Thoughts on QV316 to Northern Spain & France, 18 - 25 June

[Kynance]

This cruise was our first since the autumn of 2019, when we were also on Queen Victoria. I will post a modified version in the reviews section but in case anyone is interested in them, I’ve broken down my thoughts into digestible chunks with sub-headings. (Mr K says I have a tendency to write “War & Peace” otherwise.) Hopefully pasting as plain text from my iPad has not resulted in any horrendous formatting issues. I’ve a few nice-ish photos which I will post separately. 

 

Itinerary

This included four ports- La Coruna, Gijón, Bilbao and Cherbourg - and 2 sea days. I believe the itinerary is being repeated later in the summer.  The ports were all new to us - we didn’t do any tours, just staying and exploring locally.  These were all pleasant places to spend a few hours wandering around. Cunard no longer do separate port guides, with information & a map of the local area. However, maps were available at the ports from tourist info people. 

 

Embarkation & Disembarkation

We had a 1.30 arrival time for deck 7.  From handing our car keys to CPS to walking through the air bridge onto deck 2, it took no more than 45 minutes but I wasn’t watching the clock closely.  The new check-in process seemed to be efficient - the queue slowed a little bit at security screening but nothing to complain about and overall, the embarkation process was smooth & well-managed. Disembarkation from our cabin at 08.40 worked well for us - there was a bit of a queue to leave but it moved pretty swiftly. 

 

Cabin & Ship Condition

Our cabin was in very good nick - no noticeable scrapes, scuffs or stains - or at least any that bothered us. The same with our balcony. Both were kept in very good order by our friendly steward.  

 

It was the same with the overall condition of the ship - making allowances for age, I didn’t feel there had been any marked deterioration since 2019 and members of the crew were always busy painting, fixing and cleaning.  

 

Our only cabin “gripe” wasn’t down to Cunard at all - it was caused by our neighbours on either side who constantly slammed their doors. Really annoying, especially when on the balcony. 

 

Dinner, tea & breakfast

I won’t repeat the initial issue with our dining arrangements (as I’ve already posted about it on the open dining feedback  thread) but we did get great wait staff on late sitting once it was resolved. We rarely go the shows so dinner is the evening highlight for us and we don’t like to feel rushed (as we were on the opening night). The food was quite nice overall, aside from a coconut panacotta which was actually a cold rice pudding with no coconut in it whatsoever! My partner likes his meat well done and the chefs got that spot on each time, while the fish cookery was also good. 

 

By accident, in one of my bags, I found a 2019 menu featuring 2 “signature entrees” and 6 other main courses. In contrast, the current menu offers a choice of five: 2 meat, 1 fish and 2 vegetarian. The choice of desserts was also reduced. This meant the menus lacked the “wow factor” over the array of choices. There was a lot of beef on offer (all good when we had it) and I don’t remember any lamb unless it was on the night we went to the Verandah. Aside from the weird rice pudding, I had a curiously  flat chocolate fondant (it was about a centimetre in height) and a definitely reduced in size from 2019, lemon vanilla soufflé  (which was also a bit flat). Possibly these were one-offs and I will say for balance that the afternoon tea cakes were excellent.

 

Dinner in the Verandah was also excellent and as good as it was four years ago. However, the menu has hardly changed at all, so I do think this is something Cunard could be updating.  If Cunard could also see their way to replacing the banquette seating by the windows (too deep and too low for the tables), that would be welcome too. That’s probably one for the next re-fit. 

 

An innovation we liked was being to order an afternoon tea from the room service menu for the cabin. We twice enjoyed tea on our balcony - the selection of sandwiches and cakes changed each day, plus there was always a couple of scones with jam & cream.  

 

A innovation we disliked was that breakfast in the Lido is now served until 10.30 rather 11.00. With a late sitting dinner, a late breakfast the next morning rather than lunch has often suited us and the earlier finish time made a difference.  We did have one Lido breakfast on a port day (from the lovely omelette station) and one room service breakfast, otherwise, as late risers when on holiday, we started the day with coffee in the bar of the Chart Room, one of our favourite rituals. 

