Queen Anne Northern Europe & Scandinavia — H416

[exlondoner]

5 minutes ago, MylesS said:

Hi all!

 

Sorry for the lack of updates, been super busy sorting things out back at home and enjoying the rest of the trip.

 

Tallinn was a wonderful little port, that I’m surprised we were able to dock in. It was very windy, so much that the ship rocking woke me up. We were even rocking once tied to the quayside.

 

Helsinki and Stockholm are both joint contenders for my favourite port this trip, both lovely to walk around and explore - made even better with lovely weather.

 

Docked in Kiel today, taking on a lot of new passengers. Lobbies full of suitcases! 
 

 

We are waitlisted to stay on, but as of Monday we were 8th “in line”, so I doubt we will get it. 
 

Here are some pictures I’ve taken over the past few days.

 

Slowly getting better at archery as the cruises go on.

 

On the way out to open sea from Stockholm.

 

Beautiful day in Stockholm. 

 

 

 

 

I do hope you manage to soar up the list. 
I think Stockholm is nicest of all, because of the wonderful lengthy departure between all the islands. Can delay dinner though.

[Mareblu]

12 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I do hope you manage to soar up the list. 
I think Stockholm is nicest of all, because of the wonderful lengthy departure between all the islands. Can delay dinner though.

Oh yes @exlondoner, that visually magnificent Stockholm Archipelago.  I would even miss a QG dinner for that mesmerising experience.

[exlondoner]

1 minute ago, Mareblu said:

Oh yes @exlondoner, that visually magnificent Stockholm Archipelago.  I would even miss a QG dinner for that mesmerising experience.

Well, I’m not sure I would go that far, but definitely arrive later than usual. Though, alas, on QA, you cannot even watch from the bar. 😀 I expect you were waiting for me to work that in. 😀

[gapiro]

On 7/1/2024 at 9:57 PM, exlondoner said:

Has any classical music appeared on QA? That is far more of a worry to me than having slightly fewer Gala Nights. I haven’t heard of most of the people mentioned above, but assume it’s pop music.

In terms of theatre evening bits

There has been a pair of tenors who sang a mix of standard operatic fare along with some modern stuff 

and a lady ‘Samantha Jay’ who is a violin/oboe/sax/pianist who did much the same thing - mostly popular classical and some odd sods of new things 

[gapiro]

On 7/6/2024 at 10:47 AM, Pushpit said:

Now I think about it, that was fairly clever. I was there during England's football game against Slovakia, which had a dramatic final 10 minutes. The noise level was pretty much correct around the pool and seating areas, due to the careful distribution of multiple loudspeakers, probably 2 dozen plus. Each loudspeaker therefore didn't need to be that loud, they only had a fairly small aural footprint. But as soon as you were away from that area, say by the Wellness Café upstairs on deck 10, the sound fell away. I remember being on deck 11 at the end of the match (I'm rugby not soccer) and I could hear the spectators on deck 9 cheering, but not hear the TV sound at all. So I knew the result from the passengers, not the TV. Anyway, the acoustics are well designed and managed, the sound does not boom everywhere.

As someone who does sound engineering etc as a side business , it’s been very impressive the gear and setup they’ve put in ship wide. It’s truly top of the range and good stuff. Even avioms for the queens room band. 

[exlondoner]

3 minutes ago, gapiro said:

In terms of theatre evening bits

There has been a pair of tenors who sang a mix of standard operatic fare along with some modern stuff 

and a lady ‘Samantha Jay’ who is a violin/oboe/sax/pianist who did much the same thing - mostly popular classical and some odd sods of new things 

That’s encouraging.

[gapiro]

33 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I do hope you manage to soar up the list. 
I think Stockholm is nicest of all, because of the wonderful lengthy departure between all the islands. Can delay dinner though.

