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A great World Cruise |
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Reviewed By: bryant, winchester on 19th May 2009
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| Cruise Line: Cunard Cruises |
Times cruised before: 6-10 |
| Cruise Ship: Queen Victoria |
Sailed:
January,
2009 |
| Destination: World Cruise |
Age: 56-65 |
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We have cruised with Cunard several times and on the whole we like them and their ships. Our voyage was a 107 day World Cruise and we enjoyed every day. The ship overall is fantastic with great decor, plenty of space and lots of activities. We stayed in a Q6 and ate in the Queens Grill, both were very good and we particularly like the choice of when we eat, it meant there was no rush to get to a "sitting". What were the real positives? the food was very good, the service A1 and the staff were very flexible re our needs (food wise!). The theatre lives up to all the hype and is without question the best one we have been in onboard a ship, plus there are no blind spots e.g pillars. NB the boxes are available to anyone on a first come first served basis for all shows except the shows that involve the Cunard Singers and Dancers. Another very pleasant surprise was the "alternate dining" which has to be booked on the day that you want to use it, it is a sectioned off area in the Lido that provides a waiter served themed meal e.g Indian, Italian, Carvery or Oriental - but be warned book early ie 0700. Our biggest surprise was the very efficient and professional operation of the tour office, a complete opposite to our experience on the QM2. The gym is very good (and very necessary for a 107 day cruise!!). Were there any negatives, well a few:
a) people moaning about anything and everything, just for the sake of moaning - very sad people!!
b) getting on and off coaches - I suggested tongue in cheek to the Captain that he abolished the mandatory lifeboat drill and replace it with a "getting on and off coaches" drill!!
c) people who do not understand the concept of "queue"! an example - as a saddo I would go the gym at approx 0545 ready for it to open at 0600 and there were other saddo's like me in a "casual" queue by the entrance door waiting for the attendant to open up and on several occasions people would walk straight to the front and place themselves between the first person and the door causing the original person to actually move (I hasten to add none of the interlopers were British!!)
d) the golf practice nets were a joke as was the equipment, but I do understand that the facility is there for all and not just those sad enough to think we can play golf. An incident I observed, an American came to the net picks up a large handfull of golf balls and declares he is going to hit them into the sea!!!! I did explain that perhaps that wasn't the best of ideas!
In 107 days we had approx 1.5 days of rain and one of those was in Dubai where we were told they get approx 10 days of rain a year.
e) The wine in the resturants starts at too high a price circa $28.(for a bottle you buy in Sydney for approx $8 aus)
f) Yes shore excursions are expensive but we knew that before we went and we fully understand the commercial reason's why they do not tell you in advance the ports that lend themselves to "self touring", so not really a complaint more self criticism for not doing my homework and being lazy!!
Most of the points above are in reality minor and although in the main they can't be avoided they did not spoil our enjoyment.
Did we enjoy the World Cruise, you bet and would we do it again yes we would and the only thing we would change is to do much more homework re the docking arrangements for each port to enable us to do our own thing in port. We saw some fantastic places and made some "friends for life". Well done Cunard.
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| Quality of Food |  |
| Queens Grill although did try the Todd English a couple of times with mixed results | | Entertainment | |
| very good and varied and the Cunard Singers and Dancers very good. | | Shore Excursions |  |
| our best was the Blue Mountains (Sydney) or Petra (Jordan) | | Staff | |
| all very good | | Children's Facilities | n/a |
| | Onboard Activities | |
| good films, shows, lectures, (Carol Thatcher was very entertaining), bridge, quiz events etc etc in fact believe it or not you actually ran out of time!! | | Cabins | |
| | Overall Rating | |
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