 

The crew were serving guests in the Lido for the first three days of the trip due to a norovirus outbreak on the previous cruise. They were doing a good job in difficult circumstances, especially those working the drinks stations.  The Lido themed restaurant was “Riviera” every night - I was slightly surprised it didn’t change to one of the others such as Coriander, but maybe that is the new way of doing things. 

 

Bars & Booze

Something must have happened to either me or the Pol Acker since 2019, as I found it really quite drinkable this time. It was a lot less dry and more easy on the palate: we had a half bottle in the cabin fridge on arrival and another half delivered towards the end of the week.  We drank  them whilst unpacking & packing respectively. 

 

We were luckier than Host Hattie on QM2 with our visits to QV’s Commodore Club - we managed to get a window table every evening apart from on the first gala evening when the room was full. However, we did find a free table in the gin & fizz bar. I must say that I think the advent of open dining means the room fills up earlier than before. I had always found that 7pm gave you a choice of seats but we started arriving at 6.45 to ensure a seat and that worked well. It appears that much of Mr K’s onboard bill was accounted for by my pre-dinner drinks! (It’s unfortunate for him that my favourite cocktail is the Commodore’s Cure.)

 

Gala Nights

We had 2 gala nights - the black & white ball & Roaring 20s. Lots of ladies -  and quite a  few gentlemen - participated in the Twenties’ theme. My contribution was to order a “Gatsby Julep” cocktail, one of the themed cocktails devised for the evening. There was a nice sense of occasion around the ship on the gala nights. Inevitably,  a few people ignored the elevated dress code but they were a tiny minority (at least in the areas of the ship I visited).  The shows on the gala nights were “Be Our Guest” and “Top Hat” (can’t tell you anything more as we didn’t go to them). 

 

Party-poopers & a love-in with Roger Waters…

We opted to forgo the World Club party and spent the time in the quieter Commodore Club. There was no senior officers’ party, which I put down to the port-intensive itinerary but since they began holding them in the mornings we’ve missed those too. 

 

We didn’t attend any activities or lectures, apart from a couple of sessions held in the Queens Room on sea days. These displaced afternoon tea to the Britannia restaurant - I don’t know what the tea-goers thought about making way for the 30-40 of us who were listening to the guitarist from the Amethyst duo talking about and playing music by Jimi Hendrix,  Lynyrd Skynyrd & Pink Floyd.  He was extremely talented & clearly a massive fan of Floyd’s Mr Waters.

 

Internet & Voyage App

I bought the premium internet package and Mr K had the essentials one. Our cabin was close to a Wi-Fi access point and it worked fairly well - there was a clear difference in speed and the premium connection worked on the balcony but the essential one didn’t.  (We were using the same brand of phone).  We bought a cheap roaming add-on from our UK provider for port days.

 

I did manage to get the Cunard voyage app to work. I used it to book the Verandah and to view my onboard spend but not for much else. It did have a copy of the daily programme but I needed to really zoom in and scroll down constantly for it to be readable.  I would have liked to have seen copies of the daily menus in the Britannia & Lido on the app but suspect the landscape formatting would create readability issues. 

 

Fellow Passengers

We were told that there were 500 first time passengers on the ship and there were a number of family groups, sometimes of three generations, with babies or pre-school children. All the babies & kids we saw were well behaved and their parents clearly took pride in dressing them up on gala nights. Perhaps they are a new generation of Cunarders!

 

Final thoughts 

It was a nice trip and I think in this instance, a week was long enough, to see what had changed & what hadn’t. And to assess if we’d changed too.  We have a QM2 short break to come in September - looking forward to trying out Britannia Club & the deck 13 cabins.  And hoping for quieter neighbours! 

[Host Hattie]

Great report, thanks for posting.

[alibabacruisers]

Very good report and thank you for posting!

[Kynance]

A few photos as promised. If they appear in order, they should be:

 

A view of the ship in port in Gijon

Bilbao getting ready to host the “grand depart” of the Tour de France on 1 July

A Gatsby Julep on Roaring 20s night

Sunset at sea somewhere in the Channel

 

[foodsvcmgr]

Thank you for your excellent review which now helps build the excitement for our upcoming QV sailing in August, also in a Deck 7 balcony, late seating, so all relevant.

Glad to see the mostly positive food comments as this will be our first time back with Cunard since 2018 and we had some concerns about what may have changed.

