QV V516N Civitavecchia-Trieste July 4-18 full cruise blog/review

Hi all,

We have recently finished a two-week voyage on Queen Victoria around the western Mediterranean and have (sadly) returned home to Australia. This was voyage V516N from Civitavecchia to Trieste (4th-18th July), visiting La Spezia, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Ajaccio, Civitavecchia, Corfu, Kotor and Venice. What follows is our full blog of the voyage, which we had intended to try to upload here on a regular basis at the time, however it soon became evident that accessing wifi would be too difficult (and we were not interested in purchasing copious amounts of Internet time aboard), so we decided to write the blog on our phone and present it to the forum as a whole. Warning, this will be a long post and get ready for some (hopefully good) reading...

To preface, this was only our second-ever "cruise", and our first time on QV. Our first voyage was a wonderful transatlantic on QM2 in November 2013. We had planned to do part of the world cruise on QM2 next January, but late last year we received a promotional letter from Cunard with "early bird" fares on QV's summer itinerary. As this voyage began the day after my partner's birthday, and was a good price (compared to the TA we did), and stopped at several ports we were interested in visiting, we decided it would make a nice birthday present and duly booked a balcony-grade stateroom, 8001. This would be my first time to Italy and the other ports in the Med (my partner visited Italy as a teenager). We planned a couple of extra days in Rome at the start of the voyage, and eventually a weekend in Trieste at the end before the long journey home. Other activities were researched and booked in the exciting lead up...

I have heavily condensed the pre- and post-voyage blog as I'm sure no one would be concerned with it, and only include what I have for interest of anyone who may be planning to embark in Civitavecchia in the future, as there may be some travel/transfer details of note to certain people who have not made this journey before. Also, those with a keen eye may remember my earlier thread about proposing to my girlfriend. As this eventuated and she said yes, I will refer to her in this blog as "DF", given the practice of husbands and wives being referred to on CC as "DH/DW".

And so, on to the blog...

Day 1 - July 1st, Brisbane:

Departed Brisbane at approx. 9.30pm, flying Etihad to Abu Dhabi with connection to Rome. Terrible flight in economy class as expected.

Day 2 - July 2nd, Abu Dhabi-Rome:

Early arrival in Abu Dhabi meant some waiting in terminal. Flight to Rome with Alitalia left more or less on time. Two seats on our own this time which was lovely. Arrived at Fiumicino at approx. 1pm.

Interesting side-note: Italian customs officer at passport control was playing on his mobile phone when we approached his "window". He took our passports, did not look up from his phone once, stamped them, passed them back, and turned to his colleague in the next booth to show him something on his phone. Similarly, security officers at the scanners in Abu Dhabi were slumped in their chairs ignoring the x-ray screenings of hand luggage. A man who set off the metal detector three times was waved through without checking. Is airport security around the world now softening? What we saw surprised us.

We had arranged a private transfer to our hotel in Rome, as our arrival time did not coincide with their own shuttle service. This was booked with transfers-rome-civitavecchia.com, and entailed a personal car from FCO-hotel for 45EUR, the standard price. We had expected some wild Italian driving and were not disappointed. Thankfully this prepared us for traffic experiences later.

We stayed at the Sheraton Roma Hotel and Conference Centre, about 20 mins from the city. It is a lovely hotel (although older) and very popular with Americans. After check-in, we took their shuttle service into the city. It costs 10EUR pp return, or 6EUR one-way. It drops you at the Campidoglio, which is right in the heart of tourist town. Everything (particularly the Colosseum) is within easy walking distance. We spent the rest of the evening exploring and returned to the hotel at 11pm. Sunset was after 9.30pm, which we are not used to in Australia. It was very convenient. Please note that the weather was scorching hot (in the very high 30s Celsius), and we drank over 10 bottles of water, which we refilled at various fountains around the city. Apparently this was a rare heatwave but take adequate precautions in the sun!

Day 3 - July 3rd, Rome:

DF's birthday. After some minor celebrations over breakfast we took the first shuttle into the city for our full day of exploring. The Colosseum was packed all day. We had purchased tickets online in order to "skip the queue", but the queue for those with prepaid tickets was 10 times as long as those purchasing at the gate, so be warned. We decided to come back later and saw other sights in the dreadful heat. In the afternoon, said queue had disappeared at the Colosseum so we tried to go in, only to be stopped at the entrance by a girl who said the place was full, and that there would be a short wait. A massive queue built up again behind us. People lost their tempers and started arguing with the police officers, who were there to check bags. Eventually we got in and had a lovely time. Later, I proposed at the Campidoglio, in the only private spot we could find in the whole city. My partner was now my DF! Eventually we returned to the Sheraton for our final night before embarkation.

Day 4 - July 4th, Rome-Civitavecchia:

We awoke at 6am due to the new time zone. After breakfast, we prepared for our transfer to the port at Civitavecchia and check-in, which was listed as 12:30pm. A nice early time. We had arranged a share van (max 8 passengers) to pick us up for 70EUR. A private car for two starts at 110EUR. This was booked through civitavecchiacabservice.com. Our driver was a little early but a nice young fellow, with good English for us naughty non-Italian speakers. We were first in the van and he told us there was only one other couple to collect at Fiumicino. We waited in the van while the driver disappeared into the terminal to find them. Some 45mins later he returned with an older British couple. Apparently their bags had taken forever to appear. They were travelling on (I think) P&O - can't remember what other ships were berthed there that day now. They had not travelled Cunard before and were interested in QV. The drive to Civitavecchia from the airport took perhaps 45 mins at most. As we hit town we could see QV docked in the distance and were very excited. The driver dropped us right at the terminal building and a Cunard staffer appeared immediately to direct us inside. A porter also appeared to take our bags, which did not have their luggage tags attached. Oops! Very forgetful of me. I quickly tore them out of our pre-voyage pack and the porter took it from there.

Inside the terminal it was packed; a full ship indeed! We were given a number at the door (a high one, of course), and after filling in our health forms took our seats for the wait. For our TA in 2013, the terminal was empty and we walked straight up to the desk, processed our check-in, and walked straight on to the ship in under five minutes. Not so this time, alas! Soda and wine package tables were set up for passengers' consideration. Staff proceeded around the terminal calling out the next number as passengers were processed. I think it was between 20-30 mins before our number was called, so not too bad really. From my sly inspections of other passengers' passports there appeared to be several Australians boarding. We were on the “upgrade consideration” list but sadly no upgrade this time! Our stateroom remained what we'd selected, 8001. We were given our World Club guest ID cards; most of the ones I saw subsequently in passengers' hands were all for first-time Cunarders. After the mandatory embarkation photo, we stepped aboard QV for the first time. Several staffers were there to direct us. One mentioned that the Golden Lion was open for lunch - music to my ears!

We went straight to our stateroom, which met every satisfaction. The Pol Acker was waiting with a nice "welcome back" card, as well as a message from the Commodore - the next day's intended port of La Spezia had been changed to Livorno! Apparently there was a security issue, however all shore tours could still easily be undertaken from Livorno. A few weeks earlier, we had attempted to book the "Beautiful Cinque Terre" shore excursion on the VP, only to find it sold-out. We joined the waitlist and did some research re getting there ourselves, finding that the ferry service from La Spezia seemed pretty easy to navigate. How could we do it from Livorno now? Well, we would figure it out tomorrow. In my earlier thread I sought advice from CC users about arranging a few surprises to be present in the stateroom upon our arrival for DF as celebration of our engagement. Advice leaned towards forgetting this and organising something later aboard. I took that advice. After our short inspection we went straight down to the Golden Lion for lunch. We were VERY impressed with its size compared to QM2, where we found there was never a seat available as it is so much smaller. The place was also empty. A waiter came straight to us and took our order - chicken tikka masala for DF and the steak and ale pie for me. I can't tell you for how many months our mouths watered in anticipation of this Cunard food, as we enjoyed it so much last time. And we were not disappointed! A simply fantastic meal.

Afterwards, we toured the public areas on decks 2 & 3 to familiarise ourselves with the layout of the ship. There will be a 22% Italian IVA (VAT) added to all purchases in the shops this week as the ship does not leave the EU. This will end next Saturday night. Later, we found ourselves still hungry and discovered the Lido Grill on the stern, where we ordered burgers. These were ok, but a better alternative to the buffet we thought, which we do not enjoy. Following this we explored the public areas on the upper decks, then returned to our stateroom to await the 5pm safety drill. For us, this occurred in the Royal Court Theatre (muster station A). In preparation for dinner, I went to the laundrette to iron my shirt. As predicted, all of the machines were full. A lady was sitting there reading. Another (elderly) lady just beat me to the iron from the other door and I stood patiently behind her. At this time another young fellow came in to iron and joined the queue. The elderly lady may have been a first-time Cunarder because she asked if the facilities were free. The other lady confirmed they were. Elderly lady then turned to me and said she wouldn't be long, to which I replied no problem. She then asked do we mind if she takes off her shirt, which is what she needed to iron! "I'm decent underneath", she assured us. She then proceeded to remove her shirt and iron it while standing in her bra. Other fellow and I quickly averted our eyes. Eventually she was done and said to me on her way past, "Sorry, I thought you were an attendant, that's why I asked you those questions." Must have been the (smart) way I was dressed!

