Queen Victoria Auckland- Sydney
Looking for travel back to a bygone era? Looking to experience decadence & old school luxury? Cunard cruises could be just what you are looking for.
Queen Victoria Auckland- Sydney 5 nts 23- 28 Feb 2019
As a Cruise focused Travel Consultant, I have been looking forward to experiencing a traditional cruise on a great Ocean liner. Queen Victoria certainly fits the bill, exuding style & tradition from a by-gone era. Having experienced many ships I wasn’t sure what to expect as I had heard stories of rude & snobby passengers big noting on their cabin class. Nothing could be further from the truth. True the majority of passengers are elderly( 70+) as expected on a World Cruise, but everyone was in such a state of relaxation I think any pretences were largely forgotten by now. In addition to elderly, were a large number of gay couples, often much younger male & female, seeking the finer points of cruising. Bottle of Moet anyone??
My journey started with a Qantas flight from Sydney To Auckland. Nothing great & poor inflight entertainment . I had prebooked Skybus from AKL airport. Great service at a great price of only $17.50 AKL$ . I had to fly in the night before & stayed at Quest Apts Ponsonby Road. An area with a feel of maybe Paddington in Sydney. Great bars, reastaurants & fashion shops. Quest was clean & comfortable but no free WiFi.
Embarkation: Bit of a delay as ship arrived late but had quick check-in & was on ship by 11.30am. Many passengers were disembarking after Southhampton to Auckland sector & many passengers boarding like us for the run across the ditch. Very good prices for those that want a short experience before committing to a longer voyage. No doubt many passengers joining the ship in Sydney for Hong Kong leg. On boarding the ship I was greeted by dapper uniformed Cunard crew.
Although a port day the ship was very quiet, but as I was to discover that was pretty normal. You would never believe there were over 2000 passengers & almost 1000 crew. On exploring the ship I was greeted with beautiful thick carpet, dark timber, marble & granite. With so many bars , little nooks & open space it’s easy for passengers to spread out. It is the first time I have seen all the promenade deck chairs regularly occupied with readers & sleepers.
Not so much class wars but you are either Brittania class( normal) Brittania Club( bit like concierge class) with separate beautiful small dining room or Grill class with own private dining room, courtyard & sundeck.
Activities: Nothing very active to do on ship unless you consider shuffleboard active. There is a half size tennis court. The pools though are large enough to do laps & are freshwater.
With only 5 kids onboard it was also easy to relax in a whirlpool spa.
Entertainment- In line with the demographic, music was from 20’s to 50’s . Piano & harp performance plus they had a great in-house big band with stylish lead singer. One feature we all found fascinating were the “ gentleman dancers”. These were elder gentlemen, in their 80’s, engaged by Cunard to sail on the ship purely to dance with any woman who had no partner to dance with. Some nights were very entertaining watching them swoop on their favourites.
Again with this demographic , they are very hungry for knowledge with a range of interesting speakers each day in the main theatre. We listened to a retired US Naval Rear Admiral talk about maritime stories & special guest speaker was Sir Tony Robinson from the original London stage production of Oliver, Baldrick from Black Adder & host for 20 years of BBC show, Time Team. Added to this educational cruise is a beautiful 2 story dark timber library complete with a spiral staircase & 2 librarians engaged to look after a huge range of books.
Disco- Almost non existent as DJ would (as is often the case on cruise ship’s) not gauge his passengers or respond to requests which meant there was no one in Yacht Club which doubled as disco except us TA’s on famil. We suspect we spoiled his nights as he had to keep playing music after 10pm.
Shows-Very traditional “old school” productions with a live band that many cruise lines have moved away from. Not my taste,but well done in a stunning theatre complete with Royal boxes in the wings.
Dining: Great menu & food quality in the MDR as you would expect. Many tables empty at times we dined but with a fantastic extensive Room service menu I’m sure if you had a good size balcony it would be amazing. Each dining areas has their own sommelier to advise on wines. The Lido buffet was fantastic with an everchanging menu everyday, plenty of Salmon & Tuna sashimi, NZ Green Lipped Mussels & Pasta station plus usual fare of hot dishes salads & dessert bar , always fresh. Never a line up & was always pretty easy to get a table or you could walk through to Lido deck for tables in the fresh air or order from the Pool Grill.
We also ate in the Golden Lion English pub, while nice was spoiled by trivia kicking off as we were served our meals.
The Verandah Steakhouse was very good, although no better than fine dining steakhouses on other ships.
High Tea- A very Cunard tradition performed each afternoon at 3.30pm & very popular. White tuxedoed waiters march out to the dance floor of the Queens room ballroom to applause & start serving a range of pastries, scones & of course cucumber sandwiches.
Crew: A ratio of 1:2 meant nothing was rushed, everything was very clean & any issues were sorted with a minimum of fuss from very courteous & happy crew. Never saw our cabin steward but he had the knack of spying when we were out & working his magic.
Cabins- Sadly ship was almost fully booked which meant we had an IE inside cabin. Totally fine for 5 nts but I would’nt want much longer. Not a huge amount of storage space for long voyages but they had added an extra storage drawer under each bed which helps. With the help of some other passengers we were able to view a deluxe inside-larger with table & chairs & a Balcony which was spacious & a good sized balcony you could stretch out on.
Casino- Very small with dated poker machines . Only one or 2 tables in operation out of roulette, blackjack, 3 card poker & 21.
Overview- Cunard offers a select type of sailing offering refined elegance for a traveller looking for a degree of nostalgia. Prices are quite reasonable for the standard of Luxury. US$ charged on board