We chose this review to celebrate a milestone birthday with family. Food was very average to say the least. Had better food in on our Royal Caribbean cruises and better service too. Everything seemed to be an extra cost plus 15%. Wine was very expensive. Got a suprise of $US 34.50 for each person on our bill. $US30 to play bingo? Had 8.30 seating for dinner which meant the plays were at 10.30 what a joke. Perhaps they should do what other cruises do so if you have 6.30 dinner you do 8.30 show and vise versa. First & second night entertainment was dismal. Last nights comediam was excellent. Highlight was Burnie where we organized our own amazing tour. So unbelievably disappointed would never go again! Oh I divot to say that afternoon tea was so packed people started trying to get a seat at 2 for 3.30 afternoon tea! Something is so wrong with the coordination of this cruise. Read Less

Went on a three day Melbourne - Burnie - Sydney cruise and having been on QM2 in 2017, we were really looking forward to a great time as we had on QM2. I have to agree with others, the embarkation was messy. The ships decor is beautiful and very impressive. The ship is also better laid out than QM2. We decided to pay a little more for the Britannia Balcony Club which simply gives you your own restaurant. We arrived, the manager introduced himself, walked us to our table and as I was sitting, preceded to tell me in front of other passengers that my dress was acceptable tonight but tomorrow I should were a jacket (no formal night this night), despite me wearing a sleeveless frock coat. Short story, complained, Maitre D apologised and stated that I was a good example for the ship to accept more modern dress modes - the main issue was the public berating, I could have been asked quietly as I entered. Dinner at the Veranda Restaurant was spectacular, the food totally amazing with great service and atmosphere. Our cabin steward was brilliant. Generally, staff need better training, when used asked them simple questions we were referred to the Purser's Desk or told to listen for announcements, bit much when you only wanted to know what timer the shops opened or directions to an activity. All staff on QM2 knew their drill. I found the ship dancers somewhat tardy and lack lustre compared to QM2. Maybe Cunard is struggling to adapt to Australian passengers. Personally, for the money, I was somewhat disappointed. Read Less

This was our first cruise - three nights Melbourne-Burnie-Sydney. Unfortunately the first impression was a negative one of just over an hour in the queue to board. Apparently everyone (several hundred people) had been told to arrive at the same time of 12 noon. We were standing in a slow moving queue like cattle. Very poorly organised and managed. Once on board we were seriously impressed by the beautiful decor and high quality throughout the ship. Our Balcony Stateroom (category BA) was more than we had expected. Our Stateroom 5110 was a disabled accessible cabin with far more space than the regular ones in this category. Our balcony was large enough to hold two banana lounges and two chairs! Meals were generally high quality with plenty of choices, especially in the Britannia restaurant where we took dinner each night (early sitting). Service in that area was a bit hit and miss however. On one occasion the next table had their second course before we got our first. On another night we had to ask twice for the wine list. We enjoyed lunch in the Golden Lion pub and had two other lunches at the Lido buffet. The Lido was just ok, salads in particular were extremely plain and unimaginative. Room service breakfast was mixed - lovely scrambled eggs with sausage and hash browns but a really basic and tasteless fruit salad. Toast was also tasteless. I suspect the sliced bread had been frozen but rolls and scones seemed to have been freshly baked. Breakfast in Britannia was excellent however, although on the sea day with everyone on board it was rather slow. The Royal Court Theatre put on two good shows (the house singers/dancers plus a Beatles tribute band) but you had to be early to get seats, especially if you wanted to sit with friends. We really enjoyed an art lecture and a talk by a cinematographer about the Titanic. Drink prices were on the high side of reasonable but internet pricing was extortionate. At about A$1 per minute we decided to go without, which did us no harm but meant we had a pile of emails and texts when we docked in Sydney. No tissues in our stateroom. As first time cruisers we were very surprised that we had to put our luggage outside our room the night before arrival. Had we known this we would have taken an airline carry on bag for use in the morning. Overall a terrific experience but with a few shortcomings that would not be hard for Cunard to address. Read Less

