Returned from our cruise on Saturday morning, what a wonderful experience and fabulous holiday. The two nights in Rome prior to the cruise, the cruise itself from Rome to Venice calling at Corfu and Kotor and the final day/night at an hotel in Venice was excellent value for money. We also had a bonus on the holiday in the form of making new friends.

It was a truly amazing experience and well done Cunard.

I know on a cruise you expect to pay more for your drinks but Cunard prices are too much and then they add 15% service on top. Our balcony cabin seemed small and dated, the TV system was appalling. The food just average. The public rooms on the on Victoria are impressive. I have done about 16 cruises now and on my opinion Cunard are the worst value and full of people pretending to be posh.

My advice pay a bit more and upgrade to Regent or one of the other premium lines, or go cheap and go to P&O.

Cunard isn't worth it.

Cabin good, crew friendly and service first class.
Breakfast and lunch food in Lido, bars good and pianist plus canapes in the Commodore bar a great way to start the evening. Do you feel a but coming? This was our 15th cruise having been on most cruise lines, expensive and cheap........ But dinner in the Britannia Restaurant was the worst MDR offering we have ever had.
Lack of choice, small portions, they even seem to have dropped a course, basic food, no wow factor, certainly the size of the appetisers and cheese were both a joke. No prime rib, no Lobster, no fall back choices available, nothing special at all.

They seem to be cutting back in the Britannia Dining Room, it was three star at best.
We are not complainers, we just never go back and will now think twice about going with Cunard again, the evening meal should be special and a highlight to be looked forward to, and in this case it was not!

Queen Victoria is a fantastic ship, the staff are very friendly and always ready to help. We dined in Britannia restaurant and have no complaints, the food was of a very high standard. The cabins are clean and spacious so we were glad we chose a balcony cabin. We enjoyed most of the entertainment especially the party night. It could do with more nights like that. Beware of Cunard they changed our destination airport, we had a long coach journey, also we had a port change from Naples to Salerno. It's not the nicest port to visit and please be aware the Santorini trip we booked was a nightmare to get back to the ship as the cable car had a two hour wait in the very hot sun so decided to walk. What a big mistake as it's very slippery on the way down and very smelly from all the donkeys. We finished off with a tour of Rome which was very nice of Cunard to organise for us as our flight wasn't till 4pm.

This was our first 'Cunard' cruise and my husband and I stayed in a balcony suite which was quite spacious. The daytime activities could have been better, but they did have some good lectures. The evening shows in the Royal Court theatre were poor, we really expected to see Westend type shows, but instead we were entertained by solo singers, a comedian and a magician who of course were good, but for a top company like 'Cunard' we certainly expected better.

Not for the young at heart.

Just returned from our three week cruise to the Med, some rough seas but ship handled well, Food and friendliness of staff was superb, the mixture of quiz themes in pub was good, drinks are expensive, with 15% gratuity added, and another 10% when in Spanish waters, extortion.

The biggest disappointment was the schedule performances of the dance company; we waited approx. 14 days for the first show, and nearly 20 for the second, not good enough.

No excuses that they were new to the ship, that is Cunard’s problem, do not expect the guests to understand or accept, all paid for dance performances, not 90% single acts, including a violinist two nights out of three, when the dance company are on board.

Other cruise lines have similar changes and are still able to perform at least five shows in 14 days.

This is not just our opinion but that of a majority of people on the cruise.

Even the two shows performed did not live up to any expectations of “ West End ” style, the choreography amounted to ballet in different costume, with no story or recognisable melody.

Having travelled on the QM2 in Queens Grill twice and had a wonderful experience last year we decided to travel on the Queen Victoria, Britannia class, to the Mediterranean. The cabin was incredible small, smaller than the standard balcony cabin on a lot of other cruise liners. However, the cruise itself was good and the food was also good. We therefore decided to cruise in the same class for a 7 night trip to Norway. Again, cabin very small, but this time the food in the Britannia Restaurant, lunch and dinner, was very poor. Menus were pretentious and executed badly, the good basic dishes we had last year had gone. Food in the evening and lunchtime was lukewarm.

