As assistant purser, she had answered passenger queries, sorted out visas and performed precarious secretarial duties: “a rolling ship is hell for your shorthand.”

On this crossing, the most onerous task was addressing a reunion of passengers from 1936 to 1967, where mention of her dreadfully rough voyage produced a loud buzz of recognition. Less taxing was her first spa treatment, an anti-ageing facial at the airy Canyon Ranch: “I asked them to take off 50 years.”

Of course, this being a cruise, we ate regularly and with gusto. Half a century before, mum’s bilious stomach required nothing more than dry biscuits. Now we hopped between Thai, Japanese, Italian and the Britannia Restaurant’s modern fusion, including a low-fat, low-calorie, low-taste menu option. On our last night we paid a £16 supplement to eat at the Todd English restaurant, serving Mediterranean food in American portions.

Yet the QM2 needn’t be float and bloat. While Mum made the odd windswept circuit of the promenade deck, I cycled, ran and cross-country skied in the state-of-the-art health centre.

It was a far cry from the old ship’s gym with its bizarre headless, electric horses and camels where gentlemen, and presumably sheiks, scratched their itch for a daily canter in three-piece worsted suits and Homburgs.

As well as the captain’s cocktail party, there were daily tea dances, after dinner cabaret, early evening crooning and late-night jazz. Mum drew the line at G32, the nightclub, where, at 2am, I watched a leggy East European revue dancer, in tight shorts and stilettos, dance the macarena alongside a fragile septuagenarian. He could have done with a set of Cunard stabilisers, but he was a ludicrously happy man.

The rigid three-tier class structure of the Queen Mary has been replaced by ten accommodation grades. There are grand apartments and suites with separate dining options, but the smallest cabins are now 194sq ft. Most have balconies; all have interactive TV and en suite bathrooms. My mother’s deluxe stateroom was a world away from her old shared cabin with bunk beds.

We arrived as a red dawn kissed Manhattan, mooring next to Concorde, the redundant relic of another golden age of travel. In 1954 Mum stayed on board working, only venturing out to Macy’s department store, where, to cap a disastrous trip, she was robbed of her shopping. Now she had a huge suite at the Lowell Hotel, which numbers Madonna among its guests, and enjoyed a crime-free visit to Macy’s.

“After last time I wasn’t looking forward to the trip,” she admitted. “But it’s been wonderful. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Page 3: Need to know ()

Need to know

Ian Belcher travelled with Cunard (0845 0710300, www.cunard.co.uk). QM2 crosses the Atlantic three times a month from April to November. Prices start at £799 per person sharing an inside cabin, including six nights’ accommodation, all meals and return flight.

The Lowell Hotel (00 800 2888 8882, www.lhw.com) has doubles from £290 a night, room only.

Reading: Queen Mary by James Steele (Phaidon, £19.95).

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