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This Cunard Regular Puts Their Brand-New Ship To The Test
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Jun 26, 2024
I believe I can bring a unique take on Cunard's new Queen Anne as I’ve been on 23 Cunard cruises and spent 210 nights across all their fleet, including most recently 14 nights on board Queen Anne, which gave me ample time to fully test out their latest cruise ship. I was keen to discover if, as some believe, Cunard is trying to chase people like me away from Cunard with their new ship and replace me with new and younger cruisers, or whether they're just trying to offer another ship for me as a regular Cunard cruiser to experience. For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * T-Shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore * Mugs, notebooks, hoodies etc: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/tipsfortravellers?ref_id=22354 My social media: --------------------------------------------------- * Blog: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com * Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge * Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers * Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bembridge ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 101 cruises I have done to date.
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I believe I can bring a unique take on Kuhnaud's new Queen Anne as I've been on 23
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Kuhnard cruisers and spent 210 nights across all their fleet, including most recently 14
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nights on board Queen Anne, which gave me ample time to fully test out their latest cruise ship
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I was keen to discover if, as some believe, Kuhnard is trying to chase people like me away
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from Kynard with their new ship and replace me with new and younger cruisers
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or whether in fact they're just trying to offer another ship for me as a regular
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Kuhnard Cruiser to experience. Welcome aboard, I'm Gary Bembridge and here's what I discovered
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I wanted to see if Queen Anne was a total reinvention for Kuhnod. The short answer is no. The ship
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venues, program and the vibe are very much existing Kuhnod. But there are some key changes I
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will talk about later that will have a big impact, I believe, on who the ship will ultimately
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appeal to. First of all, the ship is not unique nor different. It's based on the pinnacle-class ships used by
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Holland America, although it has a 23-meter section added in the middle to create what they're
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calling now the Halifax class. So unlike competing lines like Celebrity, who added a totally
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different style of ship to their fleet, with the edge class to appeal to a very different
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audience, this is a very traditional cruise ship style and layout in the mould of Queen Elizabeth
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and Queen Victoria. However, when I stepped on board, I saw a massive shift in look and feel from
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any of its sisters. Gone are the darker, heavily Art Deco line-ins by designs of the rest of the fleet
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I walked into a contemporary decor ship, which looked very familiar to basically many other ships
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from other lines to me. It was a shock at first about how far removed from the usual darker
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and much more obvious Art Deco Cunard Daycore that it was. I did see some nods to Art Deco here
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and there, but it felt it was in fact just so like many other ships these days. This is perhaps
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not surprising because the overall creative director is a man called Adam Tiani, who's also behind
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ships for Seaborne, Silver Sea, although there were in fact three different design houses actually
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physically working on the designs. However, once I got past the surprise of how hard they tried
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not to look like other QNod ships, I soon came to see it was QNod in pretty much every other way
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Every iconic Kudod venue that I know from the other ships is on board Queen Anne with surprisingly
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few additions and innovations. I'll talk about those later as some are more successful than others
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What exists that is on all the other ships? First, it has a grand lobby, a three-deck atrium
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Like other ships, it has a massive ship mural with several venues, bar, shops, restaurants, and the
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purses desk dotted around it. I felt it lacked some of the drama of the other ships
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But over the course of the 14 days, I did come to like it, and the venues around it did create
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some buzz and focus on the ship. It has the Queen's Room, which is an iconic venue across the other ships
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I found this one a bit disappointing, and in my view, that didn't change my perspective on it
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On the other ships, the Queen Room is a grand, dramatic space
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This one is a bit understated and is surprisingly plain in terms of decor with not enough seating
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when it's busy. There is also an upper area with more seating where you can look down into the
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Queen's room and onto the dance floor. And that itself has really divided people. The dance floor is
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so clear in shape and while some people I spoke to really disliked it saying it was restricting
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and cramped, I spoke to others that were part of a Boreham dancing group crews on board
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and they rated the dance floor really highly. Either way, there is Boreham dancing every night to a 10-piece
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band and it also hosts entertainment some nights by the guest entertainers. It has which the other ships
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don't have a good size dedicated bar. Another iconic venue is the Golden Line pub. This is a bigger
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more inviting space with a good range of entertainment like trivia, bingo and music. It has, I think
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in a necessarily addition of some additional charged dishes, which are done in partnership with
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the UK chef Michael Rood Jr. And that's in addition to the