Ok after the last 2 disappointing cruises with princess we thought we'd give cunard a go.Def aimed at.a diff market. .only one child on board for first half of cruise (poor bugger was lonely in kids club) The average age was older and this changed down to around 55 after melb. Embarkation and disembarking was brilliant.so much more efficient.Food was.great 8 out of 10 the ship was immaculate no leaking roofs and the carpet was stain free and trip over buckets or carpet dryers. The rooms were very good. The mens change room had a sauna which looked out over the sea...didnt have to pay for the expensive spa suite..9/10 and no one used it most of the time i was the only person there. The only downfall was the way they bill you in us dollars and charge your account. Drinks were expensive . Our semillionier in the Britannia dining room was Mysdrago from serbia who was so charming you could take him home. The only other issue was dining in the buffet for lunch or breakfast as there were not enough seating for everyone inside. The entertainment was very good. This cruise was not a booze cruise with everyone just having a nice time relaxing. Its not carnival or princess and doesnt cater for that market. We enjoyed dressing for dinner and whilst some standards were enforced (No swimmers.in buffet ) most of the time everyone dressed accordingly..had a great cruise definitely a much better standard for me anyway. Read Less

Being Cunard we expected something better that Holland, Princess and Royal Caribbean but we were disappointed. We booked some months in advance and requested the early dining @ 6pm but found we had been allocated 8:30pm. No good for me with gastric reflux issues. We saw the Maitre D' who was disinterested but put us on a waitlist of 2 pages of other people. This meant we ate in the Lido Buffet for the first two nights - the food was typical cafeteria food and nothing special. After 2 night of poor food we complained to the Purser that we didn't book the QE for poor quality food. Next day we were given the early dining. We joined in Adelaide but 2 people on our table joined in Melbourne and had only booked 3 days before and were given early dining - pathetic. TV picture quality in Balcony room 6119 was poor, given that we were cruising in Australian waters there were no Australian channels for news. At the time we had bush fires in TAS, NSW and floods in QLD and parliamentary chaos federally and in NSW so news would have been nice to hear. The shows were excessively loud, even with ear plugs and pretty boring. Service in the main Dining room was very good once we got access to it. Service in the Lido buffet was not good, especially if you were old and with a walker (not us). We helped an old lady get a glass of water because none of the staff would and she said she had to get only a half-full glass because it would spill carrying it back on her walker. A couple of the lectures were interesting 1. Lowry the painter and his stick people paintings; 2. RAF pilot and his experience of being shot down in the 1st Gulf War and being captured. In addition there were water colour painting classes which were very helpful. On shore tours were the usual price of most cruises but there were some interesting ones. Read Less

Just spent 7 magnificent and relaxing days on the Queen Elizabeth,our group of 12 were spoilt by a band and classy singers that kept our dancers very satisfied.the selection of music and songs were perfect for us to dance to.you can’t find many cruise liners that can do what this band did in the queens room.they guaranteed many more visits with a much bigger audience once we tell our dance groups about it all. The service and food was second to none.so happy you are catering for us downounder.well more often.The ship was always clean and staff were always available to assist.the quality of food was 1st class and very good value for money.if you want a cruise to be spoilt and dine with real quality food and excellent entertainment.....you must try this cruise ship.....the staff make this all possible...see you all again real soon!! Ps...we all danced so much that we are nursing so feet and that has not happened for some time....thanks again BiG Band! Read Less

