2024 Dec 15 – 22 Queen Anne, Western Europe Cruise

Review Queen Anne Cruise 15 to 22 Dec. 2024.

We never believe in commenting without further checking on it so when our experience on the maiden voyage was not good at all, see review, we thought lets do it again and see if things have improved. So we booked a Club Class Dining cabin 7144 for a week with the ship travelling to Le Havre, Zeebrugge, Rotterdam and Hamburg. Ports we have been to many times and depending on the weather we went ashore or not.

Cunard is now selling these cruises in conjunction with departures from Hamburg so several hundred Germans were ending the cruise in Hamburg and several hundred came on board in Hamburg for the next cruise. For them Southampton was a regular port day, while for us it was the change over port.

7 day cruise, with 2 formal  nights and the rest “smart attire” which most gentlemen translated in nice trousers and nice jackets with or without tie.

Captain David Hudson in command. We did not see him around the ship which was understandable as this was a very port intensive cruise with long standby’s for all the ports and going twice through the Dover Channel and North Sea.

We were hoping that Cunard had gotten their act together since the maiden voyage thus I will start with comparing the Maiden 7 day cruise with this 7 day cruise. For the maiden voyage we paid a lot of money (Princess Grill) and the only thing we got was a half hearted apology from the Captain and a bottle of (not cooled ) “Chateau Cunard” for everything that went wrong. So we were not impressed.

I have listed behind the observations if it has been corrected or not (yet) by following by remarks in the write up from last June.

Embarkation:  Good. NOW: still good.

Emergency Drill: Good. NOW: still good.

Daily Programs: Captain on the front page. NOW: still on the front page.

Contents: The daily program is NOW too small to contain all the events on board now the ship is on TOP.  What might suffice for the other Cunard ships is not enough for the Queen which has  many more venues.

Queens Lounge: too small. NOW: still too small but now has many more tables and extra chairs are put out in the evening.

Food Hall; totally underwhelmed. NOW: fully up and running, all stations manned and all serving area’s in use.

Commodore Club: slow service, understaffed, long waits. NOW: fast, correct and unstressed  service but you still have to ask for nibbles, they are not offered when the drinks order is taken.

Drink package: $ 70,–  NOW:$ 80,–  a person a day. (Which means  you have to drink 11 pints of beer to get close)

Room service: erratic but getting better. NOW: everyday on time and correct.

Captains welcome on board: None. NOW, still none.

Senior Officers party: None. NOW, still none.

Cunard “Inside Talks”. Very Good. NOW: still very good. (But they still have problems with getting it on the TV. During this cruise, the second series of talks never made it to the TV for later in the day viewing as we disembarked the next day)

Receipts for drinks: Not issued and cost not Correct. NOW: still no receipts issued but the amounts charged were now correct.

Dishwasher noise in the Princess: horrible. NOW: (I walked in one evening at the prime time of 20.20 hrs. and all was quiet, so hopefully they solved the issue)

Queens Lounge / versus Royal Court Theatre show timing: Overlapped and caused blocking in the Queens. NOW: shows stopped at the same time and that worked very well. Except for one cast show . Why this was not in the theatre I don’t know.

Carinthia lounge for lunch: worked. NOW: could not get in on the sea days as all tables were taking by people reading or playing games or cards.

Internet: Very Good. NOW: still very good but hard to sign into with older phone and full ship.

Masquerade Ball 2^nd formal night: Bad. NOW: still a wet fish.

Complimentary Cunard Champagne in the cabin; No card about the why. NOW: still no card.

Shops stock: Very little: NOW: fully stocked.

Speciality Rest. According to reports: Good. NOW: Italian Tramonto:  not very good.

Disembarking: Luggage Hiccups. NOW: very smooth.

Main Dining room (Britannia): Lots of problems. NOW: only positive reports.

Sir Samuels window washing machine: in full view. NOW: still there, blocking  a prime table.

