Day 1, 2025 Dec. 17: At Sea.

And Yes, it was wobbly during the night but the captain explained at lunch time that he was trying to keep up the speed as much as possible and had been running between 18 to 20 knots at times. This with the intention of getting to Lisbon as early as possible. The earlier he would be, the easier it would to get into the river Tagus, and from there into the shelter to the dock.  He did not explain that there is a low sand bar at the entrance of the river and if the swell gets too high, this swell builds up over the bar. This results in a higher top of a wave but also into a deeper trough which reduces the depth of the fairway considerable. That might mean you cannot go in even when the weather itself allows it. This is very hard to explain to guests without a 30 minute dissertation on it, so I can understand that he kept it neutral.

Captain William Sharples Commander of the ms Queen Victoria

The Captain is William Sharples and is somebody I do not know as he is from the generation after me, (I am getting old……) so I never saw him at the simulator or met him in a port somewhere.  But at least he is trying to communicate and explain what is going on.  So I expect that tonight, if the waves allow, he will speed up again, a bit of inconvinience late at night but will not be as bad as cancelling a port. The local authorities in Lisbon have already announced that if the ship comes in early, they will not come out early, so going ashore will still be at the regular arrival time.

So what are we doing this cruise, Southampton – Lisbon (19 Dec.),  Funchal (21 Dec.),  Santa Cruz de Tenerife (22 Dec.), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (23 Dec.), Arrecife (24 Dec.), At sea (25,26,27 Dec) – Sout- hampton (28 Dec.) As you can see, Christmas and Boxing Day are during the last 3 sea days.

Going back to our cruise.  Breakfast in the cabin  is possible until 10 am. and is setup in the cabin by the Butler. This level cabin, does not have a high table for eating from, so it is set up on the small cocktail table.  But the breakfast came on time and was of good quality.

Our Christmas tree

A most peculiar item arrived in the cabin last night. This seems to be our christmas tree. It is a small fir tree but no baubles nor even a bit of angel hair to make it festive. The cabins, one class up, which are the named suites like Laconia and Carinthia, have a full size tree full with decorations. So  we seem to be entitled to a tree much smaller but without a single decoration………….. The mind boggles.

This is our cabin 6109, see below, located midships right off the center staircase. So in bad weather (with 5 decks above and 9 decks below) it is about the most stable area of the ship. The bathroom is made up of two sections. A wash basin area with toilet and then a separate area for the shower and the bathtub. Next to it is the walk-in wardrobe.  The wash basin area has a door from the sitting room area to reach the toilet and a door also from the bedroom area.  None of the cabins in Queens Grill class have  a complete separation between the sitting area and the bedroom area; this is only the case with the very top suite.  The entrance has a desk to the left and a small bar with basin to the right. There is a glass storage area and a fridge. With the cabin comes complimentary (standard) drinks, still and sparkling water, and 2 bottles of spirits.  This is refreshed every day by the Butler. It also comes with fresh flowers but for our cabin this has been reduce to a single flower in a cabin. But a long lasting flower. Then there is the option for fresh fruit.  But this is only on request. It is not offered.  So if you ever book a cruise, with this class cabin, check the list of amenities in the Cabin booklet “Voyage Guide” or the Cunard website. (The same goes for  borrowing DVD’s,  see story below, no note in the cabin, so you have to know.  Then the menus for the coming day for the Grills is given to the cabin, so you can scrutinize it at your leisure.  There is a elaborate in- room-service menu but I have not been able to find out if is the same for all cabins or that the availability depends on the cabin class.

Our cabin from a Cunard photo.

Being a sea day meant lectures in the Royal Court Theatre, so we debated to go and see them and then realized that Cunard broadcasts them live and runs a replay on the tv. And, at least today, the lectures from last cruise were also still running on the tv.

So when went for a walk instead. As is similar for most ships, the public rooms are on Deck 3 and 4, apart from the Lido restaurant (deck 9), the kiddies place on Deck 10 and then the Grills on Deck 11.   Between the grill restaurants is a small lounge reserved for Queens & Princess guests with a desk occupied by the concierge. We went to see her, as we had found a challenge in the cabin. The DVD player was not connected. Cunard, at least on the Victoria, has not upgraded their TV system yet. So you cannot see your On Board Account on the tv., nor have an tv entertainment system with a large movie library. A few movies (english, japanese, german, spanish) run as a loop, but not continiously,  and then there are a number of news channels. (Weather depending)  so when the ship came out, a Dvd player was installed and you could get DVD’s from the concierge.

I think that sometime in the past, quite a while ago, a guest took out the adapter (2 pin european to 2 pin American) for own use and did not put it back. Since then the Butler has tried to fix it but did not get anywhere as she ran into onboard “Red Tape”. As that is the same within every company I knew at once what was going on. The Butler is part of Housekeeping, so she called Housekeeping but they do not have adapters as they are kept by the Front Desk / Pursers desk./ Guest services. Housekeeping calls the Pursers office, who says ———- it is your cabin, and thus your problem. And thus nothing happens.