On my way back from the laundrette I stopped to let a wheelchair-bound lady pass in the corridor. From the corner of my eye I saw someone exit the bridge (the door is opposite our stateroom door). It was the Commodore (Rynd). He was obviously on his way to dinner. I said good evening to him as I passed and in that quiet, good-humoured way of his he replied, "Good evening." He had also mastered QM2 on our TA. For dinner, we again chose the early sitting, as we like to attend the theatre at 8:30pm so we do not go to bed too late, otherwise we sleep in too long and waste the day. DF preferred a table for two, as we had on QM2. On QM2, we were seated by the main entrance. This time, we had a lovely window table in an intimate little corner at the front of the restaurant. We were very happy. Our waiters introduced themselves. The senior waiter was Albert and his assistant Eric. Albert started the jokes straight away, declaring they were both from Southampton (they were Filipino). Our sommelier Denys also appeared quickly. Neither DF nor I drink alcohol except for wine/champagne on special occasions, but we decided to get something to celebrate the start of the voyage, her birthday and our engagement (plus we had ample OBC!). We had brought a bottle of Bollinger aboard with us but decided not to bring it into the dining room (I would regret this later). Denys was certainly an expert and presented us with a lovely bottle of wine to our rather fussy taste. Dinner exceeded all expectations as usual and was a superb three-course meal. We had shrimp salad, Thai spring rolls, cod, sirloin steak, apple strudel and chocolate marquise. The remainder of the wine was saved for later.

Upon our return to the stateroom we met Emy, our stewardess. A friendly and quiet young girl who assured us nothing would be too much trouble. There was a note in our stateroom advising us that the railing on our balcony would be refinished the next day. There were also the earlier-purchased tickets for our shore excursion in Corfu, and, surprisingly, tickets for the Cinque Terre tour! Apparently they added further places to meet the demand. We were happy to have our plans for tomorrow now sorted. According to tomorrow's daily programme, the formal night originally scheduled for then has now been moved to Monday (July 6th). The untouched Pol Acker had been kindly placed in the bar fridge (we decided we would have at least one glass later) with the glasses and ice. As there was no early show that evening we went on deck and lazed about on sun-loungers until sail-away at 9.30pm. We watched from deck 11 (by the chess board) and there seemed to be few passengers about. Afterwards we went straight to bed. A nice relaxing first day aboard!

Day 5 - July 5th, Livorno-Cinque Terre:

We woke up just as we were docking in Livorno, in the industrial port. There was not much to see. On QM2 we slept-in most mornings due to jet-lag and missed breakfast; we vowed not to do that again so ensured we were always up in time to eat in Britannia. We quickly ducked back to our room to grab some supplies and then attended the Queens Room to sign-in for our shore excursion. Of course, this was our first time visiting a port so we were not familiar with the process. We got a number and it seemed nearly everyone else in the room had the same number - a popular tour indeed! Eventually we were led ashore and met by our tour guide, Amanda. We then boarded our bus and were driven towards La Spezia, our original port. Amanda pointed out various points of interest during the journey and there was a brief "toilet stop". The weather was steaming hot again. After perhaps an hour we drove through La Spezia, picking up another (local) guide. We then headed for Manarola, the second of the five villages in Cinque Terre.

After alighting our bus, we proceeded on foot through the village, which was beautiful of course but totally packed with tourists. The heat was intolerable. Amanda led us straight down to the water, pointing out various things along the way, where we battled to get aboard the ferry that would take us to the next village, Monterosso (actually the last of the five). The ferry filled up very quickly and we eventually moved outside to the bow for some breeze. This journey took perhaps 15-20 mins and the scenery very nice. We arrived in Monterosso and were advised that we had two hours free time to wander, after being shown our meeting point. Monterosso I believe is the largest of the villages, and is much more like a town, or, at this time of year, a summer resort easily rivalling the most popular in Spain or the French Riviera. It was totally packed, the beaches jammed full and the temperature sweltering. DF was hungry so we walked around for a while, finding no end of tourist shops. The village is split between "old" and "new" halves, so we ventured through a tunnel to the "new" section, which is all restaurants and hotels. We ate at a gelataria and sat there in the shade for a while, before deciding to head back to the old section. There really was not much else to see apart from more shops so we decided to try to escape the heat on a bench in the main square. Every Tom, Dick and Stanley had the same idea so we sat on a ledge for about 45 mins until meeting time. It was just too hot for us to walk around. At 2pm we met Amanda and the rest of our group and were herded back aboard the ferry. We again squeezed onto the bow.

This time we headed a short distance to the fourth village, Vernazza. We were again given an hour's free time here, before being told to meet at the train station in preparation for our journey (by train) back to La Spezia, where we would meet our bus. It quickly became apparent that this village was just one street jammed either side with tourist shops. There were thousands of people milling about. The heat was affecting us badly (we have hotter days in Australia, but we never walk around the streets in them like this!), so we again escaped to a shady bench to rest. There was nothing for us to see here that we hadn't already in the first two villages, so we were content to sit for most of the hour. At one stage we were joined by a nice Canadian couple who were sitting opposite us on the bus. We chatted for a while before they left. With about 10 mins to go we wandered up to the train station, and eventually the rest of the group followed. Amanda handed out our train tickets and repeatedly had to assure people in our group who weren't listening that we were getting the bus at the other end. The station was totally jammed (I filmed amusing footage), and the train even more so. Talk about a tight squeeze! Some girl even ran out having a panic attack. It was not a pleasant journey, so future tourists to the area be warned! Pick your time. Anyway, we made it back to La Spezia with our group intact and eventually reboarded the bus. Here Amanda "reminded" us (DF and I evidently didn’t hear the first announcement) to keep the same seats we'd had all day, and that if we didn't it was not her fault! Our friendly Canadians and a nice young American couple advised us in our pondering of that statement that some other guests had complained that other passengers had moved seats! Good grief. It then transpired that some passengers had also complained about the entire tour, particularly the packed train and ferry, although this could hardly be the tour guide's fault when the other passengers of those services were regular tourists? :eek: DF and I shook our heads in despair at such complaints. Sadly Amanda appeared very upset and was quiet on the return journey.

Unfortunately, given another "toilet stop" on the way back to Livorno, we did not arrive at the ship until 7pm, missing dinner. We reluctantly decided to eat in the Lido, where we had some nice salmon and average accompaniments. We are just not fans of that buffet. We were totally exhausted, burnt and crumpled following our excursion so had an early night. An invitation to the commodore's cocktail party tomorrow afternoon awaited us. The balcony maintenance had been carried out that day and a sign warned us not to touch the railing for a while. There was a new notice advising us that the balcony would be washed tomorrow night after leaving Monte Carlo. Excited by our visit to MC, we went to bed.

Day 6 - July 6th, Monte Carlo:

We woke up at 7.30am and found ourselves already docked, and what a marvellous view! It was breathtaking to open the curtains and see MC laid out before us. The itinerary had warned of a possible anchor stop here, but we were berthed right alongside the marina. Needless to say the vessels it contained were staggering, however as the commodore later pointed out at the cocktail party, ours was the biggest! We had breakfast in Britannia and then got ready to go ashore. None of Cunard's shore excursions had appealed to us and we preferred to explore on our own. We decided to dress smartly as befitting the surroundings, and went up on deck to get a few photos overlooking the city, before disembarking. We wandered around the marina for a while taking photos, and walked all the way around to the yacht club on the other side. As in Italy, the heat was deplorable. I was keen to see the changing of the guard at the Prince's Palace, so we decided to head up there and then go back aboard QV for lunch.

The changing of the guard was very interesting to watch (starts at 11:55am and is very popular). Afterwards we bumped into our Canadian friends and were thanked for letting them know the previous day about the guard, as they'd decided to watch it also and enjoyed it thoroughly. DF bought some souvenirs and delighted in conversing in French with the shopkeeper. On the walk back we stopped for photos many times. There are so many wonderful vantage points in MC. Sadly we did not see my idol, Sir Roger Moore, along the way. He must have wisely kept indoors. As we approached the ship from the palace, we saw that on the other side of the berth was a swimming area in the open ocean. This took our fancy immediately and it was decided that after lunch, we would walk to the casino (one of those places that simply must be visited), and then return to the terminal for a swim in the Med. The other thing I had wanted to do, which I'd read about, was get my passport stamped with the Monaco seal. Apparently this could be done at the train station, and on our way back through the cruise terminal I asked the girls at the counter if this was still the case. One of them produced said stamp and did it there and then!

We dined in the pub where I got to try the ploughman's sandwich for the first time, and it immediately became my favourite item from their menu. Delicious! DF got her favourite, fish and chips. We showered and changed and set out to walk back to the casino, which was no easy feat in the heat. We eventually staggered up to the casino, which was very busy with tourists. Even though we were formally dressed, we decided not to go inside as we were too exhausted from the heat. After a few photos we shuffled back to the terminal and fell straight into the sea. The Med was delightful and we swam around for maybe half an hour. Even though it was a few steps from the ship the swimming area did not appear to be well-known to the passengers.

