Colin_Cameron

And then there's the bad news. The Queen's Room. A "Grand Ballroom", it is not. It's not just the dance floor, though that's bad enough. It's the whole room. It feels like a hotel function suite. I had written 'corporate hotel', but it doesn't even aspire to that. Think cheap wedding venue. When you walk in from the aft end the first thing you see is the bar (which does have bar seating!), it's the focal point of the room. And the size! A quick scan around today at afternoon tea, a port day and overflowing, suggests it has maybe a bit more than half the seats of QE or QV. On a ship that has 50% more passengers. I've tried taking some photos to illustrate but none of them really show the true picture. I'll keep trying.

As you were seated several people, myself included, were asked if they would be willing to participate, I declined. There was no pressure and it wasn't done during the show.

Along with liberal use of the ship's whistle!

In a word, yes.

While we're on the restaurant, the spiral staircase between the two levels is so narrow that it serves no practical purpose. So I like the restaurant, I like the cabin, I liked The Bright Lights Society (although until they change the show it will be a one off novelty). The theatre, while not a patch on QE or QV, is much, MUCH better than it appeared in the renderings and early photos. It's wider than it looked and it's not the same slope the whole way back. As you move back the seats are on a steeper rake, improving the view.

Not quite random. Tables are assigned by the maitre d' at the door. But when people move after being shown to a table, and then other people are shown to a table that 'should ' be empty it slows everything down.

Very steady most of the time. An odd shimmy and shudder as we crossed the Bay of Biscay but very little pitch and roll. Still getting used to things, as are the crew. I thought the Britannia galley problems were fixed as we had no problems yesterday but then we started hearing some horror stories, and then this morning's breakfast took a couple of minutes under two hours. It was just as well we had a good table and everyone was happily getting along. If we'd had a table of moaners we would probably have left. Tables around us that arrived after us, ordered, were served, ate, left, and the tables were being refilled and we were still waiting. According to the waiter all the delays are with orders for large tables. I also note that they have either given up on the iPad ordering, or that system has stopped working. Things are not helped when passengers are shown to a table and as soon as the waiter has left, move somewhere else. I saw this at lunch and last night we had a gent moved to a spare seat at our table because others had parked themselves at his table. I know BellBoy has had the same problem. Other than these problems I do like the dining room. It reminds me quite a bit of Vistafjord/Caronia's dining room.

My first thought was that the corridor carpet design pointed forward, but it actually points to the closest staircase/lift.

Pre-publicity was quite confusing. It has to be booked, but there is no charge for the show. There is a drinks service which, like everywhere else on the ship, is charged. It is the same show, twice a night, every night, at least on this voyage. I guess they may introduce a different show at some point. The same venue is also used as the late night disco.

So with the Commodore Club at roughly 20% capacity, both drinks orders took 25 mins to be served. And both times the dry martini arrived without the olives specifically ordered, and repeated by the waiter. We headed down to dinner at 8:20 and finally got into the dining room at 9:15. I'm stating these as facts, not as complaints. It's a maiden voyage. Stuff happens. But there are definitely some people that shouldn't book maiden voyages. Once we were at the table I'd say things were no slower than any other first night, maybe even better than most, but because of the late start that's us just out at 11:15.

With nearly half the ship in at dinner.

In the Commodore Club for our first martinis. First thing we noticed is no seats at the bar. Must be about double the seating capacity of the Vistas but with the same number of staff. The room is also completely flat so has a different feeling. Edit: Just been advised by @Solent Richard that there's no canapés. And won't be any !!!

Oops. That bottle was upright when I posted the pic. Boarding was OK. We had a short wait in the terminal as they had to suspend boarding while a container ship manouvered past QA. Someone mentioned a boutique hotel rather than ship feeling and there's certainly something about the lift lobbies that gives that impression. Not sure what it is. For the first hour and a half our cabin toilet wouldn't flush, but seems to be OK now. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a repeat of QV's maiden voyage. The lower hanging rail in the main wardrobe is too high to allow stuff on the upper rail to hang cleanly without draping over the lower rail but it's OK in the narrow one beside the bed. A total of 30 hangers (20+5+5) in this standard balcony cabin. On QV the full length mirror was inconveniently on the inside of the wardrobe door. They corrected this on QE by putting it on the outside of the wardrobe facing into the cabin. Having learnt that lesson where do you think they've put it on QA? Edit:I see these portrait photos have also turned sideways. Not sure if HH can do anything with them?

Look what we have!

Nope. I wish I had. It turned the last hour of the journey into two and a quarter hours. I didn't notice at the time how much longer (or shorter) she thought it would take. Because it was last minute, I was already in the left lane ready to take the exit, I assumed she had good reason, but who knows. Anyway, we're now in The Potters Heron, between Romsey and Chandler's Ford. Booked through Secret Escapes, and so far I'd recommend it for a night or two before a cruise. 23 mins from the Mayflower Terminal according to Google.