Queen Victoria is a Beautiful Ship!

The Queen Victoria is one of only three of the majestic ships in Cunard's elegant fleet. Built in 2007, she accommodates 2000 passengers, was captained by the first ever female Capt. in Cunard's history, and took us on a 16-day journey that was a combination of an 8-day European cruise and an 8-day transatlantic crossing.

Known for its beautiful public spaces that are elegantly decorated in tasteful Victorian-Era style, the QV contains a sumptuous, several deck Grand Lobby; a large ballroom, known as the Queens Room, where live bands play while guests ballroom dance; a large Royal Arcade shopping area; and the impressive Royal Court theatre. Of course, there are cozy bars and pubs galore. Overall, as important as history is in creating a certain elegant ambience onboard, what makes it all work is that Cunard has successfully fused heritage with modernity.

Here are some of the characteristics of our journey that I found especially appealing along with some observations and comments:

We felt the service was excellent.

The ship is extremely elegant.

We went to afternoon tea (complete wih scones, watercress sandwiches, and petits fours) every day at 3:30PM in the Queens ballroom. There was live music with a string quartet, a pianist, or a harpist. The waiters wore white gloves.

The chocoholic buffet was first class all the way: in addition to a diverse variety of chocolate delights, they had a sushi bar, cheese bar, cold cut bar, fruit bar, and other appetizers bar. They prepared made-to-order crepes, flambéed desserts, fondues (milk, dark and white choc fondue), and several premium liqueurs: Baileys, Kahlua, Grand Marnier, Frangelico and more.

The balcony rooms are ample in size.

Everyone was so “civilized” no one ever got loud. We even joined a “very orderly and proper” conga line one night. Even the casino was as quiet as a mouse.

We never had to wait in lines. We never felt it was crowded--ever. There were times when we would walk around the ships and see entire rooms (public areas, bars etc.) that had no people in them.

The passengers were 80% British.

Many venues shut down early, at about 10:30. This is likely in response to a demographically older clientele.

We had the good fortune of being on probably the only 16-day cruise in history with no children.

I found the food to be average – hit or miss. Here are 2 comments posted by other passengers:

The food was not up to the standards that most Americans expect. It was geared to British people. Very bland, boring, and non-descript.

The only disappointment was with the food. We had heard while on a previous cruise from at least one individual that the food on Cunard was not "good" - when compared to Holland America Cunard's food was definitely not as good.

Once it was discovered Joel had some food restrictions/preferences etc., the head waiter (Joachim) came every night to give us a copy of the next evening’s dinner menu as well as a vegetarian menu from which we could choose. Both he and our waiter went the extra mile to give excellent service. My waiter even squeezed my lemon (with a neat fork and spoon method) and removed my shrimp from the skewer! At the end of each meal, they brought truffles and carmelized ginger to our table.

The grand, choreographed, gala shows were fabulous, the comedians were entertaining, and as the various bands and musicians around the ship were great.

Composition of our dinner table of 10 was 7 British, 1 Canadian, and 2 American.

Along with 15 other guests, I performed in a fashion show on our 6th sea day.

There were great historians and enrichment speakers: Captain Howard Deck; and Professor Simon Newman were particularly outstanding. The virtual tour of the bridge conducted by ship’s officers was quite impressive.

A live band played every night (the Queens "ballroom tempo band" played 15 out of the 16 nights) additionally the ship's orchestra (the Royal Court Orchestra) accompanied this band for two nights of "big band music".

In keeping with Cunard tradition, evenings on the ship are quite formal. Specifically there were five formal nights, four semi-formal nights, and seven “elegant casual” nights. Gentleman must wear a jacket every single night to dinner in the main dining room and they request that the dress code be observed ship-wide after 6 PM, every night. I must admit that everyone looked elegant dressed in traditional formal attire each evening. It was nice to glide through the lounges, restaurants, and other public spaces dressed in our dinner finest.

The norovirus precautions really negatively altered our experience the first 5 days. Yet, they might have been effective; we are happy we didn’t catch it.

