Yeah, the opulence on the QM2 seems kind of optional, apparently you can still eat at the buffet with jeans and a t-shirt on. Having a gym, pool and sauna on-board was mostly the kind of facilities I'd want to take part in... I don't think I'd fit in with the tuxedos-at-supper crowd It seems from a couple of blog entries that it might not be too "yuppie" for me if I avoid the fancy restaurants at night.

The one container ship site I saw quoted 110 euros a day average cost but also said the round-trip crossing was 4,000 euros so IDK how it really works out and they wanted all my info for a quote so I never pursued it beyond reading the FAQ, and it was only the first result from a search so hardly thoroughly researched. The crossings were longer since the ships seem to stop at multiple ports in NA before crossing and like you said they'll go around storms and whatnot. The QM2 takes 7 days since it was built to cross the Atlantic quickly and has a set schedule to meet.