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Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

2026 Feb 13; Day 1, Livorno Italy

February 14, 2026 / / 0 Comments

This morning we docked at Livorno and the docks are on the industrial side of the town as they do not really have a downtown cruise terminal here. Ferries, to Sardinia etc., are more important and so are the cargo and container ships. Livorno is the 3rd largest port in Italy and hence the focus is on facilitating as many ships as possible and not leaving any dock space unused.

Opposite us, is a small dry-dock and repair company for mult million dollar yachts and Livorno is also focussing on that, as part of the old fishing port has been turned into a special harbour for mega yachts. It is supposed to open in a few weeks and if I counted the mooring bouys for the bow anchoring of the yachts correctly they will be able to park at least 40 big ones in there, maybe even more. I assume that it will be extensively used for the charter market as Livorno is not exactly known as a playground for millionaires.  The owners use their yachts normally only a few weeks a year and most of them try to reduce the operating costs with chartering the yachts out for the rest of the year.

Our yacht the Viking Saturn will stay two days here, with long and short tours to Florence, Pisa and Lucca.  We will be taking the panoramic tour on the 2nd day, 4 hours in duration which was included in our package. We also had WIFI included with the booking and it is the best we have had so far of all the ships we have sailed on in the last 2 years.  It is not just a fast connection and includes streaming but there is also no limit to the devices that you can run at the same time. Most company’s, we have so far encountered, only allow one device so you have to log off one device before you can log on the other.  Not here, so Very Impressed.

The Spa hydro pool with a very nice lay-out. It is not very big, so best to go in port when there is no crowd.

We skipped breakfast and went to visit the Spa on board, which has a very nice pool and an even better lay-out.  With spacious dressing rooms (each with a cold plunge bath and a sauna) and extensive changing facilites, where you get slippers (crocs) a thin bath robe and towel all nicely waiting for you in a dedicated locker, All the lockers work with a cabin key card swipe to lock and it worked very well…. Maybe because it was a newer ship, maybe because they maintain them well.

Deck 3 portside there is a display of national costumes with extensive explanations. On the starboard side in the corner is a small museum with Viking artifacts includinOn g swords and helmets. Then in the staircases, more history is displayed by runes on stones hanging in the staircases. Then the back of each staircase has on each level a section of the Bayeux Tapestry, which makes sense as the Normans – north men – who invaded England in 1066 were Vikings who had settled down in Normandy, France.

Nordic art with runes on a slab of slate stone in the aft pax. staircase, This is copy of a real one found in Sweden. Again a very good explanation on the grey plaque next to it.

For lunch we ended up in the World Cafe again, which serves free soft drinks, wine or beer with lunch. The food is good butthe choices are  somewhat limited when compared to Holland America but much more extensive when compared to P&O.

The winter garden in the center of deck 7.

When going through the daily program  we found out that there was “High Tea” in the Winter Garden, which is a light and airy indoor space on deck 7 just in front of the Swimming pool. It is very nice when it is overcast but it might be a bit much on a very sunny day. We will find out. As most of the ship was on tour, we thought it would be ideal to go for tea now (we had not eating anything in the last 2 hours………….. so it was time) and within a nice relaxing atmosphere, the classical duo were playing,  a large number of tea’s were available and a large tower tray (etagere), with sandwiches, scones and small cakes came to the table.

Lesley and the high tea. Please note the trolley to the right above her shoulder. When fully loaded it came rattling through the whole lounge to get to an elevator. Really spoiling the atmosphere.

It all was very civilized and enjoyable…….., and then a waiter came rattling through with an empty trolley and started to load his trolley in full view  of the tea drinkers. Nobody of the assembled staff took any action, so I flagged a jr. Maitre d’hotel over. He agreed that is was less than convivial for the high tea ambiance and moved the trolley out of view. He then left. So it did not deter our trolley waiter from continuing to load his trolley behind the bar, and when full, came rattling through whole lounge on his way to a lift. Well, they could have planned that better. Imagine you are having a wedding and straight through the wedding there is a gardener with a wheelbarrow pushing through. So we thought that , that was it, but no, now the Deck department showed up, in coveralls, and started checking fire extinguishers. Not in the slightest bothered by the stylish tea gathering around them. Planning is not easy sometimes, even with (lower) management being present to take corrective action…………………………………………………….

But something that did impress me, were the teapots used. Look at the table above and you see that the tea is served as leaves in a sieve. That sieve fits in a teapot and then, once the tea has brewed, you lift it out and put it in a cup provided. Very nice for high tea and never seen before. Then in the regular restaurants you get a tea bag, but the tea bag can go on top of the lid once used instead having to put it on the side of your saucer or somewhere else. I like these sorts of small great details.

pot without bag

pot with tea bag

 

 

 

 

We found on Deck 1, the panel with all the photos of the high and mighty on board and our captain this cruise is Arild  Jernass. There has been no write up in the daily program yet (The Viking Daily) about him and also there has been no announcement from him yet as we sailed late from Civittavechia where he joined.  Although The Viking Saturn flies the Norwegian flag, the crew is very multi national and I have not seen any other Norwegian officers or crew around the ship.

Came on board yesterday in Civittavehcia.

Although we are in port everyday, there are still lectures everyday, around 18.30 to 21.00 hrs. which is when the show starts. For this there are 2 Resident lectures on board, one is an american Colonel who is doing world war II stuff and a lady who is into food and drink. Problem is that you have to decide where your priorities lie, early dinner, cocktails, making the show on time, or going to the lectures. Our focus is cocktails followed by a 19.00 dinner, so we make the show on time. In this case I feel that I do not miss that much as there are excellent movies and clips on U-tube that cover the same topics.

The Atrium bar, alhtough they call the area around here not the Atrium but The “Living Room”.

We went to deck 1 bar again in the atrium, and I found out that they have Norwegian beer (in cans) on board, so it was time to investigate that. $ 8,– for a 330 ml. can but we have a package and it is all included. Lesley is still lamenting the lack of pink Gin, and the waiters are commiserating with her, because it is a very frequent request.  There is a grand piano in the Atrium (a real top of the range Steinway) and between 18.00 and 18.45 there is first the “Munch moment” where the tunes are Norwegian while on top of the staircase the video wall shows Munch paintings. (most famous one known is “The Scream”, but Edvard Munch painted a lot of other good stuff as well, without being exactly locked into one particular sort of school). Then the piano player returns later in the evening, alternating with a classical duo.

The second place which is good for cocktails is the two level crowsnest on deck 7 & 8, called “The Explorers Lounge”.  When there is no live music there is background music (musac??) but it is nice, soft and laid back and creates a relaxing atmosphere everywhere  not only in the bars but in the whole the ship.

Dinner was good again, word is spreading of what my background is, and now we learn how far the Holland America family extends. Our waiter tonight wanted to sail with Holland America (his brother is there) but had to wait too long as HAL had sold 6 ships. He is now happy with Viking but was not so excited about the food in the crew mess.

David  Righeschi and Alessandara Tanzi. This photo was lifted from the Internet when they performed the Opera Tosca together in Firenze (?)

The show at 21.00 hrs. was performed by two local artists, opera singers, who come on board each Viking ship that docks in Liverrno. And they were VERY good, with a nice mixture of popoular opera and some more unknown pieces all backed up with a multi media video background..  David  Righeschi and Alessandara Tanzi received a well deserved standing ovation. If the rest of the week has the same high standard, then we are in for a treat. Tomorrow night we have the Cast Show with musical songs so we are hoping for the best.

Weather tomorrow: overcast with showers in the afternoon. Temperatures anywhere between 13 oC. (54oF) and 16oC (61 oF)

 

 

 

2026 Feb 12, Day 0, Civittavechia, joining the Viking Saturn.

February 13, 2026 / / 5 Comments

Today we started on our next cruise, 7 days from Civittacechia to Barcelona with the ms Viking Saturn. This is one of nearly identical series of  cruise ships that Viking cruises have been launching in the last 15 years and the process is still going on.  The Viking Saturn came in into service in 2023 and is thus a fairly new ship. We saw her last year when we were on board the Azamara Journey, being in the same port and now we are on board.