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included items. It's a good venue though. It was very, very popular. Queen Anne also has all the
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existing iconic lounges and bars that I know from the other ships. There's the Commodore
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Club overlooking the bow of the ship, which was a really popular venue, especially in the evenings
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when there is live music playing. It's nicely laid out with the kind of booth areas and groups
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of seating spaces, which made it feel quite intimate. There's a Corinthia lounge. This is a great venue
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It where those who been on Holland America pinnacle class ships will know the Grand Dutch Cafe is But this is way bigger because this is also where part of the added section is so it much bigger It mostly a coffee shop although you can get drinks in here and has various included breakfast and snack items during the day
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Another iconic venue on here is the chart room bar. This is a pretty dramatic space with some nice crystal chandelier effects around the bar, lots of seating, and there is music here at night
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They also have the Churchill's cigar lounge next to the commonal club
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This one is probably the starkest and least uninspiring compared to the one on the other ships
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In terms of the other usual Knot venues, there is the Royal Court Theatre
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Although it's a big theatre, it lacks again the drama and styling of the other ships
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It basically looks kind of like a modern cinema to be a little bit rude
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However, it's a pretty good theatre with really comfortable seating. It's got good technology on the stage for the shows
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It does actually have poor sight lines in the whole front section I found
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Of course Queen Anne has another Q-note icon, The Library. This again isn't as big or spacious, nor seem to have as many books as on the other ships
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but it's a nice space and we're certainly, like on all QNod ships, really popular
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It also has another key iconic feature, which is a full promenade deck
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However, this was divisive because for much of the deck as you walk around, the view
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of the ocean is blocked by lifeboats. It's not a teak deck and there's almost no deck chairs and
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places to sit out because there basically isn't any room because the light boats are there
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It even has what has become a standard Kuhnard feature, the Clarendon Art Gallery, although of course
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this is basically a commercial proposition. So Queen Anne does have all the venues that QNod
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travelers like me are used to. The other iconic thing of note is that Queen Anne retains
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the classic QNod class-based system. Though it's clear from how they executed on
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Queen Anne that they're also trying to push the line to feel a little bit more premium and increase the number of premium fare paying passengers
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More on that shortly. Let me briefly explain the Kuhnard class-based system
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It has four of them, and the grade of cabin you book determines which restaurant you eat in
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You dine in Britannia Restaurant if you're in inside Ocean View and regular balcony cabins
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Britannia Club Restaurant is for those in more well-appointed and premium balcony
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cabins. You dine in Princess Grill if booked in a mini suite and Queen's Grill if in a suite
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The way I often explain to people is think about the different classes on an airline
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Britannia is Economy, Britannia Club is Economy Plus, Princess Grill is business class and Queen's
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Grill is first class. That's a good way of thinking about it. Now I dive in depth into the
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grills experience and what's good and bad versus the rest of a fleet in a separate video
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Something that struck me about Queen Anne versus the other Knot ships. is they significantly increase the numbers in the more premium Britannia Club and Princess
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Grill classes. The Britannia Club restaurant is huge, it's really huge restaurant compared to other ships
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while those in Princess Grill are actually now double the number that are on Queen Victoria
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and Queen Elizabeth. Queen's Grill has basically the same number of people though
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Like many cruise lines, Kuhnot has used Queen Anne to shift the mix on board towards higher fair paying
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passengers, it seems. There were other signs other than the cabin changes that they're trying to look
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more premium. For example, the shops around the Grand Lobby are very outmarket shops. They also
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include what they call a cabinet of curiosities, section with replicas from Garrod Jewelers of some of the
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British Royal Family tiaras and Princess Diana's engagement ring. The shops also featured expensive
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fanbeget eggs, Rolex, watches and so on. There is, though, by the way, a separate part of the ship
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near the Queen's Room where the more regular shops, as it were, are. They're trying to create
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I think, the sense of being a more premium line. Two more points I wanted to make before exploring
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some changes that Kuhnav made, I found interesting, is that, first of all, they have no solar
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cabins, despite actually retrofitting them on some of the other ships in the fleet. And secondly
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on their ships, the Britannia restaurant is a really dramatic and magnificent venue due to
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the heavy Art Deco styling. On Queen Anne, while Britannes, Italian restaurant is a striking venue, it's no more so than any other competitive line main
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dinerum. I found that kind of disappointing. I want to give my thoughts on what Knot have
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added, improved and reimagined compared to their other ships now. First, one of the best things
