QUEEN VICTORIA "Central Mediterranean Cruise" 1-20 October 2023 impressions

[WantedOnVoyage]

We, along with quite a few others, booked this aboard QM2's Southampton-West Indies "direct" cruise back in Jan. 2022 so it was a much anticipated (and long sold out) cruise that managed to exceed most expectations with a delightful itinerary, near flawless weather save on departure from Lisbon a few days ago and a gratifying reunion with more than a few passengers and crew.

 

QV remains the pick of the Cunard litter for us and she was immaculate throughout.  There were more than a few contractor types aboard for unknown reasons. Her American captain, Capt. Hoyt, keeps her in fine shape and remains the most engaging Cunard captain I have experienced since Warwick.  

 

We had, always usual, Princess Grill P2 grade.  Excellent cabin steward and our dining room pair (and yes, reduced from a trio of just a year ago) were outstanding. Except for one or two not exemplary tough beef entrees, the cuisine was as good as ever....better than in May. Not sure about the "modern" entrees, though... a few too many clever vegetarian and vegan options and not nearly enough Indian curries for my taste.  The a la carte options have been further diminished to well, not much in particular, and changed I think once in 19 days.  Flambees etc are still noticably absent but thank goodness the cheese trolley, missing in May, is back.  No... repeat NO special orders. You could get, if asked nicely, a lunch curry for dinner but that's it. Mention needs to be made of the outstanding front of house team: Ismail and Francis... a huge improvement from May. Consumate professionals that added immensely to the experience. 

 

We are not much into "entertainment" and thank goodness.... the "comedians" were pretty dire but the string trio was the best I've heard at sea since STEFAN BATORY.  

 

Negatives:

 

Carnival have cut staffing to the bone and into the marrow.  The stewards do their best but the waits for food and drink were unacceptable.... 30 mins in the Grill to get a starter and the Grills Lounge was simply overwhelmed in the evening as was the Chart Room.  They cut and cut and hope no one notices: we do and they knew it, too.  I don't want to hear about staffing shortages when they decide to add to the fleet.  Shoreside management, in California and Southampton, remains the weak link in the whole Cunard operation.  

 

And this leads to another real turn-off especially to we QV fans... the incessant shilling aboard for QUEEN ANNE. It's bad enough so many of her crew are being shanghaied for her without the endless promotion of a vessel we (and others) find of zero appeal. Work on what we like and are paying for, thank you.  We disembarked without booking a future cruise for the first time in years.  

 

The U.S. Grill package is indeed still at a $12 limit (vs. $13.50 for the purchased one) and the choice is considerably diminished... there is one martini for example.  But the staff, largely fed up with the confusion and conflicts, seem eager to game the system to your favour.  

 

And, finally.... you ballroom dancers won!  We don't dance in that British manner (and I find it somewhat intimidating personally) but the dire Bulgarian Wedding Reception Band is gone and replaced by a really excellent one that actually plays dance music.  The Queen's Room was far more attended and livelier as a request.  Shame they cut all the wonderful live music from the Yacht Club and its attendance reflected that most nights. Karaoke? Silent Disco?  Please....

 

Dress code: quite well adhered to.  I think I have locked out from my memory the exceptions but this was an Old School Cunarder passenger list and more delightful for it. 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by WantedOnVoyage

[deck chair]

Thank you for your review.  QV u sed to be my favorite after QM2 but after the refit when the Chart Room was removed to make way for the BC restaurant it is no longer.  The new Chart Room is crowded without much comfortable seating.   And no live music as there used to be in the old.  In addition, with the added cabins the regular dining room became more crowded.  I don't get the enthusiasm for the new QA.  The ship won't even have a real promenade deck such as exists on the other Cunard ships.  Good luck to all.

Deck Chair.

[portofrome]

Thank you for your review!