This cruise observations:

15 December 2024

Embarkation scheduled for 12.40 hrs. We arrived slightly early but as we had priority boarding we were directed to the fast lane without delay. Check-In is done by a shoreside company called Intra Tours which works worldwide as agents and the ladies do this every day.  So very fast, very professional. We had to have our security picture taken as currently Cunard is not doing it on line anymore. We were advised that the majority of the guests are not able to handle the process of uploading a “mug shot” properly. The Ocean Terminal has plenty of seating and then we were called in groups as soon as Security opened up. It was good to see that there were ample staff that kept people under control who tried to jump the queue. (Even with a Cunard public that considers themselves posh,  the posh bit did not seem to apply to waiting patiently in line………..)  Luggage made it to the cabin in about an hour, which is very fast for such a big ship.

Once in the cabin we found a card that we had open seating in the Club Restaurant  between 18.15 and 21.00 hrs. No table assignment and that was not correct as you do have an assigned table.  So we went to the restaurant and the Dining manager advised that they “normally” assigned  you a table when you came in for dinner.  So we asked the Manager for a table for 2 and he gave us one.  Peculiar thing was, the table next to us had their reservation, with table number, in the cabin. Still wondering what would have happend if we had just showed up for dinner at 7:30pm and they were all gone.

As part of the booking we had a bottle of champagne (=Cunard Sparkling House wine) but it was not served in an ice bucket and there was no explanatory card to go with it. Also the slippers that come with the bathrobes were not there and the cabin steward advised that “they were on request”. Not true, as in other cabin they had them in the cabin upon arrival.  In the Club Class you get two large bottles of still water each day. Sparkling is available but only “on request”. Fruit in the cabin as well but only “on request” and you have to call Room Service for that.  Also a shower cap was available but again only “on request”.

I do not know if that is all Cunard standard or the standard of our cabin steward but we had to deal with it. The man we had was not the most proficient cabin steward I have sailed with anyway.

A big omission in the bathroom is: there is no space for a tissue box. Everywhere we have cruised now, there is always a slot / gap in the sink edge. Not here, tissue box is on the shelf below, so if you need one , you have to pull one out with wet hands and everything gets wet.

The cabin comes with a coffee machine and a tea kettle. But the desk is not large enough for both if you also need the desk for make up. Plus there is only one European plug that has to serve both machines. We drink tea so the cofee machine with the cartridges was banned to the top shelf for the week.  But if you offer the amenity, it would be nice if there was also ample space for them.

What would have been nice, were more hooks in the cabin. There are two next to the bathroom but they block the walkway in, if you have coats and bathrobes hanging there. So we brought our own magnets for on the wall.

We had not taken the drinks package, as  Cunard is much too expensive with $ 80 a person a day.  You have to drink at least 11.5 pints of beer (at $ 7,–) to get to that amount. My wife and I like a drink but we do not drink that amount to make it worthwhile.

Gratuity is $ 18,– a day a person, that is a lot if you compare it to Fred Olsen which is £ 6,—. We saw many guests taking the tipping off or reducing it. The Cunard cruise fare is already on the high side when compared with other Premium market companies so I think if they raise even more, then more guests will take it off. The British and European prefer “all in” as basic tipping is not part of the culture. (We tip for extraordinary service, we do not tip to get served), so I believe Cunard has to do something here. Holland America already offers , tipping included for the British and Dutch market and Cunard might have to do something like that as well, if it wants to maintain their British share.

We did use the internet package which as Platinum members of Cunard we get an allowance.   The only challenge was with an older Smart Phone that you had to go down to Deck 1 outside the Pursers Office to get a strong enough signal to lock in. From then on it worked fine in the cabin.  The website for log-in is not very friendly as you have to manually swipe back the days & months until you reach you birthday/year. So if you are 80, you have to swipe 80 x 12 months …………swipes.

For the whole cruise we did not go for breakfast with the vague idea of keeping our weight down as a full English breakfast is always very tempting. We had room service every morning and each day they delivered within the time slot requested.  We ordered mostly fruit  and just a little more.

In the evening, cocktails in the Commodore Club and service was now fast and good. There were a lot more bar tenders (I counted 7 of them, as the CC is very popular) and there was no stress among the waiters anymore.

