Queen Elizabeth is a lovely ship I will be sailing on her in January from Sydney we have sailed on her before we have done many cruiser but love Cunards tradition.
I'm so sorry you found the food in the Britannia rather mediocre. I boarded the Queen Elizabeth on August 20 of this year, and dined in the Britannia every night at a group table of six. I found the food delicious and well-prepared. The service by our waiter, dining steward, and wine steward was attentive and timely. The wine list was good, and I enjoyed wine every night. Occasionally, I requested more than one entree, or an extra portion of a given item. Our waiter always cheerfully accommodated me in these requests. As for the printed menu, I asked the waiter detailed questions if necessary about the entrees before making my selection. He cheerfully answered any question I had. Even though I enjoyed my voyage on this beautiful ship, I will not book one again. Here's why...no ice machine was working in the Lido for the entire 16 days I was on the ship. Large plastic bins of ice with a large spoon in each one were the "ice machines" for us. Unsanitary. Many tables in the Lido had no salt and pepper shakers. I had to go find a set most of the time. The beverage glasses provided in the Lido were too small. Room service meals are not delivered with salt and pepper. This is Cunard policy, which is just bizarre in my opinion. Most of the time there was no librarian on duty in the library and there was never a sign displayed informing me what time the librarian would arrive. So I just took the books without worrying about checking them out. I always returned them within two days. The Britannia was way too warm for comfort. My dining companions agreed with me on this point. I complained about the temperature to the maitre'd several times. The answer was always "the temperature is controlled at a central control station on the ship. I cannot do anything about it." On one Gala Night, I finally had to resort to taking off my tuxedo jacket and my tie 20 minutes after being seated at our table. It was too hot! I'm glad I sailed on this ship. It is a truly beautiful one. But I won't do it again.
Thank you for the great information! We sailed on Ovation to Alaska a couple years ago and are excited to return. I am thinking about a different cruise line this time. The itinerary sounded fantastic. I appreciate you sharing all the details about your trip.
You are very welcome, I am happy you found it helpful! I also did a full ship tour if you haven't seen it already the link is below: ua-cam.com/video/bAkNK5Kgmug/v-deo.html
We did a trans Atlantic crossing from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona…food was amazing….our room was a penthouse which was very spacious…..our laundry only took a day.
That's awesome, sounds like you had fun! I am not surprised that if your room was a penthouse that the laundry took 1 day. You probably had higher priority than we did with an ocean view.
Great review - very informative and well presented. My wife and I are looking at the Alaska cruise in late 2025 and are considering booking a Queens Grill Penthouse suite mainly to have a little bit more room and access to the Queens Grill restaurant where we will have a dedicated table, and hopefully better food, but you never know. Friends of ours did this cruise last year and made similar remarks about some of their fellow passengers, especially when it came to eating at the buffet. Do you have any info on the Queens Grill experience??
I do not have any personal experience with the Queens Grill experience, but I did talk to other passengers that were at that level of experience and they did like it. They did say that it had come down a bit from what is used to be before covid but it was still good. The people I spoke with had both done multiple Cunard World cruises and had the highest status possible on Cunard so they had a lot of experience with the Queens Grill on all of the Cunard ships. I hope this is helpful! Checkout the Alaska Packing list I made at this link to make sure you get everything you want to take with: skillfulamateur.com/what-to-pack-when-going-on-an-alaskan-cruise/
You're welcome! We flew in the day before to play it safe so we wouldn't miss the ship if there were any delays. Check out packing list recommendations I put together here: skillfulamateur.com/what-to-pack-when-going-on-an-alaskan-cruise/
We did think it would be common sense to have good manners, but evidentially all the passengers that were not from the US, UK or Canada did not get that memo. That part was pretty disappointing and not what we were expecting.
@@skillfulamateur We were on that cruise July 17th 2023 10 nights and 80% of the passengers were Asian (Chinese) from Vancouver. Lack of good manners is evident all over these days and not exclusive to Cunard.
@@skillfulamateur Guys, you know what's in a dish and how its prepared and served from its name. If you don't know what it is, you ask the waiter "What is Coq au Vin?" or whatever it is.
A poor effort. All North American reviewers both with cruises and airlines are best just followed by their countrymen. The concept of food and simple menus is beyond them….just not enough barbequed smoked brisket hey fellows? Not that you need more.
Considering that I am South African and my friend is Romanian I would say that statement is not accurate. It does not matter where you are from, good food is good food and for the most part they did not have it. We tried a variety of items from the menu and were left mostly disappointed
Great video!
Great information
Queen Elizabeth is a lovely ship I will be sailing on her in January from Sydney we have sailed on her before we have done many cruiser but love Cunards tradition.
That is awesome, hope you enjoy your upcoming cruise!
