This was our 9th cruise, but the first with Cunard. We had high expectations, having cruised with Princess, P&O and RCI we expected Cunard to perhaps be a cut above. Unfortunately that was not the case, let down by poor customer service. We drove ourselves to Southampton and handed over 2 perfectly good working order suitcases, by the time we got to our cabin after over an hour and a half wait, despite having turned up at the allotted time, one of our hard shell cases had been cracked and the handle rammed so far in it would not come out again. We took the case to reception and they said they would have the technicians look at it and if it couldn't be fixed we would be "compensated". To cut a long story short, the case came back after 2 days with the crack repaired but the handle still immovable - so back it went to the technicians. The last night we got it back again, still not fixed but with an insurance claim form!! By this time my husband not best pleased went marching back to reception to argue the point that we had been promised compensation at the outset and to claim on the insurance would be a major hassle, not to mention the fact by the time they would have taken the excess the money would effectively have been written off. Finally the girl on reception spoke to head customer services lady and they agreed they would pay the compensation as onboard credit. Why they could not have done this in the first place and saved us a whole of grief I do not know, but it seriously coloured our opinion of Cunard to the point where i would not be in a hurry to cruise with them again. The other thing we had an issue with was the cabin service. We were missing a bathrobe/slippers when we got to the cabin, not a major problem but they should have been there...... also when i broke the shower gel bottle, 2nd day, it was not replaced even though it was obvious there was an issue with it as the top had sheared off. Again nothing major but not picked up by the steward.

On the plus side, the ship was beautifully decorated for Christmas, the food in the Dining Room was very good, and our waiter Romeo and his assistant were amazing, big shout out to them. We had a deluxe inside cabin and it was plenty big enough, we were on a low deck (for stability) and barely felt the ship move, even though it was rocky in places.

We used the gym quite a lot and it was well equipped, plenty of towels, water etc. I bought a day pass for the spa to use the hydrotherapy pool, steam rooms etc, and whilst it was enjoyable, at least 1 of the steam rooms was broken, and not sure about a 2nd one that didn't seem to be working properly, however it is a nice space if you want somewhere quiet to chill out. Read more