[ballroom-cruisers]

Thank you for your review of this voyage.  We were not in the Grills so I can't comment on that for this voyage.  However my perspectives, including as a ballroom dancer from the UK (!), are summarised as follows:

 

Itinerary: The experiences we had at all the ports apart from Lisbon where we stayed on board due to torrential rain, was really lovely, and we walked around at all of them, including Santorini, where we were lucky to choose the time to walk up 'the cliff' with enough time to have an explore at the top, and see great views looking down, before getting to the cable car ticket office with no queue at all, and went straight into the cable car to arrive at the bottom quayside a few minutes later.  The weather, as you say, was near perfect, until we arrived in Lisbon, but even once we left we had the bonus of finding the deck at a pleasant temperature, to enjoy some sunshine on the way back to Southampton.

 

Meals: The menus were generally quite lacklustre, with a few notable exceptions such as the final Gala evening where escargots, surf and turf with top notch fillet, and a proper lemon souffle with limoncello sauce were delightful, though the limoncello could have been a little more lemon flavoured! More than half of the various meat dishes had tough and relatively poor quality meat, and presentation was mostly not as attractive as in the past.

 

Theatre: More often than not we spend evenings in the Queens Room, but the sequence dance sessions gave us a window to go to a theatre show on a few evenings, and Philip Brown's singing was fabulous, as were the performances by Lisa Harman, both of whom are powerful, and top level vocalists, with Lisa an exceptional pianist also (she was the Empress Orchestra's lead vocalist in the past).

 

Queen's Room ballroom dancing:  Most evenings there was the opportunity to get some quality ballroom and Latin dancing, and the orchestra did play a lot of very good ballroom and Latin music, with the vocalists, Jeremy and Victoria, doing a fantastic job singing for dancing most of the time.  There were certainly times when the sequence dancers occupied the floor at a level where ballroom dances such as the waltz, foxtrot and quickstep, were near impossible to do, but several days into the voyage, the sequence dancers had their hour near the start of the evening, but then let the ballroom dancers use the space.  There was one Ceroc couple who took up quite a bit of space and were not progressing in the conventional manner around the room, and that meant that couples dancing foxtrots, and quicksteps had a tough time trying to dance - though the Ceroc couple only danced to 4-beat music, so during waltz music the conventional waltz couples could dance nicely and use the space available, even though some waltzes were on pretty packed floors.  Yes a few evenings were party nights, including the Four Ds on the last night - but overall that worked well - with sequence dancers having their hour at the start of the evening after dinner, with around an hour after that for normal ballroom and Latin dancing, before the pop band did music for bopping - though even during the disco sessions some jive and cha cha was possible during the second half of the evening. So dancers of all chosen styles had their chance to dance.

 

Queen Anne:  Having spoken to staff about how the new ship is being designed it was heartening to hear that the Queens Room should have a dance floor a bit bigger than on QV, and that the Cunard tradition of quality ballroom dancing will remain on the new ship.  The Bright Lights Society will be the venue which largely replaces the Yacht Club on QV/QE and G32 on QM2. So all the omens were being presented as retaining Cunard's tradition of an elegant modern classically styled ship with the design taking the best of the previous ship designs into a single 21st century ship of distinction.  Obviously how the feel of the new ship will lead to continued desire to sail on her will depend on our first experience of being on board once she launches next year. But from what we heard, we were not put off looking at booking cruises on Queen Anne.

 

All in all this voyage we enjoyed immensely, and certainly the ballroom was the highlight of this cruise, with a lovely exciting atmosphere, and delightful environs, with a lot of happy smiling dancers.

[NE John]

5 minutes ago, ballroom-cruisers said:

with sequence dancers having their hour at the start of the evening after dinner

Pardon my ignorance about dance terms, but what is the definition of “sequence dancers” vs general “ballroom dancers”?

[ballroom-cruisers]

Sequence dances are a style of dance done mostly by British dance couples - sequence dances are mostly a fixed set of steps/figures over 16 bars of music (a few are over 24 or 32 bars), and all the couples doing a sequence dance, start at exactly the same moment, and every couple is doing exactly the same steps at any one moment. The couples form a ring around the dance floor, and most move clockwise around the dance floor, and it is basically a synchronised dance, with the steps over the 16 bars, then repeated until the piece of music stops.  Many are based on the International Standard ballroom, or Latin, dances, with a few based on other dances such as salsa, bachata, with some based on 'Strolls', or vintage style dances.  The primary aim is to learn as many of the sequence dances as possible, and there are around half a dozen or so new sequence dances that are choreographed every month - some become popular and are danced regularly into the future, but many lose favour and stop being danced.  So it is a big contrast to the near infinite set of freestyle figures that can be danced starting at any point in a piece of music by conventional ballroom and Latin dancers. Perhaps that summarises what sequence dancing is for most people.

