB group “We are Cunard Fanzine” posted your link for us Cunard nutters to enjoy :)
    I am the character who reported to you how I pack my wife’s clothes and also suggested you would be having so much fun you would not be able to wear al those T-Shirts
    Did you finally meet Paul and discover if he really does pack too much.
    Take care , look forward to your next instalment

    Rob

    • Bang on Style October 11, 2017 at 5:11 pm

      Ah Rob thank you so much for reading. Yes I did meet Paul he was sooo lovely and I did actually wear every single tshirt I took ha ha

      Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment too x

  • Minah Lynn March 18, 2019 at 3:13 pm

    What a beautiful place and nice set of outfits!

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