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Queen Elizabeth - Honest Opinion


Faival
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I do think that one's opinion of a ship is highly subjective, and I love QE, so I will try to be objective too.

 

The ship itself is beautiful. It is easy to find your way around, it has a great promenade deck if you like walking, and the public rooms are well laid out and never seem too crowded.

 

We have eaten in all 4 of the dining rooms, and although I must say the Grills are the nicest, we have had excellent food and service in all 4, and I love the layout of them all. If you are going to be in the Britannia dining room, my favorite tables are those on deck 2 close to a window. I love watching the world go by while I eat.

 

The cabins are well laid out, but the bathrooms are very small in Britannia and Britannia club - we always bring a shower caddy with us as there is not enough room for all of my hair products, but it does reduce the available space in an already ridiculously small shower, with an annoying shower curtain.

 

We have found the staff to be wonderful on all of our cruises on QE, could not ask for better.

 

The enrichment programs we have experienced have all been very interesting. I enjoy the production shows, but have not always liked the other entertainers - we have had some comedians and singers that were simply not to my taste - but that is very subjective.

 

I would book another trip on her in an instant if there was an itinerary I wanted to do :)

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I have to agree with everything safarigal has said (with the exception of the bit about "hair products"; hair is a distant memory for me :D . But the showers are small).

 

I was onboard QE in February-March this year and couldn't find fault with the ship, or the service.

 

If you use the link below you'll find photos of her interiors.

 

I'd book QE again, without hesitation.

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Although QE is my personal least favourite of the three, I would not hesitate to book on her again. I suppose it’s not so much I like QE less, but that I like QV and QM2 more.

 

 

QM2, of course, is completely different, so much more spacious and quite unique, and QV somehow, has a more united atmosphere on board and just gels better - in my opinion. But that hasn't stopped us booking several trips on QE, and we shall continue to do so.

 

 

If you like the itinerary, go ahead and book.

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We have only been on QE twice, once in Princess Grill and once in Queens Grill (upgraded), both were superb experiences, and we loved it. Its a very subjective subject, we go on a cruise to chill out, and we enjoyed the ambience, service and food tremendously. We would go again in a shot, but age, health and mainly getting travel insurance for 2 old crocks means we have very reluctantly given up cruising.

 

We have had 41 cruise, over 400 days at sea, and without doubt QE grills was the best experience. Go for the best cabin your can afford, we started in an inside cabin on QE2 in 1991, and ended up in a Q3 on QE last December.

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We were generally delighted with QE last August in Britannia... we both felt the cuisine, service and attentiveness of the crew there and throughout the ship (with one exception, see below) was really good. And for what we paid, excellent value for money. The ship's layout (unlike QM2's hedge maze design) was rational and easy to navigate and the range of deck spaces and public rooms very good indeed. We had a min grade obstructed view balcony and it was more than fine with a lot more hanging space than comparable cabins on other ships. The bathroom was... adequate.

 

Our only complaints frankly were the open deck areas and deck service. The decks looked a tip with heaps of used towels, chairs dragged hither and yon and the deck "service" was a big zero. So bad, it prompted us frankly to book Princess Grill for this August just for the much nicer (we hope!) private deck space.

 

Oh and you better like brown and beige and every shade in between.... QE is going in for a big (and needed) refit in November and hopefully the decorators will discover other colours in the palette.

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We did our first cruise on QE last year and immediately booked for this year on our return. The pillows are too soft for my liking and the shower curtain is a nuisance but everything else was lovely. If you are big on entertainment QE's probably isn't the best but (as already stated) this is subjective. kohl57 is right - the decor is a bit 'beige' but we didn't have the open deck problem he experienced. We were a month later travelling than kohl57 - so maybe someone had already complained and it had been fixed?

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To chime in, I’ve been on QE several times and she is my fave after QM2. I’ve done 2 Med cruises and I made her Maiden T/A in the winter-we came over with QV and we were rocking and rolling! Two years ago I did the entire World Cruise on QE-Southampton to Southampton and loved every minute of it. The land tours in China, Cambodia and India were FAB. She is beautiful, the staff are excellent, the food good to excellent. I’m booked again in 2020 in the Far East-can’t wait:D:D

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We did our first cruise on QE last year and immediately booked for this year on our return. The pillows are too soft for my liking and the shower curtain is a nuisance but everything else was lovely. If you are big on entertainment QE's probably isn't the best but (as already stated) this is subjective. kohl57 is right - the decor is a bit 'beige' but we didn't have the open deck problem he experienced. We were a month later travelling than kohl57 - so maybe someone had already complained and it had been fixed?

 

 

Yes... me! And I believe quite a few others....

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She's a beautiful ship .We also love QE and have also booked the Far East for 2020 - looking forward to playing bowls on the bowling green and also croquet (after a fashion.)

Do book it - you will have a marvellous time and won't regret it.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Are there any larger shower facilities available in the gym? If so do they have shower curtains?
Yes, and they have a sauna free to use also.A facility I wasn't aware of until I sailed in April.It was a pleasant surprise,cheers,Brian.
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Thank you Brian for responding to my question. I am still not clear if the larger shower room in the gym will have individual showers with curtains, or is a locker room style shower with little privacy.

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I have been reading the reviews. Somehow get the impression most of the reviewers did part of the world cruise and their expectations were not line with the reality. For several it went downhill as they continued to criticise other matters too. Completely in contrast with for example the wonderful blogs of Safarigal.