When walking down to go to dinner, we came through the Queens Lounge. All the missing furniture was now in place and extra chairs were put in (and this was done every evening) for more seats for the show and dancing. The Queens Lounge is too small for the size of the ship so this is the only solution and it worked.

Service in the Club restaurant was good with only the occasional hiccup when the waiter and the asst. waiter disappeared at the same time. The wine card is extensive but beer is limited to one draft beer and the rest are bottles. The waiter is not allowed to go to the Queens Lounge Bar, where  they have 5 different beers on draft.  So I had to settle for a bottle.

We now found out that the menus (we checked later in the Queens and Princess) are not that much different, the service is not that much different, so it all depends on what size cabin you want is where you go for dinner.  When we took Cunard first, about 15 years ago, we booked a Penthouse, as we wanted Queens Grill because of the service there was out of this world. Now we book the cabin we like. And the one we had now was much better than the Princess Grill cabin from the Maiden voyage . (It had a lot more storage space)

We did not go to the show this evening but decided on a walk around to see how the ship worked with 2,900 guests on board. I think a lot of guests went to bed early as it was not that busy at any of the venues, except the Chart Room Bar  and Golden Lion Pub which were heaving.

When we came back to the cabin, the TV had still not been updated with the program for this cruise. It would not be until 16 December 10 am. when we could finally check what was planned for Entertainment for the cruise.  One would expect that the Cruise Director would keep a close eye on this as guests want to see when the shows are on, so they can plan what they want to see and when. Also because for the Bright Lights Society (cabaret ), with two diffferent shows, you have to book and with limited seating it fills up very quickly.

16 Dec. 2024 Le Havre.

It turned out that Cunard (or the port authorities) had laid on free shuttles in every port, including Le Havre, where downtown is a good 30 minute walk from the pier. Cunard does not make announcements in the cabin (Saga, Fred Olsen & Ambassador please take note, you have the same demographics). It is all in the daily program and the announcements also come into the cabin on the Bow Camera picture. Plus you can hear them in the hallway if you open the cabin door.

Thank you Cunard, on behalf of a man who after 42 years at sea, really likes to sleep in.

A shuttle service schedule is published at the Shore excursion office. Gangway is always at deck 2 or 3 midships so that does not have to be announced either.

As my favourite maritime bookshop in Le Havre had closed down and my wife did not feel the need to go shopping, we just walked into the terminal to see if there were some little souvernir shops. We were at the “small terminal”. It seems the large one is under reconstruction. So there was only one shop there but to my utter delight they were selling an end of print run book with posters about the french CNM (Compagnie Navigation Mixte). Euro 8.95 for a hard cover book  and it made my day. We then spent the rest of the day exploring the ship.

Today we got our invitations for the “repeater party”, called “World Club loyalty party”  for the 20th. of December. Invited by Captain Hudson himself on a gold embossed card: noting “formal attire”. Confusion galore as the 20th. was not a formal night.  The next morning we got a letter from the “loyalty team” with a new invite, now on regular paper (I suppose they were out of gold rimmed cards) inviting us again and the Captain was no longer mentioned. So I suppose he was not a happy camper and did not want to be associated with that sort of bungling. (I would not) No apologies for sending out the wrong invite first.

Tonight was Black & White formal night and it was great to see that  everybody in the main public rooms had dressed up. British Gentlemen have now also discovered that, although being formal, you do not have to dress up like a penguin so there was quite a bit of colour around, with the colored jackets often in sync with the dress color of the ladies. For those who do not want to dress up, there was the Food Hall  for dinner.

We had our first Cast show in the Royal Court Theatre, “Deck the Halls” with a non stop song and dance with christmas songs. Very good and very pleasant.

17 Dec. 2024 Zeebrugge for Brugge.

According to the technician who maintained the daily TV update, the port is called Burges. It remained that like all day. Nobody from the enterainement team saw the spelling mistake or bothered to correct it.