 

Also sequence dances being fixed sets of steps do not require lead and follow as in conventional ballroom and Latin dances, and it also means it is easier for people to dance with any new partner as as result. So solo sequence dancers can fit in and dance with a new partner with ease.

Edited October 21, 2023 by ballroom-cruisers
added paragraph

[exlondoner]

6 hours ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

We, along with quite a few others, booked this aboard QM2's Southampton-West Indies "direct" cruise back in Jan. 2022 so it was a much anticipated (and long sold out) cruise that managed to exceed most expectations with a delightful itinerary, near flawless weather save on departure from Lisbon a few days ago and a gratifying reunion with more than a few passengers and crew.

 

QV remains the pick of the Cunard litter for us and she was immaculate throughout.  There were more than a few contractor types aboard for unknown reasons. Her American captain, Capt. Hoyt, keeps her in fine shape and remains the most engaging Cunard captain I have experienced since Warwick.  

 

We had, always usual, Princess Grill P2 grade.  Excellent cabin steward and our dining room pair (and yes, reduced from a trio of just a year ago) were outstanding. Except for one or two not exemplary tough beef entrees, the cuisine was as good as ever....better than in May. Not sure about the "modern" entrees, though... a few too many clever vegetarian and vegan options and not nearly enough Indian curries for my taste.  The a la carte options have been further diminished to well, not much in particular, and changed I think once in 19 days.  Flambees etc are still noticably absent but thank goodness the cheese trolley, missing in May, is back.  No... repeat NO special orders. You could get, if asked nicely, a lunch curry for dinner but that's it. Mention needs to be made of the outstanding front of house team: Ismail and Francis... a huge improvement from May. Consumate professionals that added immensely to the experience. 

 

We are not much into "entertainment" and thank goodness.... the "comedians" were pretty dire but the string trio was the best I've heard at sea since STEFAN BATORY.  

 

Negatives:

 

Carnival have cut staffing to the bone and into the marrow.  The stewards do their best but the waits for food and drink were unacceptable.... 30 mins in the Grill to get a starter and the Grills Lounge was simply overwhelmed in the evening as was the Chart Room.  They cut and cut and hope no one notices: we do and they knew it, too.  I don't want to hear about staffing shortages when they decide to add to the fleet.  Shoreside management, in California and Southampton, remains the weak link in the whole Cunard operation.  

 

And this leads to another real turn-off especially to we QV fans... the incessant shilling aboard for QUEEN ANNE. It's bad enough so many of her crew are being shanghaied for her without the endless promotion of a vessel we (and others) find of zero appeal. Work on what we like and are paying for, thank you.  We disembarked without booking a future cruise for the first time in years.  

 

The U.S. Grill package is indeed still at a $12 limit (vs. $13.50 for the purchased one) and the choice is considerably diminished... there is one martini for example.  But the staff, largely fed up with the confusion and conflicts, seem eager to game the system to your favour.  

 

And, finally.... you ballroom dancers won!  We don't dance in that British manner (and I find it somewhat intimidating personally) but the dire Bulgarian Wedding Reception Band is gone and replaced by a really excellent one that actually plays dance music.  The Queen's Room was far more attended and livelier as a request.  Shame they cut all the wonderful live music from the Yacht Club and its attendance reflected that most nights. Karaoke? Silent Disco?  Please....

 

Dress code: quite well adhered to.  I think I have locked out from my memory the exceptions but this was an Old School Cunarder passenger list and more delightful for it. 

 

 

Thank you for this report. It seems a shame on such a lengthy cruise that the negatives seem so much to outweigh the positives.

