Queen Anne

[exlondoner]

16 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

I'm very happy that portion sizes aren't that big. with 3 (or 4 meals, including tea) I want tasty food in smallish amounts.  As you say, you can always get more.

 

QA not copying the other Queens is a good thing for the company as it has added 45% more berths so needs to expand who it appeals to, though I hope that both QA and QM2 appeal to me.

 

Was a little tiresome to see comments on here complaining that it wasn't like other Queens, especially by one person who was criticising things.... then saying that they only ever go on QM2 on crossings. Why come here and comment in the first place...?

One thing, though: if they are aiming at a younger demographic (is that the term?), it is not the case on this cruise that probably has more elderly and decrepit passengers than any I have ever been on. It makes me feel quite young again. 😀

[buchanan101]

1 minute ago, exlondoner said:

One thing, though: if they are aiming at a younger demographic (is that the term?), it is not the case on this cruise that probably has more elderly and decrepit passengers than any I have ever been on. It makes me feel quite young again. 😀

Don't know - maybe one would think they are after a younger demographic, but do you *have* to be younger to appreciate a more modern design? Design is design...

[exlondoner]

10 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

Don't know - maybe one would think they are after a younger demographic, but do you *have* to be younger to appreciate a more modern design? Design is design...

You probably don’t, but Cunard may think you do.

[BigMac1953]

Just read somewhere else, about a QG passenger in the hot tub talking to somebody who was discussing his 2nd sitting dining service.

 

The Grill deck was apparently extremely busy and not policed.

[Victoria2]

4 minutes ago, BigMac1953 said:

Just read somewhere else, about a QG passenger in the hot tub talking to somebody who was discussing his 2nd sitting dining service.

 

The Grill deck was apparently extremely busy and not policed.

We weren’t there in the afternoon but the morning was fine. My overhearing was about the loungers under the canopies were busy, nothing about the whole deck busy and I know nothing about 'interlopers'.

What I will say is I think deck 11 Grills area is lovely and having sat out, covered in towels to keep warm this morning, even in the dull, slight  mizzel it’s still lovely and helped by the hot latte delivered from the lounge, eg, free 👍 with a smile by a member of staff.

My 'not disappointed' is rapidly turning into 'getting quite pleased' with Our Annie!

 

Still love Queen Victoria though 🙂

[exlondoner]

14 minutes ago, BigMac1953 said:

Just read somewhere else, about a QG passenger in the hot tub talking to somebody who was discussing his 2nd sitting dining service.

 

The Grill deck was apparently extremely busy and not policed.

Shocking. My cruise is ruined. 😀

[Victoria2]

55 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

One thing, though: if they are aiming at a younger demographic (is that the term?), it is not the case on this cruise that probably has more elderly and decrepit passengers than any I have ever been on. It makes me feel quite young again. 😀

The mobility challenged passengers on this ship haven’t managed to let the sea air rejuvenate them, as has happened in the past. There really is a large contingent of those whose mobility is pretty awful but, as we have noticed, we have come across a lot of help and kindness from fellow passengers so I hope others have experienced this too.

[MylesS]

What a strange review! Everyone is entitled to their opinions, of course. But to give a "review" like that without even giving your opinions as to why you feel that way is pointless to me.

Yes, service seems to be slower than normal, but again, it's only the second voyage. I can appreciate that people have still paid full price for their cruise, so it's frustrating. However, if people are unable to deal with the expected issues, they should stick to the other ships until Queen Anne is "settled" so to say.

Regarding the canceling of their "World Cruise", it's not up for me to judge how people spend their money. But one would think that they would try the ship, even for a few days before booking a 100+ night cruise?

[JT1101]

Maiden voyages always have some rough spots as the crew settles in and the ship and crew work up as a unit. If you don't like it then don't sail maiden voyages. People forget that even QM2 had some hiccups on its maiden voyage - and that was WITH having brought over a lot of experienced personnel from QE2. 