The MS Viking Saturn is a 47,842-ton, 983-guest ocean cruise ship delivered to Viking in 2023 by Fincantieri. The 228-meter-long vessel is designed for small-ship, It has a space ration of 49, which is very high for a middle class ship.Scandinavian-style luxury with 465 all-veranda staterooms. Elegantly casual and no childeren (Photo courtesy, internet google)

Going from England is always quite a journey as we have to fly from our local airport Norwich with the 6 am flight to Amsterdam to make the connecting flight to Rome. Thus we stay in a hotel outside this small airport the night before so we can walk over the next morning at 05.00 hrs. for check in. Flying KLM has at least the advantage that our luggage will make between flights even if the connection time is short. Hence we try to avoid Heathrow in London as much as possible.  Then there is for Lesley the additional check in challenge at Schiphol as the British are now outside the EU. Luckily it was quiet at immigration and the new check in machines (photo, finger prints, passport check) were not working yet.

Viking had booked our flights and on arrival Fumencino airport in Rome, there was a rep waiting. Then with  a few others we were walked through the whole airport to an obscure exit one where a few more guests were waiting. Apart from the Italians reps creating chaos where there wasn’t any (like being checked off 5 times in a row) we were speedily put on a large coach for the 1 hour journey to Civittavechia. Viking sends  a nice boarding pre package before leaving. Upscale leatherette address tags, seperate luggage tags (to put on after arrival at the Rome air port), then when gathered together & checked in (5 times), the luggage is taken away, loaded on the coach, and then you find your suitcases back in your cabin about 2 hours later. All very smooth. I think that Viking is sending a coach each hour from the airport so that nobody has to wait very long for the connecting transport. Fast check in, at the cruise terminal, with plenty check instaff and then via shore security on board. It always amazes me, how few people are ready for the security check and have to create an almighty fuss and bother and delay. All ahead of us were experienced  cruisers and still it looked as if they were re-venting the wheel when  going through.

Coming on board we had our first laugh as we were greeted by a nice philipinna Lady in a Norwegian traditional costume. Somehow it did not gell, same as it would look strange, if we would see a blond goddess in a philipine national costume.  Nice touch but it just did not look the part. Later on she was relieved by a man in traditional costume and as he was of italian / roumanian complexion, he looked more like a cossack then an axe throwing, maurading Viking.  But it is all good fun.

Our cabin portside aft, on deck 3, but all cabins are outside and all have a balcony

As we had no idea what Viking was going to be like, so we had booked the cheapest cabin with a balcony (3084) on Deck 3 aft.  As the ship was built in 2023 the cabin still looked brand new  and everything was in working order. Our suitcases were not there of course so we went for a bit to eat in the Lido, called here “The World Cafe” which is a U-shape place on deck 7 aft. They were closing at 15.00 hrs. but then the Pool Grill, more forward and aft of the swimming pool remains open unti 17.00 hrs. It has a slighly smaller buffet but also serves hamburgers. Interesting thing here is, that the World Cafe -kitchen, is an open space in the middle, so you can see the cooks cooking. Nice to see but for the cooks more of a challenge, as they are on permanent view and cannot leave anything “floating around” as it would make the place look messy.

Most public rooms are on deck 1,2, and 7 with cabins in between on deck 3,4,5,6, and a few on 7. This is deck 1.

As we are in a cabin of the lowest pecking order, we could not pre book our speciality restaurants, so we had to visit them  to make reservations. But it worked well. More about that in the coming days.  Then unpacking and we found that the cabin has sufficient storage space for a 7 day cruise but for a longer cruise, I think we would have to upgrade. But we have to check if the larger cabins do have more wardrobe space. But for 7 days this was more than ample. There are no formal nights  with Viking which saves hanging space. Everything is elegantly casual but we have to see what that exactly is, as a large number of guests still translated “elegantly” into jeans and a T shirt.

The Viking Atrium with the grand staircase, Scandinavian style. More about this in the coming days.

We had cocktails in the Atrium lounge which goes 3 decks high. Cocktails are served on deck 1 around the bar and level 2 and 3 are mainly for sitting during daytime. The bar output is somewhat limited as there is only 1 draft beer (carlsberg) and no Pink Gin or low calorie mixes, which so far on each 5 star ship  that we have sailed on, has had in ample quantities and variation.  Dinner in the main diningroom was good with friendly and un-rushed service.  We had  bought a drinks package ($ 27,– a person a day, with Cunard  charging about $ 75 or so) which turned out to be very good value) and then came across the peculiar situation that our favored glass of wine was included but a full bottle was not. So we solved the problem by having our class filled “by the glass” and when the bottle was empty, somebody else must like it, so the wine steward produced another one……………………

Shows and related are round 21.00 and later but we went to bed as having started at 0.400 hrs. it had been a long day. Tomorrow we are in Livorno, for a two day stop to visit Florence and Pisa.  If you want to go into Livorno itself (the small downtown area is quite cute) then you can take the port shuttle.We are going to stay on board the first day, to see the ship and enjoy its amenities and then take the tour on the 2nd day.

The layout of Deck 2 with the main restaurant, Atrium, the night club, shops, two cinema’s (which can be combined with the Theatre in the evening.

Weather for tomrrow, partly cloudy with a chance of showers in the late afternoon, temperature between 13 – 16oC (56 – 61oF) and little wind, so it should not feel that chilly.

 

Day 12: Dec. 28; At Home, Verdict & Review of the cruise.

December 29, 2025 / / 7 Comments

As usual, at the end of the cruise, I do a review  with our VERY PERSONAL opinion of the cruise. So if you think that Cunard is pure “Hallelujah” please do not be disappointed. If you decide to “snigger” because you do not like Cunard, please take into acccount, there is no perfect cruise company out there. If you look at all the cruises we have done in the last year, (see the write ups at the right hand side of the home page), I was able to shoot holes in each product and at the same time see things that made me go “WOW” why do other company’s not do this.

Cruising is very personal, and the bottom line for a GOOD cruise company is, did THEY deliver what they promised and did YOU enjoy it.

So we come to our personal verdict about this Cunard Cruise.

Did we enjoy the cruise YES. Would we have enjoyed it less in a lesser cabin: ALSO YES.  We had a Q3 suite, that is two steps down from the top and we expected for that level for everything to be top notch and perfect. You have a butler and a cabin steward and they try to do the best job possible. But those two can only deliver the standards set by the company. And Ludmilla and Mark did a very good job within those parameters.

The Glare: As explained when blogging about every cruise we make, this is a little thing I do during a cruise.  Every crewmemember I meet, officers and crew alike, I look them straight in the eyes and wait if they acknowledge me. The results can be quite striking.

Cunard scored only 75%. (e.g. 1 out of 4 did not make the cut). The crew on average scored 100%, no problems there. Even the sailors on deck. were chirpy and friendly and scored 100%. The challenge lies with the Hotel officers. The majority I met in the corridors, the Lido and the public rooms, looked away or did not acknowledge guests when walking by, or when talking to each other.  3 & 4 stripers in Hotel did not make the cut on average. And there is no excuse for that. If a lowly asst. steward can do it, then  a 3 stripe hotel officer should be  able to do it better. I only met two engineering officers this cruise and they were both polite, smiled and one even waited at the door, and they are normally the least customer focused.

Would I recommend a Cunard Cruise. In general yes.

It is a good product  and the only negative thing I hear from other travellers, Cunard thinks it has the most wonderful product but they are slowly overtaken by a whole slew of other operators in the luxury segment.

The are not helping themselves as they send out their post cruise questionaires “ONLY” to a number of “SELECT” guests. That way you never get the raw deal that you need to improve your product.

Main thing is you have to get used to is the system that the cabin -size is connected to a certain restaurant. That is quite posh but the extra’s given are not that wide apart anymore. There is not so much difference (compared to before Covid) between the menu’s between Queens, Princess, Club and Britannia. You just have a little bit more choice when going up from Britannia to Queens. It would not warrant the extra costs, if the larger cabins were not attached to it.

Compliments:

Beautiful ship (if you like  ships in a classical style) with beautiful lounges.

Beautiful cabins, as least on our level, but they should be better maintained. For this level of pricing, there should be nothing wrong.

Very attentive service, at least in the Queens Grill, with only two mistakes made in the whole of the 12 days and without any rushed service.

Very good and large cast company (12 in total), two orchestras (Stage and Queens Lounge) and entertainment everywhere. It resulted in Great Shows. This is a very hard working cast with a show every other night and a one full lenght musical “Come From Away” of 1h. 45 minutes as well. Great Christmas show. (not every company is doing that anymore)

Very good lectures (apart from one guy who was too sloppy in appearance and slissed when talking)

Formal nights (Although unfortunatelly not enforced in the lounges that are designated as formal)

Soft Ice Cream, self service machine in the Lido with the most consistent quality so far encountered during all our cruises.

