We are a family of four (2 adults and 2 children) and travel internationally almost every year, however; cruising on the Queen Victoria was definitely the best holiday we have ever had!

Right from the start, we had a good feeling. We flew into Heathrow and were driven down to Southampton in a little over an hour. We arrived at Southampton terminal thinking we would have to wait with our luggage until it was our scheduled time to embark. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that we could drop our luggage off with the porters (located on the outside of the check-in building) and walk into town for a couple hours to shop.

Upon returning to the terminal, we went through the necessary steps to embark and were shown directly to our inside quad cabin. We were expecting a small room but were quite impressed with the large, roominess of the cabin. My husband and I had twins beds joined together and the children slept in a bunk bed (converted sofa with pullman above). The bathroom was a little on the small side though and negotiating all of us for the shower was a bit time consuming, but manageable. We discovered that toilet visits were easily managed for a family of four, by using the many clean public facilities too. It must also be noted that drinking water from the bathroom taps was discouraged and we soon found out that to avoid paying exorbitant prices for bottled water, we could simply ask our cabin steward for water to be placed daily in our room (free of charge). Rooms were very clean and towels changed twice daily. Our steward was very helpful with all our questions and we rarely returned to our cabin after breakfast to find it unmade. Read more