We skipped all evening activities just to sit on the balcony and watch 

IMG_1796.heic IMG_1810.heic

[Mareblu]

39 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Well, I’m not sure I would go that far, but definitely arrive later than usual. Though, alas, on QA, you cannot even watch from the bar. 😀 I expect you were waiting for me to work that in. 😀

Ah, but we were fortunate to have enjoyed sailing in Oceania Sirena’s Vista Suite in 2022, with its expansive bow balcony.  No need for a lounge view after that.  I simply couldn’t drag myself away.  We sailed so close to many of the myriad islands, we felt we could stretch our arms and touch the leaves in the trees, and tap on the doors of the traditional homes.

Edited July 11 by Mareblu

[Pear Carr]

Thank you all for the updates - love the sail into/out of Stockholm and we were very fortunate to be in an aft Q5 on our QV cruise.  Keeping everything crossed for you Myles and hope to see you on board next week!

[MylesS]

4 minutes ago, Pear Carr said:

Keeping everything crossed for you Myles and hope to see you on board next week!

Thank you! I’d ask to use your wardrobe, but you’d then have no space for any clothes 🤣

[D&N]

1 hour ago, Mareblu said:

Oh yes @exlondoner, that visually magnificent Stockholm Archipelago.  I would even miss a QG dinner for that mesmerising experience.

Well we certainly didn't. We were only two nights on a Silja Serenade ferry mini cruise and there were four or five restaurants on board. Plus our meal was followed by dancing.

In our book it's very much activities first, views second.

[MylesS]

We were lucky as we’d started to leave while we were nearing the end of our dinner, after which we spent time sat with a front row seat in the Carinthia Lounge.
 

The ship hasn’t felt at all busy in the evenings during 1st sitting, some places virtually empty. 

[Shingles Mark]

Did you notice any signs of Covid or norovirus on this cruise ? My neighbours and their friends all came back with Covid after a princess round GB cruise last week ? I’m joining QA on Sunday to Iceland.

Mark

[S1971]

17 hours ago, Mareblu said:

But seriously, our difference re Grills Lounge aside, this was obviously a light-hearted review of an entirely different vessel.

 

Clearly on the same vessel, just having a different experience.

 

Some of the things mentioned by @canoncruiser are consistent with the reviews on various boards.

[Victoria2]

On 7/7/2024 at 5:45 PM, canoncruiser said:

Hi all,

 

I am on Queen Anne in Estonia. My overall impressions-Ship design and appearance-MEH; general arrangement- peculiar; interior decor inconsistent; service levels-uneven; food quality-obvious quality cutbacks, portion diminishment, variety not great; maintenance - good; crew-still settling in-many clearly not happy and many experienced members prefer other ships in the Cunard fleet. The new sommelier uniforms -bizarre. Cunard strained, spent and stressed for four long years and brought forth a formulaic ‘cruise ship’. A Cunarder by funnel color and name only.

 

Actually, I agree with quite a lot of this but from a different viewpoint. We found the food quality and portion size absolutely fine but then I'm quite happy to do an Oliver Twist and I dine QG where the quality has most certainly been maintained,

 

We recognise Annie is totally different from her sisters and we wouldn't be sailing with her if the Vistas were in town.We will get used to her but she is most certainly different and I can understand why regular Cunard passengers might be dismayed by her but just because she's a new era of Cunard, she's still Cunard with Cunard service and attributes.

 

We didn't come across any unhappy staff or if we did, their miles of smiles hid their distress well but just as we don't want to jump ship from the Vistas, I can well believe staff feel the same but like us, will get used to the new.

 

We felt on the second cruise, because of snags,  we were shake downers but most of those snags were snagable and we're looking forward to travelling with Annie on a non shake downer and will objectively report back our findings. 🙂

[buchanan101]

19 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Well, I’m not sure I would go that far, but definitely arrive later than usual. Though, alas, on QA, you cannot even watch from the bar. 😀 I expect you were waiting for me to work that in. 😀

There are several bars not just “the bar”…

[buchanan101]

@Victoria2 agree about portion size. I’d suggest there’d be a lot of waste if portions were bigger as with “free” food 4 times a day plus other food whenever you want it just about I can’t see why portion sizes should be bigger. 
 

