Back on Queen Victoria

[3rdGenCunarder]

10 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

A tip.

If the lifts are busy, go up to go down and down to go up if an empty lift comes your way, and remember, it's ding dong down and ding for up. 🙂

 

Useful strategy in hotels, too, especially around check-out time. 

 

I never noticed that the chimes were different for up and down!

[Victoria2]

44 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

Useful strategy in hotels, too, especially around check-out time. 

 

I never noticed that the chimes were different for up and down!

They are on QV.  Can't remember for the other two ships.

[ballroom-cruisers]

They are different for up and down on all the ships' lifts (elevators for US passengers).

[Mickb]

Thank you Victoria 2 for your very comprehensive review. Like you, QV is far our favourite Cunarder and it sounds as if she is better than ever. If a ship had a soul……..We have had to postpone our cruise booked for this autumn due to illness and have transferred to QA for next year. Feel very disloyal but we couldn’t  find a QV cruise that suited when we wanted to go.

Glad you had such a good time 

[daisybel]

Thank you for your information, it’s always very entertaining and useful. We had a deck 8 newly refurbished corner and Iwould have to agree , while looking beautiful, the design was most impratical .  QV always our favourite but due to medical issue , no overseas travel , so now closer to home on QE and Q2. Glad you enjoyed the food, can you tell me who was  the M’d  in QG?

 

[MrsPeel55]

8 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

Useful strategy in hotels, too, especially around check-out time. 

 

I never noticed that the chimes were different for up and down!

 

add hospitals to that!!! LOL

🤣

(at least in London ones!)

[LibertyBella]

It sounds like you had a great time--thank you for sharing!

 

Just booked QV for next Summer,  August 2024 for a Med cruise. Yes, we are on deck seven (smile)! We are certainly looking forward to a wonderful cruise, and we are eager to see how the decor differs from the QM2, as we just love the QM2.  

[Victoria2]

7 hours ago, daisybel said:

Thank you for your information, it’s always very entertaining and useful. We had a deck 8 newly refurbished corner and Iwould have to agree , while looking beautiful, the design was most impratical .  QV always our favourite but due to medical issue , no overseas travel , so now closer to home on QE and Q2. Glad you enjoyed the food, can you tell me who was  the M’d  in QG?

 

M'D is Ico at the moment and not sure when he goes on leave as he was there May/June too, but he will be there in Nov.

[Victoria2]

15 minutes ago, LibertyBella said:

It sounds like you had a great time--thank you for sharing!

 

Just booked QV for next Summer,  August 2024 for a Med cruise. Yes, we are on deck seven (smile)! We are certainly looking forward to a wonderful cruise, and we are eager to see how the decor differs from the QM2, as we just love the QM2.  

Never having tasted the delights of  QM2 QG I can not compare the QG experience, but I can the ships and they are both very different. QV is a cruise ship. A very friendly, non stuffy and no faded elegance reminding you of Great Aunt Tabitha's sitting room, cruise ship. Can you tell QM2 doesn't impress me one bit?  😄

[LadyL1]

1 hour ago, Victoria2 said:

M'D is Ico at the moment and not sure when he goes on leave as he was there May/June too, but he will be there in Nov.

Good to know, and looking forward to November!

[daisybel]

Thank you, thought he was on QE? But that was a while back Hecwas always very helpful

[Petulia]

Many thanks @Victoria2 for sharing your cruise with us on the QV and your subsequent ‘musings’ . It’s a ship we enjoy sailing on so always good to see positive reviews and also bring back memories of our own cruises…which wasn’t that long ago for us. Lol

[rmsEtruria]

9 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

Never having tasted the delights of  QM2 QG I can not compare the QG experience, but I can the ships and they are both very different. QV is a cruise ship. A very friendly, non stuffy and no faded elegance reminding you of Great Aunt Tabitha's sitting room, cruise ship. Can you tell QM2 doesn't impress me one bit?  😄

After reading this board avidly for the past several months, this comes as a complete surprise . . . ! 😉

[Victoria2]

32 minutes ago, rmsEtruria said:

After reading this board avidly for the past several months, this comes as a complete surprise . . . ! 😉

Yeah, right!!!

