Review of QE513 - Mediterranean

QE Review

This is my review of my recent QE cruise to the Mediterranean.

Firstly I have to say that I nearly didn't book QE at all because someone on CC had posted that the noise from the adjacent cabin was unbearable, in particular the TV noise. I was extremely worried about this but it was totally unfounded, there is no noise from adjacent cabins, occasionally you can hear the thud of the balcony door shutting as someone allows it to slam shut (the doors are very heavy indeed!)

This was our first recreational cruise, my partner had previously sailed as part of a military work role and was hence quite apprehensive of cruising for pleasure!

We arrived at Southampton to a slick if fairly basic embarkation process, but it did the job effectively! There are no embellishments to this process just a system to get you and your luggage on board as quickly as possible.

We were delighted with our cabin, an early saver fare booked at BC then upgraded to BB. It was spacious, extremely well decorated and of high quality. There was plenty of space for enough clothes for more than a 2 week cruise and I had packed 8 pairs of shoes, 6 handbags and 8 evening dresses, as well as an assortment of day clothing. You really don't need to take your own hangers and other more complicated storage devices as suggested such as magnetic devices and over door hangers!

The food in the Britannia restaurant is excellent, I am actually a mystery diner in the UK for a large company that assesses many different food providers. Thus, I am a fairly rigorous and difficult customer to provide for! The food and service was superb. I had some memorable and amazing dishes, particularly considering the number that each sitting has to provide for. Of particular merit was the pigeon, each and every steak, and the steamed sea bass.

We did eat in the Verandah restaurant for dinner on my husbands birthday and selected the tasting menu. It was amazing. Try it at least once in your cruise. I had pre-booked this via Voyage personaliser, so didn't have any trouble with booking this.

We also enjoyed the variety of food in the Lido. Breakfast offered just about every combination of food imaginable including freshly made omlettes cooked to order, smoked salmon, cooked breakfast etc. There were also 4 different stations of fruit, the first offered whole fruit, apples, oranges, bananas, the second trays of cut fresh fruit such as melon and pineapple, the third bowls of freshly prepared fruit salad which included grapes and strawberries and a fourth section with prunes and other dried fruit. I was pleased to see a section for those with allergies containing a whole range of products including almond milk, rice cakes and gluten free products.

The ship is truly beautiful. It's appearance in dock is just stunning, outside areas are all well kept and immaculately clean. A minor gripe is that a few passengers do not remove their towels when vacating a sunbed this leaves the towel for the deck hand to remove and other passengers unsure if the sunbed is free or not.

We found staff to be pleasant and polite, in particular your own staff (cabin, Britannia waiters, sommeliers ) to be excellent. We built a good rapport with them. Other cabin staff always greeted us warmly. staff serving in the deck bar, the commodore club were always very nice and efficient. Sometimes in the Lido staff clearing the tables did seem to be chatting to each other a little too much. I guess this is a rather boring shift of work to do.

We met some very pleasant people on board, both our fellow Britannia guests and ad hoc guests in the Lido and on deck. Occasionally we were shocked by the lack of good manners shown by fellow passengers. I had not expected this at all. For example if I held a door open for the guest behind me, some did not even thank us for this but just blatantly walked through. Similarly this happened when waiting for guests to come up or down stairs, most people smiled or acknowledged this, a few would just ignore this gesture. I did wonder if they treated fellow guest like this, how they would treat the crew!

I was lucky enough to have planned a special surprise for my partner, with the excellent co-operation of the Pursers staff (in particular John) and the Captains secretary (Amy) as well as Tim Trevorne I am pleased to report a very successful outcome to this. This surprise has created very special memories indeed.

Cunard is a grown up cruise line offering a high quality experience. There is plenty to do on board. Food choices are so varied that there is something for even the fussiest guests to eat. Cocktails and drinks were good value, bottles of wine less so, hence the discussions about taking wine onboard in previous threads. I am looking forward to booking our next voyage!

Excellent review, very enjoyable to read :) . So very pleased you both had such a memorable time on board. Thank you for taking the time to come back and report about your cruise.

I would echo every single word of what you say, I also thoroughly enjoyed my time on board Queen Elizabeth, and a friend completed a full world-cruise on her this year (almost four months), and is back on board for a cruise next month (also in the Mediterranean), so you could say he was impressed with QE as well!

Thank you again, try QE's big sister, my favourite, QM2, next time :) .

I hope all your future cruises are as successful as this one, many happy sailings.

Thanks so much for taking the time to post your review. I'm glad you enjoyed your trip.

I also appreciated reading your comprehensive review. Thank you for sharing your experience with us!

I don't remember ever seeing pigeon as a menu selection during any of our days on a Cunard ship. Maybe, this was something that is only offered on European voyages ??? It sounds like food selections were both varied and appealing.

Happy that your cruise was so satisfying for you and your partner!

Jimmybean

Aww just having a little reminisce over our QE cruise last summer - I found the menu, it was actually Red legged Partridge and it was amazing! I hope the food on our upcoming Celebrity Cruise will be as good.

Thank you for the review, getting excited now, as we are on her next week, sadly only for 7 nights!

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Aww just having a little reminisce over our QE cruise last summer - I found the menu, it was actually Red legged Partridge and it was amazing! I hope the food on our upcoming Celebrity Cruise will be as good.

Please come back and let us know.

I enjoyed reading your review...having sailed on QM2 and QV I am very keen to 'try' QE.

Thank you for your insights.