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that they've introduced is a new entertainment venue called the Bright Light Society. It's a cabaret
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venue which becomes a disco nightclub later at night. They hold innovative and fun cabaret
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style shows in here which are included by the way in the fair but do require booking The shows include Noir which is a murder mystery with audience participation which even I got involved in and Fizz which was a fun complicated love story The shows are tongue
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high-energy and great fun. Some nights when they're not performing, they do have some of the
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music duos, for example, performing here too. They are definitely leaning a little bit more into
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wellness. The Muriel Spa and Fitness Centre has, unlike most cruise lines and their other ships
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being put right down on deck one. The gym itself is bigger than the rather disappointing gyms
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on the other ships with a cardio, weights area and spin studio. The spa itself is large
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and also includes a separate hairdressing and nail salon and a large thermal area with thermal bath
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and various types of saunas. They have a few other wellness focus spaces around the ship
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with the Pavilion Wellness Cafe, which serves healthy options for breakfast and lunch, including
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in your fare. And above that is the Pavilion Wellness Studio. It's a large, rather stark venue
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though, but they do hold many of the fitness classes like stretching, yoga, hit classes, and so on there
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Queen Anne carries more passengers than any other Kunoz ship, 3,000 passengers
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which is almost a thousand more than Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, and 300 more than Queen
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Mary too. But it did not feel crowded and it didn't feel busy, because the ship has been
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designed to scatter venues like the bars and lounges in different places around
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the ship so it spread and dispersed all the passengers around the ship. Out on the deck there's
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also many spaces and lots of places dotted all over the ship to sit and sunbathe along with
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multiple outside bars with the sky bar and the cabana bar in addition to the bars at the various
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pools. There were loads of nooks and crannies and interesting spaces to find to go and
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sit. The biggest ship also meant that they've improved some of the venues compared to their
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other ships, like they've added a drawing room in the grand lobby, along with a really much
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bigger and much nicer game room. However, something I think works less well is the greater focus
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on specialty dining. I know it is a really big thing on other cruise lines, but it's never
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been a particularly big focus for QNod. Now they now have four major specialty added cost
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restaurants, Sir Samuel's Steakhouse, which replaces the veranda on the other ships
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Ajuwa, which is next to Sasamials, which is a Japanese restaurant serving goysa, sushi, bar bun type stuff
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Tramonto, which is more Mediterranean, and Arania, which is kind of a more spicy, almost Indian venue
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I found included dining on Queen Anne, like all the other Kynod chips, is really good
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And after going to one of the special ed restaurants, I actually cancelled the others because I felt there was no need to do it, no need to spend more
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But they have definitely dialed up special aid dining. They're basically, though, standard repetitions of what
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other cruise lines have. There's nothing particularly innovative I felt in this area. They've
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theoretically tried to be more innovative with the buffet restaurant, which is called the artisan
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food hall. It's basically just the Kings called or the leader buffet with a different name
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They haven't gone as far as cruise lines like Virgin or the food hall in Norwegian, which have
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gone into very specific, almost branded food stations. Basically it's their usual buffet
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restaurant with another name in my view. One change is that the food is served by the staff
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although there's some room and discussion about whether that will change over time, so we will see
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They have, though, elevated some standard venues on the ship. The pool decks are a bit more
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themed and they do, I think, look pretty good. The pavilion is the largest pool
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which has the roof which opens and closes. Around it, they have the pavilion bar
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they have the pavilion gelataria, the pavilion Wellness Cafe, and the pavilion grill
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which serves things like hot dongs, hamburgers. It looks really good with the black and white tiles
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lots of seating and also loungers. Then at the rear of the ship is the Panorama Pool Club
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although I'm not quite sure why it's called a club. There's a small stage, some seating, and of course
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lounges. It's a nice area with a bar and it's really ideal for warm weather cruises
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They have got a much better space for the shore excursions and future cruise sales teams as well too
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The casino they've renamed Room 1840, which is the year that Kuhnard came into being
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Like other ships, it's on Kuno, it's small, I guess it shows they expect this to be a mostly UK passenger ship and it's mostly going to be sailing and based out of Southampton doing no-flight cruises, so it's going to have mostly UK passengers
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It is a nice bar area here too. Queen Anne also has, which many people will be very pleased to know, guest laundry rooms, which are free to use on all cabin decks
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Talking of cabins, I'm not going to delve into these in depth as there are several really good video tours that I will
