Queen Anne, our luxury home at sea

We like cruising, but that is not the reason we chose to spend 43 days on the Queen Anne crossing the Pacific Ocean. Our motivation was to get to California without flying. Instead of flying, our home for the last six weeks has been on a luxury cruise ship.

Poor baby, he gets tired when flying off to a vacation. I can clearly hear the pity-party violins.

As I explained in our previous post about Singapore, we are not fond of flying. To get to Singapore, we were trapped on the plane for 17 hours and weren’t having fun. In case you missed it, here is our review of Singapore. Our crazy Singapore journey

In 2025, we didn’t enjoy flying from Dublin to Los Angeles one bit. We paid extra for bigger seats. It didn’t help. Our flight from Dublin to Los Angeles was horrible, and to make it worse, I was still recovering from my broken elbow. I am still not fully recovered from breaking my elbow. If you missed that story, here is a link. My crash landing in London.

The Queen Anne

The Queen Anne (cruise ship) is only two years old, unlike the other older ships of the Cunard Cruise Line. The Queen Anne is a cruise ship. Every other ship in the Cunard Cruise Line is a Cruise Liner. The difference is that cruise ships are lighter and have more passengers. Cruise liners, however, are heavier and thus displace more water, making the ride better. If Queen Anne were a cruise liner, the ride would be better. I have years and years on ships, and I can tell the difference.

We started our cruise on the fourth deck forward. In Sydney, Australia, we moved to the tenth deck. I knew I wasn’t going to like our first room even before we ever checked onboard and I tried to change it.

On Queen Anne, unlike other cruise ships, you don’t get to pick a room. Note to Cunard: I won’t ever book another cruise without a room location guarantee. Instead, I got an email two weeks before the cruise showing us our assigned room. Even though I was a novice at “cruising”, with only two weeks on cruise ships, I knew this room had a major problem.

The problem with our first room was that it was directly above the stage of the main theater. Noise was the issue. My prediction about the problem proved true. The same day I received the room assignment, I emailed Cunard to request a room change. They ignored my email. This seems to be a running theme with Cunard. After dragging our bags to the room and before unpacking, I tried to change rooms again. There were no other rooms available.

Based on my request on the ship, we received a room change halfway through the cruise. Instead of being on the fourth deck, directly above the theater, we moved to deck 10, with rooms on every side. It is much quieter. On deck 10, our room is one room back from the big view (expensive) rooms on the bow. The one downside is that our balcony is only half the size of the previous one.

We spoke with the guest heading to our room on deck 4 and informed her about the noise. There was nothing she could do; she wanted a room change for some reason (we don’t know why), so they gave her our old, noisy room. She knocked on our door to find out why we wanted a room change, and we told her about the noise. The band was in rehearsal, so she knew what she was going to get. We saw her again after the room switch, and she was not happy.

The Queen Anne has room for almost 3,000 passengers and more than 1,200 staff members. The Queen Anne has 1,397 staterooms on 9 decks. (If you are doing the math, this means that multiple rooms hold more than two passengers.) Four additional decks are for restaurants, lounges, bars, swimming pools, and jacuzzis.

I understand why the Brits love the sun so much… they don’t get much of it. The lack of sunshine wasn’t true last year when I was in London; it was hot. The Brits loved it and were lazing about the park like it was a gift from god. The Australians and Americans seem to understand the risk of sun exposure; the Brits are trying to turn their skin into leather.

Unlike on our first cruise on the Celebrity Solstice in January 2023, when our ship was nearly empty, the Queen Anne is nearly full. If you missed our story about our cruise on the Celebrity Solstice, here is a link: Spoiled Rotten on our Cruise.

Why did we choose the Queen Anne?

You already know the reason we decided to take a cruise ship for our return from Singapore to Los Angeles. The reason we chose the Queen Anne for our cruise ship is that it was going in the right direction at the right time. Unlike many of the passengers, we had not cruised on any of the four Cunard ships. We didn’t have any loyalty to the Cunard Cruise Lines.

It seems that Cunard has strong loyalty among the British and less among other guests. According to our discussions with some British passengers, they prefer the other Cunard ships to the Queen Anne. One reason is that the other Cunard ships are “decorated” in a more traditional nautical style, and the Queen Anne could be a cruise ship on any other line.

Even after nearly six weeks on the Queen Anne, we still don’t have any loyalties to the Cunard Cruise lines. If only the food were better. The English are not known for tasty food. On our ship, they don’t spend extra money to fix this. Our food might be “spiced”, but it is a long way from spicy or even tasty. If only the salt and pepper shakers were functional, it would go a long way.

Loyalty creates a relationship and certain perks that come with it. Not that there is anything wrong with the perks that loyalty provides to its customers. Unlike our other cruises, we don’t even know any of the perks that we would get by booking another cruise on board a Cunard ship.

Part of a round-the-world cruise

We joined the Queen Anne in Singapore. The round-the-world cruise started in Hamburg, Germany, on January 6th. If things go according to schedule, the round-the-world trip will take 109-116 days, depending on whether the traveler is going from Hamburg to Hamburg or from Southampton to Southampton.

Launching also in January, from Southampton, the Queen Mary 2 set out on a round-the-world cruise heading westbound. We saw the Queen Mary 2 after she left Sydney as we were heading towards Sydney.

When we get to Los Angeles, we will probably be able to see the original Queen Mary, which is docked in Long Beach. One of the excursions in Los Angeles for the Queen Anne passengers is a visit to the Queen Mary, a tourist attraction and hotel. Compared to the original Queen Mary, the Queen Anne is a palace.

Deck by deck

The first three decks (from the bottom, working up) are for entertainment and dining. The Queen’s theater is at the bow, and the formal dining room is on the stern. Between them are several venues associated with entertainment and extra revenue. There are three sets of elevators/staircases that go from the first deck to at least the ninth deck.