Upon our return aboard I sat on my brand-new sunglasses and broke them. I then struggled with my bow tie for 45 mins, finally giving it up as a bad job. As such, we missed the cocktail party. I declared that we would attend the later session for the 8.30pm diners. DF was not impressed, and rightly so. We made a toast with the Pol Acker and watched sail-away from MC on our balcony. It was depressing to leave. Formal night. For dinner we had shrimp, duck, ravioli and salmon, and the rest of our wine. It was all up to the usual standard. We then made it to the commodore's 7.15pm cocktail party in the Queen's Room, where social hostess Jessica Burke (whom was also aboard QM2 with us) took our invitation to introduce us to the commodore. It was all a bit of de ja vu. She remarked that the hotel manager had the same surname as DF, and his full name was actually the same as DF's father. The commodore stared at Jessica expectantly and she quickly ushered us over. The commodore shook hands (on QM2 he didn't) and gave us a few nice words. After our photo we took some champagne and orange juice and a seat near the stage. The place was packed but drinks were flowing freely. Numerous passengers were in earnest discussion with the officers. Eventually Entertainment Director Sally Sagoe, whom we'd not seen before, began the speeches. The commodore revealed that the ship was full and surprisingly Australians were the third-largest contingent aboard. The senior officers were introduced and we left soon after to attend the theatre production, which was the Royal Cunard Singers and Dancers performing "A Stroke of Genius".

After this we went back to the Queen's Room for the start of the ball. The theme tonight was "Roaring 20s". DF wore a lovely flapper dress but declined the feathers. We got some photos but did not dance (we can't). On our way back to our stateroom we watched some hi-rollers at play in the casino for a few minutes. I like standing on the sidelines at the tables with the other spectators. We then went to bed at 10pm. At around this time we heard our balcony being washed (it was not loud).

Day 7 - July 7th, Barcelona:

We decided to sleep in a little as we were not due in Barcelona until 1pm, and to have breakfast in Britannia at 9am. On our way down shortly after 9, we saw that the fencing class was underway in the Queen's Room. Having wanted to participate in this, I was dismayed that I had somehow completely missed this in the daily programme. By the time we finished breakfast it was too late to join in so I decided I'd do it next week in the new class. We watched for a little while. It is run by the sports director, Vitor. At 10am Ready, Steady, Cook was held in the theatre with Executive Chef Mark Oldroyd and Chef de Cuisine Franc Marc. We watched from a private box. It was all very amusing, and Franc won in the end via audience vote.

When that finished, on impulse we decided to check out the "scavenger hunt" (aka Challenge: Queen Victoria) being run at 11am. When we got to the meeting point we found Vitor and a feisty American mother and her two sons. Only two teams out of the whole ship! We got underway and the mother was very competitive. DF and I dashed around the ship (without running), finding the hidden notices that contained questions whose answers were to be found somewhere near-by. The bartender in the Golden Lion and the casino manager gave us some answers (without our asking) and seemed amused by the whole thing. We eventually answered everything and returned to Vitor, who told us that the mother and sons had finished first, BUT they had only answered a few of the questions which meant we won by default! He said he'd deliver our prize to our stateroom later, but this never happened. Turned out the prize was just a stamp on a card that we didn’t have.

We watched the sail into Barcelona before having a long lunch in Britannia of Scotch broth, chicken sandwich and lasagne. We went out on deck to take photos of the port and then decided to take a swim in the midships pool. For once it was practically deserted; everyone had gone ashore. Following our swim, we attended afternoon tea for the first time on this voyage. DF was delighted to get her cucumber sandwiches after 18 months. We then decided not to go ashore (we did not have a shore excursion booked) as we would have the whole day tomorrow, and preferred instead to read in the shade up on deck 10. There we stayed until dinner, during which we had potted shrimp, satay chicken, mushroom risotto and steak. Because of afternoon tea, we were not very hungry and shared a dessert. We then read on our balcony until the show at 8.30pm, which was comedian John Evans. We again watched from a private box. We thought he was very good, but the audience was quite lukewarm towards him. Afterwards we wandered around deck 3 and thought about grabbing some late dessert in the Lido, however there was nothing that took our interest, so we went to bed.

Day 8 - July 8th, Barcelona:

This morning when we dined for breakfast in Britannia we were unfortunately witness to an older couple next to us berating our (shared) waiter for "bad and slow service", despite there being nothing of the sort. DF was fuming by the end of it as we tire of these endless unjustified complaints that seem to run rampant around the ship (in a minority of passengers, mind), and at the end of our meal stood up and loudly declared to the waiter and head waiter, who'd rushed to placate the others, that the service was, as usual, excellent. The problem had been the delay in the couples' order coming out - how is this the waiter's fault if the galley is not ready? But I digress. We left and went ashore early in preparation for a private tour we had organised (again, no Cunard offers interested us). Private shuttle buses had been arranged for passengers to be taken from the terminal to the World Trade Centre. The journey was no more than five minutes. According to the daily programme, this was free for passengers on Cunard fares, but at a cost of $6 each trip (max. of two trips charged, however, the rest free) for those on early bird and promotional fares. We ended up never being charged this, possibly because they realised we paid more than double many of those on regular fares!

Our tour was on bicycle around the city. Our guide, Alex, was in far better shape than we were and we often struggled to keep up with him, especially as we hesitated to plough through pedestrians as he was doing. There were also problems with the bicycles. Anyway, we saw many interesting sites before cycling up a hill to the cable car on Montjuic. I nearly collapsed after the solar-powered "assistance" motor on my bicycle gave out and I had to pedal all the way up this damn mountain while DF and Alex zoomed into the distance. The heat was not as bad in Barcelona as in MC, thankfully. I recovered in the cable car and the scenery on and from Montjuic was magnificent. Alex showed us all the sights and afterwards we cycled back down through the cactus gardens to the harbour. The next part of the tour involved a short boat ride around QV and elsewhere. We then returned to the marina and cycled back to the tour office. I gave Alex a tip for his patience with us. It was an exhausting tour but extremely gratifying as it showed us everything in Barcelona that there was to see, and from a unique vantage point.

We walked back to the World Trade Centre to get the shuttle to the ship. We just missed pub lunch so ordered room service for the first time, having the shrimp curry, portabella on a bun and cakes. It was all very good. We then read on the balcony for a while before falling asleep from exhaustion. We woke up for dinner, and had a nice chat with our waiter Albert about what we'd each done that day. Our meal was shrimp, salmon cakes, sea bass and chicken supreme. Faultless as usual. We took some photos overlooking the city by the Lido pool. Our ID cards had suddenly become de-magnetised so we had them replaced at the Purser's desk. We then watched instrumentalist Michael Grant perform in the theatre, again from a private box. They are very easy to get unless you arrive late. The performance was great but again, the audience was lacklustre in their response. Following this we attended the sail-away party at the Lido pool. DF ordered a pina colada. We danced a bit to the tunes of Nexus before returning to our room where we watched the sail-away from our balcony at 11pm.

Day 9 - July 9th, sea day:

Our first sea day this voyage, and unfortunately when we awoke the ship was rocking like a chair in 4m seas. According to the commodore in his announcement, this was due to the mistral wind blowing into the Mediterranean from France. He said it is very unusual for it to appear at this time of year - just our luck! With our stateroom right at the bow the effects of the waves were more noticeable, and I found myself feeling light-headed. We did however make it down to breakfast. We made many plans for the morning as there was a full programme on offer, but upon returning to our stateroom I found I could not continue. The motion was affecting me badly so I decided to take a nap. Fortunately, when I awoke 90 mins later, I was fine. This had also worked on our TA, during very rough seas. Unfortunately, we had missed the fruit-carving demonstration DF had wanted to attend and also guest speaker Michael Nicholson's speech which I'd wanted to see. I had told DF to go on her own but she refused and read instead. Oh well.

With the ship still rocking we had lunch in the pub (Britannia menu didn't interest us today) and then watched the classical concert at 2pm featuring violinist Miriam Kramer and pianist Nicholas Durcan. They were excellent. As we had failed to find wifi in any of the ports, we decided to purchase a small Internet plan as we needed to check a couple of things for upcoming private excursions. 30 minutes for $12 we thought was a good enough deal. We spent a few minutes online before inspecting the library, which is very nice. DF is an avid reader but did not want to borrow any books this time. It was then time for afternoon tea. I was dismayed to find passengers attending in little more than swimwear. We then got ready for our second formal night. To my delight lobster was on the menu for dinner, although so was duck a l'orange. When I mentioned to Albert that I couldn't decide, he immediately declared, "Lobster!" I agreed. Denys brought us another bottle of wine as it was a formal night. We decided this would be our last except for a drink on the final night, as not being drinkers we were struggling to get through it. At some point the seas calmed.

After dinner we took some photos up on deck in our formal wear, and then returned to our stateroom to read before attending the theatre for "Beatlemania". We again managed to find a private box. This time (and the only time we saw that week) the audience went wild. Following this, we looked in on the jazz performance by the Royal Court Theatre Orchestra in the Golden Lion. It was well-attended. We then went to the Queen's Room for the 175 Ball. After Jessica Burke's opening speech, DF and I risked a dance to "Strangers in the Night". We then ordered room service, trying the ham/cheese Panini, egg sandwich and chocolate bombe. DF found the sandwich too cold, must have come straight out of the freezer! :eek: We ate on the balcony overlooking Ajaccio, where we had berthed during the ball. The commodore made an announcement that passengers were welcome to go ashore overnight. We decided to leave it until morning as planned and went to bed.

Day 10 - July 10th, Ajaccio:

This morning we shared a table in Britannia with a British couple for breakfast, and had a good old chat. We then went ashore to Ajaccio and spent a couple of hours on our own wandering around taking photos. Again, no shore excursions booked. We had been wanting to go jet-skiing, as there was a company at the port that offered great excursions for very good prices, but we found that these were for experienced riders, not novices like us, so gloomily we gave it a miss. We then discovered several boating tours that offered snorkelling and swimming along the coast, all for cheap prices, but these had all either already left or would not be back before all aboard time on QV. This depressed me greatly as it would have been a fabulous way to spend the day. In the end we walked along the beach, through the square and decided to lunch aboard.

