Queen Victoria Review
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Embarkation - was a dream, very efficient and in our cabin within an hour of arriving at Southampton. We brought on a bottle of spirits and some mixers with no trouble. I think as long as you are discreet and don't take advantage, it's allowed. A quick unpack then into the Lido for a spot of lunch and to explore the ship (although I still had trouble with front and rear of the ship even with my trusty map!
Food - usually we had breakfast and lunch in the Lido, (and lovely afternoon tea) and dinner in the Britannia, and we went to the Verandah on our last night. The food in the Britannia was very good with a slightly retro feel - beef Wellington, cold soups, crepes Suzette, baked Alaska. We loved it! The Verandah put on a bit of a show and flambed steak at our table, very 70's! We had 2nd sitting at 8.30 and I was a bit worried about eating so late but as long as we had a snack about 5pm it was fine. Portions in the restaurants were just right. There was a huge choice of food in the Lido, all through the day and night. Sometimes there was a bit of a scrum at breakfast but I couldn't fault the choice, presentation and quality of food. The coffee in the Britannia was horrible so we used go up to the Lido and have our coffee and then decide whether to go to the show or for a drink or bed!
Ports – we had port information with maps the night before together with the ships programme and the Purser usually had more maps if you asked. We got off at every port and did our own thing but used the shuttle buses if available. Most of the ports weren’t very pretty as you would imagine except for Rapallo (a lovely seaside town) where we had to go in by tender. Loved Gibraltar (buy your duty free there) even though we only had a couple of hours, Barcelona and Valencia but very disappointed in Monte Carlo – overpriced and very built up. There was a big choice of excursions from the ship but we only booked one, transport into Florence from Livorno, very overpriced at $75 for a bus ride with no air conditioning on a very hot day.
Cabin Review
Balcony
Much better than I expected, quite spacious with 2 large twin beds close together, a 2 seater sofa and dressing table. There was enough wardrobe space, shelves and hangers for all our clothes and room to store the cases plus a small chest of drawers either side of the bed. Very comfy beds with medium weight duvets. The bathroom had everything you needed, nice toiletries but very small shower cubicle and lack of towel rails. There were adequate power points and lights, a useful small fridge, a hairdryer (a bit lacking in power). The cabin was very quiet, very little noise from the corridor. The best bit was the balcony, screened off from our neighbours, we spent hours just watching the view. Our room steward was Jaimie who kept it spotless, filled up our ice bucket twice a day, turned down our beds and kept us supplied with chocs!
Port Reviews
Southampton
Very easy, train to the station, taxi to the port, Our cases were taken on arrival the into the embarkation hall to wait to be called forward in order.
Gibraltar
We only had 3 hours ashore because another cruise ship had to dock, the cable car was not working so we didn't have enough time to get to see what we wanted to.
Barcelona
We got the shuttle bus to the bottom of Las Ramblas, walked up there and onto La Sagrada Familia and then back via Parc de la Ciutadella. A very long walk!