Oh dear. I’ve just been politely admonished by the captain of Queen Mary 2 for asking a question about our cruise from New York. “We call it a voyage,” he admonished. “And by the way, this is a liner, not a cruise ship, and we have guests, not passengers.”
I always knew this cruise… sorry, voyage, was going to be different to previous holidays at sea. No land to see or ports to visit, just seven days at sea reliving the golden age of travel as we crossed the Atlantic to Southampton. “It’s wonderful. I can come on here and relax because work can’t get hold of me,” a Cunard aficionado told me at dinner one evening.
I had to laugh when he added he’d of course neglected to tell them there was Wi-Fi on the ship! I can understand why he had kept quiet. It's hard to switch off these days but you can on a transatlantic voyage with Cunard. Imagine. A week away from shopping, cooking, and Zoom calls to rest, relax, and do as little or as much as you want.
As if that’s not enough, Cunard has just launched three new Wellness at Sea ‘Journeys’ – Relax, Recover, and Energise – to get you in the mood. They each include various spa treatments, Elemis lotions and potions, and therapies to help you eat, sleep and live well.
And for those really into the wellness thing, Cunard has a new themed voyage to the Norwegian Fjords next July. It’s on Queen Anne and will have wellness classes and treatments that promise to pamper, spoil and send guests home feeling like a new person.
But back to my transatlantic. I quickly got into relax mode. I was staying in a specious Princess Grill suite with a private balcony and had access to an exclusive Grill lounge and the Princess Grill restaurant as well as enjoying the run of the rest of the ship, including the Chart Room, where a great jazz band played each night.
Above me were the Queens Grill suites (which have all the Princess Grill perks and more, including a butler); below were the Britannia and Britannia Club Stateroom.
It was tempting to eat in the Princess Grill each evening as the food and service were so good but I would have missed out big time. I treated myself to my favourite steak in The Verandah (cooked just as I like it and you also get to choose your steak knife!) and loved the Ploughman’s served in the Golden Lion. Naturally, I had to indulge in afternoon tea, famously served by white-gloved waiters armed with plates of sandwiches, scones and cakes of the naughty-but-nice variety.
For me, cruising is all about discovering new places, so I wasn’t sure how I’d cope with seeing nothing but sea for a week. But, time whizzed by as there was so much to do, from exploring Maritime Quest, an exhibition showcasing Cunard’s history and all the royals and celebs who have sailed transatlantic on its ships, to a massage or two in the spa, and learning about the stars in the Planetarium (yes, there really is one on board).
I chose my transatlantic crossing as I was interested in the speakers lined up to lecture and was not disappointed. Their talks – two or three some days – were fascinating. And looking at the names lined up for this year (they are listed on Cunard’s website), there are plenty more fascinating speakers to come.
They include Jeff Skiles, the pilot who safely landed his passengers on the Hudson River after his US Airways plane lost both engines, and marine archaeologist Mensun Bound, who was part of the team that, in 2022, found the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance beneath the ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea.
They’ll be sharing their extraordinary stories on the May 23 and June 24 transatlantic crossings respectively (the latter incidentally also Cunard’s 185th anniversary voyage). I can’t think of a better excuse to get on board.