My love of the ship has been mentioned before! 😁

[tacticalbanjo]

On 8/8/2023 at 7:34 AM, Victoria2 said:

Never having tasted the delights of  QM2 QG I can not compare the QG experience, but I can the ships and they are both very different. QV is a cruise ship. A very friendly, non stuffy and no faded elegance reminding you of Great Aunt Tabitha's sitting room, cruise ship. Can you tell QM2 doesn't impress me one bit?  😄

Oi, keep your mouth off my beloved QM2! 😆 Even though I prefer QV in almost all points (except the Golden Lion, QM2's is much nicer) I just can't help loving the QM2. She's rusty and her layout is downright confusing but I love TAs so much that I can't help but feel happy when I'm on board. Although come to think of it, maybe the Great Aunt's sitting room vibes are what makes her feel so comforting!

[Victoria2]

3 minutes ago, tacticalbanjo said:

Oi, keep your mouth off my beloved QM2! 😆 Even though I prefer QV in almost all points (except the Golden Lion, QM2's is much nicer) I just can't help loving the QM2. She's rusty and her layout is downright confusing but I love TAs so much that I can't help but feel happy when I'm on board. Although come to think of it, maybe the Great Aunt's sitting room vibes are what makes her feel so comforting!

OOOPs, sorry...not 😄

 

You are very welcome to your ship and many have to love her for her to be so popular. I'll stick to Aunt Tabitha's more up to date sitting room and leave the Great Aunts to you and those who love 'The Mary'. 😄

[exlondoner]

I love both ships, but I think much of QV’s decor is much more darkly Victorian (appropriately) than that on QM2. 

[Victoria2]

1 minute ago, exlondoner said:

I love both ships, but I think much of QV’s decor is much more darkly Victorian (appropriately) than that on QM2. 

Interesting.

I call it elegant rather than of the Victorian era. Victorian to me is The Mary. 🙂

[exlondoner]

7 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

Interesting.

I call it elegant rather than of the Victorian era. Victorian to me is The Mary. 🙂

What with all those zany brass panels? I dislike the Grills Lounge on QM2, but wouldn’t describe it as Victorian in any way. I must say the ship I like best is QE with her rather lighter and more art deco decor.When will she come back to Southampton?

[Victoria2]

5 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

What with all those zany brass panels? I dislike the Grills Lounge on QM2, but wouldn’t describe it as Victorian in any way. I must say the ship I like best is QE with her rather lighter and more art deco decor.When will she come back to Southampton?

Not sure which QV  zany panels but the ones I'm thinking of on deck two are Art Deco.

 

Never been in the lounge on QM2 and I was referring to the general ship ambiance for me and not any particular part of her.

 

Victorian decor to me is fussy.  but each to their own as is often said.

[exlondoner]

No, I was referring to the very un-Victorian panels on QM2. I don’t think her ambience is fussy at all. She is too big to be fussy, indeed if anything she is stark. Again, the size is one of the things I like about the smaller Vistas, that nowhere is too far away.

[Victoria2]

34 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

No, I was referring to the very un-Victorian panels on QM2. I don’t think her ambience is fussy at all. She is too big to be fussy, indeed if anything she is stark. Again, the size is one of the things I like about the smaller Vistas, that nowhere is too far away.

Ha, we obviously don't have the same dictionary!  😄

[tacticalbanjo]

It's strange how something as nebulous as ambience makes such a huge difference. And it can change trip to trip. We did a Baltics cruise a few years back on QE which was about 70% Australian passengers and the atmosphere was so different compared to the Canaries trip we'd taken just 6 months before. Much more lively in the bars - not that the Canaries trip was quiet given most of the ship had vast quantities of OBC - and we had so much fun. Those memories make up how you see a ship - I still think of QE as being a bit of a party ship.

 

I did a trip on QV with a family member who did nothing but complain the whole time and it tainted how I saw the ship for a long time. But now when I think about the QV I start to think about both staff and passengers fussing over my little girl, the cute little dresses she wore for dinner, the first time my little girl put her feet in the sand. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll think about her as the ship which took me to see the Northern Lights.

[foodsvcmgr]

Expanding their passenger base is not in itself a bad idea, but any changes or additional facilities unique to the new ship need to be very thoroughly communicated.

Most cruise lines today are operating a fairly wide variety of ships built over a 20-30 year span and what is offered on the newest is not always available on the older units of their fleet.

Communication is key as unrealistic expectations create disappointment.

What Cunard would do well to avoid is offering completely different experiences ship to ship, recall Cunard Crown Dynasty operating simultaneously with QE2 and Sagafjord……

[NE John]

3 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

Ha, we obviously don't have the same dictionary!  😄

You have the admit the QM2 has a nicer Aft vs either QV/QE! 
I need to get on QV though and a Norway trip looks perfect to do so. 

Edited August 9, 2023 by NE John