Self Services Washing Machines on each Deck..

Challenges:

for Cunard to fix ( at least if it wants to anchor  “floating” customers like us):

The biggest one:

” On request”. Why does the guest have to ask for anything that has been paid for?…………………………… You need to have the Cunard web-site listing for your cabin level with you to ensure you get what you paid for.

“On request” ONLY was the following in a Queens Grill Cabin:

Ice in the cabin, Fresh fruit, Fresh flowers / plant . TV program, Binoculars, Instructions of how to operate the DVD player, Instructions for the coffee machine. Extra side dishes in the Queens Grill. The waiters know it is there but do not suggest anything to make the experience more perfect.

Status of the cabin. A lot of items that I found could have been corrected with better – detailed- inspections by Housekeeping. I paid a lot of money for this cabin so I did not expect that as a  guest I would have to start reporting stuff.  Wrong CD player, Glass curtains loose, Toilet seat loose, Plinths broken. Vanity buttons missing on the desk lights. With the help of the Butler and the Concierge it was all fixed but I was not not expecting to find anything wrong in a cabin of such a high catagory.

You can NOT expect the Butler and the Cabin Steward to look after all of this as they are on a very tight working schedule. This is officer and petty officer level responsibility.

Lots of carpet edges (corners and vertical padding) loose in the corridors. I counted 10 of them on deck 8 only on the first day and they were still the same on the last day. How difficult is it, to send a carpenter/Upholsterer  around with a pot of adhesive  to glue the carpets back ??. The carpet edges comes loose with luggage handling, so it happens all the time, make it a standard job for a Housekeeping supervisor to walk the corridors once a week and make a list.

Lido Restaurant. For a 5 star cruise company the amount and variation of food on offer is quite meager. If you are a cruiser who likes and spends a lot of time in the Lido Restaurant, GO or STAY with Holland America.

Internet: It is very good in general, except when the whole ship goes on line, especially on sea days. For mobile phones it all works but with laptops you loose the signal  on average between 10.00 – 11.30 and 14.30 – 16.30 on sea days, at least on Deck 6, midships staircase area. So only devices who use a small bandwidth can get on line. During those hours I can not reach my website / do my blog, as my website needs a bit more bandwith than checking Facebook.

One word of advise: If you want to sail Cunard, stay away from Queen Anne and choose one of the other 3 Queens.

The Queen Anne is a beautiful ship but Cunard has put the capacity up to 2950 and not increased the number of public rooms to handle these additional 450 guests (compared with the HAL’s Pinnacle class) so the lounges are overflowing during cocktail times.  In an ideal world, the Jewellery shop would be a lot smaller in size and in its place there would be another beautiful Cunard cocktail lounge. Talking to the guests it was mentioned that the cabins are a lot smaller and the storage space varies and is smaller but not in line with the increase in cabin size or cost. We noticed that during our two cruises but it still seems to be the case even after more cabinets were added.

That is all……………………………….  Nuntium ne necaveritis.

ps 1. My Lord and Master has booked another cruise for November 2026, going from Southampton to Zeebrugge, Amsterdam and Cherbourg on the Queen Victoria, as she wants to try the Q2 midships catagory. Q1 is of no interest as those cabins are in the bow and the stern and that is where the  movement is worst during the winter  storms.

ps 2.

It got a request from one faithful reader to explain what “yawning” is or when a ship “yaws”.  So here is a quick summary.

There are 6 ships movements officially recognized:

  • Heaving: vertical movement (the whole ship lifts up)
  • Swaying: transverse movement (lurching from left to right)
  • Surging: longitudinal movement (pushed forward and then settles back)
  • Rolling: longitudinal rotation  (leaning/ listing  from one side to the other)
  • Pitching: transverse rotation ( bow goes up, bow goes down, sometimes slams on the waves)
  • Yawing: vertical rotation (You make a sort of round movement that combines 3 or 4 of the separate movement one)

Some ships are more affected by one or the other movements than others. A ship like the Queen Mary 2, has been designed with a ships length that “rides the average length of the North Atlantic waves” and thus pitches a lot less then a smaller ship. It sort of barges through or over the waves. But without stabelizers in use she would still roll. Also her stern design makes her less prone to surging. But she also “yaws” when she gets the swell 3/4 quarter on the stern.

The  newest cruise ships, that look like a barge with an apartment building on top, “yaw” less because of the “box in the water” design. But in the wrong wave length, they can pitch considerably, so the best thing to do is then either to speed up or slow down so it hits the waves differently. The cruise ships constructed between 2002 and 2014 of which most have similar hulls as the Queen Victoria  tend to be prone to yawning and swaying as the stabelizers have a hard time handling that movement They are gyroscope controlled and that needs a change of horizon (leaning away from the horizontal) and movements other then rolling do not do that.

My personal solution to all these movements is to sit in the bar, recognize the sort of movement that is going on and then insure that my beer glass counteracts that move perfectly and thus does not spill any it’s contents.

 

I pinched this off the internet. A big thank you to FFQQ.com. There is not much difference between a cargo ship and a passengership if both are properly ballasted, so the center of gravity sits in the right place. The only difference is that most cargo ships do not have stabelizers.

 

 

Day 11, 2025 Dec. 27; At Sea, day 3.

December 28, 2025 / / 10 Comments

With the Christmas festivities behind us we are now on the 3rd sea day, on the way home to Southampton. Around lunch time we will pass the most North westerly point of Normany and sail through the Traffic Separation Zone for ships at Ushant. Hence we are seeing more and more ships in the fare distance and sometimes  really nearby. As was expected yesterday the sea is more lively than before.

Weather today around noon time. We are at the edge of the yellow part – waves 3 to 4 meters, but are turning away from it now heading into the English Channel.

A last sea day is always somewhat akward for a lot of cruise passengers. It is the last day and everybody has to pack, or if one is doing a back to back finding the lounges half empty. Thoughts are about going home by half of he ship , while the other half mentally gears up for the next cruise. The Queen Victoria’s next cruise, is a new years cruise 7 days to Zeebrugge, Amsterdam and Cherbourg with docking overnight in Amsterdam for New Year’s Eve so there are quite a few on board who will stay for the next one. Then the next one after that is a 35 day voyage to the Caribbean, a so-called no-flight-cruise as it starts and ends in Southampton. That is twice crossing the North Atlantic but at both times with a route so far to the south that most likely they will be able to avoid most of the bad weather.

We followed the last talk / lecture of the Police Officer talking about Drug enforcement. This is a quite a interesting topic and as he also is a good speaker he can tell interesting anecdotes. It turned out that while defending King & Country in that business, it is not always plain sailing, nor do things always go right, nor is there always a very professionally ending. Hence great anecdotes to tell.

At noon time the Captain made his navigational announcement, ending with a very plastic Cunard Head Office Message, with advising that ONLY a few SELECTED guests would get a post cruise questionaire (I wonder what sort of selection they make ?……………..) and hinting very strongly that if we enjoyed the voyage then that we should give a 10. Normally that sort of thing is left to Cruise Director’s on the stage and thus leave the captain’s dignity in tact.

The shops had another sale going, with extra – extra discount, and either the prices were very good, or there was still a lot of On Board Credit floating around but it was busy with even a tussle between two ladies in the hand bag section.

Quick lunch and then it was time to pack. Luckily we did not buy very much this cruise but why is it always more difficult to get the same quantity as you packed at thome, back in the suitcase when on board?

Then last night we got an invite for another Captain’s party in the Queens Room, but without an explanation about why we were invited; but if there are free drinks and maybe even nibbles, who would say no?  With our invitation card in hand (to be presented at the entrance) we marched towards the Queens Room at 17.15 (start of the party) and found at least a 100 people ahead of us inside (free drinks ??) We bypassed the Captains line and grabbed a drink and watched the proceedings on the dance floor.

Again the officers were lined up around the dancefloor and again they waited for the guests to come over. Some guests did go over but it means  that all those guests who are sitting on the side and in the wings are obviously not entitled to the presence of an officer. One would expect that the officers would be roving the area being the gracious hosts. The party was called the Sr. Officers party, although there were numerous junior officers present, so one would expect that the Officers would make it a point and fan out from the center to chat with all those highrolling guests who have to sit, and who pay their salary. It was never explained to us, why we all were there, but we think that they invited the Queen and Princess Grills and the and Diamond members.