[NE John]

1 hour ago, ballroom-cruisers said:

Sequence dances are a style of dance done mostly by British dance couples - sequence dances are mostly a fixed set of steps/figures over 16 bars of music (a few are over 24 or 32 bars), and all the couples doing a sequence dance, start at exactly the same moment, and every couple is doing exactly the same steps at any one moment. The couples form a ring around the dance floor, and most move clockwise around the dance floor, and it is basically a synchronised dance, with the steps over the 16 bars, then repeated until the piece of music stops.  Many are based on the International Standard ballroom, or Latin, dances, with a few based on other dances such as salsa, bachata, with some based on 'Strolls', or vintage style dances.  The primary aim is to learn as many of the sequence dances as possible, and there are around half a dozen or so new sequence dances that are choreographed every month - some become popular and are danced regularly into the future, but many lose favour and stop being danced.  So it is a big contrast to the near infinite set of freestyle figures that can be danced starting at any point in a piece of music by conventional ballroom and Latin dancers. Perhaps that summarises what sequence dancing is for most people.

 

Also sequence dances being fixed sets of steps do not require lead and follow as in conventional ballroom and Latin dances, and it also means it is easier for people to dance with any new partner as as result. So solo sequence dancers can fit in and dance with a new partner with ease.

Thank you. It sounds similar to the Virginia Reel over here. 

[sogne]

8 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Thank you for this report. It seems a shame on such a lengthy cruise that the negatives seem so much to outweigh the positives.

Britannia 2nd sitting we were in and out most nights within the hour.

[exlondoner]

4 minutes ago, sogne said:

Britannia 2nd sitting we were in and out most nights within the hour.

That’s a bit quick.

[ballroom-cruisers]

14 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Thank you for this report. It seems a shame on such a lengthy cruise that the negatives seem so much to outweigh the positives.

 

For us the positives far outweighed the negatives... it was a lovely voyage and gave many happy memories to last into the future.

[exlondoner]

3 minutes ago, ballroom-cruisers said:

 

For us the positives far outweighed the negatives... it was a lovely voyage and gave many happy memories to last into the future.

Yes, that too came across. 🙂

[sogne]

59 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

That’s a bit quick.

Restaurant doors opened quite early most nights but had very efficient waiters.

 But it was very enjoyable cruise on perhaps our favourite ship. Look hopefully to QA next year to deliver the same ambience.

[57eric]

"There were certainly times when the sequence dancers occupied the floor at a level where ballroom dances such as the waltz, foxtrot and quickstep, were near impossible to do."  Are you saying that sequence dancers were commandeering the dance floor during open dancing?  I've never witnessed that.  Perhaps the sequence dancing schedule has been cut back and this is the consequence?

[ballroom-cruisers]

The ballroom dancers do not try to dance the normal ballroom or Latin dances when there is a named sequence dance session. However certainly in the first few days when there was not a dedicated sequence set, the sequence dancers would line up around the floor making a ring, with little space in the middle of the floor, which was not compatible with normal freestyle ballroom or Latin dancing.  Some people I know made representation to the entertainment team to ask if it could be announced that a set or even a single dance was one or the other since normal freestyle ballroom is incompatible with sequence dances. I don't know if any action was taken as a result. However several days into the voyage, the ballroom sessions were largely just normal ballroom or Latin dancing with only occasional small numbers of couples trying to do sequence dances as a group of 3 or 4 couples - and the freestyle ballroom dances were partially possible with some working around the blocked edges of the floor at that time.  As the days passed the sequence dancers generally kept to the dedicated sequence dance specified set times.

 

So I am expressing it slightly differently to you but explaining that it happened that way. At times when some music was on a group of line dancers got on the floor too - and the ballroom dancers just chatted on the sides and had a drink while that happened. But it was only occasional. It did seem that more of the daily calendar scheduled sequence dance sessions early in the evening were utilised and that seemed to work a lot better for both groups (i.e. freestyle ballroom and sequence dancers)

[david,Mississauga]

Thank you "WantedOnVoyage" for the comments. May I ask: were there no flambés in PG or just a lot fewer than what was normal previously?  We were on the QE in summer of 2022 in PG and noticed quite a few items were flambéed but not as many as pre-COVID.  This summer we splurged on QG on the QE and there were quite a few main courses and some desserts set on fire. We are rarely in QG so I can't make a comparison to previous voyages.

