Queen Victoria Makes its Debute

First and foremost, of course, is the fact that Queen Victoria is by no means as big, though the 90,000-ton, 2,000-passenger still qualifies as a mega model.More intriguing is that the design really celebrates Cunard tradition -- while at the same time offering a number of fresh twists. "With Queen Victoria what we've done is combined Cunard traditions and heritage and developed some innovations, too," Marlow, the cruise line's president, told Cruise Critic today. Ultimately, she adds, "we try and take the best of what we have on previous vessels and move forward, learning from our passengers as well."Queen Victoria is, for example, designed as an ocean-liner rather than a traditional cruise ship, which means it has a different superstructure -- and a strengthened hull and bow. Inside, numerous public spaces are two and three decks high -- adding an extra sense of space. Many features set to appear on Queen Victoria exist on Queen Mary 2 but have been tweaked, so to speak. Among them?The library will be an elegant two-story facility (situated on Decks 2 and 3) with a spiral staircase. In Cunard tradition, it will stock a voluminous collection of some 6,000 tomes in multiple languages and a broad selection of newspapers, periodicals and reference materials.Grill passengers -- the select suite-holders who qualify for the ship's restaurant-style Queen's and Princess Grill eateries -- get an entirely new atmosphere. The new restaurants will be located on Deck 12 at the top of the ship and feature areas for alfresco dining, not to mention imbibing. As well, the grill-only lounge will feature concierge service.The Winter Garden, which on QM2 is an indoor conservatory, gets an overhaul -- and a move to Deck 9. Even more notably, the new locale, tucked in between the lido buffet and the pool area, has a movable glass roof for indoor/outdoor ambiance, depending on weather conditions.Slight changes to QM2's lavish Royal Court Theater include the addition of private boxes (oh so very 19th century, not to mention the 21st) -- the first theater at sea to have such seating. And, responding to comments about the lack of a drink service on the big ship, Queen Victoria's Royal Court Theater will be adjacent to a lounge that will serve post-dinner dessert and drinks.Instead of a "heritage trail" that wanders through various public rooms on QM2, this ship will get a museum space of its own in which to showcase Cunard history (and a shop selling memorabilia will be housed next door).While Queen Victoria is built for ocean crossings -- and will sail some -- the ship will be much more port-focused than its big sister, though details of its 2008 itineraries have not yet been revealed.Other features that QM2 aficionados can expect to enjoy on Queen Victoria in one form or another include a Todd English alternative restaurant, the 4,000 square ft. Royal Shopping Arcade, a double-height Queen's Lounge, a traditional London-style pub, and a double-deck high Britannia restaurant.What QM2 features didn't make it in the translation from QM2 to Queen Victoria?There's no planetarium. "It was a function of space, not of popularity," Marlow says.QM2 has just revamped their pet kennels and service, but folks cruising with Fido and Fifi will have no other options. There will be no kennel aboard this vessel.There will be no atrium-view cabins though Queen Victoria has a reasonably high balcony ratio. Of the 1,007 staterooms, 86 percent are outside, and of these 71 percent have verandahs.The ship, which debuted on December 11, 2007, was christened by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall (also known as Camilla Parker Bowles, the wife of Prince Charles). For its maiden voyage, Queen Victoria will sail a unique itinerary -- a 10-night Christmas markets tour of Europe from Southampton. Ports of call include Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo, Hamburg and Bruges. After that, for its actual Christmas/New Year's cruise, the ship swings south, heading to the Canary Islands.For Marlow, who joined Cunard from sister cruise line Swan Hellenic, the design, construction and launching of Queen Victoria has been a primary focus for the line over the past two years. But, just as important, she told us, is remembering that Queen Victoria is one of three sisters. "We'll also be focusing on keeping QE2 ship shape," she says, as well as reminding travelers who already know that QM2 is the er, Queen of trans-Atlantic crossings, that the ship will be circling the globe in 2007 -- and offering a number of more traditional port-intensive itineraries.