We again went to the Golden Lion. It was near empty but service seemed a tad slow today. We only waited for perhaps 3-4 minutes but had to catch the eye of the head waiter to place our order. The other couple sitting near us got up and went to the bar to order, and then we heard an angry shout to the junior waiter pacing around - "am I invisible again?" A lone lady was sitting behind us somewhere and had also not been served! Her shout sent the head waiter running. Afterwards we went back ashore. We saw the commodore inspecting the ship alone on the pier. We went back to the beach for a short swim. There were Cunard pool towels all over the place. We then continued walking around for a time before taking the 90 min open bus tour around town. This also took us out to the far coast where we stopped for 20 mins near some isles for photos. There was much discussion of Napoleon. The trip I believe was about 10EUR pp. On our return to town we decided we'd seen enough and went back aboard.

We braved Lido and found a couple of nice desserts to have as we'd missed afternoon tea. We sat by the window overlooking the marina, which was nice. Afterwards we had some champagne on our balcony while watching the sail-away. We again read for a short time before I went to the laundrette to iron my dinner clothes. An elderly lady was already there ironing a shirt. I stood patiently behind her. She turned to me and said, "I'll be a long time, I've got a lot to go yet." Seeing nothing but the shirt on the ironing board, I replied warily, "Oh yes?" She nodded to the dryer which was tumbling away, and stated, "I've got to do all that next." I walked out in despair, and found a free iron a few decks down. For dinner we had soup, chicken curry and a nice snapper. Today we celebrate one week since our engagement, but DF wants to keep it low-key and is enjoying having it just between ourselves, so I refrain from arranging anything special in the stateroom as previously planned.

Reading followed for a while and then we went to the theatre to watch the Victoriana show. We were given British flags to wave at the end and sat near the stage. The production was all very good but half-way through we became distracted by some rude female playing on her mobile phone. This continued for about twenty minutes, and to our amazement all of those around her appeared to say nothing! Eventually she disappeared so perhaps someone did in the end. We returned to our stateroom and read for a while longer before turning in. The halls were littered with the baggage of those disembarking tomorrow; we are very happy not to be among them!

Day 11 - July 11th, Civitavecchia:

We could not wake up this morning. Perhaps the endless momentum of the past week with so much walking and other physical activity has finally caught up to us. We pushed ourselves out of bed and just made it down to Britannia with five minutes to spare. We felt bad going in so late however we made it out before dozens of other people, so there was really no issue. With disembarkation the ship is mostly empty, in fact it is like a ghost town. Others have probably gone on shore excursions. We thought about checking out Civitavecchia itself but then decided to treat today as a sea day, seeing as we have so few, and proceeded to read by the midships pool for a while before swimming and relaxing in the spa. It is a very good feeling to be staying aboard. After swimming, we returned to our stateroom to read. Shortly before noon, Commodore Rynd made an announcement which was mainly for benefit of the crew. He is handing over command to Captain Peter Philpott today and is going on "programmed leave". He will be back aboard QV in October and will be mastering her over the Christmas/New Year period.

With so few aboard, we decided it a good time to do our laundry. Success! There is one washing machine free. I put a load on and calculated there was enough time for lunch before it would be done. When I walked in, there was an older lady gathering her clothes and a middle-aged woman who appeared to be leaving. The middle-aged woman was fuming about not receiving "points" with her voyage. From what I could make out it was something to do with her travel agent/booking, however I have no idea what “points” one gets on Cunard. Perhaps it was credit card points? Anyway, she declared that she was going to take off the auto gratuities, and asked the other lady how she should go about that. To her credit, the older lady tried to calm her down and explained that she should take them off in a nice way, and not go to the Purser's desk ranting and raving. I walked out before the end of the conversation, dismayed as usual by such behaviour.

With Britannia closed for lunch, we went to the pub for our usual. By this time a few new passengers were trickling in. Those whom we saw enter the Golden Lion did not like the menu and left in search of the buffet. Eventually an Australian couple sat down behind us and engaged in conversation with a British lady who, like us, was staying aboard for the fortnight. The couple stated that they were probably the only two Australians aboard. Wrong! The lady advised them there had been plenty. They then started talking about what they had paid for the cruise, which was next to nothing, and went on about what a great deal it was and it was the only reason they were aboard, etc, and this started to get my back up. Fortunately our meal came then and we did not hear anything further. Afterwards we returned to the laundrette. One of the dryers was going and the other had finished, with the clothes still in it. Tentatively, we placed them in a basket and put our load in the dryer. We then left to read until it was done. Upon our return, the clothes were still in the basket, so we took our load, replaced those clothes in the dryer, and left. We thought it was the nice thing to do.

We were still hungry so ordered room service and ate on the balcony. The cheeseburger was quite tasty. We stayed in, reading until dinner. They were all new faces in the dining room. We remarked to Albert that we were the only ones left, and he said about 500 of the 2000+ passengers of the past week were continuing on. There was a huge queue of people trying to amend their dining times with the maître d'. Dinner was orange roughy, asparagus soup, pork and cauliflower turnover. Afterwards we went up on deck and watched MSC Davina depart. She seems to be following us around the Med. Their passengers waved to us happily. We watched our own sail-away from our balcony. We read until the shops opened, then perused them, deciding what we would buy at the end of the week with our remaining OBC. We watched the violin trio play in the grand lobby for a little while and then braved a small meal and dessert in the Lido. We then went to bed.

Day 12 - July 12th, sea day:

We just made breakfast again today, in fact were probably among the last in. DF wanted a table for two but the maître d' made us share with a British couple whom we chatted to for a while. As usual, we made it out long before most of the other diners who were there before us. We went to the theatre to watch a presentation on the upcoming ports, and things to do there. We listened to the segments on Corfu and Kotor, which sounded interesting, and then left to watch the pastry demonstration in the grand lobby. This however turned out to be a cake-baking session, so we departed to Connexions to check a couple of things on the Internet for a few minutes. We then wandered around the ship for a while and read in our stateroom.

At midday we just caught the ringing of the bells outside the card room, and then went outside to see the volcano on the island of Stromboli, which we were just passing. It was spewing a nice cloud which made for effective photos. We went back to the theatre for the start of Commander Jeff Tall's WW2 presentation, but soon left to have lunch in Britannia. Today we dined with an Indian couple who have just come aboard. It was a lovely menu of shrimp salad, fish and chips and macadamia chicken. Afterwards we looked around the book store (open for the first time since we boarded), and then hung around deck 10 for the crew tug-of-war. This took place as we passed through the Straits of Messina and the music blasting from the pool area around the ship as we sailed by these seaside resorts couldn't help but make me think we were on another ship! There were six or eight teams participating for the trophy, including Britannia restaurant staff, engineers, the (male) dancers, back office staff and a few others. The event was hosted by Vitor.

The tug-of-war went on for a while with an amusing incident half-way through where-by the Britannia team (battling the engineers) fell into the music speaker and sent it flying. Eventually the dancers won to the delight of their colleagues. Afterwards we showered (hot again) and had afternoon tea. We then walked around on deck for a while and read on our balcony. From here we saw a pod of dolphins swimming around the ship, which was lovely. It is another formal night. For dinner we ate Thai fish cakes and garlic shrimp from the Spa menu, with a tart and the cheese plate for dessert. We received an invitation for a "VIP showing" in the art gallery (with free Pol Acker!), which we decided to attend for something to do. While there, a couple bought a painting which made me feel better for the gallery staff. We then went on deck for more formal photos. Afterwards, we saw that the captain's cocktail party was underway in the Queen's Room - you don't get invited twice. ;) We watched from upstairs as Captain Philpott introduced his officers - only Executive Chef Oldroyd (and hostess Jessica) had departed with the commodore in Civitavecchia. Unfortunately, much of the congregated audience rudely carried on their conversations in very loud voices while the captain tried to talk.

Tonight's show was Dance Passion. As usual, the Cunard singers and dancers were excellent. They are a very talented and passionate lot. The audience (mainly new passengers) seems much more responsive this week, which is good. The private boxes had to be booked. As we do not like the champagne that is served with that programme, we have decided not to bother with purchasing this deal on future evenings, although it would be nice. Afterwards the Venetian mask ball got under way. We had brought some masks from home, and got into the spirit wearing them on the dance floor. We decided to stick around and watch Wilfried and Ilona, the professional dance couple, give their performance as we'd never seen them before. I convinced DF to have breakfast in bed once, and we have placed our card on the door handle for tomorrow morning.

Day 13 - July 13th, Corfu:

Breakfast arrived and was enjoyed on the balcony watching the Albanian coast slip by. The food was good but the juice and milk very warm (to be expected, I suppose). Afterwards we went straight down to the Queens Room to assemble for our shore excursion. Today we have selected to go on the "Cruise and Swim" tour. In the crowd we spy the young American couple we have not seen since Cinque Terre, whom we had assumed got off in Civitavecchia. Some familiar faces! It turned out they were going on the same tour as us. We were taken ashore and on to a bus, which, to everyone's disbelief, drove 100m through the port gate, 100m into the car park and then pulled up beside our tour boat! For some reason never explained, it was too hard for everyone to walk 200m! Anyway, we started boarding a boat which looked nothing like the lovely little vessel pictured in the sales brochure. The bus went back for another load of passengers.