Last year we really enjoyed a 14 night Baltic cruise on Queen Elizabeth in a Princess Grill room. Decided to try the Queens Grill on this short cruise and regretted the decision to move up from the Princess Grill. The Queens Grill room was larger but didn’t provide a significant upgrade over the Princess Grill. The Queens and Princess restaurants have the same menu and waiting staff rotate through the range of restaurants so there was no upgrade there. The menu in the Grills restaurants is very conservative and quite bland but the waiting staff were excellent and dealt very well with some very rude passengers. The singers and dancers currently on the Queen Elizabeth are much better than the previous group and the entertainment was really good on this cruise. The room staff, waiting staff and other service staff were very good but the security staff who manage the port disembarkation/embarkation were awful and on a number of occasions were rude and overly officious with passengers attempting to get on or off. The things that annoyed us with the earlier Cunard cruise, very expensive Internet and the gratuity/service charge gouging, haven’t changed and we’ve decided we won’t travel with them again until this is improved or they are offering free gratuities and Internet. Read Less

I can only say this ship is excellent. The ship was clean, decor classy without being gordy, the service was excellent, the food was excellent and our cabin was clean and comfortable. The only show we attended in the main theater was the movie on the day we spent in port, we would have attended more shows but the requirement to wear a jacket meant we were not allowed in. Also we did not attend the main dinning room, as again I did not have a jacket. Personally, even though they aim to keep up the standard of dress, I don't see why a Jacket is required. My only complaint is not the ship itself, but a few things I found lacking. Lets start with embarkation. Checking in was ok, although it was a long line and nearly one hour before we reached the desk but as we were walking towards the ship there was a photographer on the pier. Fairly normal for this to happen, however there was nbo background to say where we were. No picture of the ship, nothing so the photo was just a photo of us on the pier which I thought was strange. Next comes the fact we missed Kangaroo Island. Not a big deal as for us it was just a bonus as we were here for the cruise not the shore excursion. However that meant that we were going straight to Adelaide. Again not a big deal to us, as we intended to spend the day on the ship anyway. Problem was, nothing was open. Now for a seasoned cruiser you would have known that nothing opens in port, but I thought it would have been a good idea to announce the fact that everything would be shut in port and if you wanted to buy a souvenir then you should do it tonight. My wife was seasick on the first day, so we missed out on buying anything at all. Next the day tours in Adelaide. The Captain announced that there would be alternative arrangements made because we were going direct to Adelaide and tours would be organized. As we intended to stay on the ship we did not care anyway, However, there was no announcements and nothing in the nightly flyer about any tours. We know there was tours as we overheard others talking about them. Poor communication I think. Overall I would say that this was the best ship we have ever been on, however I would also say hat it is not the best cruise due to the high amount of movement in high seas and the requirement for a Jacket along with the minor problems mentioned. We would however go with Cunard again. Read Less