So I went on  a mission to get an adapter. I went to see the concierge, a lovely lady from Bosnian background and explained the conundrum. (11.00 hrs.) She at once called the butler to fix it. I saw the butler after lunch, who of course explained that she could not do anything, she had tried before. So back to the concierge to defend the butler. Now I explained who I was before retirement and also explained what is in the Carnival Safety Management System and directives, e.g. that “adapter control” lies with the Pursers Desk. She went on the phone again. The message delivered must have come through somewhat garbeled as a gentleman from the Pursers Desk showed up with a European extension lead and a adapter from European to English British. 10 for effort, 0 for results.  He left and shortly after, a lady from the front desk showed up, accompanied by the ships electrician to fix the problem.  The electrician looked at the DVD player and said, “you only need a adapter, there is nothing wrong”……………. Yes we knew that. Electrician and Pursers desk Lady disappeared again with the promise to get the right adapter.  When we came back from dinner, there was an adapter on the table, delivered by the Butler. But the story does not end here, so the saga will continue to tomorrow.

Dance Class in the Queens lounge. They show it at the same time on the screen in the lounge so everybody can see the dance team at all times. Topic today was the Cha Cha Cha.

Leaving the cabin, we passed by the Queens Lounge where a dance class was in full swing and then to the shops. The ship has two atriums, the big one in the center From Deck 1 to Deck 3 that is where you come on board, and then there is a small one behind the Royal Court Theatre near the bow. This one goes 2 decks up. On deck 2 there is on portside the casino and on the right side the Golden Lion Pub. One deck up are the  shops all around this open top of the atrium.  The location of these amenities  here is of course on purpose, every day, those guests going to see the show or lecture, will have to walk through one of these two area’s and might thus be tempted to have a closer look.

The staircase in the small atrium with the staircase going up from deck 2 to deck 3 (and going back down as well). If I would get a dollar for each photo taken on these steps, then my wife would be very happy.

I think due to the wobbly weather, the Golden Lion Pub was half empty (normally it is always full, often with people who camp out there all day long) and so we decided on a pub lunch. To our utter amazement Cunard had decided to “re-imagine” the pub lunch with the aim to raise regular pub-grub to a level of cullinary heights. Which heights Mr. Michel Roux, world famous chef, wanted to achieve I do not know apart from the fact that you now have to pay for half of the dishes. Lesley had Fish and Chips with the strangest batter we have ever seen. I decided on the Ploughmans lunch and I think if a regular Ploughman would see it, he would have run out the door, cursing, screaming or sobbing, depending on his philosphical state of mind.   So we will not even dare to go for the paid dishes.  But they have beer on draft, and also Cunard now has its own beers, a pilsener, a ruby amber and a stout. (= a sort of Guiness but not as dense) They offer this also as a Flight of Beer, with 3 small glasses, and charge the price of 1 pint $ 7.50  which is reasonable.  I prefer a Guiness over the Cunard Stout but the Red Amber pale ale is very nice.

A full Queens Lounge for the afternoon recital. Please note the banners hanging from the ceiling in black and white, denoting the colour theme for this formal night.

Then it was time to move from English Culture to the music world and listen to a piano recital in the Queens Lounge.  On the keyboard Maestro Robin Collvill. he advised that he had been around for a while (playing piano for about 70 years) and still learning. We listened to a series of pieces varying from Grieg, to South American Tango and back to French impressionists. Very, very good and soothing to listen to, as could be seen from a number of the grey haired crowd who where revisiting former concerts……………..

Today is the first formal night, called Black and White. The 2nd one is formal- any colour goes and the 3rd one is Red and Gold. Also Cunard, while trying to keep up tradition, is finding it harder to keep the dress code going. Hence we received a special letter from the Captain, asking the guests to conform with the dress code or restrict themselves to the non dress code area’s. ( deck 9 with Lido and Wintergarden, deck 2 with the Golden Lion and the show lounge)  We love dressing up and have brought a different formal outfit for each formal night.  But this being Cunard and a mainly British crowd, (the germans are coming for christmas and new year, but they also dress up) 90% was dressed to the hilt. Even the Golden Lion crowd was predominantly in a Whistle-and-Flute….

Cunard christmas decorations are very nice and in the sb. forward corner of the Queens lounge they have setup a small christmas village.

While the wobbly weather continues during the evening, it will lessen tomorrow morning when we are past Cape Finistere on the North West corner of the Iberian Peninsula, the Commodore Club (Crows Nest on Holland America and Observation Lounge on many other companies) was half empty so we had ample seats to choose from, to listen to the Lady Piano player. And yes, all guests were dressed according to the Captains request.

Then after our usual good dinner in the Queens Grill, we went to the show lounge to see a performance from Aled Jones, This guy used to be a very famous choir boy singer (with 11 Cd’s) and managed after his voice broke to transform into a good classical singer (now up to 42 CD’s). I do not know famous he is in the USA, but he is in the UK, presents classical programs on the Radio and this winter he is also in the musical ELF in London. His show was very good and kept us well entertained. He is transfering in Lisbon to the Queen Anne, so he is keeping his fingers crossed that the Captain’s plan of “running away from the bad weather” is working out. I get the impression that most of the guests on board are repeat guests so with them the need to see Lisbon once again is not so much of an urge.

We will have another wobbly night and by tomorrow the wind is supposed the go down from 50 knots to about 35 knots and the swells should settle as well. At the moment we have two wave systems interferring with each other, which on occasion, causes the ship “to lurch” as stabelizers can only deal with the sideways motion (and are doing that very well)  The Captain will keep the pedal to the metal as much as possible to get into Lisbon before the wave system comes too far down and makes sailing into the Tagus River impossible.