GREAT SHIP, ROUGH SEAS

This was not our first cruise with Cunard, we had been with Queen Victoria before so knew we were in for a good cruise.

Embarkation at Southampton was lightning fast, they have certainly improved the process, very quick and easy.

We had a balcony room at the aft on the 6th deck. Good size, clean and an excellent cabin steward.

The public areas of QE were beautiful and always exceptionally clean. Could not fault the cleanliness of the ship anywhere the whole cruise.

The staff were very attentive, though I feel the evening dinner waiters were overwhelmed when it got really busy, and the wine waiter was hardly anywhere to be seen.

Which brings me to the wine! Ridiculously expensive prices! We all know that a business needs to make a profit but the mark up on the wine is taking the Michael. We hardly had any wine, and everyone else on our table thought the same.

Were meant to dock at Lanzarote but the seas were so rough the ship could not berth, so we sailed on to Gran Canaria and spent the night in port, which was a welcome surprise.

Madeira was wonderful, always is, a beautiful island, definitely worth a longer visit back.

La Coruna is a bit of a non entity really. You get the feeling it’s one of those stops just to say you stopped somewhere else.

This brings me on to the shore excursions. Don’t bother, the prices are astronomical and they are literally cashing in on the fact you don’t know the area. Do your research on google before you step aboard and you can do most of them yourself. Take Madeira for example. My Wife wanted to do the toboggan sleigh ride and the ship excursion was $89 each!! That’s about ?œ120!!

Now bear in mine you can walk to the cable car, get 2 one way tickets at 20 euros each, and it’s 30 euros for the toboggan ride!

So if you do it yourself it’s about ?œ35 as opposed to ?œ120.

The entertainment was very hit and miss. Whomever was doing the choreography needs to take a long hard look at the routines, very amateur. There were some great guest performances and the singers were exceptional, particularly the women.

Evening meal very good, but even here you notice the money saving.

The problem is, you expect more from Cunard. They should have the best entertainment, but they don’t. The best meals, but no better than any other ship. You always get the feeling they are milking the Cunard history cow. Charging for things that never used to be charged for. And no tea making facilities in the room annoyed everyone we spoke to. Health and safety my eye.

The bottom line is Queen Elizabeth is a truly beautiful ship and you get the ambience of Cunard, no doubt. The biggest let down is that you get the same prices and service on P&O. Cunard isn’t, as it would have you believe, any better than any other of the mainstream lines.

This is not to say it wasn’t a good cruise, it was, just not as good as Cunard would have you believe.