This is an industrial port for the entry of containers and cars into Belgium and also the Belgian Navy has a station there with minesweepers.  It is the entry port to Brugge for a cruise and you can also make tours from here to Bruxelles. We took the shuttle to nearby Blankenbergen where they have a big christmas shop during the festive season. We bought some stuff there last year but this year there was nothing new.

For the evening we had booked the Italian speciality Restaurant “Tramonto”,at the back of the Food Hall (Self service rest) on Deck 9. This Italian one is on the portside, on the starboardside there is an Indian. We were not impressed.

a. It does not look like an Italian restaurant. There is no decoration whatsoever to give an idea that it is an Italian Speciality Rest. The separation with the entrance-walk in for the Food Hall is glass windows in the staircase part but once through the doors into the Foodhall proper, the partitions are open, – no windows or screens- and passersby can just stick their head through to see what the guests are eating … and we saw that happening once.

From where you sit you can see everybody parading by, in and out the Food Hall, and that does not make for a nice ambience. Apart from guests walking by, we also had a good view of trolleys with supplies for stocking the bar in the Food Hall coming in and then the empty boxes coming out again. And also the “garbage truck” came by once.  Not nice for a normal dinner, not acceptable if you are in restaurant that has a surcharge of $ 20,– a person.

b. There is no Italian feel. The waiters were from South Africa, Mauritius  and Zimbabwe and the manager from India.  While on the other side, the Indian Restaurant, the whole serving team was from India. Service was haphazard with the waiters teaching each other how to serve and the manager trying to avoid oopsies.  But some tables were still served the wrong dishes.

c. The waiters did not have much knowledge about the dishes   that were offered, when we asked as not all Italian phrases for food were familiar to us.

d. There is only wine on the menu no beer, not even the Italian “Birra Moretti” beer which they have on board in draft and bottles. That I think is completely wrong. I was supported in that by 4 more tables who preferred beer over wine, so the waiter had to go somewhere to get all the variations requested. Quite rightly nobody took no for an answer. If Cunard would put at least one -Italian- beer on the menu then they would have a good excuse to refuse other beers and the waiter would not have to go all the way to the Commodore Club to get the beer a guest wants.

e. Service was haphazard. I had cheese plate for dessert and was giving a spoon to eat it……….    The food itself was really good, although I would liked to have seen a few Spaghetti or Macaroni dishes on the menu.

After dinner we did not go to the main show, which was “The Overtures”, a 1970’s pop band as we had seen them on the maiden voyage. They were then very good but we went to see “Shellyann”, who is a welsh singer and who sings a mixture of Country and Western. Somewhat comparable with Shania Twain. She was in the Queens Lounge and  was very good.

18 Dec. Rotterdam.

It was raining, we have been here many a time, so we stayed on board. We now had the chance to have a good look at the daily program and see what was going on all day and night. Good thing is, the shows are not over lapping anymore. So the Royal Court Theatre show ends at the same time as the show in the Queens Lounge. So the guests sitting there do not have their view blocked any longer with a lot of guests coming out of the theatre and who are then stopping in the walkways and block the view of those who were there in the first place for the show.

We also then realized that the Daily Program for the Q.A. is too small for what is available. It seems that the text blocks are set and when full, it is full. So the 17.15 cocktail music in the Commodore Club is mentioned but the 19.15 one is not, although it is going on. And the same went for other lounges. etc.

Today was crew drill, Geneal drill (all crew) and to my utter amazement there were no alarms, only internal announcements. I know Rotterdam (read the people in the high rises around the port, do not like alarms or ships horns) but doing a full emergency drill without alarms was a new one for me. As far as I know SOLAS still requires alarms to be sounded, so I wonder how the Captain got around that one. I think I would have prefered to have done the drill in Zeebrugge as you can lower lifeboats there. In  Rotterdam and Hamburg, there is normally too much current.

The crew drill lasted for a very long time and, as per inside information, because there were a lot of new crewmembers on board, and for some reason they also kept the more “seasoned” crew on stations.

