Back to the “Travel, Vintage Clothes, and Cruising” page.
From May 16th – 23rd, 2025, Mike and Mary were once again onboard the Queen Mary 2 (QM2), the Cunard Line’s flagship ocean liner, to make our second transatlantic crossing from Southampton, England to New York City. A cruise on the QM2 harkens back to the golden days of cruising from the 1920’s-1950’s, and Mary and I really enjoy that aspect of being onboard the QM2.
We booked this cruise through Ahoy Vintage Cruises (the same as the July 2023 cruise) and were a part of a group of about 130 people; most were vintage enthusiasts of various eras (1920’s-1950’s).
The theme of this Ahoy Vintage Cruise was based on the Art Deco movement, 2025 being the hundredth 100th year anniversary of the Art Deco movement. Briefly, the name Art Deco came into use after the 1925 Exposition internationale des arts decoratifs et industriels modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris, France.
Mary and I mostly wore our 1930’s and 1940’s clothing; authentic vintage 1920’s clothing is very hard to find in any size, but especially in larger sizes. For a variety of reasons, the general population in the 1920’s was a lot smaller in size and stature than today.
Some of the people in our group initially flew to Paris for their pre-cruise sightseeing. They then took a train to London where they stayed one night; and then the next day we were all on to Southampton by coach bus to embark on the QM2.
Mary and I decided to fly into London and spend our pre-cruise time further exploring the sights in that city. We had a great time in London: visited the British Museum, the Tower of London, the National Art Gallery….. About a week earlier London was the scene of several events, to include a huge parade, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE day. (VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies the official surrender of Germany, and the end of WW II in Europe.) I wish the United States did more events like they do in England to celebrate our great historical and military achievements.
Overall we really enjoyed the cruise; meet some wonderful people, both in and outside our vintage group. We actually meet up again with a couple from England we had gotten to know on the July 2023 cruise!
The music provided for our group on this cruise was almost all 1920’s era ballroom and foxtrot type music; the music quickly got repetitive and tiresome. And this was the first cruise Mary and I have been on where we heard some disparaging remarks, from people in the vintage group, about “swing dancers”…. even the band leader made some inappropriate remarks in that vein.
Postscript. A word about Tom Pecena, Cruise Consultant/Travel Advisor who set up this vintage cruises. To summarize, Tom is a great Travel Advisor – very professional, he knows his stuff! He made all the arrangements, he communicated very effectively with me and Mary, and made worthwhile recommendations – – everything ran pretty smooth for the entire trip. Mary and I now plan to contact Tom for many of our other travel advisor needs.
Tom has plans for additional vintage cruises. If you are interested in an Ahoy Vintage Cruise contact Tom at tom@ahoycruisesdfw.com. or 214-761-1968.