Our first time on QV |
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Reviewed By: Munton, Airdrie on 26th Jun 2009
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| Cruise Line: Cunard Cruises |
Times cruised before: 10+ |
| Cruise Ship: Queen Victoria |
Sailed:
May,
2009 |
| Destination: Mediterranean |
Age: 56-65 |
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Having cruised on a few Cunard ships in the past, mainly on the dear old QE2 of happy memory, we decided to go for the QV this time. We well remember our first sight of the QE2 at Southampton, and thinking, "Wow! What a classy looking ship!". Our first glimpse of the QV was quite different - pretty disappointing in fact. It lookied lilke a dozen other modern cruise ships - tier upon tier of little cabin boxes piled on top of each other - reminding us of a container ship, only this was a container ship for passengers! So, the QV for us is no great shakes in overall appearance. However, once aboard, we felt quite differently. The design, layout and furnishings on each deck could not be faulted. The Grand Lobby is quite magnificent, as is the Theatre, and the Lido and Winter Garden are very pleasant places. Our cabin too was very good - and we enjoyed sitting out on the balcony, except for those occasions when the stern pool area on deck 9 above us was being swabbed, and we got the benefit of the cleaning water brushed over the side and on to us sitting below! We noted that on all our previous Cunard cruises, on coming aboard, our hand luggage was taken by a steward, who then escorted us to our cabin and saw us settled in. This time, we were asked: "Cabin Number? ..... Right, that's on deck 8 .... there's the lift!!!" Whlist the cabin was kept reasonably tidy during our cruise, you could have written your name in the dust on the shelves, lampshades and the top of the television. The windows out on to the balcony were definitely never once cleaned, as was the balcony itself. In fact we very, very rarely even saw our room steward. We missed the open dining arrangement on the QE2, and whllst the food was very good on the whole, we did notice that the number of courses and the choices had been reduced from our QE2 experiences. We also missed the QE2's Grand Midnight Buffet, and all the flags, bunting. fireworks and general party atmosphere of the traditional "Baked Alaska" night. Overall, we think that in quite a number of small, but for us, significant ways, the whole cruise experience aboard QV had been dumbed down, and left us feeling that it was all a bit less than we expected.
To crown it all, we chose this cruise to co-incide with our Silver Wedding celebration, only to discover that Cruise.co.uk had failed to pass on to Cunard the necessary notification and supporting documents - - and, despite our producing copies of everything needed to the Purser's Office on board, we were flatly denied our Anniversary package!
However, lest this all sounds like a bit of a rant, we have to say that, all things considered, we did enjoy our first cruise aboard QV. In fact we're going again later this year, and to their credit, Cruise.co.uk have sweetened the prospect somewhat with a quite adequate compensation offer, which we've accepted.
To sum up, we were probably a little spoiled with life aboard the QE2, and there will never be another ship quite like her! But the QV is fine - more than fine! And we're looking forward to sailing on her again this Autumn!
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