We sat on the upper deck and tried to lather on the sunscreen. Despite wearing sun protection we have been getting burned everyday ashore. After our fellow guests arrived we set sail for the village of Kassiopi, which was about 70 mins away. The tour guide gave an insightful commentary en route and advised us that we would be stopping at a secluded beach later for swimming, and that lunch would be provided there. We passed between Corfu and Albania. Upon our arrival at Kassiopi we were given an hour to wander around. DF looked in a few souvenir shops. We took various photos and got our feet wet near the marina. The water was crystal clear. We went back aboard the boat at 12.30pm and set sail for the "secluded beach". Upon arrival we found several other tour boats there, although it was secluded. We waded ashore to discover that it was in fact a pebble beach, not sand, which we are used to back home. We struggled with this and eventually had to retrieve our shoes from the boat, but first we had a relaxing swim away from the masses until lunch was ready. This consisted of lamb kebabs, a Greek salad, bread and tzatziki. It was a nice meal, and I had seconds.

After lunch we returned aboard and set sail for a "blue cave" not too far away. Here we anchored just offshore some cliffs and were able to dive or descend from the boat into the sea, and be led into the cave by one of the crew. DF took the stairs while I jumped off the top deck, swimming over to meet her. We followed other passengers in a line into a very narrow entrance, which opened up into a small cave. The crew member was waiting there instructing people to swim under a thin wall to the other side - several people chickened out, and DF refused! The crew member tried to reassure her, as did I, but he said to me, "Don't worry, she'll come straight after you, go on," and pushed me through. I swam under this rock, which really was only 30cm long, and emerged into the open sea again! I thought I was heading into a massive "blue cave", but apparently we had just left it. Ah well. Eventually DF made it through; I was very proud of her.

We swam around the boat for a few more minutes before being asked back aboard. We were joined by the young American couple who remembered us from Cinque Terre (and also knew we'd become engaged, how observant), and we had a good chat during the sail back to port. This time we walked back to the ship (rather than using a bus!) and had a small afternoon tea of cakes in Lido. Again, we watched sail-away from our balcony with some champagne. We could not go on with the Pol Acker and disposed of it. Again rather sunburned, we rested until dinner, which was a lovely smoked chicken, tomato soup, spinach strudel and mushroom ravioli. The ravioli was superb and Albert offered me a second portion, which I readily accepted. Cheesecake and soufflé followed. Afterwards we wandered around deck again taking various photos of the coast. We noted that the Lido was serving some favourite seafood dishes, so we risked a small plate. We then attended the theatre to watch the new comedian, Allan Stewart, from a private box. He was very funny and his cruise version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" rang very true. Bed followed.

Day 14 - July 14th, Kotor:

On Captain Philpott's recommendation, we awoke at 6am to watch the ship enter the Bay of Kotor, which with mountains hugging the shore resembles the Norwegian fjords. However, we had not yet arrived at that point yet so returned to bed, and then woke up again later to find that we were almost at port, having missed most of the show. Oh well, there's always next time. Originally listed as a tender port, QV was docked alongside in Kotor for the first time in its service. We were pushing for time again so decided not to rush to get to Britannia for breakfast, and in exchange for some relaxation we would journey into the Lido. The made-to-order eggs and omelettes were welcomed. We sat by the window and I was amazed to see a large great white shark sculpture floating in a canal near the ship. A great photo opportunity for later!

Afterwards we went straight ashore as we had booked yet another non-Cunard tour, this time a boating/kayaking/cycling expedition with Kotor Bay Tours. Their tickets did not specify an address, so I used our last bit of Internet in the library to look it up, then checked a map in the book shop to confirm the location. It was somewhere along the waterfront road which ran away from the ship. We set out and almost had to beat our way through the throng of locals trying to sell tours and taxi fares to the disembarking passengers. Adjacent to the ship was a small park where a couple of tour boats were moored. We checked some signs but did not find anything from Kotor Bay Tours, so we started walking along the road. And walked. And walked some more. The building numbers did not seem to be ascending but I convinced myself the tour office was ahead. Eventually DF had enough and rested for a while. I persuaded her to continue. Two hours later and 5km away we found the office. The friendly staff were stunned to learn that we had walked from the ship, and told us that their speedboat had gone to the park to pick us up only 20 mins earlier. Fudge! I hadn’t known a thing about it. The staff called their skipper who zipped back to pick us up.

We were taken across to a church in the bay on an artificial island. It was a quaint little place and we were given tickets to enter the church as part of our tour. After 15 mins, our private speed boat took us across to the village of Perast, which was lovely. We wished we had more time there to have lunch and explore but skipper only gave us 20 mins. He then took us back to the tour office where we picked up our two-person kayak. Off we went for a free roam around the bay for a couple of hours. We decided to head straight down the coast to Orahovac, which took about an hour. Eventually we got fed-up with the current spinning us around and wanted to go back. We took our time to drag out the experience and made our way to the tour office. The scenery is quite simply stunning. Back at the office we found two ladies who had also been kayaking - they were also from the ship! We sat and talked with them and the manageress for a while. The manageress told us that while the people of Kotor welcome the influx to their economy, they seem to be getting sick of cruise ships, and that last year alone over 500 visited. Amazingly, only five of those were able to berth alongside because something at the dock is always broken. She and her staff were also very interested in Australia and keen to visit.

We were then given our bikes to cycle back to the ship. The journey back along the waterfront street took only 15 mins by bike compared to two hours on foot! DF was satisfied though as she felt we'd seen most of Kotor this way. We returned our bikes to the skipper who was waiting at the park and went aboard QV to get changed. We then ordered room service (curry and a cheeseburger) and sat eating on the balcony, watching the boats go by. Many people waved to us. We relaxed until dinner, where we ate chicken and asparagus, sea bass and beef hot pot. Again we shared a dessert as we were full from room service. Afterwards we went back ashore to explore the "old town" area around the port. We took some photos with the shark sculpture and viewed the old fort overlooking the city. At dinner Albert told us he had climbed it that day, and it seemed every other passenger had as well, so we felt a bit bummed at missing it, but never mind. We watched a luxury yacht berth next to QV and a local policeman pulling over drivers at the terminal. DF bought some street art.

We returned aboard in time to watch the Spinettes show in the theatre. It was well-received. We then attended the deck party on the stern briefly before watching the sail-away from deck 10. Unfortunately it was too dark to see the mountains so we missed that fjord-like experience this time. We will make up for it some day. We had another small dessert in the Lido and then returned to our stateroom for bed.

Day 15 - July 15th, sea day:

Today we returned to the Britannia restaurant for breakfast. We then perused the shops for a short time before returning to the restaurant for the free galley tour. We were second in line. The queue stretched from the entrance back to the Queen's Room. We were taken through in the first group by the head pastry chef. The galley was spotless (and dead at that hour); the chef gave an informative commentary. We ended up exiting into The Verandah. Following this, we proceeded to the theatre to watch Michael Nicholson's presentation, as we'd missed him last week. We got a private box again and he was quite an amusing man, with many jokes to tell about his time as a foreign correspondent. The best part was when he called Sally Sagoe "the fuhrer" for being tough on talk of politics and the like!

Just before noon we went up to deck 11 to listen to the sounding of the ship's horns, which nearly blew me away. We had a short lunch in Britannia (chicken sandwich and portabella ravioli), which was marred for me by a whinging passenger at the next table, before again inspecting the Cunard merchandise available in the shops. We felt it was a limited range. To fill in time we wandered out to the midships pool to watch the start of the pool volleyball match. The dancers turned up and decided to form a team against the passengers. Vitor ran the show and the game started off quite poorly, so we left and decided to attend the Golden Lion again for one final pub lunch, as we will miss our fish and chips and ploughman's sandwich. For once we had dessert there, an apple crumble. We then watched the second half of another classical concert by Miriam and Nicholas until 3pm. A flyer advertising a "Venetian Panorama" boat tour for tomorrow landed in our stateroom. DF thought it would be a nice way to spend some OBC, so we went to the tour desk to book it. The desk clerk gave us advice on Cunard's private shuttle boat service to St. Mark's Square and correctly identified our accents.

We then looked in on the voyage sales office, to see about the world cruise segment we were considering. The agent gave us some prices for various balcony cabin grades and explained to us the current on-board offer of a $75pp deposit which secured a 3% discount and some OBC for any cruise booked over the next two years. We thought that sounded very good but naturally forgot to come back and secure it. Typical. We wandered around the ship to pass the time until afternoon trivia in the Golden Lion. I wanted to do this as a one-off to try to experience as much as possible on the ship, as I was annoyed about again missing the fencing! We got about half the questions right. Several passengers blundered in demanding to know what had happened to bingo - can't they tell the time?

As it is our final formal night tonight, we returned to our stateroom to get ready. I had to iron a shirt in the laundrette again and unfortunately found that a party/gathering of some sort was underway in the one on our deck, so I went downstairs to deck 7, where the laundrette was full of the usual pests complaining about everything. Someone had left half-full cocktail glasses in the sink and an old man came in and threw someone's underwear on the soap dispenser, only for them to fall into the drinks! Spare me! :rolleyes: Upon my return to the stateroom I watched Sally's "Rise and Shine" show until dinner. The menu was the same as last week's second formal night, with lobster, etc. This time I was set on having a double portion of lobster. I told Albert I didn't want an appetiser and he said he'd bring one portion of lobster out with DF's appetiser, and the second as an entrée. DF had a tortilla soup and also the lobster. It was delicious! My favourite meal aboard. Albert is also very generous with the ice cream. We advised him that as we'd be on a private tour late tomorrow, we wouldn't make it for dinner and would dine late in The Verandah instead.