[exlondoner]

6 minutes ago, JT1101 said:

Maiden voyages always have some rough spots as the crew settles in and the ship and crew work up as a unit. If you don't like it then don't sail maiden voyages. People forget that even QM2 had some hiccups on its maiden voyage - and that was WITH having brought over a lot of experienced personnel from QE2. 

I remember reading about dinners that were very long indeed.

[bananavan]

5 hours ago, MylesS said:

What a strange review! Everyone is entitled to their opinions, of course. But to give a "review" like that without even giving your opinions as to why you feel that way is pointless to me.

Yes, service seems to be slower than normal, but again, it's only the second voyage. I can appreciate that people have still paid full price for their cruise, so it's frustrating. However, if people are unable to deal with the expected issues, they should stick to the other ships until Queen Anne is "settled" so to say.

Regarding the canceling of their "World Cruise", it's not up for me to judge how people spend their money. But one would think that they would try the ship, even for a few days before booking a 100+ night cruise?

I understand your commentary but for those of us who are aging out of the cruising demographic, who enjoy taking longer voyages, the Queen Anne is the only Queen that offered the World Cruise for 2025. Queen Victoria is doing the South America voyage, which is lovely but we have done that one. 
Booking a Queens Grill cabin is tough at the best of times but with a maiden world cruise it was next to impossible. I booked a Guarantee Q4 in July of 2023. 
Sadly, the cruises on Queen Anne are available to Southampton cruisers and the first time it arrives in the USA is January of next year. We would have loved to have been able to book a "taster" cruise before booking the World voyage. 
It is one thing to look at the brochures but in order to truly appreciate the atmosphere of the ship you have to actually sail on it. 
So many Vloggers are in love with the Queen Anne but they also give away the fact that they have never been on a Cunard ship before. I am certain that she is lovely .
I believe that QA is best suited to 7-14 day voyages. 

[MylesS]

3 minutes ago, bananavan said:

I understand your commentary but for those of us who are aging out of the cruising demographic, who enjoy taking longer voyages, the Queen Anne is the only Queen that offered the World Cruise for 2025. Queen Victoria is doing the South America voyage, which is lovely but we have done that one. 
Booking a Queens Grill cabin is tough at the best of times but with a maiden world cruise it was next to impossible. I booked a Guarantee Q4 in July of 2023. 
Sadly, the cruises on Queen Anne are available to Southampton cruisers and the first time it arrives in the USA is January of next year. We would have loved to have been able to book a "taster" cruise before booking the World voyage. 
It is one thing to look at the brochures but in order to truly appreciate the atmosphere of the ship you have to actually sail on it. 
So many Vloggers are in love with the Queen Anne but they also give away the fact that they have never been on a Cunard ship before. I am certain that she is lovely .
I believe that QA is best suited to 7-14 day voyages. 

Completely fair, you've raised points I didn't really about in regards to my comment, so thank you. Putting myself in someone else's shoes other than my own, I can see why it would be done.

I agree about QA being suited for 7-14 day voyages. We didn't feel 7 days was enough, but again, everything was new to us. We're especially excited for our Mediterranean cruise on her in 3 weeks, as she seems to be a ship designed for the hot weather.
 

[NE John]

12 minutes ago, bananavan said:

So many Vloggers are in love with the Queen Anne but they also give away the fact that they have never been on a Cunard ship before.

Quite a few YT vloggers are Cunard veterans, both of the younger and up demographics: Paul and Carole, Visit with Us, Cruising with the 4bs, Cruise Monkeys, Sail Away Magazine, etc. I’m sure Gary Bambridge will make his way on soon. After some initial shock, many commentators are coming around to liking QA outside of the Queens Room and Prom Deck. 
 

Edited May 16 by NE John
Added another vlogger

[MylesS]

Just now, NE John said:

I’m sure Gary Bambridge will make his way on soon

He's on the current sailing according to his YouTube community page.

[jrmende63]

I can not wait for our turn. I plan on doing 2 live reviews as we are on H425 and H426.

