111 Nights Full World Voyage - Southampton to Hamburg Cruise

V507 - Two weeks on Cunard's Happy Ship

I joined Queen Victoria in Fort Lauderdale for the last two weeks of her 2025 Grand Voyage circumnavigating South America, this piece getting back to the UK from Fort Lauderdale. Embarkation was a slog - big lines to get through security and then to check in, but they did move reasonably quickly. I'm not sure how many joined the ship in FLL, but it appeared that we all arrived at the port to board at the same time (I arrived ~30 minutes before my scheduled arrival time, but the line kept getting longer after I arrived.) A few unfortunate things happened that were entirely out of Cunard's control - the weather the first few days was rough, and we missed our port call into Bermuda due to the weather (the wind made it unsafe to get out of the harbour), but the missed port stop was replaced by an extra day in Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Communication on both (the missed port stop and the extra day in Azores) was prompt and extensive - it was announced over the tannoy, which announcement was then followed up with a letter to the cabin. We did have 7 straight sea days, instead of the 3 and then 4 scheduled, but as always, Cunard did an excellent job at providing entertainment during the day and into the evening. The Insights speakers that I saw were solid, and the rest of the activity options seemed to be well attended, from what I saw. (I cruise to relax, so I generally take my knitting and my book and find a corner to while away the hours, so I can't speak to most of the activities.) I didn't attend any of the main theatre shows, but I did attend quite a few of the concerts done by Aileen and Sticks, the Irish folk duo who played in the pub or the Winter Garden most evenings. The service on QV was wonderful. I was last on board in February 2024 (which was my first time on board), and multiple staff members remembered me and greeted me by name when I boarded this time. Staff greeted you by name by the second or third time you entered a venue, remembered your regular order, and were always friendly and smiling. One particular incident stands out - I attended afternoon tea on the last sea day, arriving about 30 minutes after the start. They found me a spot at a shared table, and the waiter who escorted me to the table made sure that I had tea, sandwiches, cakes, and scones brought pretty much immediately, and checked in with me a number of times to make sure that I had everything I needed. I had never seen this waiter around before, he just took it on himself to make sure that I had a wonderful final tea experience. And that's just one of many such experiences that I had over my two weeks on board. The food was overall pretty good. The menus in the Britannia Restaurant were occasionally a bit boring, but there was always something to have in the Lido buffet if the MDR didn't suit. I never felt like I needed to venture to one of the specialty restaurants, nor pay for a supplemental item. The Lido's themed dinners (German, American, British, Indian...) were well received, and I very much enjoyed them. Disembarkation was a breeze. Cunard brought UK Border Force agents on board in the Azores, and they did the passport checks on board during the last 3 days of the crossing, so we were able to just walk off the ship. The luggage hall was a zoo, but that's because many of the people on board had been on board for up to 78 days, and so had a lot of luggage (one woman told me that she had had to go down to the purser's desk to get additional bag tags, because they had 'only' provided 4, instead of the 8 that they required,) and many of the cabins I walked past on the last night had 4+ suitcases sitting outside waiting to be picked up. One thing to remember, though, is that QV, like other Cunard ships, puts the clocks ahead at midday on eastward voyages, which makes the days that much shorter. In summary, I had a wonderful time, and if budget and vacation time permitted, I would be back on board QV in a shot.