 

 

 

[WantedOnVoyage]

No, the flambees are pretty much gone in PG, certainly compared to even as recently as QE last September in the Med. 

 

My wife is celiac with a strict gluten free diet and the PG maitre d' insisted on preparing her a proper tableside bananas foster as a treat and yes, we heard mumblings about how she scored that.  But desserts that were almost always prepared tableside like cherries jubilee... no more in PG.  The "PG is just about the same as QG except for the bigger cabin and the butler" mantra no longer applies.  It is, in fact, like Business Class vs. First Class on British Airways.  Still a good product and usually good value. 2022 alas is an ion away for many cruise or travel experiences in terms of what is provided. 

[NE John]

We had tableside carvings almost every night and plenty of flambéed desserts in PG on our TA this summer. 
So, is there a big difference in dining service in PG between QM2 and the Vista’s?

I ask because I am have Alaska booked next year on PG and this will be my first time in PG on QE. 
I thought the PG dining experience on QM2 was excellent. I would imagine the PG dining experience is uniform across the fleet.

[WantedOnVoyage]

On our 19-day cruise, I would estimate there were maybe three flambéed desserts in PG a night tops in the 7:45- 9:45 peak dining times and yes, with the extremely slow galley service, you really could spend two hours at dinner but they are surely worse ways to while away an evening.  When we did QM2 in Jan 22 and QE Sept 23, they were literally jostling for the flambée carts as in the old days.  Indeed, I remember when First Class on Cunard was 100 per cent tableside French service.  But when you order Cherries Jubilee, it just comes preplated so there is not even an option of tableside preparation. 

 

There appear to have been lots of changes across the fleet from mid August onwards in terms of what is offered and the general routine.  Including the reappearance of a few minor bath amenities at least in the Grills. At least on QV, something rather dramatic has occured with the real essential of service: the galley staff and even the bartenders.  There simply are not enough of them. Chart Room at peak hour offered a 15-min wait for a drink delivered after ordering. And the Grill Lounge was, if anything, worse. Commodore was a bit better but for some reason, we did not gravitate there this trip. By comparison, the Queen's Room was much better and is served by the casino bar.  Best bar on the ship in my opinion is the Yacht Club in terms of service turnaround and preparation. Even "silent disco" is tolerable with a negroni or two. 

 

"uniform experience across the fleet..." is not something I've seen with Cunard in many a year and if it exists, it might endure for a month or two. Or the duration of crew contracts. 

[ballroom-cruisers]

Yes the Queen's Room was serving quite nice cocktails compared to the past, and where previously it was nearly essential to go to the Commodore Club if you wanted a quality cocktail, it was nice to have a decent drink in the ballroom instead since we were not inspired by the resident pianist in the Commodore Club on this voyage. On the occasions where either the Walton Duo or the Amethyst Duo were playing and singing the music was rather nice though.

[tag1000]

The Stefan Batory!  Now that brings back memories.  Sailed on her as a kid from London to Montreal.   Bad storms, icebergs and sailing into Quebec City.  

[rakkor]

Our table in PG had Bananas Foster one night and the table next to us had something Flambeed on the last night, I know we just requested it at lunch, Jane was going to request Cherries Jubilee, but it turned out they were on the menu that night, so never bothered. 

[PurpleMoonlight]

I didn't enjoy the cruise at all. Some Cunard's fault, some mine.

 

The only positive for me, was the freshly made margherita pizza was one of the best pizza's I have ever eaten.

[david63]

7 minutes ago, PurpleMoonlight said:

I didn't enjoy the cruise at all. Some Cunard's fault, some mine.

Care to elaborate for the benefit of others?

[david,Mississauga]

18 hours ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

...  But when you order Cherries Jubilee, it just comes preplated so there is not even an option of tableside preparation. 

...

 

 

A year ago we had a week on the QM2 in Britannia Club. There was a flambéed dessert every night, including Cherries Jubilee on at least one of the nights. If that is gone from PG on the QE I fear it will be gone in the much cheaper Club on the QE and the QM2.