Most of what people ask me about Queen Mary 2 is the ship herself: how big she is, how many people are aboard, whether the dog can come. Cunard's figures are below, with the questions I hear most. Whether a week on her is worth what it costs is a different question, and I take it apart in Is Queen Mary 2 worth it? — the price of each tier, which direction to sail, and who I'd steer elsewhere. And if you'd like company on the crossing, I'm sailing the July 2028 eastbound crossing myself, New York to Southampton, and you're welcome to book the same voyage.
The ship, briefly
Queen Mary 2 by the numbers
- Gross tons
- 149,215
- Feet long
- 1,132
- Guests, double occupancy
- 2,691
- Crew
- 1,173
- Decks
- 14
- Maiden voyage
- 2004
- Knots, top speed
- 28
- Kennel places, cats and dogs
- 24
- Planetarium, Illuminations
- 1
- Grill Suites restaurants
- 2
Figures from Cunard. The kennels and Illuminations are both being upgraded in her 2027 refit.
What people ask about Queen Mary 2
How big is Queen Mary 2?
Cunard puts her at 149,215 gross tons and 1,132 feet long, with 14 decks rising 236 feet above the waterline. Cunard calls her the largest ocean liner ever built.
How many guests and crew does Queen Mary 2 carry?
Cunard lists 2,691 guests at double occupancy and 1,173 crew, drawn from more than 50 nationalities.
When was Queen Mary 2 built?
She was built at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique yard in Saint-Nazaire, France, starting in 2002, and made her maiden voyage in 2004. Cunard remastered her in 2016 and takes her into dry dock again in spring 2027 for a refit, returning to service in May 2027.
How fast is Queen Mary 2, and how long is the crossing?
Her top speed is 28 knots. The Transatlantic Crossing between New York and Southampton is usually seven nights with a handful of longer sailings each year. My husband Chase and I made the crossing in January 2025.
Can you bring a dog on Queen Mary 2?
Yes, cats and dogs, on Transatlantic Crossings to or from Southampton, New York or Hamburg. Cunard's kennels on Deck 12 hold up to 24 pets per sailing, looked after by a Kennel Master, with a Liverpool lamp post and a New York fire hydrant on the pets' own deck. Kennel space is booked separately once your voyage is booked, and with 24 places it is the first thing I ask about when a client is crossing with a pet. Cunard is adding kennel capacity in the 2027 refit.
Does Queen Mary 2 have a planetarium?
Yes. Illuminations is a planetarium, cinema and lecture venue in one room, and Cunard calls it the largest planetarium at sea. It is being upgraded with new technology in the 2027 refit.
What are the Grills on Queen Mary 2?
Cunard's Grill Suites are the top tier of accommodation, and each comes with its own restaurant: Princess Grill Suites guests dine in the Princess Grill Restaurant, and Queens Grill Suites guests in the Queens Grill Restaurant, with a butler for Queens Grill guests. Everyone else dines in Britannia or Britannia Club.
She is a liner, not a cruise ship
Queen Mary 2 is enormous — 1,132 feet long, 2,691 guests — but she moves like a thoroughbred. You feel the Atlantic underfoot in a way you do not feel anything on a modern cruise ship. The hull is deep and purposeful. The engines are powerful. She was built for the North Atlantic, not merely accommodated for it. Every other large passenger ship at sea today is a cruise ship — designed for ports, repositioning between them, comfortable in summer water. Queen Mary 2 alone is purpose-built for the crossing.
The ship herself becomes the experience. I spent entire hours on the Bridge Deck simply watching the ocean, the sky, the slow procession of days, without once thinking I wished I were getting a pedicure. The library is the largest at sea — actual shelves, actual books, actual quiet. I woke at five in the morning one day and spent two hours there with a coffee while the Atlantic rolled underneath. That is a specific kind of luxury that expensive spas do not offer.
Britannia, Princess Grill, Queens Grill — three voyages in one hull
If you are booking Queen Mary 2, you are making a choice about the kind of experience you want. Britannia passengers eat in the main dining room with some fourteen hundred other people, and there is a particular democracy and energy in that. Princess Grill passengers get a single-seating dining room, a smaller scale, an upgraded balcony stateroom. Queens Grill passengers — Cunard's Grill Suites at the top — get private space, butler service, an exclusive restaurant, exclusive deck space, exclusive lounges. It is not subtle. Three different voyages on the same crossing. The Grill Suites spoke at /cunard/grill-suites explains the choice.
Dress nights happen
Men in tuxedos. Women in evening gowns. If that sounds stuffy, you are missing the point. There is a particular pleasure in dressing deliberately, in being surrounded by people who have also chosen to dress deliberately, in sitting down to a multi-course meal that arrives on schedule and tastes like someone cared. The service is Cunard-trained — precise without being cold. The wine list is extensive. The kitchen understands that food at sea should taste like occasion. Gala Evenings on Queen Mary 2 come in four named themes — the Roaring 20s Gala Celebration, the Black and White Gala Celebration, the Red and Gold Gala Celebration, the Masquerade Ball. The Queens Room ballroom afterward is the largest dance floor at sea.
The kennels and the Atlantic crossing as feature
Queen Mary 2's kennels are the genuinely unique Cunard differentiator — dogs and cats travel between New York and Southampton on the transatlantic crossings, with a Liverpool lamp post and a New York fire hydrant in the dog-walking area. The kennel master is included in the daily program. It sounds like a marketing detail and it is also why some travelers cross with their dogs once a year.
Six straight days at sea is a feature, not a bug. You do not wake up somewhere new every morning. You wake up to the same horizon, watched from a different latitude. There is no scrambling for tenders, no be-back-by-four-time pressure, no sense that you are racing through a place. Instead, the slow rhythm of ocean travel: lectures in the morning, lunch, an afternoon at sea, dinner, evening entertainment. And underneath it all, the particular quiet of being untethered from land.
Still deciding whether she's worth it? What a crossing costs in each tier, which direction and season to choose, and who I'd tell to skip her.
Adjacent reading
- Cunard with Erik — the pillar hub. The four Queens, the experience layers, the voyage families.
- The Transatlantic Crossing. The product spoke — eastbound, westbound, what the days at sea actually feel like.
- Cunard's Grill Suites. Britannia, Princess Grill, Queens Grill — three voyages in the same hull.
- Is Queen Mary 2 worth it? What she costs in each tier, who she's for, and who should skip her.
- Seven days at sea: why you cross instead of fly. The manifesto.
- Honeymoons & Milestones. The specialty bucket for the crossing-as-honeymoon-bookend cohort.
Plan it together
Let's talk about a crossing on Queen Mary 2.
A 30-minute discovery call. We will figure out eastbound versus westbound, Britannia versus Grills, the seasonal sailings that match your year, and whether the crossing is the start of a European trip or the close of one.
Book a Discovery Call