To be honest, this was a bit of a damp squidh affair, although there were canape’s, which were missing from the first party. No speech from the captain but near the end a guy in an off-white suite popped up and made a short speech, which seemed to be the moment that all  the officers were allowed to disappear and they did. He then wished us a good continuation of our party, which had now turned to a Sr. Officer Party, without any officers. The captain was still there, gathering up his wife and 3 children. He saw me and we were thus able to say goodbye and thank him for his hospitality. He said he had been reading my daily blog and agreed with my weather charts. I hope he also agreed with the cabin repairs I enacted.

We decided not to go to the last show as it will be an early morning tomorrow and we had to pack the final items to make sure that all suitcases had the same weight. Weather in Southampton tomorrow calls for partly cloudy skies, with a temperature of 7oC but with a windchill factor that might bring it down to 5 or 4oC. But as long as I do not have to de-ice the car windows, I am already a happy camper.

This is the one but last blog of the cruise. On Monday, my “Final Verdict & Review”, will follow.  However with coming back to Southampton this 12 day cruise will have ended.  Our next cruise will be in February 2026 with Viking Cruises, so I hope that you will be following us again.

In the mean time: A very happy New Year and  Lesley and I wish you all a prosperous, healty and peaceful 2026.

 

 

Day 10, 2025 Dec. 26; At Sea. Day 2.

December 27, 2025 / / 3 Comments

This morning we woke up to a slighty moving ship with a movement that a sailor calls “gentle” but a landlubber calls “annoying”. But the weather chart stays positive and the Bay of Biscay and surroundings remained very gentle, or -blue- on the chart.  So happy campers all around today.

Weather / sea forecast for today.

This is our second day at sea since leaving the Canaries Islands. 2nd Day of Christmas, called Boxing Day, as in England that used to be the official day of opening the “boxes” with the presents. Most of the crew finds this very funny as in their cultures they open their presents during Christmas Eve. So the joke of the day was, “have you been boxing ?”

As a reference to last night for those who do not know what Christmas “crackers” are. These are paper tubes and you pull at each side, with the person opposite to you at the dinner table. They then come apart with a “crack”.. Inside there is a paper crown (referring to the 3 kings of bethlehem) and the idea is to wear them during the christmas dinner. Inside is also a present, the quality depending on how expensive the cracker is. We had a honey stick, a wooden stirrer to get the last honey out of a honey pot & and a small steel cake form to make christmas cookies. Then there is the (rather naff) Christmas joke. “What sort of nut can you use to hang something on the wall ?……………. a wall-nut.

After breakfast we went for a walk-a-bout and ended up with a Q&A interview from the Cruise Director with our Lady Orchestra Conductor. Which was interesting to listen to as not many of us really know what goes on inside an orchestra. Unfortunately, no “juicy” anecdotes to liven it all up, but still very interesting. One could see that she is a real conductor and not an entertainer.

We made it early to lunch to day as we were sort of pressed for time as at 13.30 hrs. we had the 4th. and last recital of Robin Colville the piano player and we did not want to miss that. After that there was a full 1h.45 min. musical show in the Theatre at 16.00 hrs. which Lesley did not want to miss. I never know if my “cultural time span” can last that long, so we investigated first if we could find some places to sit, where she had a good view and I could slip away if to all got too much.

The Maestro explaining his first piece and on the balcony two saiors (the dark shapes in the corner under the saffolding) tying up the steps. Life is never dull on a cruise ship.

The piano recital was very good as usual but as it had been pushed to 13.30 it sort of interfered with the ships routine. While the Maestro was explaining the background of his first piece, above him on the balcony, suddenly “swish-swish’ could be heard caused by two sailors securing a scalfolding with pulling ropes through. Luckily they saw the light and did not start working, while below Griegs Solveits Song burst out of the piano. Then half way through the concert a steward came by with a trolley with rattling crockery. He had to go in the pantry in the back to prepare for English High Tea at 15.00 hrs. After the plates had been transfered to their locker, he switched on the pantry light (luckily there was a pole between the pantry and the stage so the performance was not affected). And then he switched on the heating cabinet (I think for warming up the teapots). Now all of us in the back could listen to Griegs First Piano Concerto accompanied by electric humming from a pantry. This was most likely a worlds first: ” Variations on Grieg’s Piano Concert no.1 by a Heating Cabinet”. ……….. I love to be part of World First premieres…………………………….

After the concert we walked past the shops and suddenly they were busy. This occurence happens near the end of the cruise and is called “The On Board Credit Effect”. If you got spending credit with your cruise and have not spent it, then now is the chance. The shops responded accordingly with 15% extra discount on certain items. We have run out of on board credit already, courtesy of cocktails every evening and the daily internet cost, so my bank account will take another hit when we leave the ship.

For the latter we got the luggage tags today. Cunard has the system that you have to pull off the old tags and then you get new ones and hence new ones were delivered. There are also companies who tell you to leave the tags on, as it incorporates the disembarkation color. Disembarkation time depends on what sort of cabin you have, or if you are independent or have scheduled transport. With our cabin level we can leave at any time, so we will aim for 08.03 off the ship, with the taxi waiting to take us back to the hotel at 09.00 to collect the car. Then I hope to be on the way by 10.am as it is a 5 hr. drive home, plus stopping for petrol and groceries.

The poster being used in the UK for this musical

Today we had a special cast / stage performance of a musical/play called “Come from Away”, telling the story of the little Newfoundland town of Gander that suddenly had to host 7000 air plane passengers when the USA closed its airspace when 9/11 occured. Doubling the size of the town when a large number of planes deviated to their old airport. The whole effort lasted1h.45m, and there was a full house. One at 16.00 hrs. and one at 20.00 hrs. And it was really, really good, with  a well deserved standing ovation at the end.

This picture comes from a website advertising the musical in the UK. There is a scene in there, “Kiss the Fish”, which is a tongue in cheek ceremony to become a “NewFoundlander’.  The town of Gander granted “membership” to all stranded passengers who were there and agreed to “kiss the fish”.

According to those who had seen the performance in London with “real professionals” and paid a high ticket price for the privilige, advised that this one here on board was soo much better. And I am not amazed as with the plethora of (large) cruise ships out there, the stage shows and its actors are getting better every year as the supporting teams behind them are getting more and more professional and better financed. Again no photos from the show itself, as somebody will  get upset when you do so……………..

Then it was cocktail time and we met Pamela Curtis. This was the Lady who was the highest repeater this cruise with 1250+ days. I posted the photo on day 3 when she got the flowers during the Captains Loyalty party. That photo was seen by my blog readers in Los Angeles, who then contacted Mrs. Curtis to let her know that she was now world famous. She then contacted me to meet for a  drink and a chat. Hence tonight. This is for my readers in Los Angeles.

Cocktail Time in the Commodore Club with the highest day repeater on board,

Tomorrow is our 3rd sea day, passing the coast of Normandy and then entering the outer reaches of the English Channel (or La Manche in French, as we are on the French side). Looking at the weather chart and knowing the way a Vista Class ship behaves, I think we will get some more movement. Not really rolling or pitching but more of the yawning movement that we also had south bound. It should not affect anybody very much as we all had enough training southbound.

Day 9, 2025 Dec. 25; At Sea.

December 26, 2025 / / 5 Comments

On departure the Captain announced that we would have a smooth ride home, only somewhat marred by a strong wind on the bow. In general he was right. The sea swell was not predicted to go above 3 meters and that is something a Signature/Vista class ship can handle without too much issue.  However where there is 3 meters, there is also 3.5 meters and 2.5 meters and hence the ship was not completely still in the water.  I think the guests who occupied the cabins at the stern, did not completely agree with the captains assessment as there was some movement; and around lunch time today the ship was even pitching  But compared with going south at the beginning of the cruise we are having an easy ride.

The sea state expected today. It is still mainly blue. and that is good.

We opened our Cunard presents this morning and found two nice christmas balls for the tree at home and two christmas crackers with inside white and brown truffles. And the card from the company. Lesley and I have stopped giving each other presents a long time ago as after so many years of marriage we already have everything and if not, the wish is so electic that both would buy the wrong present. Hence  you could say that this cruise was our christmas present. And a very nice one, albeit a very expensive one.

The presents we found on our bed last night. Nothing “big” but nice to receive as a souvenir. The teddybear on the christmas ball is dressed in a Cunard Bell-boy custome.

After breakfast in the cabin (not that we are so posh but it is the best way to stay away from a very calorific breakfast), we had a walk around and were just in time to see Father Christmas arriving in the Atrium. This ritual is nearly the same on every ship. Santa Claus suddenly pops up out of the funnel greeted by as many screaming children as possible (we do not have that many on board this cruise but they still were capable of making a lot of noise). Then it goes in parade into the ship, at a distance followed by  the parents, as not every little Johnny stays with the group. Some of them see this as a chance to explore somewhere he has not been yet and then needs to be scooped up by Pa or Ma.

