Cunard in the summer holidays

Hi all,

we usually avoid school holidays when planning our holidays. However this year i have a "special" birthday at the beginning of august.

We are thinking of a med cruise from Southampton on the Queen Elizabeth.

Has anyone else cruised with Cunard in the school summer holidays and if so how was your experience? All as normal or more busy and noisy than usual?

Thank you for sharing your experiences

We went on Queen Victoria last year at the beginning of the school holidays. It got a bit frustrating when we wanted to swim as a group of 10 - 12 year olds tended to take over the lido pool in the afternoons. Other than that it didn't feel crowded and it wasn't noticibly noisier than when we were on board the previous year outside the shool holidays

We have only travelled during school holidays so can't compare it to a non-school holiday. However, we have been to the Med on Elizabeth in August so I can tell you that there are a number of children around - particularly around the pools as the weather was very hot. Most of the teenagers tended to stick together in a group, especially in the evenings. It's fair to say that they were well behaved whenever we saw them.

The kids club area gets very loud but as this is just a 'passing through' area for the rest of us, it wasn't a problem. There is a table tennis table near the lido pool that was constantly in use and the games deck seemed busy whenever we went past.

We certainly didn't feel that children had 'taken over' the ship - they were still in the minority, but as Summergee has said, the pools were monopolised by them. I think they were only meant to use one of the pools but in reality, they used both.

I did chat to a father of four small children who said they always wait for the last minute deals in the school holidays and at that time, Cunard was the cheapest deal around.