[Kynance]

8 hours ago, foodsvcmgr said:

Thank you for your excellent review which now helps build the excitement for our upcoming QV sailing in August, also in a Deck 7 balcony, late seating, so all relevant.

Glad to see the mostly positive food comments as this will be our first time back with Cunard since 2018 and we had some concerns about what may have changed.

Have a lovely time - August will soon come round. Yes, I wouldn’t want anyone to think the food at dinner wasn’t enjoyable overall. I just think that some people might find the choices a bit restricted if they have a lot of “dislikes” (which my other half does). 

[Petulia]

Thank you Kynance for your excellent review and photos of this cruise as we were also on board.

 

Our first post Covid cruise was last September when we thought the QV looked very slick and span with her new carpets….and cabin curtains! Again we were very pleased with the condition of the ship. 
 

The MDR menu choices were limited as you mention and as a fish eater my main courses seemed to be rather similar, whichever fish was on offer. 🤔

 

One of your photos showed a spectacular sunset and being on the port side we had great views from the cabin on the return journey and also enjoyed pre dusk walks on deck 3 where the temperature was very pleasant. Finally I have to say that the sea conditions were the smoothest we have encountered over a whole voyage and we even managed to catch a brief glimpse of a whale splashing in the distance! 
 

PS We also attended the talk given by the Amethyst guitarist, a very talented musician. 

[foodsvcmgr]

With respect to the more limited dinner menu, were the unpublished alternates (steak, chicken, Caesar Salad, etc.) still available on request?

[Winifred 22]

I don’t know about chicken but I have asked for steak and chips recently as didn’t fancy anything on offer. No problem just had to wait a bit longer for it. Can’t remember if it was on Q V or QM probably was QV 

[exlondoner]

We too are on the similar cruise in August. For Bilbao the ship docks in Getxo. Is there a shuttle to the main town?

[Kynance]

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

We too are on the similar cruise in August. For Bilbao the ship docks in Getxo. Is there a shuttle to the main town?

Yes, there was a Cunard bus. Nice drive - takes about 30 minutes & you are dropped fairly centrally. It is then a gentle 20-30 minute walk into the old town area. However, there is no shade at the drop off/pick up point, so bring a hat or parasol if it is going to be a sunny day. 

[Kynance]

3 hours ago, foodsvcmgr said:

With respect to the more limited dinner menu, were the unpublished alternates (steak, chicken, Caesar Salad, etc.) still available on request?

To be honest, we forgot to ask. However, that’s a good reminder to everyone about the unpublished menu’s existence. 

[Kynance]

@Petulia - thank you. Hope you enjoyed the trip as well. Those sunsets were spectacular weren’t they? 

[Kynance]

@exlondoner - I was away from home when I replied to your question about the Bilbao shuttle bus. Now I’m back, I have been able to check the daily programme and can confirm that the shuttle stop was at Museo de Bellas Artes. Of course, that might change for August but I thought I would share the details in case you wanted to look the location up on a map.

 

For general info, the shuttles, which were provided everywhere except La Coruña, were complimentary for everyone. 

 

Enjoy your trip!

[Unesco]

@foodsvcmgr Yes, I can confirm the unpublished menu was definitely available on this QV cruise- our waiter offered it to us one evening. 

 

@Kynance Thank you for the great review. We did go to the shows so I can add a little: Top Hat, Hollywood Rocks, Be Our Guest and a segment of the Rat Pack were the production numbers. We were a little surprised the first three were the same as on our QV fjords cruise last year. For the other nights, there was a comedian, a musician and a band.

 

My photos are not as vibrant as yours and embarrassingly a large number of dining room menu items! Being an aviation enthusiast, I got a few photos of the incoming helicopter for the medevac. (On disembarkation day, I discovered a fellow passenger had a mobile phone malfunction when trying to take the same photos, so happy to share these if he emails Unesco88athotmaildotcom)

 

It was overall an enjoyable trip. I have not been sent a Cunard post-cruise survey yet. Does everyone still receive these?

 

[Kynance]

@Unesco - thanks! Regarding surveys, I received an email with a link to the Feefo review site shortly after I got back but that was it and it didn’t ask any detailed questions - just for an overall rating and a few comments.