Question re Queen Victoria. Ft Lauderdale to San Francisco

[oskidunker]

We are thinking about booking this for next January. Most of the Cunard reviews on Cruise Critic are bad. Any personal opinions  on this and the itinerary in  general would be appreciated. Since there are not many ports we would mainly go for the formal nights and the food. Also we live in San Francisco. Princess , who we wont cruise on anymore, seems to be the only Cruise line out of here. 

[Host Hattie]

I don't read the reviews often and I'm not doing so now but you have to consider whether things people complain about are likely to bother you.

This sailing will a segment of a World Cruise so there's no point comparing complaints about a transatlantic crossing for example. 

[exlondoner]

I am constantly amazed at the reviews, which seem to be of completely different ships from the ones I encounter. We on are on QV in a few weeks so I shall be interested to see how awful it is. As a general comment, a reviewer’s entire experience often seems to be coloured by quite minor things going wrong in the early stages, which ruin the whole holiday for them. On the other hand, if super efficient IT is important to you, don’t book Cunard.

[Craigrlewis]

I think only you can decide 

 

The problem now with the internet is information overload

 

For every review that is glowing for a ship/hotel/train/airline/play/book/movie etc. one does not have to look too far to find a critical review

 

On these boards you will find die hard fans of the relevant provider and first timers who swear they will never do it again and then first time and repeat users who swear they will use no one else

 

I would say go and enjoy it and if you don't enjoy it then really you are no worse off and can chose never to use Cunard again

 

We have now undertaken 17 cruises on Cunard and it works for us.

[oskidunker]

31 minutes ago, Craigrlewis said:

I think only you can decide 

 

The problem now with the internet is information overload

 

For every review that is glowing for a ship/hotel/train/airline/play/book/movie etc. one does not have to look too far to find a critical review

 

On these boards you will find die hard fans of the relevant provider and first timers who swear they will never do it again and then first time and repeat users who swear they will use no one else

 

I would say go and enjoy it and if you don't enjoy it then really you are no worse off and can chose never to use Cunard again

 

We have now undertaken 17 cruises on Cunard and it works for us.

Thank you!

[neeuqdrazil]

I'm booked on this segment of the world voyage, and I'm really looking forward to it. It's mostly sea days, which is what I especially enjoy on Cunard (why I've mostly done TAs). There is a (mostly quiet) roll call for this segment, and a slightly more active roll call for the full world voyage that includes at least a few folks who are only on board for segments. 

 

Your experience will depend on your expectations. Why won't you cruise on Princess anymore, for instance? 

[techteach]

There is a famous YouTub (sp. on purpose) cruise reviewer who has a video about cruise critic. He says to ignore reviews but pay attention to the information on the threads and use it to glean information. Thanks for your question, and I bet there will be lots of responses. I can’t comment on the QV because I haven’t sailed on her, but she is on our list to do the same cruise you are looking at. If you decide to take the cruise please post your impressions here. Take Care -

[Pushpit]

31 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 As a general comment, a reviewer’s entire experience often seems to be coloured by quite minor things going wrong in the early stages, which ruin the whole holiday for them. 

I had a recent example of this, on a recent QV trip where the reviewer must have been not just on the same cruise but also a similar cabin type. They complained that the Pol Acker was in the fridge (it used to be in an ice bucket as you arrived for WC members) and the cup + saucer was now a mug. Both completely correct - but it clearly spoilt their experience in a big way that definitely didn't spoil mine (in fact I greatly prefer a mug, insofar as I give the matter any thought at all). From that were some general, non specific comments about the onboard crew, which I didn't notice at all. I had a good time but it looked like the reviewer was on a parallel ship to me, clearly unhappy at this initial "bad experience".

[oskidunker]

11 minutes ago, neeuqdrazil said:

I'm booked on this segment of the world voyage, and I'm really looking forward to it. It's mostly sea days, which is what I especially enjoy on Cunard (why I've mostly done TAs). There is a (mostly quiet) roll call for this segment, and a slightly more active roll call for the full world voyage that includes at least a few folks who are only on board for segments. 

 

Your experience will depend on your expectations. Why won't you cruise on Princess anymore, for instance? 

My problem with Princess, after 25 cruises over many years, is the size of the ships and the bad food. Everything is dumbed down and cut back. The ships are so huge that there is not enough dining room space which translates into huge waits or booking a 5 pm fixed(sort of) dinner in advance . A recent thanksgiving cruise was a nightmare. Have tried Oceania and  Viking and liked them both but we missed not dressing up as neither has formal nights. 