Our Inaugural Cruise --

Now that the gala send-off has passed, Queen Victoria is sailing on its maiden voyage -- an intriguing December trip to Western and Northern Europe where "Christmas market" season is in full swing. Join us for our virtual coverage of the trip, as Cruise Critic Contributor Greg Straub, who also covered Queen Mary 2's inaugural for us, gives us day-by-day reports on the ship and the ports.Straub's a stalwart Cunarder, having first boarded Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1969 when he paid 50 cents to the Seamen's Fund for the privilege of a tour of the then-new vessel. Since his first crossing aboard QE2 in 1977, Straub has sailed many times on Cunard ships including Cunard Adventurer, Vistafjord, Caronia and QM2.Straub's trip will transport you -- virtually of course -- onboard Queen Victoria from Southampton to Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Oslo and Brugge. Stay tuned for his first missive on Friday, December 14. Queen Victoria Central
Day 1: Embarkation and First Impressions Day 2: We Can’t Help But Compare the Queens Day 3: Overnighting In Copenhagen Day 4: Copenhagen Redux Day 5: Moving On to Oslo
Related Links Queen Victoria ship review Northern Europe Cruises Northern Europe Messages Cunard Messages
Day 1: Friday, Embarkation and First Impressions
When I booked the maiden voyage of Queen Victoria more than four years ago, I didn't know what the length of the voyage would be or the ports that would be visited. (I also didn't know how much it would cost.) Cunard chose to showcase its new ship with a Christmas markets cruise, visiting northern capitals before the holiday.Christmas markets are a northern European tradition of street fair. Merchants set up temporary shops, selling prepared meats, cheeses, baked goods (particular to the holiday), decorations and small presents. These markets are generally erected in the shadow of a city's cathedral.I'd never been on a Christmas markets cruise, and I was happy enough with that itinerary. I was not alone. I have met several other passengers who booked the voyage because it was the ship's first, not because of its itinerary. (I have also met a fellow passenger who put a deposit down on a cabin five years ago and forgot she had done so, until the invoice arrived for final payment.)I encountered my first Christmas market before boarding Queen Victoria. Southampton's main shopping street, Above Bar, is a rather forlorn pedestrian promenade dividing two rows of uninspired, post-war shops. (Southampton, like other port cities, was heavily damaged in World War II. The port was rebuilt in a brutally drab, concrete style.) This year, Above Bar became the site of a German Christmas market. Stall keepers sold prepared meats (sausages and cured hams), baked goods, ceramic models of half-timbered houses and all manner of small gifts and ornaments. There was also a rather nice carousel. The stall-keepers didn't look particularly German, or English, truth to tell. Most of them looked, well, Asian, but that was all right because most of the goods came from, um, China.Queen Victoria was easily viewed from Above Bar and the West Quay Shopping Centre. She made a handsome profile docked at the City Cruise Terminal. Unlike Queen Mary 2, she has a properly proportioned, single red funnel, very much like QE2's. Resemblance to either of her running mates ends there, however. Queen Victoria presents a typical contemporary cruise ship profile. She does not have the sweeping bows of QE2 or QM2. Her bow is stubby. She does not have terraced decks aft ending in a lovely rounded stern. Her superstructure runs aft, stops, then drops to the square stern. In short, she is a boxy ship. A friend e-mailed me bon voyage wishes and told me how handsome she thought Queen Victoria. She said, "She reminds me of my favorite Holland America ships." Well, yes, and so she does. She also resembles all the other Carnival family ships of late: lots of balcony cabins, none of which, unlike QM2, are in-hull. Except for the signature Cunard funnel and the iconic font lettering of "Cunard" and "Queen Victoria," this ship could be a ship of any other Carnival Corporation's fleets.I left my hotel by taxi and delivered my bags at the pier before returning to do some High Street shopping (and visiting of the Christmas market) in Southampton. I returned to the pier around 1:30 p.m. and whisked through registration. I have sailed often enough with Cunard to merit its diamond level of past-passenger status, which entitles one to expedited check-in with passengers assigned to grill dining rooms. I was handed a specially colored embarkation card that enabled me to avoid having to sit in the waiting room while other colors were called. I was ushered straight to the gangway. So far, so good. There was a long queue for the inevitable sailaway photo, but those of us who sail often have all these we want, so we were ushered past the ship's photographer. And there we stopped. For 45 minutes, we inched our way up the gangway. Here were the line's most important passengers: those who had spent the most money for their cabins and those who had been most loyal to Cunard Line. The gangway zigzagged up to the promenade deck in a series of switch-backs, where the line continued to a door. Each passenger was photographed for security purposes, but