Four days onboard the Queen Mary 2

BY MARJORIE ROBINS | marjorie.robins@newsday.com

April 20, 2008

Queen Mary 2 from Brooklyn to Bahamas on deck

On deck aboard the Queen Mary 2 on a cruise from Brooklyn to the Bahamas. (Newsday / Marjorie Robins)

Time and money. Like you, I never have enough of either, especially when I'm looking to invest them in a vacation. I've got plenty of transportation issues, though. With planes, I only willingly fly for births or deaths. With trains, I resent forking over those bloated fares to Amtrak.

So take me to the water. Let the foghorns blow.

I think I'll take a cruise.

But with caveats:

Must embark from New York.

Must not have wet T-shirt contests.

Must have a library, a luxury spa and a planetarium.

Must require gowns and tuxedos for dinner.

Must take only four days, pier to pier. (Dare I leave my dogs in Barkingham Palace any longer, even though I guiltily forked over $420 for the kennel's "suite" with sofa and television?)

Got what I wanted, too, and at about only $1,100 a person aboard Cunard's Queen Mary 2 on its four-day voyage "getaway" package this past Easter weekend. The trip set sail from Brooklyn on a Thursday evening. By Friday, we were cruising at 28 knots along the Southern U.S. coast toward the Bahamas and arrived at Cunard's private island, Princess Cays, Saturday morning for a day of sunbathing. We lifted anchor just before dinner for the trip back Saturday night and Sunday and eased past the Statue of Liberty and into the Brooklyn pier at daybreak Monday, within minutes of Mary's promised return.

The big question: Can a would-be cruiser get aboard, find her way around, and take advantage of one of the world's greatest ocean liners in 92 hours - yet feel the satisfaction of a vacation well had?

You be the judge.

DAY 1, Thursday: Limo picks us up at our house in Great Neck. Off to the pier in Brooklyn with my party in tow: Joe, my husband; Sasha, my daughter; and Zach, her pal since eighth grade (both of them are now in their mid-20s).

We have side-by-side cabins on the eighth deck, and our luggage is sent up within minutes of our arrival at about 1p.m. The kids rush off to the Canyon Ranch SpaClub to sign up for massages and waxings and come back with a gift for me: an anti-aging facial appointment for the next day. Believe me, I need it.

Joe and I unpack in our room, a spacious 248 square feet with a king-size bed and a partial-view balcony. Four years ago, we had this same cabin on the QM2 maiden voyage from New York to Southampton, a historic crossing. Nostalgia has seized us.

Like any good cruisers, our first stop is the buffet. On this ship, food is served round the clock at several connecting restaurants on the seventh deck. Evenings, we are assigned to a table for four in the Britannia restaurant, a three-deck-high grand dining room, opulent and tasteful with exquisite silver place settings, Wedgwood china, Waterford crystal and a sweeping staircase. There are other dining venues on the Queen, as well, including Todd English, a Mediterranean-style restaurant ($30 a person surcharge for dinner) conceived by and named for the noted Boston-based chef, who is not aboard.

After picking up an Alan Furst novel at the elegant 8,000-volume library, we take a quick nap and get ready for dinner. As the saying goes, one can never be too dressed up or wear too much jewelry on the QM2. In fact, there is a dress code for three of the nights: formal, semiformal and elegant casual. Pretty much everyone dresses to comply; even in the daytime, one sees few sneakers, baggy Bermudas or bare feet.

Sorry to report that the Britannia's food is just high-mediocre, no better than at several country clubs I've eaten at on Long Island. Things sound tempting on the menus, but we find the fish dry, the steak chewy, the duck overly sauced, the pasta drenched in cream.

When we are sated, we leave the restaurant to window-shop at the Mayfair galleria of boutiques, including Hermes and H.Stern, and peek into the Veuve Clicquot Champagne bar.

Feet hurting, we call it a night.