As I told you last week I was travelling to Southampton to see the 3 Cunard ships:- Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria & Queen Elizabeth to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the QM2. We had a fantastic day.
It was an early start, I left home at 6.30am as it is usually 2.5 hours for me to drive to Southampton but wanted to allow for traffic. I picked up my colleagues from Southampton airport who had flown down from Newcastle.
We headed for the port which took us over an hour & a half as the traffic around the docks was gridlocked. We saw all 3 ships docked which a wonderful sight. We arrived finally at the Queen Elizabeth II terminal approx 11.30am to meet up with the rest of the group. We boarded the Queen Elizabeth as were were having a tour then lunch on board.
This was my first view of the ship. I was excited as hadn’t been on this ship before.
It was rather busy on board as lots of agents had taken the opportunity to visit the ship this particular day.
Our guide Laura from P&O took us round the ship, we saw inside, outside, balcony cabins, suites & lots of the public areas including the spa, nightclub & the theatre.
The central atrium was impressive ( a bit of the Titanic feel about it)..
I was really impressed with the layout of the ship, loved the pool area and the spa especially the indoor pool.
The games area where you can play Croquet, Bowls or tennis. I had a little try at Croquet but I didn’t do very well – I did manage it in the end, just hope you believe me…
I could have stayed here a lot longer playing the games.
We viewed a Princess Grill suite but I wasn’t impressed with the size of it, I thought it would be bigger and more spacious. I know customers pay for the service and the dining areas but can’t be for the cabins. Our deluxe balcony on Azura was bigger than this – watch out for next week’s blog for more info on that ship.
P1 Princess Grill
The size of the inside cabin was very good, but I preferred the balcony cabins as seemed more spacious even than the Princess Grill cabin.
We viewed the restaurants for Princess & Queens grill then the buffet as we had lunch in there which was delicious & I was ready for it since being up at 5am.
We then headed to look at the Cigar lounge – you could smell the tobacco in the room, reminded me of my Grandad.
After our guided tour we headed to the buffet restaurant where we had a lovely lunch, so much choice.
The staff on board were very friendly and acknowledged us at all times. I didn’t want to get off which is usually the case when I do a ship visit.
Here are a few more pictures from the ship:-
Myself & 2 of my colleagues stayed over night in a B&B called The Fenland as we were sailing out on Azura the next morning with friends. It was a lovely little place and was great for a 1 night stay, only 1.2 miles from the port so well recommended, it even has a family room which sleeps 5 people & has a great breakfast to get you started before your cruise.
That evening we headed down to the dock to watch the 3 ships gather ready to sail away after the firework display. This was a great experience, the atmosphere was brilliant and the fireworks were amazing, see for yourself:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8By35N42iA
The ships then sailed away from Southampton with QM2 leading the way, we were too far away to get any pictures of this but it was fantastic to be involved.
The next time to 3 Queens are together is next year in Liverpool to mark 175 years since the 1st ever transatlantic crossing – look out for more information coming soon.
So if you fancy going on one of the 3 Queens – call me & I will be happy to assist you – 0800 408 6108 or email barbarah@cruise.co.uk