The show tonight was a chinese violinist (now living in Basinstoke England) called Analiza Ching who played a sort of rock-classic violin music. Fast and very intense. When done she deserved and did get a standing ovation with a very long applause. I hope Cunard will get her back as she was something very special.

19 Dec. At Sea.

It being a seaday, gave me the chance to have another good look at the Christmas decorations as during the first 2 days, the crew was still unpacking and installing. Cunard did a very good job here, see the photos scattered throughout this review. Therefore it was a bit mind boggling that there was nothing in the Sir Samuels Steak Restaurant, the most expensive – extra cost- venue on board. Maybe “one does not eat steak under a Christmas tree”. Irritating was that the window washer machine was still parked outside the restaurant, so those who were having an expensive dinner there, had to look at this machine, instead of having a sea view. There are locations along the hull where this thing can be parked, out of sight, so why not ??

We also got today our second bottle of “Chateau Cunard”, we think because we are repeat guests. Again just the bottle, no card for about the why and also no ice bucket to cool it down.

Tonight was the 2nd formal, and Masquerade ball night. This was a bit of a wet fish happening.  It is announced as: Enjoy an evening with a mysterious feel, taking you back to the grand old days of Venice with the Queens Rooms musicians. As during the maiden voyage, I never saw any mystique, or Venice or whatever. My idea would be to have  the enterainment team conduct at least a few ball room dances at several intervals, twirling around the dance floor, inviting those guests who had made the effort to bring a nice mask with them.  Even with one entertainment member guiding the affair it could have scored a lot of Kudo’s for future cruises. We brought our masks for the 2nd time but I do not think we will bother for a 3rd. time as it was nothing special.

Quite a few of the guests were wearing masks, we saw a lot of them in the Commodore Club as this place developed somewhat as the location for ” those who dress up”  when the cruise progressed  But, same as during the maiden voyage, the entertainment team, if and when visible, did not wear masks etc.

For the evening we had reservations for the Bright Lights Society, This is a separate lounge, opposite the Golden Lion pub and performs intimate shows with some guest participation. Later on it doubles up as a Disco venue. They have two shows, one is “Noir (sort of Inspector Closeau affair) which we saw during the maiden voyage and then tonight it was “Fizz”. This was  a story line around  a love affair between the Club owner and his main star. Song, dance and a bit of burlesque. Very good and highly recommended. Make sure you book on the first day.

20 Dec. Hamburg.

Due to the size of the Queen Anne we were at the big -Steinwerder- Cruise terminal at the southside of the port. (The Amadea of Phoenix Reisen was at the Altona dock and a Hurtigruten cruise ship at the down town dock) We took the shuttle bus, which drops you off in downtown near City Hall. There they have a very nice christmas market. Around the corner there is another small one (around the church) and 15 minutes to the north there is a very big one at the “Ganse markt” (Goose Market) So everybody could shop & eat to their hearts content. I crossed the street to the Maritime Museum (in my opinion one of the top 5 of maritime museums in the world and I am somewhat of an expert) for my Christmas shopping. I was not disappointed there were new and 2nd hand books in the shop, so I stacked up. Since Brexit is is almost cost-prohibitive to order books in Germany and to have them send over to the UK. A lot of European bookshops  do not even bother anymore as the Red Tape to get things imported into the UK is too cumbersome, expensive and just very irritating.

We went ashore late morning, so we heard the announcements for the disembarkation of the Germans. They were obviously not in a hurry to go as at 10.30 there was a “final call”, and at 10.45 there was another one.

When we came back we decided to try room service. Waiting time 45 minutes but what was ordered was correct and warm.

This evening we had the “repeater party” as announced by the two invites. If you wanted to meet the Captain, you joined via the forward part of the Pavilion (pool area under the Dome) if you were not bothered, you took the aft entrance. We were not bothered as we knew he would not be there as it was departure Hamburg and the party time was during the “Red standby” window, which requires the captains presence on the bridge.  But to my amazement the General Hotel Director was also not there and neither were the highest day couple (1298 days) present, so they could be honored.

