It’s always sad to be leaving the ship, more so when you’ve been having an excellent cruise. Typically we slept in on our last morning, breakfast was an early affair ending at 08:30 so it was a bit of a rush getting in the shower, dressed and everything stashed in the hand luggage and ready for our 09:30 departure.
The breakfast menu is more limited for disembarkation, missing the many eggs benedict variations but that didn’t matter as I had planned to have my second ‘Full English’ of the cruise which was delicious and fortified me for the journey home. We said goodby to our tablemates who have been a pleasure to dine with and headed back to the room to collect our hand luggage. While we were doing that it was announced we could disembark so it was straight off the ship, slowly. We got off the ship very quickly and the got stuck behind several very slow passengers who took up the whole width of the corridor and we were unable to pass them, but we did eventually get to our bags. I knew they were in the luggage hall as they had Apple airtags in them, finding them was another thing. I found the purple one are and quickly retrieved all but one, but the last proved elusive until I realised purple one stretched ever the aisle as well.
Collecting the car from CPS was quick and painless and it wasn’t long before we were on our way.
Thoughts on the cruise
We had an excellent cruise on Queen Anne, she’s a beautiful ship and has many things about her to like as well as a few “niggles” shall we say?
Pros
- The weather was fantastic for this cruise, you couldn’t have asked for better, there was a little movement on the first night, but after that we had a flat calm for the whole cruise. The sun shone relentlessly and although not cozzie weather, it was warm in the sun ranging to hot when on the balcony and out of any wind.
- The outside space is wonderful, loads of deck area for sunbathing and plenty of loungers available. There’s lots of little hide-aways where you can escape the crowds if required.
- There are a lot of bars on the ship, a varied selection from the sophistication of the Commodore Club and Chart Room to the fantastic views of the Sky Bar.
- The power/charging options in the stateroom are now in the 21st century with bedside USB chargers (both USB A and C) as well as US and UK power sockets. The lighting was also very good with lots of different ways to light the room. Also the swipe card entry was easier to use than the other Queens
- The stateroom now has a fully interactive TV system, the interface is a bit clunky, but everything is there. You can see your bill in real-ish time, the ship’s position, weather forecasts and loads of onboard information. There’s a lots of movies and boxed sets available as well as the usual live TV and recorded insights lectures. The only thing I couldn’t find was the live stream of the evening show from the theatre.
- The PG shower is a revelation, as a walk-in shower it was a massive improvement on all the other Queens
- The Pavilion was an excellent area, I was dubious about the giant screen, but it worked well for both silent showings (headphones provided) and for showing of concerts, both Queen and The Who (no headphones). The Gelateria was a massive temptation and the Grill provided an excellent selection of burgers and dogs. I can’t comment on the Wellness Cafe as I never tried it, but it seemed to be well used. The seating around the Pavillion also provided comfortable seating.
- Bright Lights, I thought this was brilliant nonsense, I’m not sure I’d revisit it once seen, but I think it’s a must for the first time on Anne.
- Insight lectures, as always, are both entertaining and informative. I’m usually not a fan of the celebrity chats but both Darren Campbell and my new bestie Nicki Chapman were excellent.
Cons
- In the PG stateroom the hanging space was inadequate, even for a 14 night cruise. Everything was squashed together and all of my shirts came out of the wardrobe creased. The balcony was very small and wasn’t easy for two people to sit in the sun unless it was fully in front of the balcony. There were also no coat-hooks, which meant my outside coat took up more of the inadequate space in the wardrobe.
- Seating in general is awful, uncomfortable chairs throughout the ship, usually too upright, but sometimes with a sloping back which slid you off the seat, always too low. Don’t even get me started on the Grills Lounge, dark & gloomy during the day with no view and some of the most uncomfortable seats on the ship.
- What were they thinking of, putting school hall chairs in the Queens Room
- The Grills Terrace blocks the flow of traffic getting from the very busy Panorama Pool area to the Sky bar and forward deck areas when travelling over the upper deck. This necessitates going down two decks and across to get to your destination. You can’t even get there via deck nine and the Artisan Buffet as there some blockage at Ali Waj/Sir Samuels
- The cocktail menus in each bar only lists themed cocktails for that bar and not all of the available ones, so you are never sure if the barman can make what you want, or what it will cost and if you like to peruse the list before deciding that option is not available to you. Also no coffee menu in the Carinthia Cafe, I didn’t understand that at all.