With all the negative reviews I had read about the QV, I had the feeling that i would be pleasantly surprised. Not only was I not disappointed but cruising on the beautiful Queen Victoria cemented in my mind how we would holiday in the future. Being ozzies, we have not had the opportunity to cruise as much as those from the USA or UK, so we could not make comparisons, we just enjoyed!
Flying to Paris via Zurich 10 days before the cruise, we arrived in Southampton with FlyBE at 10 am on departure day and were met at the airport by our driver from West Quay Cars. I had booked a half day tour of Hampshire which included Stonehenge and which was to get us back to the docks around 2 pm. The tour began well but on the way to Stonehenge, the traffic suddenly came to a standstill and we ended up being 1 hr behind schedule! We didn't get back to the Docks until 3 pm and by then I was somewhat stressed, since I am perfectionist about timing and I didn't want to rush on board. Unfortunately that's what happened. We embarked quickly without any hassles but had little time to unpack before they announced muster. One good thing was the extremely civilized way muster took place in the theatre rather than the usual deck that tends to be hot and squeezy. Then we had to meet our friends as prearranged and before we knew it, we were pulling away. Then as we were early sitting, we had to get changed for dinner, so quickly grabbed the outfit close to the top of the case, which then ended up being a little more informal than the rest of those at our sitting. Oh well, we soon got into the routine- so much so that I just wanted to go on each night dressing up like a queen and being treated like royalty. Maybe there was one too many formal nights - we were all glad when the 5th was over!
The CABIN was good - subtle relaxing colours - we were on the port side which was blue carpet and pillows - starboard had red. Bed was great, pillows large and fluffy, much too thick a downer / duvet and yes, not enough drawers. great balcony, not squeezy. Then there was the bathroom - miniature - what I would call a standard Carnival bathroom that just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the Cunard image!
cabin was a good size and tastefully decorated. Great bed and pillows but dooner/ duvee too thick. Hanging space was good but insufficient drawers. Balcony was really good size - 2 people had plenty of room but level 6 could look down on level 5 , so the balcony on deck 5 is not as private . Bathroom was far too small in relation to the size of the room. Fairly soundproof, every now and again we heard some kids running through the hallway.