We made our Verandah booking for 8pm tomorrow on our way up to deck 10, where we took more photos. We then looked in on the Commodore Club and listened to pianist Ashley Knight for a while. We popped a bottle of our own champagne on our balcony and had a glass each. We then went to the theatre for the Hollywood Rocks show. This we enjoyed immensely. There were some underdressed, intoxicated pests near us in the audience but we still liked the show so much that we decided to come back for the second session at 10:30pm. At the end when Sally Sagoe appeared onstage to do her traditional “thank you”, I could not resist waving back to her (with wiggling fingers) when she exclaimed, “Cheerio for now!” The couple behind us burst into laughter at that. We proceeded to the final 175 ball, where we again danced to "Strangers in the Night" (same songs at every ball?). They had some nice Cunard flags on offer, I should have taken one home. We stayed until it was time for the second show, where we took seats in the third row. Eventually a man sat in front of us; to my dismay it turned out to be the same whinging passenger from lunch. He was fairly cordial to us. The show again was excellent; there is just so much energy and enthusiasm. DF said it looked like the main girl, Lauren, was on the verge of collapse. It was hard work. When Sally came out I again waved “cheerio” to her – this time she saw me, broke out in a huge grin and took a sweeping bow. My laughter was soon dulled by the lovely man in front of us, who proceeded to complain to all around him about how bad the show was. I lost my temper and stormed out. Why on earth do these people cruise if all they do is complain? DF thankfully agreed and we went to bed.

Day 16 – July 16th, Venice:

Today we awoke at 6am for the sail into Venice, and we did not have to wait long before the ship entered the lagoon. Balconies were packed with spectators. We passed right by St. Mark’s Square and the Grand Canal. DF was so tired so I put her back to bed, before continuing to watch our passage. I then joined her for an hour’s nap before breakfast. We were seated on the port side of the ship for a change, and witnessed a lady storm out after disliking the coffee! Our next stop was the Queen’s Room to sign-in for our tour. We were led by Paul Ho, one of the dance hosts, down to the tender area to board our tour boat. Very convenient!

The tour took us all around Venice’s lagoons, and we saw much of the south island and Lido, then circumnavigated the smaller islands, including Murano, to San Marco, where a couple of passengers got off. We then proceeded to the cruise terminal where we alighted to catch a shuttle bus back to the ship (in order to go through security). All up the tour was about two hours and afforded us a great view of Venice from the water. We took lunch aboard in Britannia (fish chowder, duck confit, vegetable curry and double ice cream!). It was decided that we would purchase unlimited shuttle boat tickets from the purser’s deck. These were $35pp for both days. We returned ashore to catch the next boat. Several staff were there and we learned they get a much better fare! The service is extremely convenient and drops you right near St. Mark’s Square.

We walked around for about ninety minutes taking photos of various points of interest, observing the Basilica, Doge’s Palace and filming locations from “Moonraker”. Some gifts for family were purchased. Our preference was to stick to the small, narrow side-streets and bridges away from the crowds, where we saw many intriguing sights. DF’s mother had pre-purchased a private gondola tour for us as a birthday present. We proceeded to the Danieli Hotel for some photos and then over to their gondola station, where the tour left from. Our gondolier was a bit of a nutter, but this amused me greatly. He was drinking (beer), smoking and screaming at passers-by the whole time. He also sang for us a bit. The tour went for about 30 minutes through numerous smaller canals behind the square. We returned to the Danieli earlier than expected so wandered around the vicinity for a few more photos. We then took the 6.30pm shuttle boat back to the terminal and reboarded to prepare for dinner in The Verandah.

It was our first time in this restaurant (we had also intended to dine in Todd English on QM2 last time, but for some reason never got round to it), and the setting couldn’t have been more romantic, as the string quartet was playing just outside the door and we had a lovely window table with a view of the lagoon. The restaurant was mostly empty. The maitre d’ and his staff were very helpful. We ordered salmon/cheese and escargot for entrée, steak and salmon for main, and meringue and chocolate slab for dessert. The food was completely gourmet and we will be back in that restaurant next time. While the cover charge for dinner is $24pp, it doesn’t just cover the three courses – you also get a bread basket with a trio of sauces, hors dervs (pork and vegetable), tea/coffee and petit fours. We thought it was a great bargain ourselves. At some point one of the chefs came out to complain to the maitre d’ about something happening in the kitchen. From what I could gather there was a personality clash going on back there. The maitre d’ tried to calm him down and sent him off so as not to cause a scene. Later when the service died down the maitre d’ disappeared, presumably to sort it out. All of the other staff disappeared as well, except for one waiter, who farewelled us (and seemed surprised himself that he was alone). At the next table we saw Michael Nicholson and his wife. I nodded politely to them but they just stared at me, which I thought was a bit rude. We went straight to bed after that.

Day 17 – July 17th, Venice:

Again we decided to sleep in slightly today to rest-up before our big weekend in Trieste. At around 10am we ventured up to Lido for an average breakfast, although the made-to-order eggs/omelette was again a plus. On our return we filled out our voyage questionnaire. Good marks all round. We headed down to the Purser’s desk to drop it off in the box and saw Sally Sagoe wandering around. She said hello to us, after failing to acknowledge us (and others) previously. Following this we took the next available shuttle boat ashore. Our first stop was St. Mark’s Square again for further inspection, and then we checked out some of the designer stores near-by. No purchases, I’m afraid. Down one side street we found a local cat which we played with for a while.

We proceeded to wander the streets for a couple of hours, taking photos in various squares and canals. We stopped at the Grand Canal for some shots; it was fairly busy. Our next destination was the Rialto Bridge, and we battled the crowds to get there. It is undergoing restoration works and is mainly covered in scaffolding, so it was an underwhelming experience. The place was also packed solid. On our way back to St. Mark’s Square we paused at several shops to get some souvenirs, and then browsed in Venini Glass. We briefly watched the orchestra at Caffe Florian, and have vowed to return there for a meal some day. We thought about climbing the clock tour and actually joined the queue but opted out to go to the Danieli instead, where we had a drink and snack at the roof bar. This venue commands an excellent view of Venice. The prices are shocking but it was worth it for the experience. DF elected to return to the ship after this, so we took the next shuttle and got ready for our last (sob!) dinner aboard upon our return.

For our final meal we had crab, chicken consommé, tortellini, prime rib, and chocolate truffle and parfait for dessert. Denys appeared immediately having remembered our desire to have a drink on the final night; we requested some Veuve Clicquot Demi Sec which is more to our taste, and toasted two weeks engaged and the end of a wonderful voyage. We felt very sad over dinner to be disembarking tomorrow. The entire trip has been amazing, and we will miss this ship greatly. At the end of dinner we said our good-byes to Albert and Eric, and slipped them a tip each. Albert gave DF a hug, and also presented us with the past two weeks’ menus. On our way back to our room we stopped-in at The Verandah to thank the maitre d’ for last night’s dinner. He was very appreciative but his first comment of “I hope you put that on the comment card” annoyed me slightly. I assured him that we did. We also stopped-in to check our OBC total as we wanted to do some shopping later on. Afterwards we went on deck for sail-away. We watched from the bow; it was very crowded. Next we bought a QV tote bag in the shop, and then took some more photos around the Lido pool before returning to the shops to get DF some perfume. When I saw the range of aftershave and prices I wished I’d saved more OBC for it, instead of spending it on wine.

We returned to our stateroom and enjoyed the sunset from our balcony with a glass of champagne. Reluctantly, we packed our suitcases and put them outside, where they were collected immediately. We went up to Hemispheres where I’d wanted a dance in my quest to experience as many venues on the ship as possible, but the place was deserted. A detour to Lido for a final late dessert ensued and then we took some final photos on deck. It was a miserable time. We returned to Hemispheres on our way back and found a better presence, so shared a couple of dances with the Indian couple we had met earlier in the week before retiring to bed.

Day 18 – July 18th, Trieste:

Our final morning! We cleaned the stateroom and packed a carry bag for the day before taking some final photos on our balcony. We were already docked in Trieste, which looked nice enough. On our way out to breakfast in Britannia we met Emy, and said our final good-byes. We also tipped her for her excellent service over the past fortnight. I had double pancakes at breakfast to the amusement of the waiter. Afterwards we proceeded straight to the theatre to await disembarkation. Our meeting time was set at 8:45am, which is when we arrived. We found a staff member announcing that everyone could disembark immediately, no wait! This was good. With heavy hearts we left QV for the final time and collected our luggage in the terminal building. It was very easy to find.

We had booked two nights at Hotel Victoria in town, rather than going straight to the airport. Check-in was not until 2pm but we had pre-arranged storage of our luggage there so we took a taxi to the hotel and dropped it off. They also completed the check-in procedure for later. We then wandered around the city for a few hours, inspecting the Remembrance Gardens, ruins, and old town where we saw many historic buildings. We also recognised various passengers from QV exploring on their own. We wandered down to the waterfront and took some photos with the ship. It was our last time seeing her. Later we found a nice gelataria and also accessed wifi for the first time, which enabled us to contact family. We returned to the hotel, checked-in, and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Day 19 – July 19th, Trieste:

Spent the day relaxing and exploring Trieste again. The hotel has a wonderful wellness spa which we were given full run of.

