Exploring Cunard's Queen Anne on a special pre-launch overnight stay in Southampton

#PressTrip – This means the trip was gifted but not paid.

When Cunard’s Queen Anne arrived down the Solent and into Southampton ready for its maiden voyage across to Lisbon. we were lucky to be onboard for an overnight stay for their VIP event. We enjoyed an exclusive opportunity to explore the ship, see the many wonderful facilities, enjoy the food and drink and participate in some of the activities and experiences available.

Preparing for our trip

The Queen Anne joins the other’s Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth to complete the world-famous fleet of four. I was lucky enough when I was 19 years old to sail from New York back to Southampton on the Queen Mary 2, so it was fantastic to come onboard the newest ship all these years later accompanied by my wife.

Before the trip, Cunard regularly checked in with emails packed full of information with items like what to pack, arriving at the terminal and drop off, online check-in, and a handy check-list. They have a My Cunard site which you can log in to with your booking reference and personal details to input a number of details to save you time on the day during the boarding process too.

Boarding process

We arrived ready to board at the Mayflower Cruise Terminal in Southampton, a 5-10-minute taxi ride from the city centre and Southampton central train station. The boarding was nice and swift, after leaving our luggage at the drop-in at the entrance with tags from friendly staff before being given our pass. A photo opportunity and some singing to make the check-in process a fun one, with smiles from staff, helped to build the sense of anticipation.

Our room

The ship has a wide selection of suites and staterooms you can stay in. We stayed on floor 6 in a stateroom and the ship had the usual handy information boards by every elevator area showing the layout of the ship, and a ‘you are here’ pin drop. There were plenty of staff around to help with directions. In the hallways by the rooms the carpets have arrows to direct you to the nearest set of elevators to get up and down the ship – it’s the small touches!

On arriving at the room, a lovely bottle of sparkling wine awaited us and the room had all the mod-cons and pristine whites and the famous Cunard blue. The balcony had two deck chairs and a small table to enjoy drinks or read a book whilst at sea too. We liked the fact the room had a range of different sockets for all types of chargers etc, USB C in particular handy for quick iPhone charging after a day of snapping lots of memories onboard.

Food and drink

As with all their ships, Queen Anne offers a dedicated restaurant corresponding to each stateroom category, which they give you on arrival in the evening. They also have several alternative dining options including new venues like contemporary Japanese cuisine in Aji Wa and prime cuts and seafood at Sir Samuel’s Steakhouse & Grill. You can book these seperately either online or in person during the day.

The two spots we enjoyed meals at included the Brittania Club, which you can read more about in a separate section below and Artisans Food Hall. The food hall has a wide array of different dishes from around the world, and there are different stations with everything on show for you to visually see what’s on offer before ordering from the friendly chefs. From pastas and salads to rice dishes and curries, we enjoyed kung pao chicken with green beans and rice for a light lunch.

One of the best bars onboard was ‘The Chart Room’ which was a circular cocktail bar with pull up seats. It had a great ambience and we enjoyed a well mixed cocktail served up in a funky elephant glass.

The Britannia Club experience

We enjoyed a dinner and breakfast at The Britannia Club which is a more intimate and exclusive spot than the Britannia Restaurant. We were greeted to the restaurant by attentive staff and had a nice chat with the sommelier for the restaurant talking us through what was on offer. On the food menu, they have a varied selection of contemporary and international choices and we had wonderful chalk stream trout and arancini for starters, perfectly cooked beef and lamb for our mains and the pistachio shuffle was so light and delicious we didn’t even have time to get a picture! The setting was stunning so it was fine dining at its best.

Things to do onboard

There is of course a huge variety of things to on board and entertainment, so I must warn you that our less than 24- hour explore of the ship was obviously not enough to get around all of it but hopefully our images give a small taster. Artwork to admire runs throughout the ship’s hallways and public spaces, with the pieces regularly updated and new pieces unveiled like two Banksy pieces during our time onboard.

The large theatre called the Royal Court theatre has lots of exciting shows planned – we liked the look of the Bright Lights City Society pictured in the middle below, with its ambient low light setting, plenty of retail therapy with a shopping area and much more.

Wellness

The Queen Anne has a unique wellness offering and we got the chance to look around the new spa called Mareel Wellness & Beauty which was a maze of different areas featuring different offerings. A fully equipped gym of course with all the latest kit, sauna, steam room, spa for hair, nails etc, but also some great unique features. Our highlights included the Himalayan Salt Sauna, the cold room with plenty of ice to chill off after your hot treatments and a Quartz spa treatment bed where you lie on warmed pebbles whilst getting your massage. They have partnered with Harpers Bazaar to offer a range of wellness programmes such as ‘Harper’s Bazaar Wellness at Sea’.

Exploring the outdoor upper decks

Lots of fun to be had outside with a putting green with a challenging bump in the middle, driving range, basketball court, paddle tennis court with an extra spongey floor to ensure that games keep flowing.

The Panorama Pool Club looked a top spot to relax with some sunshine, although it didn’t during our visit, the pool was surrounded by deck chairs, a nearby bar you could pull up a seat and lots of open space as you pass through to one of the upper decks. Hot tubs overlooking the pool too.

The Pavillion

As Cunard say ‘ The Pavilion is a favourite venue on each one of the Cunard Queens, and Queen Anne is no exception’. This was the spot we found we spent most of our time as it well a large open bright space with always lots going on, we loved the vintage maritime look to the pool area and the large screen had bright interesting visuals on a loop. We watched some musical performances and enjoyed a gelato from the gelato bar, their long bar serving up drinks, a table tennis table located in the upper corner and we grabbed a seat overlooking the whole area and took in the speeches before the main evening began.

Coffee spot by the Queen Grill

One of our fave spots was having a morning coffee at a nice seating around outside the entrance to the queens grill which had a tree in the middle with circular seating and a domed window to let the light in. Very pleasant to enjoy a drink and of course great for a bright picture too.