I recently cruised with the most traditional cruise line there is, known for their strict dress codes, formal nights, ballroom dancing and afternoon tea.

On paper this really isn’t a cruise that suits me, but when Cunard announced that they were launching a brand new cruise ship, the first in over a decade, I wondered if that might change things.

Cunard promised that their new ship Queen Anne would be a “game changer” and that it would blend traditional heritage with innovation.

Many of the reviews from past Cunard cruisers said that the ship was “disappointing’” and “a let down”. There were so many reviews saying that it wasn’t really like Cunard at all. 

I wondered if I’d be disappointed too, or if it was a case of Cunard modernising and the existing audience not liking it. 

I wanted a way to try to this ship as cheaply as possible so when I saw a little four night cruise pop up I decided that would be my chance.

The cruise went over to Bruges and Cherbourg and I booked the cheapest cabin on the ship, just as a way to get onboard. 

We embarked in Southampton and embarkation was very easy. Our suitcases were taken, and we’d see them again on the ship after having checked in. 

As soon as I stepped onboard the ship I could already tell that Queen Anne was so different from the other Cunard ships.

The colours, the carpets, the stairways, everything felt so modern and it’s a design I personally really like. I was getting very excited at this point, the ship certainly looked like a ship that I’d enjoy – but I did hope that it wouldn’t be style over substance. 

The ship took seven years to design and build and there was a lot riding on her launch. 

Cunard have organised the ship around staircases A, B and C which all have different colours, the carpet colours match where you are and the arrows always point towards the closest staircase.

I thought that was a nice feature, anything that can help me find my way around is appreciated, as I do often get lost on ships.

There are also quite a few extra staircases around the ship too which reduces how busy the main stairs are. I love a spiral staircase and there were no shortage of those. 

Heading away from the stairs and along deck 1 I found my cabin and it was here that we found our cruise cards. These are what you use on a cruise to charge everything to, and its what you use to get on and off the ship, so they are very important.

I’ve stayed in inside cabins plenty of times before but there was something about this one that I really liked, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but it just felt luxurious. As luxurious as a box without any windows can be anyway. I loved the blue and the gold and the detail around this mirror.

We didn’t stay in our cabin for long at this point because we had a whole ship to explore.

There was so much that I wanted to see and do on this cruise. I’d heard a lot about the shows onboard, I wanted to try to visit every single venue, and I wanted to do those classic Cunard things like afternoon tea.

I knew that it would be a stretch to do everything that I wanted to do in four days, so I started exploring as soon as I could. There was no time to waste. 

We pretty much ran up the stairs we were so excited and we went out to the top deck. Cunard have the most iconic red funnels and Queen Annes didn’t disappoint. The sky was even blue which was a real treat, I wasn’t expecting that.

In the golden age of ocean liners, the number of funnels a ship had was meant to show fast and powerful it was.

Some Cunard ships like the Queen Mary even had fake funnels to make her look faster. Queen Anne doesn’t have any fake funnels and its funny how things like funnel fashions change.

There were lots plants and the sun loungers around the top decks, all in keeping with the design.

Heading inside we found a really impressive inside pool area with a massive retractable roof, sadly the pool was closed during our cruise for repairs but we did actually use this space quite a bit.

This isn’t the only pool on the ship, there’s another lovely pool area at the back of the ship, the yellow menus were so cute and the plants.

I did see a couple of people braving the pool who I thought were very brave. Don’t mistake the brightness here for warmth, that is not the same thing. 

We decided to stay by inside pool for a drink and because I had bought a soda package pre cruise that was very easy. All I had to do was to show my cruise card to the waiter. 

The soda package cost £12 a day and that meant that I could have unlimited soda anytime. Cunard even have Pepsi on the menu which is amazing. 

I love these glasses, I know it’s a small touch but its these little things that do make a ship feel more luxurious. Another touch like that was how the Cunard towels were on the sun loungers. I used mine more as a blanket than anything but still, I appreciated it.  