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Thank you Brian for responding to my question. I am still not clear if the larger shower room in the gym will have individual showers with curtains, or is a locker room style shower with little privacy.
Hi,sorry,yes they are individual cubicles with curtains,cheers,Brian.
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I have been reading the reviews. Somehow get the impression most of the reviewers did part of the world cruise and their expectations were not line with the reality. For several it went downhill as they continued to criticise other matters too. Completely in contrast with for example the wonderful blogs of Safarigal.
We were on most of the same sector as Safarigal and agree with all the comments on her blog.The fake news that no hot and cold canopays are no longer served on Cunard is not the case on QE.The wait staff in Commodore club were superb with one tray after another being offered.Regarding bad service in the pub and club,not true,the secret is to make yourself known as soon as you walk in.A simple smile or thumbs up goes a long way.You are then on the radar,lol,cheers,Brian.
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We are seriously considering booking for 2019 Alaska, but are concerned by some poor recent reviews.Can anyone reassure us with an honest opinion.

 

You will get different views from which class the person travelled, but from someone who last travelled in steerage my view is -

 

The ship looks good from outside, but inside there is nothing spectacular about the decoration of the ship with large parts being a naff 1970s beige. Cabin was adequate.

 

Food in the Britannia dining room was fine, but nothing memorable. Service in the MDR in the evenings was good, but at lunchtimes and breakfast was occasionally very poor. Buffet was slightly better than most ship's buffets, but the Golden Lion pub was sub-par. Afternoon tea was an awful factory production line affair.

 

Bar staff throughout were sullen and overworked, with many people complaining about the delay between ordering and receiving their drinks. Canapés frequently only appeared after you questioned where they were.

 

Entertainment was OK and the speakers were mostly quite interesting.

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You will get different views from which class the person travelled, but from someone who last travelled in steerage my view is -

 

The ship looks good from outside, but inside there is nothing spectacular about the decoration of the ship with large parts being a naff 1970s beige. Cabin was adequate.

 

Food in the Britannia dining room was fine, but nothing memorable. Service in the MDR in the evenings was good, but at lunchtimes and breakfast was occasionally very poor. Buffet was slightly better than most ship's buffets, but the Golden Lion pub was sub-par. Afternoon tea was an awful factory production line affair.

 

Bar staff throughout were sullen and overworked, with many people complaining about the delay between ordering and receiving their drinks. Canapés frequently only appeared after you questioned where they were.

 

Entertainment was OK and the speakers were mostly quite interesting.

 

Would you like to share with us what cruise Line or ship you have been happy with .Your history of posts always appear to be negative . ;)

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We have cruised in QE over 300 nights, and quite like her. QM2 is my favourite but QE has been the ship we have sailed on the most in recent times.

We were onboard two weeks ago and the ship had a better feel about it than it did on our previous cruise, when we found the ship lacking in atmosphere.

After a break away from her we went back on QM2 but having just returned we were pleased to find things were back to normal.

The staff are very friendly and many of them have been onboard since they moved from from QE2.

This Food in Britannia was better than we had on QM2 last Christmas and yes, they were serving hot canapés which they were not on QM2 and friends told me they still are not serving them on QM2. No idea why this is.

The ship is getting a bit tired looking but is due for refreshing.

The things I found not to my liking this last trip were the pillows which are not the ones that Cunard used to have. I noticed the same on QM2 also .

Seems the days have gone where the bed had large metre square pillows, regular size ones, and bolster pillows, plus a small cushion with a yellow cover.

Now it is one metre square and an awful long soft thing that felt like it was filled with cut up pieces of foam. We had the same on QM2 . Cutting back on bedding. The towels have shrunk in size as well. No big bath sheets, just small bath size .

The shower cubicle is tiny and no space for hair products.

I often take a sauna and use the facilities in the ladies changing room. Here you get a large shower. One with a seat for disabled guests. The toiletries are from Canyon Ranch and there are large bottles of excellent hair conditioner to use and sun screen, and even mouth wash and razors. So check out the sauna showers.

QE is a nice ship with friendly staff and I can not really fault her but she could do with some new colour schemes as she is looking drab. I am sure you will enjoy your time onboard.

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The QE is my favourite ship to be on and I just got off her a few days ago.

She is in dry dock in November and certainly needs a paint job as she is getting rusty in places (to be expected though).

 

The Golden Lion pub was sub-par. Afternoon tea was an awful factory production line affair.

Sorry, I can't agree with this. The fish and chips are to die for and the service was excellent.

How many cruise lines serve afternoon tea in the dance room with waiters serving you with white gloves? Or perhaps you are referring to the Lido - where some days last week there were small tubs of genuine clotted cream to be had.

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The QE is my favourite ship to be on and I just got off her a few days ago.

She is in dry dock in November and certainly needs a paint job as she is getting rusty in places (to be expected though).

 

Sorry, I can't agree with this. The fish and chips are to die for and the service was excellent.

How many cruise lines serve afternoon tea in the dance room with waiters serving you with white gloves? Or perhaps you are referring to the Lido - where some days last week there were small tubs of genuine clotted cream to be had.

 

Totally agree with you on all your comments. Just would like to add, the fish N Chips are good and if anyone like myself prefers the fish unbattered they will cook it without the batter.

Afternoon tea is a lovely experience and I go at least once every cruise . I love to sit and listen to the harpist and have a nice pot of Earl Grey tea. I do not often eat anything as we usually have lunch in the dining room, but you can still go and people watch listen to the music and enjoy the delicious scones and cakes. It is quite special.

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