jam19872016

Summary: Queen Elizabeth Dining: The food on Queen Elizabeth was hands down the best food I've ever experienced on a cruise ship. There were very few items that I ate that I did not like and most were absolutely spectacular. The dining room was open for lunch every day including port days which was a very nice option to have. The Golden Lion Pub was available for lunch and dinner and everything I ate there was fantastic. Not normally a buffet person but I even enjoyed the buffet even though it would still not be my first choice in most instances I did enjoy what I ate there and I enjoyed that they had sushi on the buffet. That was always a nice treat for this fresh fish lover. Tea time was a wonderful experience that lived up to the hype and even exceeded my expectation. The only weak spot I would say would be breakfast. I did not find the breakfast choices at the buffet to be very good and I never made it to the MDR but my mom wasn't crazy about it either and ended up switching to the buffet by the end of the cruise just to grab some pastries which were excellent by cruise ship standards. Having been let down my Celebrity's hyped up food offerings, I went in with a fair amount of skepticism about the quality of food on Cunard, but I am happy to report that there is a lot of effort and expense involved in creating an amazing dining experience on Queen Elizabeth. Compared to Carnival, it is no contest, Cunard is the clear winner. Public Spaces and Cabin: The ship's public spaces were very beautiful in a classically elegant sort of way. I believe she was out of dry dock a few months ago and it showed as everything looked fresh despite being an older ship. The crew were also constantly taking care to keep things clean and tidy. This was especially true in the buffet where tables were cleared in a timely manner to help with table turnover. Carnival did not do a great job keeping up with clearing the tables during busy meal times. The cabin was reasonably sized for a cruise ship cabin. I would say about the same as a Carnival inside cabin. Not terribly spacious but it was spacious enough for two people. The only point I would deduct would be for the bathroom which was more cramped than Carnival but about the same as most cruise ship bathrooms - tiny. The ship is basically a Spirt class ship which is already the best in Carnival's fleet for public space compared to capacity of the ship. This ship holds slightly less than Spirt class (less three and four person rooms) and was not full. She sailed with 1981 on the second leg and "a couple more" the first leg, which according to the crewmember I was speaking to, is about as full as she sails as they don't ever fully book every cabin (which is why I got such a great deal last minute). As a result, nothing was every crowded (except the buffet). Elevators were quick and usually private. It was nice never having to wait in a line. There was maybe a five minute line for dinner the first night and the crew were beside themselves apologizing for the wait. Entertainment: I struggled with the entertainment on Cunard. I think that is a me thing more than a Cunard thing. I never heard complaints onboard about the offerings. In fact I heard mostly rave reviews about all the shows and singers. They just were not really things that interested me. They certainly appealed to their core demographic though. I thought Cunard offered on demand movies but that was not the case. The TV options were decent by cruise ship standards, and certainly better than what Carnival offers, but they were still pretty bad. There were only a couple channels geared towards English speaking audiences, and they were mostly news and sports. My mom found a German lego building competition that was slightly amusing especially since I don't speak German (and she has a very basic understanding at best). They did have movies on repeat, but no published start times so we did not always get to enjoy them. The internet was great with the recent upgrade to Starlink. I was surprised to see that videos were not available with the lower package. I was surprised to see that even though they did say streaming would not be available. I always assumed that was a technical restriction, which would not apply with Starlink, and not an actual block. That may be standard though as I do usually purchase the full internet package. Service: Service was very professional. Any time I passed crew, they were cheerful and provided a greeting. It was clear that the crew from top to bottom had undergone training in high standards of hospitality. But....it was very formal. Few interactions of genuine personality and not formalities from the crew we interacted with. There was certainly nothing wrong, it was just not the same. Perhaps it is a European thing and I would certainly choose Cunard over MSC's idea of European hospitality which comes across as rude and uncaring. This was plesant and felt like being on Downton Abby at times, just lacked the personal touch you get on Carnival. I think, again, that this is just catering to their demographic who likely is used to a more formal approach than the familiarity you would expect on Carnival. The exception I would say was the dining room. I already talked about my issues in the dining room so I won't rehash them again, but I was a bit put off by the service in the dining room. The formality was still place, napkins placed in our lap, silverware changed at each course etc, and that was a nice touch that added a little elegance to the dining experience. I did not get a mint on my pillow. Isn't that a mark of a good cruise line with good service? It seems like it from reading these boards. I'm just kidding, of course, but I was surprised with so many aspects of a "traditional" cruise experience that I did not get a mint on my pillow. Overall: I was a bit apprehensive about Cunard going in. I expected it to be stuffy and I would have to hide in my room every evening and perhaps not even be allowed into the dining room. It was none of those things and as someone who doesn't always enjoy the louder aspects of a cruise, I enjoyed how quiet it was. I am a bit of a bargain shopper and mostly try to sail from Florida ports so I am not sure if I will make it onto one of the Queens again, but they are definitely on my radar now where I had never even given them a second thought prior. I would highly recommend Cunard to anyone who would be interested in a quieter experience and won't miss the deck parties and waterparks. It's a great experience and not nearly as stuffy as their reputation would have you think.

That's it for pictures! I will post my final thoughts this afternoon.

The new Carnival stores look really nice and reminded me a lot of the one on Celebration.

Onto Freedom now there is a new Dreams studio location in the atrium just off to the side. The location on deck 4 in the old internet cafe was still there, but I guess this is more visible. @Blackjackboss this one's for you. I almost didn't photograph the giant Lady Liberty. I also never went up to the BBQ place. It was so terrible in January that I just didn't care to try it again when the rest of the food onboard was so much better overall. As a revenue generator, I was surprised the PYOB was not fixed in dry dock.

