2024 was a busy year for Cunard. In the Spring they launched Queen Anne, the 249 Cunard ship to enter service and the fourth Cunard Queen currently sailing. At 1,058 feet it is slightly shorter than the flagship Queen Mary 2 and 100 feet longer than the Queen Victoria. She carries almost 3,000 passengers, about 1,000 more than Queen Victoria and 300 more than the QM2. What is the experience like?
Cunard has a great “product,” the transatlantic crossing. It delivers a level of elegance and sophistication that keeps passengers loyal over decades. Each voyage they recognize the most travelled passenger onboard. People who have sailed 1,000+ nights or enjoyed multiple world voyages are routine. People dress for dinner on formal nights and look almost as smart on most other evenings in lounges around the ship or in dining rooms. Back to the question, what is the experience like?
A Transatlantic Cruise
On Thursday, January 9th my wife and I boarded the Queen Anne in Southampton for a nine-night voyage to New York. This was Queen Anne’s maiden transatlantic voyage and the start of her 111- night world cruise. (Anecdotally I learned, of the 3,000 passengers, almost half were booked for most or all of the 111-night world voyage.
Sometimes, it’s the little details that count. We booked the Heathrow to Southampton transfer offered by Cunard. You clear Customs and Immigration at Heathrow, enter the Arrivals area, spot the Cunard rep, follow them to a bus and you are off to Southampton. Once at the ship, you don’t touch your luggage. Staff loads it onto the ship and it appears at your cabin door. Boarding was the smoothest we have ever experienced in about 20+ voyages.
We booked a balcony stateroom, which was located towards the bow on Deck 4. The stateroom was great, the location was not. Lets start with the positives. We had cabin 4003 and the balcony was enormous! I am guessing it was 10×10 feet. OK, so you don’t need a balcony in January crossing the Atlantic, but it was big. The cabins are about 236 square feet. I found we had plenty of storage space. On other Cunard ships, bathrooms have shower curtains. Queen Anne has large glass walled showers. Now for the negatives. Our cabin was one away from the front of the ship, a steel door leading to a crew section. In rough weather the cabin rocked and the booming sounds from the waves were quite loud. Talk with your travel agent about getting a midships cabin.
On our previous voyage in the Spring, we booked an inside cabin on Queen Anne. It was small – About 148 square feet. The other Queens seem to have more space in those inside cabins. However, once you step outside your cabin door, everyone is treated with the same respect by the ship’s staff.
Uniformly High Quality Dining
What is the food like? Thinking about the flagship Queen Mary 2, I estimate 87% of the ship is Brittania Class and the balance is Princess and Queens Grill, with their own dedicated dining rooms, deck space and cocktail lounge. We sailed in the Princess Grill category once, the balance of our trips have been in Brittania class. If you are among the 87% of us in Brittania, you are dining in – The Brittania Dining Room. I have found the food to be of uniformly high quality. Over the years you might see less steak or lobster than in previous years, but the food is good, second portions are available, and the white glove service is excellent. If you want to step up to bigger steaks or try other cuisines, there are four specialty restaurants with surcharges and reservations.
Expect To Dress Up
When you sail with Cunard, expect to dress up in the evenings. At 6:00 PM, passengers are expected to look smart in the public areas and restaurants. If you like dressing down, the Artesian Food Hall, (aka the buffet restaurant on Deck 9) is your venue. Expect a couple of formal nights where many people are in black tie, gowns or national dress.
National dress? What’s that all about? When you sail on a Cunard ship (like Queen Anne) you might find Americans are in the minority. Often the largest segment of the passengers are British, then Americans, Canadians and perhaps Germans. Years ago, they used to announce the nationalities and numbers, but that wasn’t done on the Queen Anne.
The ship might carry 3,000 passengers, but it does not feel crowded. You will prove me wrong if you arrive late for a popular show in the theater. The ship has a huge glass covered pool area on Deck 9. It is called the Pavillion and is a great place to hang out at any hour. It has a drive in sized screen, which they use for movies where you wear wireless headphones to enjoy the sound.
Will you be bored?
Will you be bored? Our transatlantic crossing was nine nights. It was supposed to be eight with an overnight in New York, but weather forced us to (try to) steer around storms. We arrived on Saturday instead of Friday, but the ship was still on schedule for the World Cruise. The Queen Anne had a series of Cunard Insights lectures, but they also had plenty of other activities on our voyage. They had a Improv group that performed three shows and held two Improv workshops. The ship offered daily Spanish lessons! There was an eight-session creative writing class! If I sat down with a pen and paper, I could list fifty activities you could be doing on the voyage. My favorite is the wine and food pairing lunch. It’s over two hours long, features four courses and seven wines and ran $80/head all inclusive. I book this the moment we step onboard, because it can get sold out early.
What about drinks? I am a wine fan. The fine print lets you know you can bring a special bottle of wine from home if you choose. (2 people = 2 bottles.) The only restrictions are it cannot be opened in public areas – Only your cabin or a restaurant. The other restriction is they charge a corkage fee in the restaurant, $25 as I recall.
Cunard’s Drink Package
Cunard offers a drinks package, but I am not a fan, preferring to buy them one at a time. There are restrictions, like both occupants in the cabin need to purchase the package. You might not feel like drinking every day, but you are paying for it. Their wine list is very large and there are plenty of good values between the pages. You can find lots of bottles below $50 (or even $40) on the list. In Manhattan, if I can find a bottle at $70 or under, I count myself lucky.
What were the high points of our trip? The larger than expected balcony cabin. The food and wine pairing lunch. The time we spent on a sofa in The Pavillion, because the motion of the ocean is less apparent midships.
Were their low points? The motion of the ocean. If you are sailing out of England and there is a storm between you and New York, chances are you will hit at least part of it. That was the big negative.
Would we do it again? If we are crossing the Atlantic Ocean, The Queen Mary 2 ias my first choice. Why? Because it is an ocean liner. The Queen Anne would have been fine if the seas were calmer, but you never know.