I’ve only been on QM2 and QA and liked both. The service is the same (no problems at all two weeks ago). I don’t think the choice of ship will determine my choice of Cunard cruise now. Be quite happy on all 4 I think. Have booked a QM2 New England cruise and thinking QE Alaska. But the destinations + Cunard is the deciding factor (QE will be interesting to see the difference). Not keen on Med cruises (going to Rome for example a few hours is no good) so may not experience QV. 

[exlondoner]

10 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

@Victoria2 agree about portion size. I’d suggest there’d be a lot of waste if portions were bigger as with “free” food 4 times a day plus other food whenever you want it just about I can’t see why portion sizes should be bigger. 
 

I’ve only been on QM2 and QA and liked both. The service is the same (no problems at all two weeks ago). I don’t think the choice of ship will determine my choice of Cunard cruise now. Be quite happy on all 4 I think. Have booked a QM2 New England cruise and thinking QE Alaska. But the destinations + Cunard is the deciding factor (QE will be interesting to see the difference). Not keen on Med cruises (going to Rome for example a few hours is no good) so may not experience QV. 

 

I agree a Med. cruise is a ludicrous way to go to Rome, and the city is often very hot. But it is a lovely day to stay on the ship. And they often offer a gentle half day wine trip, with a short and pleasant drive through pretty countryside and some nice food and wine to taste. That can be much more agreeable.

[Mareblu]

21 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

I agree a Med. cruise is a ludicrous way to go to Rome, and the city is often very hot. But it is a lovely day to stay on the ship. And they often offer a gentle half day wine trip, with a short and pleasant drive through pretty countryside and some nice food and wine to taste. That can be much more agreeable.

Another lovely destination from Civitavecchia (Rome’s port) is Orvieto, via a charming scenic drive of about 100ks.  Orvieto’s duomo (cathedral) is a treasure trove of luminous paintings and intricate sculptures, and the town centre offers, as would be expected, some traditional eateries with delicious fare, and the shopping is great, too.

[Victoria2]

1 hour ago, buchanan101 said:

There are several bars not just “the bar”…

but only one Grills bar and that was the focus of the  comment.

[MylesS]

Today is off to a great start! With the help of Chris over the last week and especially yesterday, we’ve managed to extend to continue onto Iceland! 
 

Otherwise a wet and grey day in the North Sea as we make our way back to Southampton. But the confirmation has made my day.

 

I’ve decided to dedicate tomorrow morning to laundry, as I can’t imagine too many people will be using the facilities.

 

This will definitely be our last extension however, given after Iceland Queen Anne is going back to the Med, Fjords, and Northern Europe respectively. Along with that, I’ve heard Gregg Wallace will be onboard, whose fan I am not the biggest of (Am I that petty?)

[Host Hattie]

Congratulations 

[MylesS]

As well I just wanted to report there’s been a much younger crowd this cruise, I’d argue many like us in their twenties, some maybe 30s.

 

This could be due to this cruise being 3 segments, the 2 nighter to Hamburg, 9 night from Hamburg to Kiel, and now 3 nighter back to Southampton from Kiel.

 

I haven’t heard much in the way of negativity from guests on the cruise, so I think if this is the clientele Cunard wants to attract with Queen Anne, it might just work! 

[alc13]

3 hours ago, MylesS said:

As well I just wanted to report there’s been a much younger crowd this cruise, I’d argue many like us in their twenties, some maybe 30s.

 

This could be due to this cruise being 3 segments, the 2 nighter to Hamburg, 9 night from Hamburg to Kiel, and now 3 nighter back to Southampton from Kiel.

 

I haven’t heard much in the way of negativity from guests on the cruise, so I think if this is the clientele Cunard wants to attract with Queen Anne, it might just work! 

But are they okay with the QG lounge?

[Mareblu]

11 minutes ago, alc13 said:

But are they okay with the QG lounge?

🙄