Day 20 – July 20th, Trieste-Rome:

After breakfast we checked-out and took a taxi to Trieste Airport. This seemed the most convenient option, although was ten times the price of the coach service at 70-something Euros. Incredibly, Cunard were offering transfers direct to the airport from the ship at $389! I’d like to know how many took that offer up. Our Alitalia flight to Rome was full apart from one seat next to DF. Upon arrival we caught the free shuttle service to the Hilton Garden Inn at Fiumicino, where we stayed for the rest of the day.

Day 21 – July 21st, Rome-Abu Dhabi:

We took an early shuttle back to the airport for check-in for our 11am flight to Abu Dhabi. There were extensive delays both at the desk and with the flight. Eventually we departed and arrived in Abu Dhabi sometime around 6pm after an appalling journey. Our next flight to Brisbane was due to leave at 9:30pm, but again there were absurd delays. This flight was better and we more or less made up the time, getting back to Brisbane at 6.30pm on the 22nd, relieved but depressed at what we left behind.

So there you have our comprehensive blog; we hope it held some informative value for members here and gave an overall “feel” of the Cunard/QV experience, not just the ship itself. But to reinforce that, we have also written up a basic review of the voyage, split into various categories for those looking for more specific, recent details on the ship/service. Here it is:

Ship condition:

QV was in splendid shape with absolutely no sign of obvious wear/tear. You would have to be looking very hard (and I’m sure people do) to find anything wrong. All public areas were consistently spotless, with furniture, fixtures and fittings in excellent condition. Of course, carpets, etc. are all new following the recent refit. Our stateroom was faultless, EVERYTHING (including air con/toilet/balcony) in perfect working order and condition. On the second day (Livorno) our balcony railing (and others) was refinished while we were ashore. There was no sign of rust that often is the first thing to be complained about. On the third evening (Monte Carlo), the balcony was professionally cleaned. There were no maintenance issues over the ensuing two weeks. Around the ship, whether at sea or in port, workers were visible performing maintenance on windows, decks, railings, etc., even touching-up the waterline paint in Ajaccio. The only issues we saw over the whole fortnight were two minor leaks inside, one in the Golden Lion and one in a corridor; both were being attended to and disappeared promptly. Everything was consistently cleaned, well-presented and attractive.

Customer service:

This was something we did not have an issue with, although perhaps with both DF and I having had considerable customer service experience ourselves, we have more patience with staff than some passengers. Everyone aboard was always friendly and approachable, especially the dining room staff. Our waiters Albert and Eric were superb and we dearly hope we can be seated with them again on future voyages. These people bend over backwards to satisfy you and anything we asked for was promptly delivered. Double portions or extras (ice cream!) were readily available. Each night the head waiter (lovely lady, can’t remember her name) would attend our table to make sure everything was okay. Tea and coffee and petit fours were offered every night after dessert. True to form, Albert and Eric remembered our preferences and made our dining experience faultless. During the first week there was an elderly lady sitting near us with mobility issues; every night Albert would cut her meat into portions for her. The day head waiter Clara Maurer was a hoot! There was always someone at the door to thank us as we left whether at breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Our sommelier, Denys, was a very polite fellow with a superb knowledge of alcohol. On the first night all he said was, “Do you like dry or sweet?” When we replied “sweet”, he presented a bottle of delicious Schloss Schoenigberg. And so it went, he just knew what would suit our fussy palates. After the second bottle we told him we’d probably not be having anything else until the final night of the voyage; the wine glasses disappeared from the table after that however he came to double-check each night if we needed him. He seemed eager to push more bottles on us but respected our decision not to drink further, and was always friendly and would chat to us about our day. He seemed to be looking after at least half the dining room though, and was always extremely busy. The sommeliers during lunch time were scarcer, not that we needed them.

Nine times out of ten, staff we passed around the ship would wish us “good evening” or say hello. With our stateroom behind the bridge, we saw many officers and most of them acknowledged us, including the commodore and Captain Philpott. Our stewardess, Emy, was extremely polite and positive and if we returned to our stateroom while she was in the middle of housekeeping, would always offer to leave and come back later (we let her get on with it). She always greeted us with a smile each time we passed in the corridor and asked what our plans were. The room was kept spotless and although we didn’t ask for much, she gave the impression that nothing would have been denied. The room service waiters were friendly and always asking DF how she was. Room service was hard to get through to sometimes (I had no idea it was so popular), and the people answering always sounded like they were expecting you to order a dozen items! We did not interact with the bar staff much but everyone seemed to be professional and polite. We witnessed several employees being bawled out by supervisors following complaints so evidently not everyone agreed with us. On the few occasions we visited the Lido a waiter always appeared to take trays and offer drinks. Everyone was very professional in The Verandah although we felt, perhaps because we are young, we were ignored a touch by the older staff. There was a lovely young lady waitress there whom we chatted to about Venice. We thought it was a shame that everyone disappeared towards the end, however as mentioned in the blog it sounded as if there were serious problems in the kitchen. Our white-gloved waiters at afternoon tea were extremely attentive.

We only used the Purser’s desk a couple of times; you could tell that the staffers there were very harassed but with us they were always professional, although I wouldn’t call it White Star Service. The guy whom we dealt with at the tour desk was very funny, an Eastern-European type whose attitude was wonderfully dry. I think we spoke with Laura in the sales office; she was helpful enough. The sports director, Vitor, seemed to be a bit hard on people but I think that was his sense of humour. We were disappointed that he never followed up with us re our scavenger hunt “prize”, but we really couldn’t be bothered with it in the end. The shop assistants did not approach anyone to offer service (not that we really minded) and were content to stand and chat with each other. One of the girls in the apparel store was very nice. While I’m sure everyone has their “off” days, these stories of appalling customer service really don’t ring true to me. I think if anyone on this ship gives truly bad service it is in response to a hostile passenger. Nowhere did we see anyone being treated badly, but we heard plenty of passengers treating staff badly, some absolutely disgustingly to be quite honest…

Food:

What can we say, this was probably what we were looking forward to most when returning to Cunard. As expected we were not disappointed. Firstly, DF and I simply cannot fathom why anyone would complain about the food in Britannia and choose to eat in the Lido instead, apart from convenience in a full schedule. While the Lido is handy outside business hours, we do not come aboard a luxury ship to shun what is basically 5-star dining to eat in a buffet. We understand that buffets are the be-all and end-all for some people on cruise ships but unless the standards are raised to reflect the rest of the ship’s ambience we will eat there sparingly. How some people rate the food here overall better than Britannia is beyond me. Different tastes for different people, I suppose. I did enjoy most of the desserts up there and the made-to-order eggs were good at breakfast, but we did not like to eat things that everyone had picked up, felt, poked, and put back down again before moving on. We are obviously in the minority though because Lido was packed every time we went through there. I am sorry however not to have tried the made-to-order pasta station; I kept forgetting to go up there for that.

Everything in Britannia was gourmet and we would expect to pay a small fortune in a land-based restaurant for such quality dishes. Sadly we have yet to experience the Grills but we were more than happy with the main dining room. All meals were well-presented, decent in size and cooked to perfection. We did not have an issue with any dish. Anything that we didn’t like as much was due to our own fussy tastes, and nothing to do with the preparation or quality of the food. The menu was immense with a large range of options to cater for every taste. The only repetitive dishes were on two of the four formal nights, in separate weeks. I was disappointed that the lobster, duck a’lorange and the other big-ticket meals were only offered together on the one night. I would have liked to try them all but I could not fit them in. The lobster was superb, and the ice cream divine – all of those special flavours! The lunch menu was less expansive. Breakfast was always good with excellent yoghurt and omelettes, and the juice was chilled! We more or less had the same thing every day. DF liked the tea and coffee.

The meal in The Verandah would have to be about the very best we’ve ever had together; everything was the perfect blend of flavours, and the portions quite massive. It was a huge meal. We’ll definitely be going back. Afternoon tea was always delicious but those cakes are so filling! We would limit ourselves so we could fit dinner in. We tried the café once – the food is free. I thought it was pretty good with excellent desserts. The Lido Grill out by the pool was rather standard; we didn’t like the fries but the burgers were okay. I wanted to go back to try some of the other stuff but always forgot. We decided not to sample the alternative Lido dining as we weren’t that interested in the menus to skip what was often the same thing in Britannia. Our other favourite place to eat of course was the Golden Lion – SUPERB food! DF couldn’t get enough of the fish and chips and I wolfed down the ploughman’s sandwiches. I think we tried all but one dish on the menu and they were all great, but we mostly stuck to our favourites. They offer one dessert each day and we only tried one.

Entertainment:

Another thing we were looking forward to sampling aboard QV was the Royal Court Theatre. It is a marvellous creation and we enjoyed it immensely. We watched the shows most nights and our favourites were the in-house productions by the Cunard Singers & Dancers, who are an extremely talented and passionate group of performers. Hollywood Rocks was definitely the highlight for us. The level of professionalism that goes into staging these shows is nothing short of amazing. With a larger stage this Cunard team could do some truly amazing things. The Royal Court Orchestra was always a pleasure to listen to, particularly in other venues around the ship. We loved securing a theatre box most nights to watch the show. The visiting artists (comedians and musicians) were all very good in their own way but in the first week the audience was very lacklustre towards most of them.