The chef was even giving the thumbs up to reassure me, and I completely missed his message. I've got to do better!

It was also fruit and veggie carving day where they displayed some beautiful works of food art.

As I understand it, QM2 has eliminated the free sauna. I can't have it all I suppose. For identical itineraries I would choose QE without a forward deck than QM2 without a free sauna.

I went back and I did miss two photos of stairway art. I thought I took more but I only found two but I did find a few other photos that got missed. Somehow I skipped a whole day of uploads from my phone. These were from the first sea day leaving Barcelona on QE. Stairway art. Even back then, parents were dumb enough to lift their child over the railing. And another sitting on the railing, I guess those were the only ones I felt a need to take a picture of, that's a shame as they were quite interesting. This day was also the day of the Indian cooking demonstration.

I'm pretty sure I walked each of the decks and checked both port and starboard and they were all marked crew only. I started at the top and worked my way down, so possibly by the time I got to 6 I was defeated enough that the big watertight door was enough to deter me without an actual sign stating crew only. I hope I get the chance to check again someday as that is my favorite place to be for sail away from any port. Thank you 🙂

I'd looked closer at this portrait of the ship and thought I'd found out the ship had a secret deck just like most Carnival ships do, it would certainly appear that there is the forward observation decks like on Carnival. Alas when I walked to the front of each deck, they were marked crew only and when I peeked in, they were most definitely for crew access only. What a shame. In addition to Commedore club which was inside, the only outside deck with a forward view was on this deck with the lawn games. I'm almost certain that I had taken many photos of the stairway art on Queen Elizabeth. I found so many of them so interesting but I cannot find them now. I am going to have to look on my phone again but they did not get uploaded to my online host. That will be a real shame if I lost them somehow. While most of the art was classic and tasteful, this one final piece was modern and whimsical and I enjoyed it just as much although it certainly did not fit the overall theme of the ship and as I understand it is a recent addition.

Strolling the outside decks at night. Sunset the night before arriving in Naples. From the Commedore club I watched an MSC cargo ship arriving in port in Civitavecchia

Barcelona at night from QE. I am always fascinated by the stairway art on cruise ships, and the art on here was very interesting. Lots of pictures of classic Cunard ships. Passing a ferry as we leave Barcelona.

Checking out the top deck. I never did find an unobstructed outside view off the front of the ship. The best I got was inside the commodore club which was a lovely lounge, but your view was at the mercy of the cleanliness of the windows at the time. Beautiful space inside though with nice comfy seating.

Some lunch time snack options. Barcelona from the QE

Hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving today who celebrated. And a great Thursday to everyone else. Catching up some more random pictures. Terminal B in Barcelona...much better stocked than the other terminals I docked at while in Barcelona. The hallways on Cunard were more narrow than Carnival but still not as narrow as I've seen on cruise ships before. The pizza place was something I wish I had a chance to try more there was just too much other good food available. The topping list was impressive. They had a daily special also.

I don't know what asbestos looks like. I googled it and most pictures seem to be yellow, although it did return some pictures that were white. Some more research showed that ships built when Freedom was built could legally be built with asbestos in certain parts of the ship which I'm not smart enough to understand exactly where. A lot of technical jargon that just went way over my head. I'd like to give Carnival the benefit of the doubt that at the least the employees cleaning up would be in proper PPE if it was Asbestos but Carnival Corp is on probation for illegal dumping and continued to do it until they got caught AGAIN so benefit of the doubt is gone for them. I guess wishful hoping in lieu of benefit of the doubt?

I didn't personally witness any fall into the water so hopefully nothing did, but it's hard to imagine that nothing caught enough extra wind to fly over the decks. Maybe they were smart enough to purposely wait until the winds were in the correct direction to not allow that to happen? No turkey for us today, we are going non tradtional since its just the two of us and I'm not big on turkey. There will be pie though 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!

The pics are somewhere wayyyyyy back in pages, I think you were on Venezia at the time. It was a beautiful port but the weather wasn't the greatest that day. Most of the excursions were to Sete Cidades but the visibility was poor. I'd read its best not to book tours to it until the day of because visibility is often bad but they run the tours anyway. I ended up finding a beautiful botanical garden while wandering around and it was the only port with city wide wifi which was nice.

Coming up next I will have some extra pictures from my time on Queen Elizabeth and the return crossing and my final thoughts on the trip. Then tomorrow or Friday I will be starting another live for my next trip which I will include a link to in this one. Thanks for following along!

Somewhere in the Atlantic, a day out from Azores. Pizza line much more manageable on the crossing. The work on the funnel had begun, and today it was snowing. This was being spit out of the funnel, the crew worked hard to keep it cleaned up but during the last few days there were a lot of nasty things being spit out of the funnel and I am sure some of it unfortunately ended up in the water. There were also a lot of sparks flying which was more than just a little unsettling.

That late at night with the drunk munchies, anything is worth the wait 😅. Late night choices have improved in the last year, but its not great by any stretch of the imagination.

Line must have moved quicker tonight, I got mushroom pizza! Usually I've been waiting so long I just take pepperoni. Score! My mom loved her steward from her 10 days in her own cabin. She even got six towel animals in five days. She had me line them up at the end for a photo. First day coordinates on the TA. The sea about half way between Florida and Bermuda.