Santa Claus in the Atrium, flanked by his elf and two “snow persons”.

Cunard uses the Atrium for these occasions as Santa can sit on top of the stairs and thus can be approached that way by the childeren but also a lot of guests can have a look down from one of the 3 levels and at the same time do not need to stay for the whole “procedure”. Also adults were invited to have their photo taken with Santa Claus, an Elf, and two “snow persons”. Quite a few still felt like children at heart……….

At 10 am. The captain hosted the Festival of The Carols and Lessons in the main Theatre. This is a typical english thing, grounded in the fact that the King is the head of the English Church. On the ship the Captain is his representative and thus assumes that title of head of the church as well. Therefore it has been a long tradition on the British ships that the Captain leads the Sunday Morning church service on board.  On the British cruise ships this tradition is still here and the Captain still heads the service, at least when sundays are at sea. For Christmas, this service had been padded out somewhat with carols and the Master of the Vessel reading “The Lesson”. There is a merchant navy prayer & sermon book out there, so if there is a Captain, who is not so familiar with the spiritual side of life, then there are templates that can be followed.

That was as much christmas as we could find, the rest of the morning had the standard items, with dancing in the Queens Lounge, Shops sales, Casino open, etc., followed by the next music recital by Maestro Robert Colville, who did not disappoint and even did two encores  (Highland Chatedral and Variations on Lambeth Walk) so he over ran the alloted time. That caused several of the audience to leave because when it is time to choose between culture and lunch, …………………………………….guess what wins.

His Majesty the King, Charles II of Great Britain & the British Commonwealth. The general focus of his speech was on working together and reconsiliation.

By 15.00 hrs. a lot of guests were assembling in the Royal Court Theatre to listens to the “Kings Speech”. For me of dual persuation, feeling British after 32 years but still having a Dutch perspective on life, I always feel it necessary to follow both.

His Majesty King Willem Alexander of the Kingdom of the Netherlands spoke about cherishing of what connects us. Our mutual responsibilities, Our Democracy, Our Rights of Law and Our Environment. And the need to instill these values into our children.

No doubt the other Kings and Queens of Europe had similar messages for their loyal subjects in a world that is getting ever more polarized and less repsectful of each other.( I do not know if there is a International Queen & King conference before christmas but it would make sense as most of the contents of these speeches were similar but with a local tweak)

So with these  Royal Reflections,  I hope 2026 will be a better year.

The crew had their christmas downstairs, also received presents from Cunard, and had Santa Claus downstairs for photos.  Upstairs the afternoon was the regular seaday routine with offerings from all the concessionaires and then by 17.00 hrs. cocktail time geared up again.  Tonight was formal night with a theme of Red & Gold. Looking around the ship, quite a few of the ladies, including my Lord & Master, had found a dress with red & gold. I could join in with a red jacket and gold cumberbund & bow tie, but in general the Gents where less brave than the Ladies. (Although I saw a few gentlemen in very fancy jackets). As mentioned before, we normal go to the Commodore Club for cocktails and 99%  were in formal, and about 60% color themed. The amplifier challenge from last night had been fixed and tonight we had a Duo, called the “Radio Duo” with smooth songs.

Christmas dinner was a variation on the christmas dinner but (I assume) re-imagined by Top Chef Michael Roux so a lot of the trimmings were not present. But we had fancy christmas crackers to pull.

The Lavelles. Three British Ladies who gave a very nice show. They will do another one later on in the Queens Lounge. (Photo Courtesy from somewhere on  the internet, a poster of when the Ladies were performing)

The show tonight was  a group of three Ladies “the Lavelles” who sang Motown hits from the 1980’s etc. And they were very good. Motown is not my first choice but the songs were belted out on “full volume” and high energy.  This was followed by a short performance from the cruise staff and cast with the 12 days of Christmas. The nice thing of this song is, that if it is done right, it goes completly wrong and ends up in complete mayhem. We were not disappointed………. and it was good fun to watch. Unfortunately I cannot show photos as there was this voice on the Tannoy again, advising everybody that recording was strictly forbidden. As mentioned before, I will never understand that.

Tomorrow is our 2nd day at sea, and the weather looks very good. Smooth seas, hardly any wind and with only a low swell running. Tenperatures are slowly dropping and by the time we reach Southampton, it will be down to 6 or 7o Celcius.

 

 

Day 8, 2025 Dec. 24; Arrecife de Lanzarote, Spain.

December 25, 2025 / / 7 Comments

Christmas is coming.

The more south we go, the less swell there is, and apart from an occasional bump, the ship sailed quietly through the night. Ending up at Arrecife harbor by 07.30 in the morning. With us again the ms Ventura and we were joined later by the Mariella Explorer, sailing for TUI. The Ventura was at what they would call here the cruise ship pier as it is the closest pier to town. Tui is sometimes doing change over’s here but uses the end of the sea wall, where they have a large marque for handling guests and luggage. We were at the same pier but slighlty further in.

Today the marquee which acts as a cruise terminal  was in use for screening the returning guests of both the Mariella and the Victoria.  The harbour is a considerable distance from the town of Arrecife and hence there was a shuttle service available to reduce the 30 minute walk to an 10 minute bus ride.  The Ventura guests did not have a shuttle as they only had a 15 minute walk from their ship directly into town.  The shuttle ran very frequently (waiting time limited to loading time) and dropped everybody off at “The Marina”. From here it was another 8 minute walk to the boulevard where the first restaurants, bars and small hotels were located. From there, walking alone the waterfront, it was another 5 minutes to the main shopping street. “The Marina” turned out to be made up of bars and restaurants, (and a Burger King)  and a few souniver shops. There was a small Arts & Crafts market outside so those for whom it was too far to walk into town, could still do some shopping thearapy.

The shuttlebus transfer is charged at $ 10,– a person, but is included for Queens and Passenger Grill guests and those on full fares. They scan your cruise card when boarding the coach and, if applicable, the $ 10,– gets charged to your account. It works the same way for the crew, who travel free of course,  and the “Traffic Controllers”, who control the guest flow to the coaches, shove a few crew onto each coach. That is something I can always appreciate as crew cannot always wait until “all the guests are gone” as they simply do not have the time. Not that many crew went ashore, the distance & time is simply too much if you only have a few hours off. Those who went, ended up in a super market again (same chain as yesterday) to stack up with whatever a crew member needs.

The ground cut open for further development. No sand, no flowers no greenery, apart from some mosses. Barren as far as the eye can see,

Drving into town, is basically driving over an asfalt road  with on either side lava as Lanzarote is a volcanic island that only recently (million years ago or so) became extinct. Long time ago I did a tour around the island which was facinating and beautiful as long as “stark” is what you like. What I remember mostly is how hot it was, so when in later years I could see more lava and rocks in Iceland with a much more gentle temperature, it shifted my focus point somewhat. But today (cold for local standards as all the old locals had thick coats or vests on) it was a perfect day to take the tour. But we went into town.

In case you wonder what Santa drives in Spain ? It is not a sleigh, it is a VW bus.

At the entrance to the town was a christmas fancy-fair, similar to the one we saw yesterday in Las Palmas. I wonder if that is a sort of Christmas tradition they have one in each port during the festive season on the Islands. Fully focussed on the younger clientele of course, but a Ferris Wheel and Bumper cars also get adults excited. It was still closed but it might have opened up around 17.00 hrs. as that happened at Las Palmas last night. The little pubs & terraces were by 11.00 hrs. already full with eager clientele and it was interesting to see that the menu’s were in Spanish, then German and only occasionally in English or French.

The main shopping street, at a quiet moment. This was lunch time so all the tourists had moved on to the pubs and restaurants.

The main street was a very nice and clean shopping street, full with christmas decorations so it seemed that here, they kept restaurants and pubs outside of the main street environment. I do not know how it works retail wise but for the flow of traffic (several 1000 cruise guests marching in and out) it worked very well.

The main view when coming off the shuttlebus. All that is white are small hotels with restaurants and bars under it. German is more widely spoken here than English.

