The drive to Southampton docks was well signposted, as was the route to the correct departure terminal once inside the docks. We had pre-booked with the parking service CPS, and were guided by their staff to a parking spot right outside the terminal. We were handed a receipt for the car, porters took our bags from the boot and we just walked away from the car into the terminal. Quick, efficient and easy.

In the terminal, there was no queue for our priority check-in lane and registration was handled quickly by a friendly female agent, however there was then around a fifteen minute wait to pass through security. This was not particularly a problem, but it did seem a little odd that whilst Cunard had provided a separate priority check-in lane for their Grills or Platinum passengers, they had not provided a separate priority security lane.

This was our first time in a Princess Grill cabin on the Queen Victoria, and our cabin steward, Joseph, soon arrived to introduce himself and to deliver the gift I had pre-ordered for my wife's birthday. Joseph was a pleasant young man who proved to be an extremely efficient cabin steward. Although we rarely saw him, the room was always made up by the time we returned from breakfast and always turned down when we returned from dinner. Read more