Finally, at, I think, our seventh attempt we made it back on to a Cunard ship, and enjoyed ourselves very much. We have cruised with Cunard many times and were pleased to see everything was much as expected, with a few differences because of Covid.
By far the worst part was embarkation which took about an hour and three quarters rather than the usual 20 minutes. I’m not sure why this was, ...
We chose a back to back cruise to celebrate our birthdays. The first 12 nights we were Club Balcony and the second 17 nights on Princess Grills. I will talk about dining later.
The Club Balcony we chose was on deck 7 with an extended very large curved balcony, the stateroom is similar to most other balcony cabins but at an increased cost due to the Club Dining. Most Club Balconies offered are ...
Ideal cruise for a winter break, but we were not informed of the much reduced recreational facilities before we boarded. On board costs are eye-wateringly expensive, but staff were friendly and attentive. However, some staff had self modified face masks, which were open at the bottom. Also, the dining room tables were too close and the Theatre seats had little social distancing. Our only ship ...
First few days out of Southampton were quite choppy at sea and a lot of passengers appeared to be staying in their rooms. Ship movement prevented the acrobatic act from performing in the theatre and outside deck areas were closed. Thankfully, conditions improved once the ship had got past the Bay of Biscay and temperatures rose the closer we got to the Canaries.
Meals in the main restaurant ...
We have travelled on QE before and QV. Both superb ships. This break was to have some winter Sun to islands we had been to before and liked. The arrival at Southampton docks was a bit disorganised. Cunard said to go into Gate 20 which was not a good idea as it's the Container port and there was only one sign to the screening area and that was much later; we did find it eventually by accident. It's ...
We wanted to get some winter sun without flying....this fitted the bill.
The ship was broadly excellent, food was excellent, ship is very manageable, production shows were excellent with some very good guest acts.
As would be expected the Crew were very professional, but to the point of blandness. Very few of them showed any warmth or made anything personal.
While the ship (and Cunard) ...
We have cruised with Cunard once before, this would be our first time on Queen Elizerbeth, and our first Christmas and New Year cruise. Because of Covid the ship was only half full and (vaccinated) adults only. It was fourteen nights in duration, and calling at Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Madeira and La Coruna. All these places we have visited many times before, this meant ...
Our main purpose was to visit Madeira on New Year’s Eve.the fireworks are a must to see and did not disappoint.
Check in included a covid test which meant my wife pushing my wheelchair quite a distance through qualming system which was unnecessary there were less than a dozen people queuing. We then entered the main terminal where we received our test results fairly quickly and boarded the ...
This was my first cruise since the Covid pandemic caused everything to be put on hold. Understandably, there were a few differences on board, which I have taken into consideration for this review.
Embarkation
Very smooth, even though there were no obvious signposts to find the covid testing drive through. The test was fairly quick, with minimal queues. Once through, we headed over to the ...
We have sailed with Cunard since 1996 (Diamond Members) and this cruise was our first since covid lockdown
we were a family party of four (two Accessible cabins)
From start to finish it was one problem after another and it was clear that whatever cost cutting Cunard could make to try to recover some of their losses they did. Social distancing was a joke, we had a table of four and the next ...