I'm so sorry you found the food in the Britannia rather mediocre. I boarded the Queen Elizabeth on August 20 of this year, and dined in the Britannia every night at a group table of six. I found the food delicious and well-prepared. The service by our waiter, dining steward, and wine steward was attentive and timely. The wine list was good, and I enjoyed wine every night. Occasionally, I requested more than one entree, or an extra portion of a given item. Our waiter always cheerfully accommodated me in these requests. As for the printed menu, I asked the waiter detailed questions if necessary about the entrees before making my selection. He cheerfully answered any question I had.
Even though I enjoyed my voyage on this beautiful ship, I will not book one again. Here's why...no ice machine was working in the Lido for the entire 16 days I was on the ship. Large plastic bins of ice with a large spoon in each one were the "ice machines" for us. Unsanitary. Many tables in the Lido had no salt and pepper shakers. I had to go find a set most of the time. The beverage glasses provided in the Lido were too small. Room service meals are not delivered with salt and pepper. This is Cunard policy, which is just bizarre in my opinion. Most of the time there was no librarian on duty in the library and there was never a sign displayed informing me what time the librarian would arrive. So I just took the books without worrying about checking them out. I always returned them within two days. The Britannia was way too warm for comfort. My dining companions agreed with me on this point. I complained about the temperature to the maitre'd several times. The answer was always "the temperature is controlled at a central control station on the ship. I cannot do anything about it." On one Gala Night, I finally had to resort to taking off my tuxedo jacket and my tie 20 minutes after being seated at our table. It was too hot!
I'm glad I sailed on this ship. It is a truly beautiful one. But I won't do it again.
Thank you for the great information! We sailed on Ovation to Alaska a couple years ago and are excited to return. I am thinking about a different cruise line this time. The itinerary sounded fantastic. I appreciate you sharing all the details about your trip.
You are very welcome, I am happy you found it helpful!
I also did a full ship tour if you haven't seen it already the link is below:
ua-cam.com/video/bAkNK5Kgmug/v-deo.html
Good overview , enjoyed your opinions
We did a trans Atlantic crossing from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona…food was amazing….our room was a penthouse which was very spacious…..our laundry only took a day.
That's awesome, sounds like you had fun! I am not surprised that if your room was a penthouse that the laundry took 1 day. You probably had higher priority than we did with an ocean view.
Awesome
Good video!
Sounds horrendous!! I know now that a Cunard cruise would not be for me, so thanks for sharing.
You're welcome, just wanted to share our unfiltered thoughts!
Thanks. I will take a hard pass and go Holland America. The food is important to me although i think the ambiance is spectacular.
Great review - very informative and well presented. My wife and I are looking at the Alaska cruise in late 2025 and are considering booking a Queens Grill Penthouse suite mainly to have a little bit more room and access to the Queens Grill restaurant where we will have a dedicated table, and hopefully better food, but you never know. Friends of ours did this cruise last year and made similar remarks about some of their fellow passengers, especially when it came to eating at the buffet. Do you have any info on the Queens Grill experience??
I do not have any personal experience with the Queens Grill experience, but I did talk to other passengers that were at that level of experience and they did like it. They did say that it had come down a bit from what is used to be before covid but it was still good. The people I spoke with had both done multiple Cunard World cruises and had the highest status possible on Cunard so they had a lot of experience with the Queens Grill on all of the Cunard ships. I hope this is helpful!
Checkout the Alaska Packing list I made at this link to make sure you get everything you want to take with: skillfulamateur.com/what-to-pack-when-going-on-an-alaskan-cruise/
Thanks for that
Different planet. Different galaxy.
Thank you for your thorough review. We are considering this cruise for August. Did you fly into Vancouver the day before or the day of embarkation?
You're welcome! We flew in the day before to play it safe so we wouldn't miss the ship if there were any delays.
Check out packing list recommendations I put together here: skillfulamateur.com/what-to-pack-when-going-on-an-alaskan-cruise/
Its not just higher class , it’s common sense to have good manners. And that’s not exclusively Brits. Please … bit rude .
We did think it would be common sense to have good manners, but evidentially all the passengers that were not from the US, UK or Canada did not get that memo. That part was pretty disappointing and not what we were expecting.
@@skillfulamateur We were on that cruise July 17th 2023 10 nights and 80% of the passengers were Asian (Chinese) from Vancouver. Lack of good manners is evident all over these days and not exclusive to Cunard.
@@dcarless1953 Nice so you felt our pain firsthand then!
These two are like younger versions of Statler and Waldorf, whinge whinge whinge.
You two come across as very unsophisticated. Poorly informed review.
Thank you for your feedback, I am open to suggestions so what would you recommend?
@@skillfulamateur Guys, you know what's in a dish and how its prepared and served from its name. If you don't know what it is, you ask the waiter "What is Coq au Vin?" or whatever it is.
A poor effort. All North American reviewers both with cruises and airlines are best just followed by their countrymen. The concept of food and simple menus is beyond them….just not enough barbequed smoked brisket hey fellows? Not that you need more.
Considering that I am South African and my friend is Romanian I would say that statement is not accurate. It does not matter where you are from, good food is good food and for the most part they did not have it. We tried a variety of items from the menu and were left mostly disappointed