It was announced by the Loyalty Team hat they had gone to dinner.  (Sic)

There were officers lined up along the side of the entrances and pool but in good Cunard tradition they stayed there and did not come over to socialize. (It seems to be Cunard standard that the guests have to go over to an officer to talk and not the other way around). Drinks were a plenty but appetizers were not. One tray came past our location and that missed us and was, proffered by a rather haggard looking steward. So the whole happening was not impressive. The announcements by the loyalty team also did not do much to create a buzz or make you feel warm to be part of the “Cunard Family”.

In the Club dining room they ran out of Green Tea. There was plenty in the Food Hall as I saw that earlier in the afternoon but the Club was out and it was not possible for the Asst. Steward to get some more.

21 Dec. At Sea.

According to the entertainment team, as announced on the TV,  we were still all day in Hamburg today. The screen only changed when the One Hour Back notification came up in the evening. IS IT SO DIFFICULT FOR AN CRUISE DIRECTOR TO KEEP EN EYE ON THESE THINGS ??

We had lunch in the Club Restaurant and this time we did not have a bar waiter. He had been there earlier for those who came in at opening time and had then disappeared. So Cunard lost some revenue there. During dinner we found out that he had been ordered to “work in the back” but management had nobody assigned to cover his section.

While during dinner, the bar waiter was there, but near the end the steward and asst, steward disappeared without serving the petit-fours that you normally get each evening with the tea or coffee.

There was also no Daily Programme  or “log of my cruise”, in the cabin for those who disembarked.

22 Dec. Southampton.

Disembarkation started at 06.45 with the self disembark. Cunard advises you to be out the cabin by 0900. Which is not as good as Holland America but a lot better than SAGA & Fred Olsen who stipulate at 8am. By the time we left the cabin, they were already running ahead with the disembarkation so instead of having to wait until 09.20 for our colour we could walk straight off. By 10.00 we were back at the hotel to pick up our car, and by 16.00 hrs we were home . We only had a 10 minute slow down on the M25 near Heathrow and the rest was plain sailing. Which is very good for English motorway standards.

Summary.

The product has improved by at least 80% and we hope for Cunard and the guests that they get the rest done next year. Then they also face the challenge of making a world cruise with a ship and cabins that are not meant for one. Hopefully it will work out. But I think that the Queen Anne is better off on the shorter runs. Next Autumn the Queen Elizabeth will be based out of Miami for the whole winter, so no Southampton departures and I would think it would be a good idea to then put the Queen Anne there for 2026 or 2027. The Pinnacle Class was designed for shorter cruises so it might be wiser to stick to it.

Did we enjoy our cruise? YES. We liked the bars on board, we VERY MUCH liked the entertainment on board and in general the food was very good, wherever we went. It was just experiencing all the time these little niggly “omissions” that were not necessary which reduced the enjoyment.

We are doing the Queen Victoria during next years Christmas cruise. A smaller ship so maybe more intimate. While the service on the Q.A had greatly improved, it was still very impersonal, you really got the feeling that the crew did not care if they served you or not.  When they did, they did it well on average but that was it. Getting a second drink took some doing. Some crew had been on board since April/May and were staying until January 2025, so they might have been tired. A normal crew contract is 8 months but quite a few crew had been asked to extend until into the New Year. And they did, a. to make more money and b. to help the company, but it is not good for the product.

It not very likely that we will return to the Queen Anne  but if a good deal comes along who knows. One always remains curious. This cruise there were 2851 guests on board and on sea days it was very crowded. If the ship would be completely full then it would be even worse. That is for us a very good reason to stay away.

You never know if they will be able to change a “good cruise into a great cruise”. But for an expert eye, there were too many niggly things still there, things that with good management, supervision and attention to detail would not have been  necessary.

I do not think that most guests will have noticed all the small things that I have listed or cared about, but I was trained all my life:  that the little things make the difference and do a lot to raise customer satisfaction from “it was good ………….to it was great”.  While the maiden voyage was a BAD cruise,  this was a GOOD cruise, but not a GREAT cruise.

I hope they got it all in order on the Queen Victoria for Christmas 2025 and we are really looking forward to that cruise.