I have always suggested that, for those worried about the weather during an Atlantic crossing, especially during the winter months, the best choice would be the last of the true ocean liners in service today, the Cunard line’s Queen Mary II. It is my belief that its retention is possibly subsidized by the UK government because of its unique ability to act as a fast troop transport during times of military activity. (Its top speed is just over 30 knots - about 35 mph or 56 km/h – which we once experienced during a man-overboard scenario.

Just for the heck of it, I compared its specifications to a recent ship of about its length and passenger capacity, as well as the ship we are currently on, to explain the difference:

Jeff

Queen Mary 2 (Cunard) — Queen Mary 2 is a purpose-built ocean liner, 345 meters (1,132 feet) long, with a gross tonnage of roughly 149,000 GT. She's the fastest of the three by a wide margin, with a top speed of 30 knots and a service speed of 26 knots, driven by a powerful diesel-electric and gas turbine system producing about 117 MW (157,000 hp). She carries between 2,620 and 3,056 passengers with a crew of around 1,253. Where she really stands apart is seaworthiness: her hull uses roughly 40% more steel than a typical cruise ship and has finer hull lines (a block coefficient of 0.61), specifically engineered to handle the rough North Atlantic on regular high-speed transatlantic crossings.

Queen Anne (Cunard) — Queen Anne is a modern cruise ship built on a Pinnacle-class hull (shared with sister vessels at Holland America), measuring 322.5 meters (1,058 feet) long with a gross tonnage of 113,000 GT. Her top speed is in the 22–24 knot range, powered by roughly 50.4 MW of diesel-electric propulsion driving ABB Azipods. She's actually the largest by passenger count of the three, carrying between 2,996 and 3,353 guests with a crew of about 1,225. Unlike Queen Mary 2, her hull is a standard cruise-ship design built for comfortable, scenic cruising rather than dedicated heavy-weather transatlantic crossings.

Oceania Vista — Oceania Vista is the smallest of the three, a luxury cruise ship in Oceania's Allura class, at 251 meters (823 feet) long and 67,000 GT. She's also the slowest, with a top speed of 20 knots. Fincantieri's technical specification for Vista states that it is powered by 4 × 9.6 MW diesel-generators feeding 2 × 12 MW electric motors, 2 × 2.2 MW bow thrusters and 1 × 1.9 MW stern thruster. It has two main propulsion lines driving conventional controllable-pitch propellers (CPP). She carries a much smaller complement of 1,200 to 1,469 passengers with a crew of about 800. Like Queen Anne, her hull is a standard mid-size cruise-ship design, optimized for comfortable itinerary-based cruising rather than speed or open-ocean crossings in heavy weather.

The key distinction is that Queen Mary 2 is the only true ocean liner of the three — its hull was specifically over-engineered (thicker steel, sharper hull lines, higher freeboard) to make scheduled transatlantic crossings in rough North Atlantic weather at sustained high speed. That's reflected in her far higher power output and top speed relative to her size.

Queen Anne and Oceania Vista are both conventional cruise ships, designed for itinerary-based sailing in calmer, more varied waters rather than deliberately punching through Atlantic swells at speed — hence their lower service speeds and lighter-duty hulls.

Between the two cruise ships: Queen Anne is much larger (113,000 GT vs. 67,000 GT) and carries roughly triple the passengers, while Oceania Vista is a smaller, more intimate luxury ship with a notably slower top speed (20 knots vs. 22–24).

OK – if you are not a nerd, you can skip the next couple of paragraphs, but the mechanisms used to maneuver the ships have changed over the years and curiosity got the better of me:

Azipods (azimuthing podded propulsors)
The propeller and electric motor sit together in a pod beneath the hull that rotates 360 degrees. Since thrust direction is controlled by rotating the whole pod, there's no need for a separate rudder. This gives ships exceptional maneuverability — they can pivot in place, "crab" sideways, or hold position precisely (dynamic positioning) without tug assistance in many cases. The trade-off is complexity and cost: the motor and electronics live in a submerged, hard-to-access pod, so maintenance and repair are more involved than with conventional shaftlines. Queen Mary 2 and Queen Anne both use this system.

Variable pitch propellers (CPP — controllable pitch propellers)
Here the propeller stays fixed in orientation, but the angle (pitch) of the blades can be adjusted while the shaft keeps spinning at constant speed. This lets the ship go from full ahead to full astern quickly just by changing blade pitch, rather than reversing the engine — useful for fast maneuvering and stopping. Steering is still handled by a conventional rudder behind the propeller. It's a mechanically simpler, well-proven, and cheaper system than azipods, but it doesn't offer the same omnidirectional thrust or sideways movement — maneuverability depends on the rudder's effectiveness, which drops off at low speeds. The Oceania Vista uses this system.

Through-hull (bow/stern) thrusters
These are separate propellers mounted in tunnels that run side-to-side through the hull, usually near the bow and sometimes the stern. They push water out one side to shove the ship sideways, independent of the main propulsion system. They're essential for docking and close-quarters maneuvering, especially at low or zero speed when rudders and even azipods are less effective, but they only work well at very low speeds and have limited power compared to main propulsion — they're a maneuvering aid, not a primary means of moving or steering the ship.

In practice: many modern cruise ships and liners combine systems — azipods or CPP-plus-rudder for main propulsion and directional control underway, supplemented by bow thrusters for close-quarters docking. Ships with azipods (like Queen Mary 2 and Queen Anne) often need fewer or smaller thrusters since the pods themselves can provide much of the low-speed maneuvering thrust, while CPP-and-rudder ships, like the Oceania Vista rely more heavily on their bow/stern thrusters for that job.

Vista is a smaller ship (67,000 GT, 20-knot top speed) with a modest power requirement compared to the two Cunard ships, and like most modern mid-size Fincantieri-built cruise ships in this class use conventional shaftline propulsion, variable-pitch propellers with rudders combined with bow thrusters for docking, rather than azipods — azipods tend to be reserved for larger ships (typically 100,000+ GT) where their efficiency and maneuverability gains justify the added cost and complexity.

Are their power plants the same? There's a shared foundation, but real differences in the details.
What they share: All three generate their propulsion power electrically rather than through a traditional direct-drive diesel engine turning a shaft. This is called diesel-electric propulsion — the diesel engines don't directly turn the propellers; instead, they drive generators that produce electricity, which then powers electric propulsion motors. This is now standard across most modern cruise ships and liners because it's more fuel-efficient and flexible.

Where they differ:
Queen Mary 2 goes a step further than the other two — she uses a combined diesel and gas turbine system (sometimes called CODAG/COGES-type setup). She has four diesel engines plus two gas turbines, both feeding the same electrical system. The gas turbines kick in to provide the extra power needed to reach her high 30-knot top speed, something the other two ships don't have or need.

Queen Anne uses a pure diesel-electric setup — four Caterpillar-MaK diesel engines generating electricity, with no gas turbines, feeding two ABB Azipods.

Oceania Vista also uses diesel-electric generation (this is near-universal now), powered by four MAN 8L48/60CR diesel-generators feeding two 140 rpm electric motors (very likely Converteam/GE Power Conversion equipment, but possibly ABB), two bow thrusters and one stern thruster. It has two main propulsion lines driving conventional controllable-pitch propellers (CPP).

So: same general power source concept (diesel engines generating electricity) across all three, but Queen Mary 2 is the outlier in also using gas turbines, and the actual propulsion method (azipod vs. shaftline) differs between Vista and the two Cunard ships.