At the other end of the ship, on decks 2 and 3, is the main dining room. Sharp attire, even sport coats, is expected in the evening. I push the casual envelope, not bringing a sports coat or a suit with me when traveling. I don’t plan to change this. I don’t play dress-up for fun.

The service in the main dining room is upscale and becomes more formal in the evening. On some nights, called Gala nights, they invite the guests to dress more formally in suits and even tuxedos. I have a suit I keep in the RV, just in case I need it for a funeral, including my own, but I didn’t bring it on the trip.

I am certain that we packed way lighter than most of the guests. We learned to be very comfortable only traveling with a carry-on suitcase and a backpack. We saw multiple full-sized matching suitcase sets when boarding the ship, waiting for a porter to carry them to a guest room. I am my own porter.

We discussed our travel style with a couple from Hong Kong, and we probably have half (or less) of their clothing. For them, moving their own stuff would have been impossible.

We also knew that several self-serve laundry rooms were scattered about the ship. We didn’t have to pack everything we owned to be comfortable.

Gala nights are way more frequent than I expected. I guess it would have been fun to attend, but it isn’t like we are lacking food in any way.

Room service on the Queen Anne is free, and we usually order coffee in our room. On the next Gala night, we might order room service (from the main dining room menu) and get the “good food” they serve at Gala night, and have our own party.

The entertainers rotate coming and going during the world cruise. The entertainers were completely different between Singapore and Hong Kong. Now that we are on the leg between Sydney and Los Angeles, the entertainment is lacking. Maybe we exchanged our entertainers with some from the Queen Mary while we were in Australia and got the short end of the deal.

The Grand Lobby

The Queen’s Room

The Queen’s room has a stage and a dance floor. From what I gather, Cunard ships are big on Ballroom dancing.

Rooms on all decks

Even though I told you that on Queen Anne, you have almost no choice in rooms, here are some things I learned. On all decks, try to avoid rooms near the elevators and staircases. Clomp, clomp, clomp. Especially avoid rooms near the laundry rooms. The laundry rooms are small echo chambers.

Deck 1

Rooms on deck 1 are not great for two reasons. You are almost on the waterline, and getting your windows clean isn’t really an option. You might as well be in an inside cabin. The second reason to avoid deck one is that you will have noise from the activities on deck 2. Don’t imagine you won’t be able to hear the cooks on deck 2 getting ready for breakfast if you are under the kitchen.

Decks 4 – 7

Decks 4 through 8 are dedicated to staterooms, sometimes called cabins on some cruise ships. I already mentioned our stateroom on deck 4, where we could clearly hear the band and especially the drums. What I didn’t mention was that there was a practice session before the evening show. This was right after the afternoon movie. Then, as we were getting ready for bed, the late-night show started booming. At least one night, we were treated to a midnight practice session.

Really, there are no quiet rooms on deck 4 because if you are not over the theater, you will probably hear music from the other venues. Some go well past midnight.

A Silent Disco is where participants wear headphones to dance without the noise of a band. This is a wonderful invention. I wonder if that one guy is listening to the same music as the other dancers. I would be that guy.

Deck 8

I would avoid all rooms on deck 8 except the most forward ones. Other rooms will be either under the kitchen and buffet or the swimming pools. I am guessing about the noise from these venues, but I am sure they won’t be as quiet as Deck 5-7.

Deck 9

Deck 9 is home to the swimming pools pictured earlier, on both sides of the buffet. There are some rooms that should be ok on Deck 9, forward of the pool. They are probably ok.

Deck 10

We love our new room on deck 10. Other than the rooms previously mentioned, next to the laundry room, I would suggest avoiding rooms 10072 and 10077 for the most bizarre reason. These rooms are right next to the ping pong tables, and people on Queen Anne start playing early in the morning.

Internet on Queen Anne

I chose the premium internet package as a perk for signing up for the cruise. I am never going on a cruise again without the premium internet package at a minimum. The Queen Anne has Starlink antennas on board, so, in theory, we should have great internet anywhere in the world.

Not only do paying customers who pay extra for internet get to use the Starlink, but crew members also have access to the internet during their off time and as part of their duties.

During the stretch from Hawaii to Los Angeles, the entertainment venues were cut and not all that entertaining. So what did the guests do? They clobbered the internet so that speeds were miserable. The advertised speed was enough to watch Netflix. Not in the afternoon, when it seems like most people are lacking entertainment. Queen Anne’s internet gets a grade of C, which takes into account the limited internet after hours. In the afternoon, the grade is an C-.

I increased the grade from an F in the afternoon to a C- because part of the problem was my computer.

Frequently, I couldn’t even save a file to the cloud in less than ten minutes. Cunard really needs to monitor and fix this; it is unacceptable to pay for something that you don’t get.

The Secret Queen Anne Grill Suites

Photos in this section are taken from the Cunard website. They didn’t allow me to visit the upper-crust passengers or photograph their rooms.

The Grill Suites are a separate, hidden area for the highest-paying passengers. They are for passengers who want to pay the most. Cunard calls it the most luxurious accommodation category. The Grill Suites passengers even have their own separate lounges and dining room called the Queens Grill.

Unlike our (lower-tier) category, where we could buy a drink package for an unbelievable price per day, charged per room, the Grill Suites passengers have a complimentary bar in their room.

I saw one figure that some of Queen Anne’s Grill suites were 1400 square feet, making them 7 times larger than our room.

The Queen Anne Grand Suites are even a step above the Grill Suites

Our route from Singapore to Los Angeles

In my next article, I will focus on the places we went, so the previous maps are just a preview of our route across the Pacific Ocean on the Queen Anne.

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