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link to in the description. Other than to say the cabins are a big improvement on the more
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dated ones on the rest of the fleet especially the bathrooms which have good showers and glass doors There are some divided views on the amount of storage particularly in the Britannia cabins though but overall I think the cabins are really really good
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By the way, on the decks with cabins, the designers are built-in signals to help passengers
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find their way around the ship. There are arrows in the carpets which direct you towards the nearest lift
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Each of the four lift areas are color-coded, so the carpets point you to a particular
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color coded set of lifts. My mom who really struggled to find a way around the ship would have
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really liked this edition. So Queen Anne, while inside it looks different, it has all the iconic
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and standard KU nod venues with few additions and innovations. But what about the program
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Is this a very different and new KU nod trying to talk to a different QNod user and a different
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traveler? But before I get into that, if you enjoy my content and tips, why not consider
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below any of my videos or visit patreon.com slash tips for travelers to find out more. Now back
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to Queen Anne. The answer to the question around is the program different is no. It's
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absolutely 100% the same Q-Nod program. They still have the dress code and most people on
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Gondolites were wearing tuxedos and glamorous gowns. It's still very much a dress-up and dress
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coat kind of audience. Guest Knot wanted to do that could dress down. They could use like the
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Autosin's Food Hall, the Golden Line pub, Bright Light Society, the casino, but it still is very much
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that kind of dress-up vibe and that was very much the feel of the ship still. If I show you the daily
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programs. It looks like any daily program from the Knotchip when it comes to activities
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It features the grand daily afternoon tea in the Queen's Room, Bore and Dancing every evening
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themed balls, black and white, masked and roaring 20s, balls, dance classes, cherobics, trivia
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live music in the lounges, and a big focus on enrichment. There were still four guest
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speakers, a celebrity speaker and three others talking about history, culture, geography, politics
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and so on as they do on the other ships. In terms of the theatre shows
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they are, though, trying to update the theatre shows, but it's not dramatic changes overall
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They had a standard cruise song and dance show called Let's Dance
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They then had a brief encounter, a reworking of the Noel Coward play
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and a modern take on Jane Austen called Pride and Prejudice, sort of
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with kind of pop classics. So they all trying to kind of do something different. There were lots of guests, entertainers
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with comedians telling the usual jokes, here by cruise ship comedians, they were current and past West End singers, boy groups
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violence and so on. So still very much the same as on other ships. Most people I spoke to
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by the way, did feel the amount of entertainment was good. They enjoyed the shows, they enjoyed the caliber of the guest entertainers. I came away asking, based on all of this
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who is Queen Anne really for? Me as a regular Cunarder or is it talking to new people
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I personally think it's designed mostly for the current Cunard traveller. He's also liked to be so because a lot of that crowd are going to come on because the ship is taking over QNod's no-fly itineries from Queen Victoria
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And many people I spoke to a plane to switch to Queen Anne because Queen Victoria is now going to be doing fly cruising and they want to do no-fly cruising
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I did talk to many people, by the way, who were trying Q-Nod for the very first time, particularly coming from celebrity
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They were attracted by the new modern ship and what they thought would be a reinvention of Q-Nod
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Most, by the way, were disappointed. But not with a ship which they liked because it's modern
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and stylish, but they found the QNOT program to still be a little bit dull and stuffy
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The entertainment wasn't as innovative and out there and boundary pushing as perhaps it is
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on lines like celebrity, which are much more modern. The kids clubs called the Zone are still
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really small. They haven't really opened up big new spaces for kids clubs, so they're not trying
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to talk to families in my view. I did use the ogy during the trip that I felt a bit like
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QNod had to kind of charted a modern ship and were running their program on it. It's a new look and feel
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but still a very traditional QNod experience with little change. Now, I've really enjoyed my time on board
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I came to love the ship as I got to know it. But if you're expecting something different
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then you're not going to get it if you go on Queen Anne. If you're looking for a more contemporary modern ship
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to try a QNod experience, try QNod venues for the very first time
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you are going to find it on there for sure. It's a great option, I think, for anyone wanting to try QNod for the first time
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Now the premium grilles experience on Queen Anne is also really interesting and I experienced
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what they've changed and what does and doesn't work so join me over in this video where I'm going to dive into that in more detail
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See you over there
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