Two years ago, my friend and I arranged a 'cake decorating cruise' with Princess cruises which was successful in every way. (We held cake decorating demonstrations on board on the 'at sea' days) For these demonstrations, we were allocated a dining room and appointed times, in both the morning and afternoon, and it worked perfectly. We decided to arrange another and did so with Cunard who I had always held in the highest regard, It was a 7 day cruise Melbourne, Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne. Unfortunately, Cunard's Administration is an absolute disgrace and requires urgent investigation. Two years of planning on our part was spoiled by Cunard's inability to honour pre-arranged and confirmed committments and their 'don't care' attitude. This was embarrassing to me, disappointing to the people in my group and very damaging to the Cunard name. An important aspect of our cruise was the 'goodie bags' we had packed for each person in our group. These were to be delivered to each cabin, on the first night, whilst the passengers were at dinner. Apart from being a 'nice surprise' and a happy start to the cruise, these bags also contained all the necessary information required for a 9am start the next morning. ALTHOUGH THIS WAS PRE ARRANGED AND ASSURANCES GIVEN, THE BAGS WERE NOT DELIVERED AS ARRANGED. This was a major problem. By the time we discovered this, as it was too late to ring cabins or knock on cabin doors, we slipped hand written notes under each door to advise of the starting time and location for the next morning. This was very late at night. Whilst we were running from deck to deck doing this, we discovered our bags finally being delivered but being hung on the outside cabin handles, leaving them susceptible to theft. The bulk of our bags we found left unguarded near the reception area. This was a terrible start to our cruise, reflected badly on us, and no explanation or apology (although requested) was given. Once on board, our pre arranged 'Welcome Cocktail Party' was cancelled and we were asked to select another date. We obliged and chose the last night of the cruise - it was to be a 'Farewell Cocktail Party'. Cunard printed the invitations - inviting our guests to a 'Welcome Cocktail Party' - on the last night! The platters of food that had been pre arranged, also did not eventuate. Again, no explanation given. I have written to Cunard outling our experiences in detail but have not yet received a reply. Apart from the problems we had ON the cruise, I was amazed by, pre-cruise, their inability to treat all passengers as individuals. For example, baggage labels printed with one name only. Why not leave blank and allow people to insert their own name? One booklet per cabin with both names printed on the front cover. Beautifully presented, but one copy only for two passengers. Do they not see the obvious problems with this practice? Fortunately, our travel agent had the foresight to arrange an extra copy for our passengers thereby avoiding any conflict in this regard. Post cruise - I am insulted that again, some passengers receive the opportunity to complete an on line questionairre whilst others do not. Dining arrangements - despite table arrangements being given, this too was ignored. I was disappointed that our group of 43 were not seated in close proximity for dining and that the table seating arrangements I had requested were changed. Unfortunately, this resulted in some ill feeling between some of our guests. Cunard should allow groups to organise their own table seatings This is such an important aspect for a successful cruise. On a positive note, the food was excellent as were our waiting staff. I appreciated too, the Maitre D coming to the table regularly to ensure all was well with us. The High Tea too, was excellent as expected and did not disappoint. I also enjoyed having breakfast in the dining room. The menu was extensive and the waiting staff very efficient. They were very obliging on the occasions that they knew I did not have much time to linger and ensured I was served without any delay. Our cabin was very comfortable and another positive aspect is that Room Service of meals is available with no extra charge. However, having paid a high price for a balcony it is very inappropriate to expect access to it to paint the railings. This happened and rendered the balcony unusable for a day and no compensation was offered. Having said the above, I did enjoy the ship and the cruise. Had the Administration not let us down, I would be rating the cruise very highly. On a positive note, I liked the entertainment and, in particular, the ballroom dancing each evening. They have dance instructors, both male and female, who are very happy to teach if requested or just partner people who like to dance. For those who prefer to watch and simply enjoy the atmosphere, there are ample tables and chairs placed around the dance floor. The waiting staff, too, were excellent. Following the ballroom dancing, there was a change of pace with an excellent band who included a tribute to ABBA. That was a fantastic night, a highlight, which saw many non dancers even taking part. We then enjoyed the Commodore Club at the end of each night - a relaxing end to the day. great atmosphere and appropriate music. I liked the English theme throughout the ship and enjoyed time in the English pub. There was a lot to do whilst on board and, as is usual practice, the newsletter outlining the day's activities, was delivered to each cabin the night before. Unfortunately, I did not have time during the cruise to enjoy all the amenities and activities that the ship offered. Despite my disappointment with their administration as outlined above, I WILL travel on the Queen Elizabeth again BUT I will never trust Cunard with any special event that I may organise. I will travel strictly as a passenger only. Read Less

We chose this short cruise to get a taste of cruising as we were not sure we would like it. Well we need not have worried as it was all very well organised and a pleasure throughout. The embarkation was really quick. We arrived at the set time and went straight through. Cabin was as expected and the steward friendly and helpful. Tried most restaurants and facilities ans did not find anything wanting. The food was really good andthe Verandah restaurant had the best dessert. The onshore excursions were not for us so we went ashore and went around on our own. The only thing I would improve is the TV and have less foreign language movies. We have already booked our cruise for next year and next time we will have a balcony with unobstructed view on thesame ship. We both enjoyed this for therelaxation and pampering for a short break. Read Less