[Froxfield]

We have to wait until next year for our turn on QA but are looking forward to it! Opinions will always vary, particularly for a new ship. I seem to recall that first reactions to Queen Victoria were far from positive, but she now appears to be a firm favourite? I could also risk the wrath of this community by suggesting that I was far from over impressed with QM2 on our two transatlantics. And we found QV needed a little TLC on our last cruise. Not to mention some of the steak in Princess Grill was a bit on the tough side: as in the knives wouldn't cut it!! This only goes to prove that everyone has different experiences.

The one thing I cannot deny is that having paid for our upcoming PG cruise, I looked back at all our past PG invoices and it appeared that prices have not changed that much since our first experience back in 2011. Of course, there are small variations in number of days, booking date relative to sailing, and on board spend but overall pretty similar pricing. Maybe that is the reason behind some of the bits of cost cutting here and there?

[Wagtail adventures]

Yes I noticed my QG transatlantic on QM2 was very similar in price to 2 years ago

[buchanan101]

11 hours ago, bananavan said:

So many Vloggers are in love with the Queen Anne but they also give away the fact that they have never been on a Cunard ship before. I am certain that she is lovely .
I believe that QA is best suited to 7-14 day voyages. 

I've only seen a couple of VLOGS by people who have never been on Cunard. Most have been by regulars, and most have been very complimentary

[Victoria2]

6 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

I've only seen a couple of VLOGS by people who have never been on Cunard. Most have been by regulars, and most have been very complimentary

I can only comment from a QG aspect and with a lovely cabin and restaurant table position and we are very satisfied in comparison of the same on the Vistas. There are snags but the main one, namely the speed of lift door closure is, according to my visit to the front desk, 'being addressed'.

We haven’t noticed any issues on deck 11 other than the twerp who couldn’t read and took two bottles of beer into the hot tub with him.

 

[buchanan101]

This is a great review - and they are Diamond members. He has a great voice.. 

 

 

[buchanan101]

57 minutes ago, Wagtail adventures said:

Yes I noticed my QG transatlantic on QM2 was very similar in price to 2 years ago

Yes and the cruise I've booked for 2026 is about the same price as crossing in 2022 (booked in 2021)... meanwhile in that time there's been perhaps 20% inflation overall

[canoncruiser]

I have a large glossy Cunard publicity book from the earliest days of QE2 which is full of ‘bright young things’ of the late 1960s, bell bottoms, long hair, mini skirts-the works; and the reaction to the new ship’s decor was shock and negative awe. I first sailed on QE2 in 1973 and the purple, orange, chrome strips and wine leather and blue and green reversed leather, plastic pillars-they were radical departures from all at Cunard that had gone before. 

I had a bon voyage party in the soon to disappear Observation Lounge and the stewards were veterans of the older Queens. Their reviews were very mixed. Also remember the slogan “Ships have been boring long enough"

Cunard was then and again now is reaching for a younger demographic with Queen Anne. Over the coming years she may undergo interior changes just like QE2.

I’ll be aboard in July-we’ll see. 

 

 

[Germancruiser]

I agree- QE2 was really a hard and radical change from the known Cunard Style- according to the pictures- QE2 had her Sea Trials in the year I was born. LOL.

In them days there was of course no Social media and the like - only the print press did their jobs.

In the later years- as we all know she was transformed back into the more " Transatlanic - Cunard Style"- with more or less sucess.

Most of what I saw of QA I really liked - so it is not a radical change from usual Cunard Style- and - even if I sound like a broken record- except for the QR and the Closed in walkway- called Promenade Deck. LOL.

Edited May 18 by Germancruiser

[Froxfield]

On 5/17/2024 at 9:37 AM, buchanan101 said:

This is a great review - and they are Diamond members. He has a great voice.. 

 

 

I am afraid I got a bit tired of the constant reminders that they were Diamond CWC members!!

[buchanan101]

5 minutes ago, Froxfield said:

I am afraid I got a bit tired of the constant reminders that they were Diamond CWC members!!

I thought that their Vlogging income could get them more than an inside though they have the better “landscape” layout.