The waiting staff were excellent and totally blameless. I believe that if one travels in the Princess or Queens Grill then perhaps everything is fine, but don't bother to travel below this class on this cruise line as it is not value for money.

Having sailed with Cunard a number of times we were disappointed on two fronts. The main entertainment in the theatre was sub-standard compared with previous cruises we have attended with Cunard. The so called West End style productions were only held together by the reasonably high standard of the dance troop. The singers were abysmal and were fortunate to be overwhelmed by an extremely loud and decidedly average band.

The restaurant food and service were as ever excellent. Food in the Lido was of a lesser standard and therefore again a disappointment.

The rating of 4 for staff quality is because of the attitude of one particular member of restaurant manager. Having booked our cruise in early Oct 2008 and specified our usual late meal table, and having had that confirmed by our agents, we were upset to find we had been allocated first sitting. A small thing? Not at all! All of our visits had been planned in advance and arriving back on board with only minutes to bathe and dress to make our mealtime was not in those plans. We approached the restaurant manager who was on reception duty and explained our problem. He consulted his computer and explained that "yes we had booked the cruise in Oct 08 but had asked for two seats on first and two seats on second sitting .Someone, somewhere had put all 4 of us on first sitting "because Second Sitting was the most popular". The whole scenario was as preposterous as he was arrogant. We were told that nothing could now be done! First sitting or Lido. It took the entire three days at sea on route to Barcelona to badger the ship into finding us the very worst table in the restaurant on the second sitting. We accepted with the best grace we could muster and managed to fulfil our itinerary as planned. The whole episode spoilt our holiday.

On returning we checked with our agents who confirmed that we were all booked on the second sitting. Obviously we were bumped to accommodate a mo0re favoured set of customers. And yes we are still angry at our treatment.

As can be seen from my scoring,I find it difficult to find anything to criticise.
All services were excelent and entertainment was first class throughout the voyage.
Food and it's service was without doubt unequalled on any ship we have travelled on in the past.The 24 hr cabin service was splendid---coffee on the balcony before breakfast every morning,and also full breakfast on four occasions.Afternoon tea in the ballroom was very pleasant--as indeed was the'pub'meal one day.
My only criticism concerns the use of mugs for tea/coffee in the self service restaurant.This is really quite unacceptable and really lets Cunard down!
Ken

Sailed 22nd April 2008 from Southampton (all 3 Queens were in port that day)to Madeira, Lisbon, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Vigo & home again. The ship is a marvel to behold, not as nice looking as "The Brilliance of the Seas" but a class ship, lots of Cunarders on board some very critical of it's American owners, but as a first time Cunard cruiser, I can say with hand on heart this is a beautiful ship.
The theatre is like Victorian in style with boxes on the side (downside of this they charge extra for the boxes on certain nights................nobodies impressed)
mind you the entertainment was well worth it, absolutely stunning.
My wife & I had a balcony cabin (sorry suite) port side midships, and hardly felt a murmur going over the Bay of Biscay.
I was 60 on the day we sailed, so had extra Champagne in the room + a wooden box of Belgian chocolates, and on the Evening meal,they had baked me a cake and the staff wished me a very Happy Birthday, all rather touching, but over the duration of the cruise (10 days)it seemed every night was some kind of celebration, Birthday, anniversary, renewing their marriage vows again etc.
We found all the staff very attentive, and seem to care for all your needs.
The Brittania restaurant (1st sitting)was a very pleasant experience good food with good company, all 6 of us made it for the evening meal ( no one opted for the Lido which served excellent food also, but alas was self catering) and I must admit I like silver service at all times when I am cruising.
On our cruise there was 4 formal nights so the ships photographers (I lost count how many their were)were out in full force, I think a good idea would be to have the photos all relayed to your cabin (sorry suite), so you could choose the ones to be printed, instead of the horrendous prices that they charge $25+ for each photo, and the marketing angle was always in force, because she completed her maiden cruise the morning of 22nd April, the souvenirs in the shop are being marketed as the ships maiden year..........they don't miss a trick, for all that we would jump at the chance to sail in her again.