Colin_Cameron

So with the Commodore Club at roughly 20% capacity, both drinks orders took 25 mins to be served. And both times the dry martini arrived without the olives specifically ordered, and repeated by the waiter. We headed down to dinner at 8:20 and finally got into the dining room at 9:15. I'm stating these as facts, not as complaints. It's a maiden voyage. Stuff happens. But there are definitely some people that shouldn't book maiden voyages. Once we were at the table I'd say things were no slower than any other first night, maybe even better than most, but because of the late start that's us just out at 11:15.

With nearly half the ship in at dinner.

In the Commodore Club for our first martinis. First thing we noticed is no seats at the bar. Must be about double the seating capacity of the Vistas but with the same number of staff. The room is also completely flat so has a different feeling. Edit: Just been advised by @Solent Richard that there's no canapés. And won't be any !!!

Oops. That bottle was upright when I posted the pic. Boarding was OK. We had a short wait in the terminal as they had to suspend boarding while a container ship manouvered past QA. Someone mentioned a boutique hotel rather than ship feeling and there's certainly something about the lift lobbies that gives that impression. Not sure what it is. For the first hour and a half our cabin toilet wouldn't flush, but seems to be OK now. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a repeat of QV's maiden voyage. The lower hanging rail in the main wardrobe is too high to allow stuff on the upper rail to hang cleanly without draping over the lower rail but it's OK in the narrow one beside the bed. A total of 30 hangers (20+5+5) in this standard balcony cabin. On QV the full length mirror was inconveniently on the inside of the wardrobe door. They corrected this on QE by putting it on the outside of the wardrobe facing into the cabin. Having learnt that lesson where do you think they've put it on QA? Edit:I see these portrait photos have also turned sideways. Not sure if HH can do anything with them?

Look what we have!

Nope. I wish I had. It turned the last hour of the journey into two and a quarter hours. I didn't notice at the time how much longer (or shorter) she thought it would take. Because it was last minute, I was already in the left lane ready to take the exit, I assumed she had good reason, but who knows. Anyway, we're now in The Potters Heron, between Romsey and Chandler's Ford. Booked through Secret Escapes, and so far I'd recommend it for a night or two before a cruise. 23 mins from the Mayflower Terminal according to Google.

Our trip down to Southampton was going great until Sally Satnav decided at the last minute (literally as we approached the junction) that she didn't fancy the A34 after all and thought it would be much more fun to take the M40, M25 and M3 ... at rush hour!

But were the changes to the design the reason for the delay, the official line, or something they happily managed to achieve because of the delay, which is my belief.

Yes, sailed on her numerous times on the Clyde in the 60's when she was Queen Mary II. She's now back where she belongs and back to being just Queen Mary again.

Same here. But I have sailed on Queen Mary 2 AND Queen Mary II !😄

And as such didn't have a Cunard designation during her design/build. Yes, that's why I said 'or some other designation'. We were booked on that maiden voyage as well, but obviously that didn't happen. Q3 and Q4 were Cunard designations for 'the ship that never was' and QE2, QM2 was known as PQM or Project Queen Mary and I've just remembered that QA was (is?) Project Halifax. I've never been convinced by that, and said as much to a Cunard exec on QV's maiden voyage. I said that I thought the change and delay was less to do with the ship's suitability and more to do with Cunard not being ready for another new ship so soon after QM2. That got me a very big grin and "I couldn't possibly comment."

We've tried them all over the years but this time we're driving, with a couple of stops on the way, as we have Queen Anne's newest crew member travelling with us.🤫 More about them later.

I guess. I assume she stopped being Hull 6274 when she was handed over to Cunard but wondered if she should be Q8 or some other designation until the naming ceremony. It took me long enough to stop referring to QE2 as 'The New Queen'. 😀 Q1 Queen Mary Q2 Queen Elizabeth Q3 never built Q4 Queen Elizabeth 2 Q5 Queen Mary 2 Q6 Queen Victoria Q7 Queen Elizabeth Q8 Queen Anne

Well, obviously we're not there quite yet. But we leave home this morning to head to Southampton, which Google tells me is 670 miles. If anyone else on board wants to pitch in with their thoughts, observations or daily reports, feel free. It may be easier to find 'who said what' if it's all in one thread. Even with the four month delay this has been a shorter wait than in the past. QM2 Maiden was booked in '99 and QV in '01 (or '02, I'd need to dig out the paperwork). But it's going to be odd going on a ship that hasn't been named. Should we even be referring to her as "Queen Anne"?

This Quote from Cunard at least implies that 'Repatriation', and 'Emergency Evacuation' are not the same thing. "When travelling with us, your insurance must include medical and repatriation cover for not less than 2 million GBP minimum, including cover for emergency evacuations and full cover for pre-existing medical conditions in the countries you are due to visit." I read that as Repatriation being, as you said, from whatever hospital, in whatever country you were disembarked in, to a hospital in your home country. And Emergency Evacuation being from ship to shore. And Cunard require UK passengers to have insurance cover for both.