My first cruise with Cunard!

I just returned from an amazing 4-night cruise on-board the beautiful Cunard ship the Queen Elizabeth.  I traveled with my sister Katy and we were excited to get away from our very hectic lives of juggling full time jobs and kids for a few nights of fun and relaxation.  We had a balcony cabin on deck 4 mid-aft position.   I was surprised as we entered as it was quite spacious with a sofa.  Our balcony was more of a surprise though as you had lots of space compared to on other standard balcony cabins I’ve been on.  It was perfect for a couple of evening drinks before our evenings out.

We only had one port of call and two sea-days.  We stopped in Rotterdam and I will go into more details what we did and where you can visit from Rotterdam in another blog.  The theme of the cruise was Big Band and the music in the Queen’s room every evening reflected this with lots of singers, musicians, dancing opportunities and a balloon drop onto the dance floor.  This was a spectacular ballroom venue unlike that on any other ship I’ve been on.  When most cruises have a theme, it tends to take over the whole ship, whereas this was just mainly in the one area which was great for those who didn’t want Big band all the time.  This is a cruise for people who love to dance, and the dance floor was busy with a great atmosphere in the evening!

We had a late sitting for dinner at 8:30pm which was perfect as we could enjoy our day and relax with a drink on the balcony or at a bar (our favourites being the commodore bar on top deck and the Gin bar mid-ship) before dinner.  We went to the shows every evening.  The resident group were fantastic dancers and singers and put on 2 shows.  There was also a comedian and singer on other nights.  We arrived late and still managed to get a seat each evening.

Daytime entertainment on-board consisted or plentiful quizzes and bingo, movies in the theatre, music on deck (this was fantastic on our sea day by the pool when the sun was shining), dancing and fitness classes, social meet ups and deck games competitions.  There was always someone playing a musical instrument somewhere on-board if you just wanted to relax by a bar and watch the world go by.  We prefer to do our own things in the daytime and found ourselves making good use of the pools, hot tub and sauna.  One criticism I have is that there are only 4 hot tubs on-board and they only hold 4 people each.  I feel there should be more and are on most ships.  We enjoyed trying out the deck games.  The area at the top of the ship where you could play croquet, bowls and paddle tennis was a great area.   Some of the people we met on-board tried out the Gin tasting in the daytime and highly recommended it.

We felt the food on-board was good and all very tasty, but options were limited in the Britannia restaurant.  I felt starters could have been a bit more interesting as nothing on the menu appealed to me.  The main courses we had were good but again I feel this could benefit from more diverse options.  I was very happy to see a curry on the menu one night though and it was very tasty.  We tried out the afternoon tea which took place in the Queen’s room.  This was lovely and well organised considering how many people the waiters were serving and was accompanied by a very talented pianist which added to the atmosphere.  Drinks on-board are quite expensive with the cheapest bottle of wine being about $35 including the service charge and cocktails at about $12 per drink.  You can bring on a bottle each for cabin consumption, so we made use of this for a pre-drink before going out.

In conclusion we had a lovely time.  It was very relaxing, and the service was fantastic.  The ship felt very classy and reminiscent of classic cruising which is something that will appeal to many who are not keen on the gimmicks of modern cruise liners.