It was here that I found the first of what I am calling ‘doorways that it doesn’t feel as though I should go through even though I have to’.

Maybe if you haven’t been on a cruise this won’t make much sense but a doorway like this really doesn’t look like a passenger doorway, I clearly wasn’t the only person to think that as they had added signs everywhere. This was the first little quirk that I found but it wouldn’t be the last. 

There are a couple of things I really never understood onboard. 

Next on the schedule we had something that I haven’t had to do for a very long time. A traditional safety drill, my location for this was room 1840 next to the casino.

I should just say room 1840 is a bar, it’s not somebodies cabin who we had to meet at, that would be very weird. 

On most cruises now you’ll just watch a safety video on the cabin TV or on your phone but we had to do the old style where everybody on the ship goes to the muster station at the same time.

In total the drill took over just half an hour and they had to bring in extra seats so people could fit in. We were just unlucky because this is something that has to be done very six months or so.

If we were on the cruise before or after ours we wouldn’t have had to have done it like this. It reminded me why I like the new style so much. 

Queen Anne is a traditional cruise ship unlike her sister Queen Mary 2 who is an ocean liner.

There are a lot of differences but to summarise the biggest difference is ocean liners are designed for crossing big oceans possibly in bad weather, cruise ships are designed to go round and round in little circles.

Find out everything you need to know about Ocean Liners and cruise ships here:

Cruise Ships vs Ocean Liners – Measurable Differences You Need to Know

On cruise ships the buffet is usually up high and we found it during our tours of the top decks. 

We didn’t mean to stop here to eat but when faced with all this food we decided we might as well have our dinner here.

Cunard are a formal cruise line so we know we’d be dressing up for formal night and going to the main dining room later in the cruise.

The buffet on Queen Anne is food court style. I love the idea but in reality I don’t think that this worked.

All the food we had in here was great but it was a bit of a kerfuffle of people standing around waiting for the crew to serve them., not really knowing where they should be waiting or what they should be doing.

With a few signs and a bit more organisation I think this could be great but it’s not quite there yet. 

We had some pizza which was really nice and I found a map on the wall which showed what was at each section. I’m not sure what meat theatre means but hey, maybe it just means cutting up the meat in front of you? Theatre is a strong word for that.

The buffet itself was big and I loved the design, it felt very modern. Cunard’s cruise ships have always been very classical in design and this was a big change.

When most people think of Cunard they think of an art deco style, even when that style was first introduced on ships, though the existing cruise passengers said that it was too bold and too different, you can’t ever make everybody happy with style. 

While we ate we went on Cunard’s app, we saw here that there was a show called NOIR and my brother suggested that we book that.

I saw the word interactive on the description and that did make me a bit nervous but it was free so we decided to give it a go.

The show was in a venue called the “Bright Lights Society”. It was kind of like a murder mystery where people from the audience would get involved with the show.

I was happy to see that pre show they were asking people if they would be involved and they were handing them out some props, that made me feel more at ease.

I did find it a bit weird how the actors stayed in character the whole time but thats definitely just a me thing.

I always find it a bit odd when somebody is pretending to be a person or to have a certain accent when I know for a fact they don’t, it’s like “I know.. You know… we’re all adults here lets not pretend” but pretending was the whole point.

There were lots of groups in the audience who found it absolutely hilarious, they were having the best time ever. I enjoyed it – but it’s not really the type of entertainment that I would choose.

This is pretty much a theme of my experiences cruising with Cunard in the past, I can tell that the thing is good, but it’s just not necessarily to my taste. I was hoping that this ship would change that though.

After the show we headed to the pub for Karaoke. This was much more my thing and the people who took part were mostly really good. It reminded me of when I took cruises just after covid and one of the rules was that you had to wear a mask while singing karaoke, that was a really weird time. 