what was the hold-up? I can only imagine we were waiting for stewards to return from escorting previous passengers to their cabins. New stewards were finding their own ways to unfamiliar places, and the process was taking longer than anticipated. We were queuing for an amenity, being shown to our cabins, when everyone in line would have been happy to have been onboard as quickly as possible. I hope the valuing of marketing pretension over passenger convenience and comfort ended with our embarkation.Because the line took so long to move, I had ample time to survey the promenade deck. It is covered in some manufactured substance with lines drawn on it to simulate teak decking. It looks like linoleum, and this is not its only appearance on the ship. The ship's balconies are covered in the same substance, as are the upper, outside decks. Lovely teak deck chairs with bright blue Cunard cushions line the promenade. Rather good powdered-steel tables with nylon mesh chairs furnish the stateroom balconies. But they rest on linoleum! What gives?Cunard had upgraded my cabin category from an inside to a balcony outside cabin. In previous reviews, I have remarked on how spacious my minimum-grade inside cabin had been. Now, I have a top-of-the-line (for Britannia Restaurant) balcony cabin, and roomy is not the word I would use to describe it. First, there are few drawers. There's a drawer over the refrigerator. (It holds the hair dryer.) There is a desk drawer. (It holds the ship's information book.) There is a small drawer in the bottom of each of two bedside tables. (One contains a Gideon Bible.) And that's it. Yes, there are a few shelves in the three closets. (One is occupied by the life vests; another, by the in-room safe.) That's all there is for a ship that is scheduled to make two world cruises. There is, however, ample hanging space with wooden hangers. And someone thought it would be a nice touch to put a tie rack on one of the closet doors -- it holds six ties, which may be indicative of the level of formality Cunard plans for the future.As little storage as there is in the cabin, there is less in the bathroom. There is no medicine chest. There are two small trays below the mirror, but they are already filled with tooth glasses, toiletries, cotton swabs and so on.As I have run into passengers I have met on previous sailings, the first thing we remark is, "Have you seen the drawers?"Most of my fellow passengers are English. There is a sizable number of Americans, including a large contingent who booked with Pied Piper Travel, the New York agency that caters to gay travelers, along with a smattering of Germans and Japanese. I hope to discover what has drawn this group of passengers together.
Today, we put into Rotterdam, the Netherlands. I have not been here in many years, so it was good to walk around the city and remind myself of its layout. Rotterdam is not picture-postcard Holland, so forget about windmills and canals. Cruise Critic's Rotterdam port profile pretty much addresses this: "For the first-time visitor, it can be jarring to see steel and cement instead of canals and cobblestones. But what Rotterdam lacks in historic charm, it makes up for in cutting-edge architecture, world-class museums and sunny sidewalk terraces perfect for enjoying a Dutch beer or two. And the past isn't entirely forgotten; look closely enough and you'll unearth a few remnants of the city's history, like a 1920's statehouse, a 15th-century church and a 400-year-old statue of Erasmus -- a ghost from the past who seems to smile benevolently upon Rotterdam's bright future."Part of the reason -- a major part -- for Rotterdam's lack of charm is that the city was heavily damaged in World War II and is a post-war, industrial port (the largest in Europe). While the city itself is not particularly interesting, nothing is too far by train: Edam with its cheeses; Delft with its pottery; The Hague, the lovely center of government (but ironically not the capital); and the cosmopolitan capital of Amsterdam.If you feel like a low-key day, one of the most interesting buildings to survive the war is just a short walk from the pier. The Hotel New York, at one time the old headquarters of the Holland America Line, has since been remodeled. It has charm, and its cafe/bar, the former ticket hall, is a wonderful place to have a coffee or drink and a light meal. It overlooks the harbor and is a great place for people-watching. I had hoped to catch a glimpse of Rotterdam V, but she has not yet arrived (the retired ship, which was built in 1958 for Holland America Line, will become a floating hotel/conference center in Rotterdam). QE2 was in port with us, but she was docked some distance from the center of town in the container port. Queen Victoria, with her relatively shallow draft, docked at the city pier.Is Queen Victoria a liner? Cunard assures us she has a strengthened bow, but her stubby bow and high superstructure do not suit her for inclement crossings of the North Atlantic, and she is not as powerful as either of her sister ships. When Queen Victoria and QE2 sail in tandem across the Atlantic next month, QE2 will slow herself down to her running mate's speed. With the wrong shape and inadequate propulsion, Queen Victoria is not an ocean liner.Tomorrow, our first day at sea, we'll see what kind of cruise ship she is.