Queen Victoria - The Happy Ship

This is our second cruise, we previously did a 4 night cruise on Queen Mary 2 to Hamburg and back. We chose to travel Britannia Club this time as it offers a second a la carte dining menu in the evenings in addition to the main Britannia daily menu. We are a younger couple so we were already expecting the majority of other passengers to be much older than us although there were other couples around our age onboard as well. We chose an A1 grade room with a larger balcony towards the centre of the ship, it was almost perfectly located for everything onboard. Boarding We arrived before baggage check in opened as we travelled South from the Midlands by train, there is a direct service from the East Midlands to Southampton each day so it seemed the perfect service to use, the only downside is arrival into Southampton is just before 1100. We waited outside the terminal for a few minutes and then baggage and check in opened, we joined the priority queue, which seemed rather like the "Speedy Boarding Pass" sketch from Come Fly With Me, everybody was priority! Once checked in we spent about 30 minutes in the terminal and we began boarding the ship not long after 1200. We made our way to our room and everything was all set up to recieve us. We went for a quick bite of lunch in the Golden Lion and returned to our cabin around 1400, our steward had kindly moved our cases into our cabin for us. Cabin The cabin was well appointed, the carpet itself maybe looking a little bit tired after years of use but it was all kept as clean as can be by our wonderful steward Cloria. She kept us stocked up with water and coffee pods, and even tidied our shoes up for us as we are prone to leaving items cluttered around the place. The balcony was huge and whilst the front end gave us superb views towards the front of the ship I was also aware it would be overlooking other people so I didn't wish to feel like I was intruding on their space so I tended to do my best to avoid standing where they could see me, and sat further back in where I was also given privacy from others. Britannia Club restaurant We were seated in the middle of the restaurant which was roughly what I was expecting, it was busy service most nights however with the later start time than the early Britannia restaurant seating it meant some of the other guests around us struggled to eat and make it out in time for the 2000 show, however the waiters were very good at trying to push their service through to get them out of the restaurant in time for them to make it to the theatre. Our waiter was Rowen and the Maitre'd was Paula, and both made the experience wonderful from start to finish with attention to detail from both throughout the voyage. Paula in particular could be seen most evenings with a tower of flame from the flambe trolley. Rowen was also generous with the cheese trolley as well much to my delight. Food was always good and we took advantage of the a la carte menu on a few occasions when the daily menu didn't provide an item to our liking, most evenings we had a starter, soup, main and dessert so our dinner took upwards of 2hrs and on occasion got closer to 3hrs, but we delighted in spending our time in the restaurant and enjoyed not feeling like we had to rush or skip a course because the table was needed for somebody else. We also enjoyed getting to know the staff in the restaurant and them getting to know us, it felt like the premium we had paid for Britannia Club over Britannia was well worth paying for the restaurant alone. I think the only bad meal we experienced was when my partner had ordered a rare steak and it arrived well done, with mushrooms close to being charcoal. Our waiter was unhappy with this production from the kitchen and asked us to let him take it away for a new one, but my partner persisted that it was ok and ate it as he didn't wish to wait any longer for the meal and it was close to the end of service. Commodore Club We had enjoyed the Commodore Club on QM2 so we knew we'd probably like the one on Queen Victoria as well, however we quickly realised we preferred the QV version with the much bigger windows, and far greater number of seats. We found we made a beeline for the Commodore Club from around 5pm each night until 7pm when we'd head for dinner. Most evenings around these times the cocktail pianist Craig Edwards was tinkling the ivories for lengthy 45 minute sets and his music really did make the atmosphere so pleasant. We also enjoyed the soothing sounds from Pierre Eugene as well who was usually present later in the evenings. Drinks were efficiently served and the staff here were also incredibly pleasant with two outstanding chaps Alvin and Oliver always on hand to take our orders. Other venues We didn't really use the Queens Room except for afternoon tea twice, it's a nice venue onboard the ship but we found service from the sommelier at afternoon tea to be nonexistent, he seemed to wander down one aisle asking if anybody wanted champagne but then didn't come down ours, and then did his best to melt into a corner whenever we tried to get his attention. The only other occasion we visited was one evening after a meal we thought we'd try it out and again seemed to struggle to get the attention of any waiters for a drink, so gave up and moved back to the Commodore Club. The Golden Lion we visited a few times, all for lunch in the afternoon during port stops when we'd found our way back to the ship early. Service was always prompt and friendly, no complaints here, and it at least looks more like a pub than the version on the QM2. Food was very good when we ate however it's a shame to see some of the items now have an upcharge, an idea imported from Queen Anne. The Chart Room was another popular venue onboard and we would spend time here during the day and evening, service friendly and prompt, and I liked the two different daytime and evening menus with different cocktails in each. The Lido Buffet appears to have been taken decor from a 1990s British Home Stores. I don't really like buffets, and I found the food to be average, but there's only so much you can do with food that sits underneath a lamp. Selection didn't seem to be the most amazing however it is quite a large area, and it is also somewhat chaotic so I usually got fed up with other guests getting in the way to bother trying to find anything more than "something that will just do". Cleanliness was good here and staff were on hand to ensure you were sanitising your hands on entry to the area. But it is just a buffet, and I will never like them. We also didn't choose to use any of the alternative dining options, we had enjoyed The Verandah on QM2 and had we felt the need to we would have used it on QV, but the food in Britannia Club was good enough to keep us satified. We also didn't go to any of the theatre shows in the evening as we were usually busy eating for the 2000 show, and we were usually getting ready for bed or in a bar for the 2200 show. There was a lot of variety on offer but none of it gave us that big wow factor that drew us to it. We did however attend some of the Insights lectures, including the ones from Jennie Bond and Jonathan Haslam, both were very interesting speakers. We also took part in the Behind the Scenes tour which we found incredibly interesting, we were taken backstage underneath the theatre, into the ships laundry, through to the engine control room, into the catering stores, and the main Britannia kitchen, and finally up to the ships bridge. The experience lasted around 3hrs and whilst very expensive at $120 per person it was something we both thoroughly enjoyed. Other passengers We met a huge variety of other passengers onboard, including a single traveller at the age of 97, down to a lovely young couple our age and a few young families with kids. Overall most passengers seemed to be around the 55 to 75 spectrum and male/female couples so we probably stood out quite a bit being mid 30s gay men, not that anybody showed it. There were only one or two passengers who seemed determined to find a problem to spoil their holiday with, including one lady who seemed irate that her beer had been poured with too much head on it, and the Captain hadn't personally checked in on her in the aftermath of such an "outragous" incident. There was also rather a lot of coughing going on during the voyage which impacted on me when I felt rough for a few days halfway through. Luckily it didn't seem to be more serious than this but it goes to show how easily something can spread onboard through one or two careless coughs and sneezes. The Crew Without exception I don't think we found a single member of staff who didn't seem happy, including down in the laundry with the staff who don't see any daylight during the shift. From Captain Connery to the lower grades everybody seemed friendly and welcoming. We commented on this one evening with some other guests in the Britannia Club dining room and they also agreed that the ships company seemed to have become a close knit family who enjoy working on the ship and with each other. As a passenger you felt this. We also took the time to nominate some of the crew who made our trip special for the 'Star' awards. Disembarkation Sadly all cruises have to end, and we arrived in Southampton with a nice clock change giving us an extra hour in bed, we had been allocated an 0910 departure however a quick visit to the Purser's desk changed this to an 0810 departure. We arrived in the Grand Lobby at 0808 in time for door to be opened for everybody who wasn't taking all of their luggage off by themselves. It was a gentle flow of passengers and we were in a taxi within 5 minutes of stepping off the ship. Will we be back? Absolutely, whilst onboard we booked another cruise to take us to the Canaries in 2026. We booked the same cabin, so we are hoping our crew remain the same next time we are back.