The pub on Queen Anne is a really good size, even at this size it still was busy sometimes, but we never were unable to get a seat.

The service was good and it really felt like a proper British pub. I love the flooring by the entrance, it’s a great colour. 

That lovely bed was calling me so we decided to call it a night. We did something that I don’t usually do when I cruise and we ordered room service breakfast for the next day. On most cruise lines that is chargeable, but it is free on Cunard, so that was a nice treat. 

I slept incredibly well in the bed and although we were above the bright lights society where we had just been and we could hear music through the floor it didn’t really bother me, I was snug as a bug in a rug and excited for the next few days. 

Find out all about my inside cabin here:

Our first day was a day at sea and we actually sailed in the complete opposite direction to where you would expect us to go – just because we were killing time.

The Cruise Globe is available to use for free now just head to the website below and add your cruises, maybe you’ll find out a quirk like mine.

Luckily for us the sunshine was over the west and we were able to enjoy a drink at one of the outside bars.

The bar was decorated beautifully and there was plenty of space. I was trying to soak up the sun like a little lizard. Speaking on animals, I did find a little bird onboard who was hitching a ride amongst the plants.

I was really impressed with the outside space but there was one area that I was expecting to be disappointed by and that was the promenade deck. 

On most Cunard ships there are big promenade decks with views of the ocean, they wrap all the way around the ship.

On Queen Anne though the promenade deck looks like this, I definitely see why the traditional Cunard passengers are disappointed with it – but you can still get in your steps.

There are some open parts and when the sky was blue the views were amazing.

Find out more about the history of promenade decks here:

Cruise Ship Promenade Decks – Photos, Uses, and History

The daily schedule on a Cunard cruise is full on things like trivia, dancing and lectures. We went to the pub a couple of times for trivia and also went back there again for lunch.

Cunard are owned by the American carnival corporation but its still very much a British experience onboard, they have kettles in all the cabins and biscuits in the buffet. 

We made good use of that and I’d usually get my favourite peppermint tea bags from the buffet to use in my room.

The lunch in the pub is included, but there are a few things now that have prices too. I went for the included options of course, one day a pie and another the fish and chips. With lots of salt and vinegar on the chips – as it should be. 

My brother had a funny looking sausage roll at one point. Yes Spotted Dick is a real dessert and that’s got to be your Britishism of the week.

A Spotted Dck is a steamed pudding made with dried fruit and in 2020 they changed the name of it in parliament to “Spotted Richard”.

I mean they changed the name of the dessert that they serve in parliament on the menu they didn’t just make a law that says that everybody has to call it that, it’s always Spotted Dick to me.

I wasn’t planning to spend a lot on this cruise and wanted to cut my costs wherever I could. It wasn’t a cheap trip but more about that later. 

One way that I did reduce the cost was by buying the cheaper version of the Wi-Fi package, it actually worked pretty well for me and just meant that I couldn’t watch videos or stream.

The only problem I had was that YouTube was blocked entirely so I couldn’t upload a photo even though I could upload the same photo to Facebook or Instagram.

I definitely wouldn’t have paid the extra just to be able to do that, though. 

As I was only away for a few days this worked fine for me to keep in touch with the world and keep up with work. 

There are lots of speciality restaurants onboard Queen Anne that cost extra – but I didn’t do any of them on this trip.

Another place where the food is included though is the pool grill, we went here for a burger and onion rings.

We were given a little buzzer while we waited for the food to be cooked, but it didn’t take very long. There’s also some food options on the deck above at the wellness café but I didn’t have time to try those. 

I knew that tonight was formal night so I made a plan to go to the main dining room and to go to see the musical theatre show. I’m a big fan of musicals, but I have to say this one I did not like which is really unlike me. 

When we were wandering around in the afternoon we heard some classical music and decided to follow it. It lead us to the bottom level of the atrium which is very grand.

I love the design here and think it’s a great mix of classical design and more modern touches. 