Days 1-5: SERIOUS NORO-VIRUS (ship infection) precautions DOMINATED the 1st third of the trip. We were hyper-washing our hands, avoiding touching surfaces—even bannisters, avoiding touching people. The captain even postponed captain’s ball because she wanted (needed) to avoid people. They made us hand sanitize everywhere we went. They encouraged us not to use public restrooms. All items were removed from tables in restaurants and they even stopped serving in the Golden Lion pub. The Lido buffet was all wrapped up and we could not touch ANYTHING. Merchandise was not out and available to touch in shops and daily “bazaars”. I couldn’t go into perfume shop and spray on my cologne daily. There were warning signs everywhere—even on bannisters, warning us not to touch.

There were full amenities/toiletries in bathrooms.

The ship’s photography services were not assertive enough.

Here are some of the activities in which I engaged: attended lots of lectures on everything from ports of call, to the history of the Olympics, to ancient Greece; ballroom dance lessons and line dance classes every day; drama class; Photoshop classes; watched fun contests by the pool, watched dancing and singing contests, went to sail away parties, took shore excursions to Olympia Greece and Gibraltar; a murder mystery show; participated in a fashion show; breakfast out on deck; daily afternnon tea with scones, masquerade ball, room service breakfast often; and many more….(Didn’t do spa or fitness or sunbathing this cruise).

We gained and hour many days as we crossed from East to West. The gift of an extra hour is always a real treat.

Overall, it was a relaxing and invigorating experience with rich delights for the mind and body!

Gibraltar-A bit of the UK at the tip of Spain

As we pulled into this unique Mediterranean port with its imposing rock, we could see it faces Spain instead of the straight of Gibraltar. Although Gibraltar is a British Crown colony, geographically, it’s an isthmus of Spain—connected by strict customs houses. The history between the two nations’ claims includes Queen Isabella Spain willing it to Spain for life in 1540 and her descendent, Phillip V, handing it over to Britain in 1713. Over the years, Spain has attempted to retake Gibraltar—the strongest in a series of bloody sieges that began in 1779. During Franco’s regime, in 1969, he punished (Britain) Gibraltar by closing the border and cutting off telephone communication for 13 years. It seems The UK will never return Gibraltar to Spain because as recently as 2002, Gibraltar citizens voted to remain British—they FEEL British-not Spanish.

Here are some reflections and tidbits I learned:

Cable Car Ride Up The Rock
From atop the Gibraltar rock, we saw breathtaking views of Gibraltar, the straights, and you can see Morocco and Spain. There is such a thin line between Britain and Spain and the borderline is visible from atop the rock. Many Gibraltans cross the border to purchase lower priced groceries and household supplies.

Barbary Apes
A tail-less species of monkeys called the Barbary Macaques are the only free living wild monkeys in Europe. They are taken care of by the Gibraltar government and live throughout the nature preserve. There are numerous severe warnings posted guarding against feeding the apes; a 500 pound fine is imposed for such violations. They appear happy, fun-loving, and playful. We were also warned to guard our possessions as they like to grab objects.

Great Siege Tunnels
We toured the amazing man-made tunnels hewn out of rock with sledgehammers, gunpowder, and sheer muscle-power. The final additions were made during WWII serving as barracks, kitchens, and hospitals.

Gibraltar is very British.
The streets are lined with English-speaking pubs, fish and chips restaurants, helmeted bobbies, pillar boxes, and British department stores.

Gibraltar is multi-cultural
One of the main features of Gibraltar’s population is the diversity of their ethnic origins. The demographics of Gibraltar reflects Gibraltarians' racial and cultural fusion of the many European and other economic migrants who came to the Rock over three hundred years, after almost all of the Spanish population left in 1704.

The main ethnic groups, according to the origin of names in the electoral roll, are Britons (27%), Spanish (26%, mostly Andalusians but also some 2% of Minorcans), Genoese and other Italians (19%), Portuguese (11%), Maltese (8%), and Jews (3%). There is a large diversity of other groups such as Moroccans, Indians, French, Austrians, Chinese, Japanese, Polish and Danish.

The Gibraltar Census 2001 recorded the breakdown of nationalities in Gibraltar as being 83.22% Gibraltarian, 9.56% "Other British", 3.50% Moroccan, 1.19% Spanish and 1.00% "Other EU".

Residents hail from Gibraltar, The U.K., Spain, Morocco, Italy, India and many other nations. A tapestry of culturally diverse restaurants, bazaars, and neighbors are scattered throughout.