We were back by 13.00 hrs. and decided on lunch in the Lido Restaurant as they had Spaghetti Bolognaise on the menu, cooked A-la-minute and that is something even a Queens Grill Chef cannot beat.  Disappointing was that the soft ice machine was for 50% out of order and the other one was in ” cleaning mode”  and thus lunch did not have a perfect ending. Hopefully they have a technician who will understand the “grave emergency” of getting this repaired ASAP, otherwise I will get withdrawal symptoms.

The Queen Victoria Officers Choir on the Atrium staircase. One of the cast members was conductiong and also leading the rehearsals of the Guest Choir on the ship. I did not recognize many of the officers but the gentleman in black on the top left of the photo is our Maitre d’Hotel of the Queens Grill.

The ship is gearing up for Christmas and that started today, more christmassy tables started to show up with candy houses, we now also have one opposite the Grills Bar, and the officers and crew are walking around with santa claus hats.

Latest edition to the christmas displays. The square thing in the right hand corner is a traditional Christmas Cake. which is a very dense cake, so you only get/take a small sliver and then eat it with very thick cream. 

Tonight at 17.00 and 19.00 hrs. there was the christmas choir performance of the officers of the Victoria but at 17.00 hrs, it was solely made up of Hotel Officers as Deck and Engine were still on full standby as we also sailed at 17.00 hrs.  At 18.15 hrs. there was storytime, read out by the Captain.

The rest of the evening had the same program as normal with the exemption of: at 23.30 there was the Christmas Eve service for protestants in the Queens Lounge with a Reverend and at the same time  the Roman Catholic service in the Royal Court Theatre with a priest in attendance. For the Jewish, the Channukah candles were lit at the entrance of each restaurant and the Pursers desk (last candle, last night) but I do  not know if we have a Rabbi on board this cruise as well.

When I was Captain in the past I always encouraged it, when all three were on board, with the request if they could not do something together especially for the crew. One year, the 3 of them  organised  a-get-together with the crew and announced themselves on the posters as : “The Holy Trinity” . Inviting all  Officers and Crew for a service without boundaries in the Crew Mess”.  That was such a success that it was repeated a day later upstairs on request of the guests , when they found out about it from the crew.  It did not always work as sometimes some of them were too rigid in their convictions but when it did it was always a great success. Even groups of the muslim community showed up.  I think the first year it worked was, when the protestant representative was  a Vicar of the British Seamans mission, “The Flying Angels” and they are known not to take things too seriously, most of them being ex sailors themselves.

The main show was focussed on Christmas as well, with a Cast performance called “Deck the Halls” with christmas songs made popular by various artists.  In the Queens Lounge the regular dancing was going on (every night by orchestra or recorded music for squence dancing) but tonight the two singers and orchestra had everybody ball room dancing to christmas tunes.

Back in the cabin. we found a Christmas card from the company, two Christmas “crackers” with chocolates and two baubles to hang on the christmas tree at home.

From Lesley and I:

Merry Christmas to all my readers and we hope that all your christmasses will be as bright as the star of bethlehem.

As you can see below, Santa Claus would prefer to be somewhere else at Christmas.

For Santa Claus himself though not all his own wishes are coming true……………………………………

 

 

 

 

Day 07, 2025 Dec. 23; Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

December 24, 2025 / / 4 Comments

Aerial view of the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The cruise docks are to the left at the inner part. (Photo courtesy: unknown drone photographer on the internet)

And thus we sailed through the night a bit further to the south to the largest island in the group and that is called Gran Canaria. The whole name of the town, Las Palmas de Grand Canaria,  is really a mouth full, but as there are so many ” Las Palmas” towns and villages out there a bit of specification is necessary. Most people think (when hearing the name) about the  town on the island of Ibiza and that they do not like very much over here.  This Las Palmas has a very big port, as apart from serving the island it is also a transit hub between Africa, Europe and the Americas and a home port for a large offshore fleet and fishing fleet.  The off-shore  fleet is involved in cable laying, windmills, oil operation and a lot of scientific research for future exploration of the seabottom with all its minerals.  It was an important navy port in both the world wars and during the cold war as well. Hence there is still a considerable (Spanish) navy presence.

Cunard has been going here for a long time. It even sent the Queen Mary  during her twilight days of North Atlantic service when even unsuitable ships (air conditioning….) were sent cruising.

For the cruise ship guests it is a good port as the town is very close to where the cruise ships dock. Yesterday a shuttle service was available (not free) from the gangway of the Queen Victoria as it was a good 30 minute walk to get to the first shop in town. Today, it is just a quick walk out of the ship and dock and you are there. Hence it is very popular as a day -stop but also as an embarkation port and the big terminal can handle two large cruise ships on one day for a change over. I have seen photos with 6 big ships in port and all their guests are let over the pavement through the one terminal gate into the town and back. Return security is provided in the terminal building so you are not bothered with it when stepping back on board and as we saw today it all ran very smoothly.

Most of our morning was taken up with a visit to the Guest Laundry. The Queen Victoria has one on each deck, with on average 3 washers, 3 dryers and an ironing board. All free of charge. Modern front loading machines with digital menu’s, which on occasion create challenges for the older Americans cruising who are still used to “open the top & turn the dial” machines. I love laundrettes on board as it is a great service to the guests when a quick wash is needed. Big stuff can be sent to the ships laundry; but be careful with lace & ruffles as most ships laundries seem to have a challenge understanding that standard pressing is not a solution to spruce up that sort of fabric. What is very nice is the soap now comes is in small sheets (looks like a slice of cheese in thickness) so no more messing around with soap cups or pushing a soap dispenser “at the right moment”.

Machines on the Queen Victoria.

On Holland America the self service laundries were not installed on the Vista Class and later ships, much to the annoyance of the guests. But there is a nice anecdote about that. With all the HAL ships in Alaska in the summer time, each ship had about 150 to 300 guests joining in Juneau or Skagway who were coming down from the overland tour in Alaska; some of them having been on the road for over 25 days. They all wanted to do their laundry of course but whatever the ship tried, there is no way you can handle 300 guests who all want to spend most of the day in the laundry, getting through 3 or 4 suitcases of clothing.

The guests of course did not understand why they could not get access to a machine “while the others keep beating them to it” and thus it rained complaints and the Comment On Board Form (COB) rating for the self service laundries was very low. It also dragged down the overall cruise experience rating.  (One 1 on the rating takes ten 10’s to get it back to a 9 average)   In the end the CEO, President and later also Chairman, Mr. Kirk Lanterman decreed “NO MORE LAUNDRIES” on the ships. We on board tried to change his mind with the suggestion “why not take the laundries out of the COB paper” but that was not a good idea. Since then no more laundrettes on the HAL ships. I think the Prinsendam was the last ship who still had them until 2019. Cunard still has them and also on the new -Pinnacle Class- Queen Anne, there are 2 of them of quite a reasonable size.

So while the ship was exercising the emergency procedures, we went through the intrecacies of 21st century digital  washing machine menu’s. Of course there are no instructions on the walls and hence it is all a bit experimenting but we have something complicated like this at home, so it all worked.

Life boat drill impression by a famous Dutch cartoonist Jan Sanders. In the 1980’s he made a whole series of these sailors cartoons for a Dutch paint company “Holland International” who specialized in ships paint. Originals now sell for 500 – 1000 euro’s.

The ship had the “full Monty” today with the weekly emergency drill;, full crew participation and all 3 stages of the drill. Starting with a fire in the technical library outside the Engine Control Room. This is a very small space and thus very easy to extinguish a fire but it requires to re-locate the Enging Control Room – Control to the bridge,. Nowadays with networked computers is not so difficult but it can still give a chief engineer palpitations when having to do it.

Extracting a crew member from a ballast tank. All ships have one of these tripods on board together with a small winch. When safely possible a volunteer is used, which most often is ………………….. the cadet. As he/she “has to learn ti al”.  (stock photo from the internet)

The Captain decided to make it even more exciting by simulating that somebody was stuck in a Ballast Water Tank no. 6 (that is down on D deck/tanktop) and that meant that the crewmembers who are part of the “Confined Space Rescue Team” had to go through the motions of getting somebody out. (Not so easy as  the entrance man-hole to the tank is not that wide) The medical department is part of this team and had then the pleasure to be called not too much later to Deck 9, that is 12 decks up from the entrance to Ballast tank 6. The rest of the crew (there are 985 of them on board) was by then assembling at the muster stations.