Hopefully this sort of style will be timeless and Cunard will be able to keep the ship for a long time.

I might look back at my video in 20 years or so and disagree though, given how weird the 90s cruise patterns look to us now. 

On the top level here is the Carinthia lounge and all of the spaces flowed together really nicely. It didn’t feel like separate rooms so much as just different areas. There’s also a chart room and other little lounges.

In the middle of the atrium there was a string quartet playing and we would find music all over the ship, there was never any shortage of musicians. They’d be in the pub, the Commodore Club, even the inside pool. 

One of the main venues for music in the evenings was the ballroom, this is called the Queens Room.

This was very different to the venues on the other Cunard ships which are enclosed spaces, this one did feel more like a place you could just walk through. It isn’t as grand as the ballroom on Queen Mary 2 but I do prefer the actual design.

I imagine if you are somebody who really likes dancing it might be weird to have people looking down at you and wandering by, not that it seemed to bother anybody.

The dance floor was always full and they would play a good mix of modern and more classical music. 

The band that played in here were so much fun and we made sure we came back a couple of times during the cruise. 

I knew that they held afternoon tea in here so I was looking forward to that, I was ready to make my scone sandwich, yes you heard me right. 

On the top level there are shops and some seats, some of which remind me of bird cages. 

On the lower level of the atrium I found our Cruise Maps and an amazing model of the ship. There were plenty of puzzles that were part way through and I love how people trust other people not to mess up the puzzle, I’d be so annoyed if I spent ages putting it together and somebody else messed it up.

It’s a team effort though to get these done. There was also a nautical chess board which was so cool, the little ships were so cute. 

Formal night is a big deal on Cunard. The theme of ours was “Black and White” night.

I didn’t get the memo about that the theme, I hadn’t bought a black and white dress but I thought that dark purple would do the job.

The themes are always just suggestions and nobody ever has to take part. The dress codes do apply pretty much all over the ship after 6pm, and even on the non formal nights there are more dress codes than you’d find on other cruise lines formal nights.

I usually wear what I’d wear to another cruise lines formal nights on the non formal nights, and something longer on formal night.

I do prefer cruise lines without dress codes really, but for 4 nights it certainly wasn’t a problem to dress up everyday. 

We had an assigned table in the main dining room and it is a very impressive space.

It can hold around 600 guests at a time and has windows around the edges. You might expect a room with that many people in it to be noisy or overwhelming, but it really wasn’t, it was a calm space and we enjoyed coming.

We were cruising on this cruise with my Captain Hudson’s Adventures co-author Jerome so we decided to have dinner together.

We were brainstorming for our next book, which is about Captain Hudson going back in time to save the animals of the Titanic. Inspired of course by traditional Ocean Liners and my recent transatlantic Cunard trip. 

Our dinner was good, the food portions I would say were smaller than I’m used to but there’s no shortage of food on a cruise ship.

The great thing is if you’re hungry after a meal you could go to the buffet, maybe order room service, pick up a burger by the pool – there’s no limit or rules.

The meal took around an hour and a half which was pretty good but I did hear other guests who said they were waiting much longer than that so I guess we got lucky. 

I’m glad that our dinner didn’t take too long because we were going to go to the theatre to see the show “Brief Encounters”.

It was called a musical but I really think that’s a stretch, it was bizarre but lots of people loved it.

Again I could tell that it was good, it was well done, the set was impressive, the performers were great but it just isn’t my kind of thing.

Then again I wouldn’t really expect it to be, I’m not the target market of a Cunard cruise and that suits me just fine, I love trying all kinds of things. 

The average age of a person on a cruise is 47, on a Cunard cruise, the average is 61.

The majority of people on our cruise were British which makes sense as it was only a short cruise, I did meet some Americans though who had flown all the way over the UK just for this trip. 

The theatre itself is the longest theatre I’ve ever seen. During one show they had a video showing on the back screen which had a person playing the piano on it, and I thought it was a real person for a very long time. I have pretty good eyesight so I’m sure that tricked a few people.