[oskidunker]

50 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I am constantly amazed at the reviews, which seem to be of completely different ships from the ones I encounter. We on are on QV in a few weeks so I shall be interested to see how awful it is. As a general comment, a reviewer’s entire experience often seems to be coloured by quite minor things going wrong in the early stages, which ruin the whole holiday for them. On the other hand, if super efficient IT is important to you, don’t book Cunard.

Would care less about IT Wife might. 

Edited May 3, 2023 by oskidunker

[carlmm]

5 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

My problem with Princess, after 25 cruises over many years, is the size of the ships and the bad food. Everything is dumbed down and cut back. The ships are so huge that there is not enough dining room space which translates into huge waits or booking a 5 pm fixed(sort of) dinner in advance . A recent thanksgiving cruise was a nightmare. Have tried Oceania and  Viking and liked them both but we missed not dressing up as neither has formal nights. 

"Everything is dumped down" is unfortunately true for Cunard, too.

Still, I would recommend you try it. Compared to the dumped down Princess experience it will probably a nice experience.

I have sailed Fort Lauderdale to LA a couple of years ago and it was lovely. Indeed a lovely cruise with many seadays.

[neeuqdrazil]

19 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

My problem with Princess, after 25 cruises over many years, is the size of the ships and the bad food. Everything is dumbed down and cut back. The ships are so huge that there is not enough dining room space which translates into huge waits or booking a 5 pm fixed(sort of) dinner in advance . A recent thanksgiving cruise was a nightmare. Have tried Oceania and  Viking and liked them both but we missed not dressing up as neither has formal nights. 

 

Cunard has been somewhat 'dumbed down', if you listen to the folks who have been sailing with them for years. They have reduced the number of 'gala' (formal) nights per week, but you will still see people dressed to the nines on 'smart' (non-gala/formal) nights, and even the 'smart' nights seem to be dressier than other lines' formal nights. 

 

I've not sailed yet on QV, so I can't speak to the amount of dining room space, but Cunard does have three timing options for dinner - early, late, and anytime - which you book prior to boarding. If you book early or late, you always have the same table and same wait staff, and eat at the same time (usually it's around 5.30 and 8PM respectively, I think?), so there should never be a wait to get to your table after the first night, which is often somewhat chaotic as people are escorted to their table. On QM2 at least, after the first night you can usually just walk in and go straight to your table, without having to wait to be escorted there. 

 

The Cunard ships are medium sized - QV/QE have approximately 2100 passenger capacities, which is larger than the Oceania and Viking ships, but significantly smaller than the Princess ships, which seem to be in the 3k range from a quick google. 

[Jack E Dawson]

1 hour ago, oskidunker said:

Any personal opinions  on this and the itinerary in  general would be appreciated. 

oskidunker

We are booked on the reverse cruise, Ft Lauderdale to Los Angles in August on the QE. That is probably too late to provide any useful information in helping make your decision but I will be posting a review. While there are few stops, the ones that the ship will make do sound interesting to us. We have already booked the Rainforest In the Clouds tour in Costa Rica. It is a 6.5 hour excursion and the description sounds interesting. We also have friends who have a place in Cabo and they have given us ideas for places and things to see and do. We looked at doing this cruise on Viking in January of 2024 as it has 3 additional stops and is 16 days vs 14 days. However, when we got into the details we noticed that the Viking ship has shorter (much shorter in some cases) port times and one of the stops is Cozumel which is not a big interest point for us. The other issue was the cost. We are spending ~ $5,000 for the Cunard trip vs ~ $13,000 for the Viking, same type cabin. With the savings we will do a QM2 Crossing next year plus possibly the NYC to Quebec cruise on the QM2 this Fall. 

I do agree with Host Hattie that you have to let YOUR goals, concerns and issues be the decision drivers not somebody else's.

Jack

[Victoria2]

2 hours ago, exlondoner said:

I am constantly amazed at the reviews, which seem to be of completely different ships from the ones I encounter. We on are on QV in a few weeks so I shall be interested to see how awful it is. As a general comment, a reviewer’s entire experience often seems to be coloured by quite minor things going wrong in the early stages, which ruin the whole holiday for them. On the other hand, if super efficient IT is important to you, don’t book Cunard.

 It will be interesting to see if our views are similar.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Victoria2

[Victoria2]

2 hours ago, oskidunker said:

We are thinking about booking this for next January. Most of the Cunard reviews on Cruise Critic are bad. Any personal opinions  on this and the itinerary in  general would be appreciated. Since there are not many ports we would mainly go for the formal nights and the food. Also we live in San Francisco. Princess , who we wont cruise on anymore, seems to be the only Cruise line out of here. 

We have twice done the reverse twice and then on to Southampton as part of the World cruise. Both were on the wonderful Queen Victoria, the ship we call our second home.

It's been nine months since we last sailed with her and we can't wait to join her again.