What better way to start Christmas festivities?

As a little bit of background; this is our second Cunard cruise, our first experience was Queen Anne which we thoroughly enjoyed, so much so we booked her again for 2025 and 2027. We had a little apprehension for Queen Victoria, but having just disembarked from a short 4-night cruise to Cherbourg and Bruges I can say we're firm fans and are very much looking forward to boarding her again in 2025 for Voyage Du Vin. Boarding was quicker, simpler and more enjoyable for this voyage (plus a lovely festive band playing in the terminal), we were through the terminal and onboard within about 20 minutes and straight to The Golden Lion for a quick lunch (hybrid menu between old and new), checked our dining table in the Britannia Restaurant, booked the spa pass and sorted a few admin things with the pursers desk. Sailaway past Queen Anne was great fun with a lovely crowd on Deck 10 for the "horn exchange". The ship is beautiful, and exceptionally well maintained. Décor will always be subjective, and we have tried our best not to compare the ships and take them individually, but we thought she was beautiful in most spaces. There are spaces no longer fully utilised, or in need of refresh, but I expect these will mirror the changes being rolled out to Queen Elizabeth. We loved exploring and the atmosphere onboard. She is elegant and well loved. Food was consistently great - the one comparison we both made was how much better value and quality La Piazza and Riviera were in comparison to Tramonto and Aranya on Queen Anne (comparatively the same concept - extensions of the buffet and similar price points). These easily surpassed those equivalents on Queen Anne. Tablecloths in use, along with new crockery, it was the best service on those two nights as well. Would prefer those be pushed back to Queen Anne rather than the other way around. The main dining room was stunning. Steakhouse at the Verandah has had the Sir Samuel's menu, uniforms and tableware rolled out. It was as good as it was on Queen Anne. The only thing we didn't enjoy in Steakhouse at the Verandah were the squishiness of the booth seats - I'm short enough as it is and I practically sank! We enjoyed The Winter Garden, Chart Room and Commodore Club the most I think. Yacht Club was a mixed bag - occasionally full of energy, other times disappointingly quiet. The spa was a lovely warm escape from the chill on deck and after exploring Cherbourg and Bruges. The Queens Room had a great mix of entertainment, and we very much enjoyed the Silent Disco on the first evening - as did most other passengers given how packed the dance floor was. Entertainment was varied and enjoyable, as well as an unexpected evening with Aled Jones performing Christmas carols and The Snowman. We'd discovered this was part of the entertainment by accident and enquired about booking a booth in the theatre as soon as we'd boarded. That itself was a wonderful and special experience. There were a few grumbling and unhappy passengers we came across, but on the whole everyone seemed happy, jovial and in the festive spirit. The crew were exemplary - particularly Edison and Ramon. Both of whom surpassed our expectations. Ramon also kindly arranged for the captain to sign some postcards I'd designed as keepsakes for my husband for his voyages. Our cabin was spacious (Deluxe Inside), clean and well kept throughout the voyage. Great storage, comfortable bed and perfect for what we needed. Bending down for the shower was an unusual experience and the shower curtains are not great but it was adequate and didn't put us off wanting to come back onboard Overall, we loved our short time on Queen Victoria and can't wait to board her again next year.