I found Sally Sagoe to be a bit over-the-top but it was all in good fun, I suppose. Social hostess Jessica Burke seems a bit quiet and her replacement looked younger than us! We thoroughly enjoyed the music provided by the harpist and string quartet in the dining venues, it made eating there an even greater pleasure. The Queen’s Room Orchestra were very good as well but seemed to repeat many of the same songs each time they performed; likewise for Nexus, whom sounded as though they had a playlist of only ten songs. The pianists were fine; Miriam and Nick the violin/piano duo a pleasure to listen to on the few occasions that they performed.

The daily programme was always full of activities that suited most tastes, however we were often content just to do our own thing. There were always plenty of sporting activities on offer, and loads of trivia/social games. Most passengers however were drawn to the pools and the Lido (and laundrettes!) – these were the only two places consistently busy and most of the time during the day the rest of the ship was deserted, including the restaurant. Because we were always in port the shops and casino were usually closed. Empire seemed to be jumping when it was open and the pub was packed at nights. We always got a seat at the balls in the Queen’s Room; not as popular on this voyage, I think.

Stateroom:

As mentioned, we selected stateroom 8001. This is on the starboard side of the ship, forward directly behind the bridge on the highest accommodation deck. It is identical to balcony-grade staterooms on QM2 apart from the bathroom, which is configured differently but more-or-less the same size. It is ample for a two-week stay. I’ve already mentioned that everything was spotless and functioned perfectly. The bar fridge was a bit too small but we managed. We should have asked for more wardrobe hangers but never thought about it. The coat/hat hooks are a convenient touch. The twin mattresses pushed together to make a king always annoys us but it’s the same everywhere, so we’ve learnt to live with it! The door to the bridge is opposite the stateroom door. Occasionally someone could be heard stomping out of there, and occasionally the hysterical children in the inside cabins could be heard running down the corridor, but apart from that it was silent. The only other thing we heard was our neighbour’s balcony door groaning shut every hour-or-so.

To the left of 8001 is an identical balcony cabin belonging to an unknown officer. It has a sun lounger on the balcony but we never saw/heard anyone there, but noticed the light on sometimes. After that is an open deck area with a door into the bridge. You can see straight into the starboard lookout wing and often we would watch the officers going about their business as we came into/left port. Directly above is a section of the Spa. We had no problem with motion in the room apart from that morning in the first week with the mistral; it was pretty bad throughout the whole ship so I couldn’t necessarily say it was worse being so far forward, but it probably was. Oh, and we were given two turn-down chocolates every night.

Dress code:

It was all extremely casual around the ship during the day (as befitting the weather, of course), right down to baseball caps and thongs in the theatre for the Insight lectures. In the evening, the majority of people complied (especially in the dining room) however there was the usual flaunting of the rules in the other public areas, particularly the theatre and casino. On one formal evening, someone forgot to change the dress code notice leading into the Queen’s Room from the previous night (informal), and we saw a couple of non-English-speaking men in shirts and shorts looking at it getting very angry. Oops! Tuxedos and gowns were in abundance on the formal nights. We did not like that people came into the theatre in casual clothes at night and proceeded to look around at everyone else in proper attire and laugh. I made an effort to dress suitably for lunch and afternoon tea and was often looked like I was from another planet, although it was plain to see that the staff appreciated it. I just cannot attend white-gloved afternoon tea (or lunch for that matter) in casual clothes in such surroundings. Sorry, but it’s just me! We did hear of one American girl being refused entry into Lido for wearing swimwear (she didn’t mind), but apart from that there appeared to be no policing of the dress code at all.

And that’s it; hopefully that review has covered everything. If anyone has any questions about QV please ask and I’ll try to answer them as best I can. In our opinions nobody boarding QV anytime soon has anything to worry about and you should all have a fantastic time – it was absolutely brilliant for us and we can’t wait to get back aboard! Thank you for your interest. :)

Thanks so much for your fantastic review.

Congratulations on your engagement, have fun planning your wedding.

One of the best and informative reviews I've ever read . Well done and congratulations on your engagement.

I just love your observations of folks in the laundrette :D It does my head in too, when another guest will insist on ironing a van load of stuff at around 6.30pm just as everyone is preparing to dress for the evening and may want to quickly press a few creases out of the back side of their Tux or evening gown !

A great review and some valuable information.

Congratulations on your engagement.

right down to baseball caps and thongs in the theatre for the Insight lectures.

I take it by thongs you mean flip-flop shoes? It can have a different meaning for some. :o :)

Congratulations on your engagement, and thank you for this interesting and engaging review. Love your asides about the laundry and your fellow passengers!

Thanks again

Scarlet

Thank you everyone for your kind comments and well-wishes!

I take it by thongs you mean flip-flop shoes? It can have a different meaning for some. :o :)

Yes, indeed. I was on the verge of putting "flip-flops" instead for the benefit of non-Australians but decided just to go with our term. :p I would not have been surprised though to see someone turn up in the other version somewhere at some stage!

Thank you for the great review. I think Cunard is definitely before us. You don't mention children in your review? Do i assume there wasn't many on board? Congratulations on your engagement[emoji183]

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Thanks for taking the time to write such a comprehensive journal and cruise summary.

The photos were the icing on a very rich cake.

Great review!

Norris

Wow. Thanks for that & Congratulations. Queen Victoria is the only one which we haven't met yet, so she may be next!

we did the first 1/2 of your cruise. Factual write up.

I would vote for Cunnard to shorten the Cinque Terre shore trip. Far too much free time there , nothing to do, packed with people, hot, and tour is far too long (8;30 am to almost 7 PM) .

I guess each of the cities wants the tourists to visit them.

I would think the Cinque Terre (like a lot of these destinations) are probably best visited outside the hottest months of the year, we went in September (on a land based trip) and it was still busy & warm.

And funnily enough the comedian on our adonia cruise was also john Evans and the crowd were the same! We thought he was good though,not smutty

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What a marvellous review and it echoes our thoughts in so many ways. We were on the 5 th June Rome to Venice and loved every second.

Thank you for the great review. I think Cunard is definitely before us. You don't mention children in your review? Do i assume there wasn't many on board? Congratulations on your engagement

Thanks very much. Looking back over the blog I forgot to mention a few things, actually. There were probably at least a hundred children aboard both weeks, most under 10. Every time we walked past the kids' room on Deck 10 it was well-attended. Their favourite hang-out though is the table-tennis area on Deck 9 outside the Royal Spa. They play there together day and night! I believe due to the summer holidays and (ultimately) cheap fares many families decided to make the voyage. Outside of summer I would say the ratio of children drops dramatically.

Apart from families it would have mainly been middle-aged passengers aboard too, not as many older couples as you'd expect.

we did the first 1/2 of your cruise. Factual write up.

I would vote for Cunnard to shorten the Cinque Terre shore trip. Far too much free time there , nothing to do, packed with people, hot, and tour is far too long (8;30 am to almost 7 PM) .

I guess each of the cities wants the tourists to visit them.

Yes, we agree that there was too much free time in Monterosso and Vernazza (middle and last stops). They should have got us onto the train to the other middle village, or something like that. And Host Hattie is right, the time of year is not a good opportunity to see Cinque Terre. We both thought it was all very beautiful of course, but the experience was spoilt by the crushing crowds. We would have enjoyed it far more at a different time.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a comprehensive journal and cruise summary.

 

The photos were the icing on a very rich cake.

 

Great review!

Thanks Norris, we took over 5500 photos so it's a hard job deciding what to share. :p

Thanks for your response, we are looking at the same cruise for next year. Unfortunately I'm a teacher so we have to go in school holidays but Cunard don't seem to make a point of advertising child facilities on their website so I think it's probably not as bad as other companies during the school holiday, would I be right in saying that? We just don't want children running around or screaming at dinner of splashing us in the pool. Are there suitable places for adults to escape this?

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Thanks for your response, we are looking at the same cruise for next year. Unfortunately I'm a teacher so we have to go in school holidays but Cunard don't seem to make a point of advertising child facilities on their website so I think it's probably not as bad as other companies during the school holiday, would I be right in saying that? We just don't want children running around or screaming at dinner of splashing us in the pool. Are there suitable places for adults to escape this?

Cunard would easily be the best of the lot, that's for sure. I don't think we witnessed any children running around the pool and so on (although we weren't out there much), they all seemed quite well-behaved. The pool and sports areas on deck were the only places we really ever saw them, they definitely do not hang out inside on the lower decks!

That's great. I'm definitely sold on Cunard and after watching a documentary on bbc last night and a good look at the website I think my partner is too. There's actually two cruises available for us so now to choose which one!

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That's great. I'm definitely sold on Cunard and after watching a documentary on bbc last night and a good look at the website I think my partner is too. There's actually two cruises available for us so now to choose which one!

Excellent, you won't be sorry, trust me! It is a magnificent line and you'll have such a wonderful time.

Yes, we agree that there was too much free time in Monterosso and Vernazza (middle and last stops). They should have got us onto the train to the other middle village, or something like that. And Host Hattie is right, the time of year is not a good opportunity to see Cinque Terre. We both thought it was all very beautiful of course, but the experience was spoilt by the crushing crowds. We would have enjoyed it far more at a different time.

is Cinque terre a beach the Itallians actually use? seemed too small, and rocky. or is it a tourist mainly area.

The attraction isn't the beach, it's the villages themselves and the walks between them.

is Cinque terre a beach the Itallians actually use? seemed too small, and rocky. or is it a tourist mainly area.

Every beach, rock, jetty, etc. was jammed full of people when we were there. According to our tour guide a great many of the visitors are Italian.

Top notch review! thank you. took some notes for our QV cruise Oct 17 2015.