WorldTraveller5000

New washing machines and dryers on each deck. smaller and quieter. new carpets in many areas such as Lido (same pattern) and Commodore club and corridor leading to Commodore club (new pattern and look); reupholstered furniture in Commodore Club. Grill's Terrace between Grills' restaurants has been redesigned with the italianate fountain removed entirely and replaced by a wall of (plastic?) greenery, and the Victoriana lamps on the terrace replaced by modern led uprights. Pavilion Pool lighting enhanced with LED floodlights adding to the incandescent fittings that are still there, changing the deck from a dark area to one that's quite usable at night. hull cleaned and repainted. fresh look looks stunning. MUCH quieter engines/tuning. whatever they fixed the ship has gone from creeky and loud to very quiet running; a huge improvement for sleep and often forget we're at sea. A pianola/disklavier in the grand lobby replaces one musician (sadly; but performance it gives is excellence)

Hi, Crew in the know that were aboard (22 Dec 22-5 Jan 23) mentioned it was a minor refresh. a drydock for 2 weeks in Singapore (18/3-2/4) for a thorough hull clean, inspection and repaint. An overdue maintenance issue that has seen QE cancel several ports recently (Dunedin/Bay of Islands/Fjordlands and some Australian ports) due to biofoul (mussels, foliose, oysters, algae, hydroids, sponges, tunicates, crabs, and starfish) damaging delicate ecosystems.They have had several attempts to clean it during her Australian homebase season, but to no avail. There will also be a little maintenance of a few engineering systems. Certainly not a major refit planned. There is a possibility that they will use the time to do some TLC around the ship; hopefully the changeroom showers mosaic floors can finally be retiled (been loose for about 5 years now...), some deep (steam) cleaning of stateroom carpets, replacement of any worn out mattresses/pillows etc.I'm boarding the day after the refit and will check in this page again then (3 April) and advise if anything else noticed. I would love to know when the real refit/remastering is planned, as QE is beginning to look a bit dowdy after her sister Queen Victoria major refit ~2017 that saw the magnificent new aft cabins decked out in rich timber colours and beautiful new furnishings, as well as QVs winter garden and Lido pool deck that are now far superior to QE (in my opinion). I'm guessing the remaster probably won't happen until after Queen Anne launches though, so maybe in 2025 sometime...

Any like minded G&L cruises on this sector? Depending on how the Commodore Club daily social get together is, we may host a suite party along the way.