Queen Victoria Review
First ever cruise! What an amazing experience on board Queen Victoria
Rating by category
Additional details
We love to travel but have never had the urge to cruise. Wanting to see the spectacular scenery of the Norwegian Fjords, we felt that a cruise would be the best option. After extensive research, we opted for Cunard as we enjoy fine dining, dressing up and don't like large crowds of people so thought a smaller ship would suit us best. We also prefer to keep ourselves to ourselves and so opted for a Princess Grill Suite so that we could request a table for 2 and eat when we wanted to eat rather than at set meal times. The added bonus of a private deck area also appealed as we felt it would be less crowded and Cunard also seemed to have more of a traditional style and less glitz which we felt would be perfect for us. Aged 46 and 50, we were rather nervous that cruising was for 'older' people and that there would be nothing for us to do other than watch the scenery go by, however we couldn't have been more wrong. What a stunning ship she is and so much space everywhere you never felt like there were more than a few hundred people on board! We never got bored - in fact i never really had a chance to just sit quietly and read during the week. We listened to some really interesting speakers during the sea days in the theater, attended gin tasting one afternoon, used the golf nets for some light exercise and never wanting to miss the delicious afternoon tea, found ourselves in the restaurant rather a lot of the time!
The service in the Princess Grill restaurant was outstanding and the food was amazing at every single meal. From breakfast to lunch to afternoon tea to dinner, the menus were varied, interesting and the food just delicious. The Grills lounge was also a wonderful quiet area to enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail or two.
We stumbled across the commodores club halfway through our cruise and enjoyed some fabulous cocktails in there each evening served with canapes and listened to some lovely live music. There was always a low level buzz in this large bar area and we loved the atmosphere.
Cabin Review
Princess Suite
We chose this cabin as we wanted a small restaurant, flexible dining times and a guaranteed table for two. We are quiet people and the large private deck areas reserved for Grills passengers was also a reason for our choice.
The cabin was a good size with 2 flat screen TV's, a comfortable seating area next to the balcony and more comfortable seating on the private balcony. The bathroom whilst small was adequate and the toiletries of a high standard. Our steward was lovely and we had no complaints during our week. There was plenty of storage and hanging space and being mid ships we didn't have to walk far to get to our restaurant!
Port Reviews
Stavanger
Lovely town with a great variety of shops. We didn't do an excursion in this port but enjoyed walking around and bought some lovely items to take home.
Olden
We booked the Sky Lift and Glacier tour through Cunard and was a fabulous trip. The sky lift was spectacular with enough time to have walk around at the top and enjoy coffee and cake. Then on to the Glacier which was stunning and informative. A great trip and then back to Olden with several lovely shops there too. We bought some lovely items for the home in Norway.