QE Pre-Christmas Cruise - Thoughts

[Delbankin]

We have recently returned from 10 night QE cruise departing 12 December and thought we would share some reflections of our cruise here rather than on the review page as it might turn into quite a long review. I always think it is better to read small segments in the forum rather than struggle through a longer review.

 

Our cruise seemed to have recurring them - wind!!

 

We were delayed on our departure from Southampton by several hours due to high winds which the Captain described as beyond our safe operating limits. It wasn't a major issue for us as our holiday begins as soon as we are aboard - the bars were open for business so everything was good!.

 

We eventually departed and were soon out in the open sea which had continued high winds that made our sailing not as smooth as we would have liked although our first evening wasn't as bad for movement as some later ones. The crossing of the bay was fairly kind to us as well.

 

We continued to battle through the wind for 3 days (decks closed on occasion) and everyone was looking forward to some dry land in Lanzarote, our first port. We had an inside cabin in the aft of the ship which seemed quite responsive to the ship's movement.

 

At least we had paid less than those in the aft suites who would have experienced the same degree of movement as we did but at much greater cost, although in greater comfort I'm sure.

 

There were a number of empty tables at dinner on some of the nights and we spoke to several people later in the cruise who had felt rather unwell due to the motion which explained the lack of diners on some of the nights.

 

Being in an inside cabin and deciding to have a lie in we didn't bother to see what was going on outside. We felt the ship vibrate which usually signals a docking procedure and we fully expected to be berthed for when we decided to rise. Fairly soon the Captain came over the room tannoy to announce that in the interest of safety she had decided to abandon any attempt to dock in Lanzarote due to the high wind and advised she would return with a further update shortly.

 

Some time later the Captain announced we had been successful in securing an earlier berth in Gran Canaria and we would be travelling there directly to arrive later in the afternoon.

 

We were not too bothered about the cancellation and were happy to go to GC earlier than planned. We spoke to someone later in the day who had been up and about earlier and advised it did look rather rough for the Lanzarote attempt and he described seeing a tug thrashing around a bit as it tried to get us to the dock.

 

We had an overnight in GC and departed on time the next day. Our next stop was Madeira and our final stop was La Coruna - more on the ports in a later posting.

 

The Bay wasn't so kind on the way back with grey overcast skies and fairly rough seas which we felt quite a bit in our aft cabin such that it affected our sleeping on occasion. So much so that my wife gave a loud cheer when the Captain came on again as we made our way home to advise that we would be speeding up to get back to Southampton before some fairly high winds again for our scheduled arrival time. We docked before 1 am (some 4-5 hours before our scheduled time of arrival).

 

Not that we didn't enjoy our cruise and wished to be home earlier - just that we anticipated a better night's sleep, which we certainly were able to enjoy.

 

We passed QV during our outward journey and I remarked to one of the ship's officers at the welcome party that QV seemed to be handling the seas better than QE which seemed to suffer from a peculiar pitching and snaking motion. It could simply have been the wind direction and force that was causing the problems movement I suppose and the officer's explanation was that QV was heading away from the weather whereas QE was heading into the weather.

 

Our other memorable experience with wind was in the breakfast room one morning where the smiley happy man with the pastries passed by and let a bit of a noisy one go just beside us. Not very pleasant but he carried on his merry way and we had a bit of a laugh about it.

 

So wind from beginning to end really, one way or another!!.

[Lanky Lad]

Thanks for the report.

 

I missed seeing QV :(

 

One bonus of missing Lanzarote was being able to go on deck and watch us sailing between the islands and arriving in GC in the afternoon.

[RosieStay]

Yes this cruise was windy, but my hubby absolutely adored mr pasty and his very merry disposition.