Here they got an additional treat  as 150 of them (143 + 7 crew) had to exercise filling up the lifeboat to the legal capacity. There is a routine for this and the commanders need to train this, so everybody gets queezed in at one of the 140 spots.  But it has to be done in about 20 minutes. As we still have the required maximum time of lowering down to the water of 30 minutes. With 140 crew this works, with 140 guests, not necessarily. Especially if they are the size of 3 crewmembers. But that is why the ship has soo many liferafts on board. The law prescribes that 140  occupants should fit with a lifejacket but they do not have to exceed the weight of 75 kg. (For the newest ships out there, this has been raised to 85.2 kg, and for some offshore installation – with very burly roust-a-bouts – to 95 kg.) The crew normally enjoys doing this as it so different for the normal routine. But it is also often the first time that the Ladies among the crew realize that there are no toilets on board a lifeboat.

The shopping center seen from drone height. The brown ramp is route into the shopping mall and from there to town.

Then it was time to walk ashore and to have a look  at downtown Las Palmas. The local authorities had, had the clever idea of building a large shopping center just outside the cruise terminal and to get into town , the shortest way is to go through it. So 7000+  guests marched ashore that way and then marched back the same way. The shopping center was not completly full with shops yet and I do not know where they still in the opening process or if it was  matter of recession. But the crew was in heaven as it had a big supermarket inside. And indeed most of the shoppers were crew, returning to the ships with bags full of washing powder, shampoo crips/chips and other essentials to survive below decks.

I was somewhat disappointed in down town. When I came here in the 1980’s the main street was full of little resturants and cafes spilling into the street and having a great atmosphere to deep in the night. Now many of those localities had been taken over by discount shops and places that sold trinkets. I think that with the Canaries now being so popular with package holidays, the emphasis of going out has moved to where the large hotels are along the beach, and not necessiarily in down town any more. ………….. Another Youth Dream shattered………………..

Back on board it was time for cocktails, this time without music, in the Commodore Club as they could not get the entertainer of the evening hooked up to the sound system. 4 experts searched, tried and scratched their heads,  for 45 minutes and still nothing. When we left we saw a very gloomy looking performer standing behind the piano (not what he was supposed to play a piano) and the bum of an electrician sticking out of the amplifier box.  The show tonight was Duo Lyodi, which was a telling of a chinese fable  by poetry , acrobatics etc. but without words.

Her Ladyship was more interested in reviewing Cunards price list as she has set her eyes on a larger cabin  but for a 7 day cruise next year.  I am still busy with getting this cabin uptodate. We had the saga with the DVD player that could not be connected( the new one now is),  but the remote control does not work with this set, we had a broken plinth repaired, a toilet seat fastened, an also glass curtains rehung and rehooked.

Now I am creating a  checklist of what we should have in the cabin. A lot gets listed on the website under amenities but when you then come on board, it seems that the Cunard policy is “on request”, but if you do not have that list in your mind, how do you know ?

We now know that fresh fruit is “on request”,  fresh flowers / plant is “on request”, The TV program is “on request”, the binoculars are “on request”, the “pillow concierge menu” is “on request” but nothing is listed anywhere in the cabin. You have to remember it from the website. Then there are no instructions of how to operate the DVD player or the coffee machine. (we got the instruction for the coffee machine but also “on request”. And all that “on request” is very irritating because all those things should be there when you step on board as you have paid for it. Now you have to ask/ “beg” for all these items and the concierge or the butler has to run for it. Also they do not offer it to you either, when you come on board during the initial meet and greet in the cabin;  no…………………. the guest has to take the iniative.

It does not stops us from enjoying this cruise but as Queens Grill Guests this should not happen at all.  Most company’s have a “perfect cabin set-up” which comes with a checklist of what should be in the cabin. A Housekeeping supervisor can then quickly check if it is all there. But maybe this checklist is also “on request” for the supervisor  from the boss.

Tomorrow we are in Arrecife de Lanzarote, our last stop before our 3 days at sea to return to Southampton. At the moment the weather looks good. Windy but with low swells so we might have a comfortable christmas  at sea.

Weather: Partly Cloudy with temperatures going up to the tropical temperature of 19oC / 660F. and very little wind.

Below the swell in the North Altantic as of today.

Weather. As  you can see the red line goes mainly through and a light yellow colors and that means that the swell does not go higher then 3 meters. That the ship can handle to ensure a smooth ride.

 

 

 

Day 6, 2025 Dec. 22; Santa Cruz de Tenerife. (Now in Spain)

December 23, 2025 / / 0 Comments

We trundeled down from Funchal on the island of Madeira, to Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the island of Tenerife with the gentle speed of 15 knots, adjusting arrival there to suit the local authorities with their preference for the ferries. This can be quite irritating at times, because if a ferry is delayed, then other ships still have to wait. I experienced that myself once with an extra wait of up to 45 minutes, while everybody could see (including the Harbourmasters office as they have radar) that the ferry in question was still almost an hour away. Our maneuver would have only taken 20 minutes, so we would have been out of the way well in time, but “higher” insights (the harbourmaster sits in a tower high up ……) prevailed and we had to wait. Today the Cunard Victoria was not suffering from that but it was still tight as the gangways were only going out just at 10.00 hrs. and ships complement (security and shore excursion) normally prefer a little bit more time to get “their shop” set up properly. Luckily we did not have to wait for clearance as we were sailing from Portugal to Spain, both in the European Union.

Part of the (large) port of Santa Cruz. Opposite are two ferries with in the middle the ms Costa Fortuna. To the far left one can just see the bridge wing of the ms Ventura. The first white ship is a Car Ferry which was the one causing all the arrival challenges. The much smaller one, in the far corner, is a Fast Catamaran operated by Fred Olsen Lines on an inter island service.

We were far from being alone today. The Canaries are a hot spot for cruise ships nowadays as the islands can be reached from Europa in 2+ days, so guests can avoid having to fly, and if they fly, it is mostly a short flight and then you can do 7 ports in 7 days.  So today the following ships shared the rainly weather with us: the ms Ventura (P&O), the ms Costa Fortuna (Costa Cruises), the Mein Schiff 3 (Tui-Germany), and a small one, the ms La Belle des Oceans of only 5000 tons, she sat tucked away under the stern of the Mein Schiff 3, which is 20 times bigger.  This little one was built for the Japanese market as Oceanic Grace, back in 1989 and after a whole slew of owners, now  sails for Croisi Europe and is on a 7 day cruise around the Canary Islands. So a busy day in port with around 10,000 guests ashore, not counting crew.

The entrance to the Britannia Diningroom. It all looks in very good condition after 18 years of service.

Her Ladyship went ashore to have coffee with the wife of the Chief Engineer of the ms Ventura as they sailed together on the ms Sea Princess (formerly ms Kungsholm) back in the 1980’s. Who does still remember that ship ??  That gave me the time to go around the Victoria as most guests had raced ashore as soon as the gangway was out. Rain or no Rain.  The Queen Victoria has not changed much on the inside since 2007, no “Signature of Excellence” upgrades as HAL has been doing, but carpets had been replaced on a regular basis and the ship has been kept in a very good condition. Next dry dock is in the Autumn of next year and then they do have to do a lot of work on Movie – media etc. as they are running far behind with it compared to the competition.

The theatre as seen from the stage. This is the view an entertainer has when looking at the audience.

A Lounge which I really like is the main show lounge, called the Royal Court Theatre. Laid out as a London theatre from the 1920’s it gives an old fashionished and comfortable feeling  of “yes we will be entertained here”.

One of the murals outside showing the Shaftesbury Theatre, There are several of these located around the entrances to the Theatre.

They only thing that has misfired somewhat (Not Cunards fault) are the private boxes that you can hire for the evening (bellboy escort, champagne and nibbles). A very nice idea but then came the American ADA act which required the railings to be higher and of course to a height whereby the railing is just in your eye view. Cunard tried to avoid this by putting perspex in but this gives a distorted view so only the 2 upper seats in each box can peer over the rim and then it is still not great.  Also you watch the show under an angle  and that is not to everybodies taste. Hence my wife and I opt for the centre seats on the first elevation.

One of the theatre boxes. This is one of the best ones, as it almost views straight forward.

Moving on, behind the theatre on deck 3 is the Royal Arcade, e.g. the shopping area. On the starboard side it has a large store for the liquor, parfume and jewellery and on the same side but past the Queens Lounge it is the Bookshop (about 50% books and about 50% crips and candy). When the Queens came out, books were still a important source of revenue but that has diminished year by year. On the portside is the clothing and hand bag store store with just around the corner the “Cunard Collection” store with Cunard logo wear. Most bought item here (apart from fridge magnets) are the Teddybears, which are different for each ship. I do not know if the shops are doing well, they  never seem to be very busy (except for the liquor sales) but hopefully it works for them. The shops are run by a concession called Hardings and as is normal in the cruise business they pay a fixed daily fee, based on the number of guests on board, to the cruise company.  There are several of these company’s out there, but Hardings, Starboard. Effy and Duffry are the best known ones.

