February 10, 2014. The Queen Elizabeth. The Differences.

We have now travelled on three cruise ships. My brother Dave thought we would find differences from one ship to another, and he was correct. Each ship is unique. The size of the three ships is the first difference. The Allure of the Sea was the biggest, both in size and with the number of passengers. The Norwegian Star had about a third the number of passengers and The Queen Elizabeth even smaller, at 1800. So obviously, each ship was different. All ships were elegant, in their own way. All ships were either new in 2010 or refurbished, as was The Norwegian Star. There has been nothing slipshod. The Queen Elizabeth has been decorated in the English style, with lots and lots of wood and light colored carpets. A main difference between the ships is the passengers. The Allure of the Sea had multiple activities for every age group so we saw many children and teenagers. And we heard and chatted with many passengers from Russian and eastern Europe and South America. The Norwegian Star was full of Western Europeans and Americans with mostly people retired. The Queen Elizabeth has passengers from Great Britain, Canada and the US with everyone retired. I have not spoken to anyone who actually still works for a living. The Norwegian Star was full of very fat people while The Queen Elizabeth has very few obese passengers. I have not counted but merely observed when walking around the ship. The biggest difference is the staff. The clothes were different as were their style. Here on the Queen Elizabeth you have impeccable dress and service. And the staff is formal and deferential. The staff on the other ships were excellent and we were well looked after, but there is a difference in style that was observable. On The Norwegian Star, of the 1200 staff members, 600 came from the Phillipines. Not so The Queen Elizabeth. The staff is from England, or India or Germany. One small difference was the method of carrying trays. The waiters on The Queen Elizabeth carry trays in front of them, never hoisting the tray up on the shoulder. On The Norwegian Star, we had a discussion with a waitress about carrying heavy trays on her shoulder. She told us that it took her 6 months to be able to handle the load. On The Queen Elizabeth, they never even try. It is not considered couth!!