The seats were very comfortable and there wasn’t a pillar or post in sight, which was great. I love the design and all the shapes on the sides. 

Our cruise visited Bruges and Cherbourg. In Cherbourg we went to the museum that is right next door, it has an aquarium, a part about the Titanic and a submarine that you can go in.

I’ve been to the museum twice now but would happily go again, it couldn’t be easier to get too and it’s a nice way to spend a few hours. 

Find out more about visiting Cherbourg on a cruise here:

Cherbourg Port Destination Guide – History, Location & Things To See And Do

I wasn’t really on this cruise for the submarines though, I was there for the afternoon tea.

This is such a Cunard tradition. They serve you sandwiches, cakes and scones all with white gloves on. They play classical music in the background, and it’s definitely the kind of treat you’d do on a cruise but not at home. 

We arrived almost twenty minute early and if we were any later I don’t think we would have got a seat.

That might have been because we were on such a short cruise. so everybody wanted to try afternoon tea or it could be because of the venue, I’m not too sure. 

It did feel a little bit like being in a corridor because we were over one side and people were always walking by, peering at what we were eating.

I don’t blame them of course I’d do exactly the same it just didn’t feel the same as the afternoon teas on other ships in the grand ballrooms.

I think this is a great example of how Cunard have modernised the ship bringing Cunard a little bit more into the mainstream.

I did miss the promenade deck and the big ballroom found on the other Cunard ships, but overall, Queen Anne is much more me. 

One review even said that it ‘might as well be P&O’ – which they are saying as an insult but I do in some ways understand what they mean. 

Queen Anne is targeted towards a younger more modern audience than the Cunard ships have been traditionally, but I think that’s good.

Like anything, cruise lines have to adapt and change. I’m sure a new audience will be attracted to Cunard – people like me. 

Of course there are still many spaces onboard that seem very traditionally Cunard.

The Commodore Club, for example at the top of the ship is the most amazing grand lounge, we spent a lot of time here just sitting looking out at the view. They’d have music in here in the evenings and we’d often meet our friends here.

It was a great place to catch up to compare what we’d been up to in the day. It always amazes me how you can be on the same cruise as somebody but have totally different experiences.

Cunard do have a luxury area onboard called the Queens Grill, I met a couple of friends onboard who were staying there in the most amazing suite and they very kindly let me have a look around. It would be totally possible to go on this cruise though and not know that this area existed at all.

The same goes the other way, somebody staying here might not really realise I’m down on deck 1 in my inside cabin, going to the pub and eating in the buffet. 

In total I paid £589 for this cruise which is $730. That was my cruise fare, and based on two people sharing an inside cabin. The daily tips or gratuities that Cunard add on added on an extra $64

I also paid extra $80 for the Wi-Fi. I also bought a Soda package for $54 and spent a whopping $10 on the casino.

That brings my total for the 4 night trip to $938, which is £750.

To have a look at this impressive new ship, watch the video below:

It certainly isn’t the cheapest short cruise I’ve taken, but I don’t think that’s too bad a price for a brand new cruise ship. The newest ships are always more expensive. 

To find out what it was like cruising on Cunard’s oldest ship check out the video below. Queen Mary 2 is the last Ocean Liner at sea, launched in 2003.

We crossed the Atlantic on her, and it’s the first cruise I’ve ever taken where I wouldn’t want to do it again, to find out about why, watch this next:

Before You Go

Cunard have self service laundries, and supply free laundry detergent on their ships. That is very handy, as you have to look smart and well turned out at all times. Find out more about that here:

Laundry on a Cruise Isn’t Always Free, Here’s The Cost – Cunard Cruise Line Guide

I Compare Cunard and P&O in the article below. Find out which would suit you best:

P&O Cruises vs Cunard – Which is Better? (Tried and Tested)