Overview of “The Arcade”. Shops on either side.

Below the shops is the Casino on the portside and the Golden Lion Pub (named after the golden lion in the cunard logo) on the right hand side. The casino is not very big as most British do not gamble. The Golden Lion is bigger than the Casino because most British do like a drink.  The latter space is designed, so it resembles of what most people think a British Pub should look like. At lunch time it also serves Pub-Grub, or pub food, but see my write up of a few days ago, since the menus have been “re-imagined” by Star chef Michael Roux there is not much “Pub” left in the “Grub”.

The Golden Lion Pub, inner side looking aft. There is a small bandstand, and the whole place is about 4 x bigger than seen on the photo. I have been to many a pub in the UK, but never have seen one with so much “chesterfield” leather chairs. Although I am all in favor of it.

When her ladyship came back, it turned out that they had been talking so much, that lunch had been forgotten, so I was dispatched to get something to eat from the Lido Buffet. They were just gearing up for “afternoon tea”.   This is a trademark service of Cunard,  English – High Tea- in the afternoon.  Queens & Princess Grill, get served in the Princess Grill, and the rest of the ship can go to the Queens Lounge. But that has limited capacity and thus waiting lines form. Plus guests who had their tea and finger sandwiches tend to linger, which can make the Queens Lounge a flustrating experience if you are not early. So there is also the Lido Restaurant. The finger sandwiches and cakes you have to get from the Buffet counter, but Ladies go around serving the tea. (This is english “Ceylon” tea, so not too strong, but it tends to thicken and gets darker if the pot of tea is not poored fast enough). It is a wonderful tradition that is nowadays  copied by a lot of companies.  The only problem is that, the brain always wants to eat more than the body feels it is ready to accept. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, But such are the cruising problems in life.

This is another of my favourite lounges and very personal. You need to be into books to see how special this is. The Mary, Lizzie and Vicky still have a  the full library lay-out. On the Anne, although a bigger ship, it is already much less, but still better than on many other luxury ships out there. This two level library with comfortable seats, has a large selection of books, paperback exchange and magazines,  and all is executed in dark mahogany.  Attended for part of the day by a Librarian who also acts as the “internet guru”.

We decided not to go out for cocktails this evening as we had this bottle of sprankling wine from last night. So our butler provided a champagne bucket with ice and together with the 5 pm. canape’s, all was well in the world. Dinner in the Queens Grill was lightly attended again and then we went for the show.  Tonight it was “Sounds of London”, focusing on songs of artists connected to the London area. (Elton John, Adele etc.) For this show they had beefed up the cast  to six singers and even the dancers were singing (or at least giving a very good impression of doing so).  Unfortunately I cannot post any photos as there was once again, this person on the tannoy who advised no photos, no video, no recording.  It is a copyright issue, but it does not make sense to me in a practical way as those who want to record/take a photo will do it anyway, and the artists miss a great opportunity for free advertising.

A few days ago I posted a picture of the Christmas village in the  Queens Lounge. The ship has two more of these displays, albeit smaller, and they are in the Lido. This is one of them.

Tommorrow we are in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, another island of the Canaries, some 87 nautical miles away. It will be a parade as the Mein Schiff 3 and the Ventura will also be there. Weather: dry and partly overcast. Temperatures around 18- 20oC / 65 – 70oF.

 

 

 

 

Day 5, 2025 Dec. 21; Funchal, Madeira. (Still in Portugal)

December 22, 2025 / / 1 Comment

And thus the good ship Queen Victoria docked without any challenges in Funchal, Madeira. Also the ms Ventura had been able to find the place and was docked ahead of us. Reason for that, was, that she had to race out at departure  to get to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and to get in ahead of the ferries. More about that later tommorrow.

The ms Ventura and ms Queen Victoria docked at the Breakwater.

With two large ships in, the south breakwater dock was nearly full. A number of years ago they built another cruise ship dock on the north side of the port, accessed from the main boulevard. Today there was nobody there but it is often used by the Germans (Tui and Aida) as a turn over port. It would have been nice to dock there as that would have avoided having to use a shuttle bus, or having to walk around the whole port to get to the same location.  That new dock is nice but it is the first time that I have seen a cruise ship dock at a pier with a small hotel and a museum on top. That museum is dedicated to the world wide known footballer (soccer player in the American langage) Cristiano Ronaldo who was born in Funchal.  It makes sense that they have a museum for him (although he is still alive and plays) as he is the most famous Madeirian ever.

Ronaldo’s Museum. Quite a few young boys were hovering around in football shirts and taking photos with his statue outside the entrance.

We waited for the exodus on the gangway to subside somewhat. To enable the exodus properly, there were 2 gangways for going out (only one on return) and so we made it ashore by 11.30. The initial plan was to get the yellow hop-on-hop off  Bus for a tour. The busses left from the ship but as it was overcast and thus without a burning sun, we decided to walk into town. We both have been around the island several times but downtown itself was a sort of white spot. Knowing that on Sunday the regular shops are mainly closed we navigated along the boulevard and then went up the hill.

The Funchal Christmas Market. The stands were the same as in any other city, Food, Drink (banana beer ?!) and arts and crafts. Anything were the flower shops, what one does not see very often in the more Northern Cities.

Here we came across a very nice christmas market; which felt wrong for one thing. NO snow.  With global warming we will have to get used to that in Nothern Europe as well but it still felt strange. But we had the chance to see Pointsettias in their natural habitat as in a lot of countries it is THE christmas flower. (On board the Queen Victoria the whole ship is full of them) In the Netherlands the flower/plant is even called “Kerstster” (Christmas Star). Music was provided by a local brassband, made up of various ages. Funny or unusual was, as long as we were around we did not hear a  single christmas song.  They played what I call “Salsa”, upbeat dancing music, arranged for a brass orchestra.  But they sounded very good.

The local brass band. One would expect christmas music but they played Salsa themed brass.

From there we found a Shopping Mall open, where the central plaza was given over to mainly coffee shops all with small terraces. In anglo saxon countries you mainly see food courts here but Portuguese people like to step out and have a coffee and chat to family and friends. As in many Southern European countries, a lot of the local life takes place outdoors and Madeira is no different. After exploring the local super market, average prices 1 euro dearer than on the continent  (most foodstuff have to be imported, as this is an island, so there are extra transport costs but compatible with the UK in prices. (Which is also an island but much closer to Europe but now has to deal with BREXIT import red tape and that drives up the price)

The whole boulevard was covered in this stringlights. I do not know if this was just for christmas or the whole year around, but it must have looked very nice in the evening time, for a boulevard stroll.

Back on board  we got ready for cocktails and this evening we had the Ukrainian classical trio playing. The three Ladies  are very talented and a delight to listen to. I think their english was too limited to say anything,  as often is done by musicians in an informal music setting, but they played and they played and that is what it is all about of course.  When we made it to dinner, we found that the Queens Grill was half empty, which is quite unusual. As we all have our own fixed table, guests arrive at different times but normally everybody is in by 20.00 hrs. So either we had a lot of exhausted guests who after Funchal could not handle a full dinner experience, or they went casual with a visit to the Lido or to one of the specialiities restaurants.  (Bamboo Restaurant in the Lido or the Verandah Steakhouse  on deck 3)

Mr. Mate Racz, violin player extra ordinaire. (*)

Then it was off to the show. Tonight we had a violinist who was giving a “Rock Symphonies” show with violin music fusion from  Vivaldi to Queen Rockband and to Wizard of Ozz. His name was Mate Racz and he is the other half of the Falmenco Show we had two days earlier. And boy…… was he good. Classically schooled (6 years in London and then assignments in Vienna etc.) and then he teamed up with the flamenco danser  (google his name or Duo Escensias) and are now touring worldwide.  He was the first peformer who got a standing ovation (as far as the guests could get out of their seats) this cruise for an entertainers performance.

Tomorrow we are in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the  Canaries, with The Canaries being  Spanish Islands off the African west coasts.  We will dock around 10 am. as we have to wait for the ferries to come in as they have preference. Weather for tomorrow: Overcast with a 30% of rain, and temperatures around 18oC/ 65oF. So perfect sightseeing weather.

(*this is a stock photo of the internet as we are not allowed to take photos during the show)

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