The first thing you will notice is that this review will sound really negative, yet I have given 5 stars for most of the areas. The truth is that we all had an amazing holiday. We saw some fantastic places, met lots of nice people and ate way too much first class food.

I read lots of reviews before departure and I was specifically interested in the negative ones. Most of them seem to be from people that are used to having perfection all the time whereas most of us can enjoy a holiday for what it is and not get caught up on the bad points. Cunard are trying to appeal to a broad range of people here. The expectations of someone paying £1500 for a cabin are going to be wildly different to the sort of person who is paying £15,000. I know the grill dining areas are apparently better than the Brittania (quite how the Brittania food can be improved upon is beyond me) and they get their own deck, but all the public areas are the same so there are bound to be people who aren't happy with things. If that is enough to ruin your holiday and make you give 1 star reviews then perhaps you should think about chartering your own private boat in future.

The boat is fantastic and we saw no evidence or wear and tear or bad workmanship. The decor was lovely and finished to a really high standard. The staff is all well trained and everything ran smoothly. I can't help but feel it is a shame that when designing the boat they had an opportunity to create something magnificent and push the boundaries of what luxury cruising will be in the future. Instead they dug out the old QV plans and said lets save a few quid and build another one of these. The two boats aren't just similar, they feel identical. Yes the lobby is a little different and the games deck has a new look but these all feel like minor cosmetic difference. 99% of the ship is the same which is a shame when you think about what they could have done with a skilled team of nautical architects. Read more