My wife has just returned from a cruise on Cunard’s Queen Anne.
It was booked last year and I was supposed to go with her and another couple, two friends with whom we regularly go on holiday, but I had to pull out for reasons not unconnected with a previous cruise in July when I was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop in the ship’s medical department.
That was on another Cunard ship (the Queen Victoria) and although the ship’s doctor was able to patch me up, I was concerned that the same thing might happen again and I didn’t fancy taking the risk.
Anyway, following a delayed departure from Southampton last Sunday in the wake of Storm Boelo, the ship quickly made up time and my wife reports that the highlight of the week was probably a visit to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
The ship also visited the Spanish ports of Santander and Gijon but yesterday the final port of call - Cherbourg in northern France - was cancelled due to the threat of ‘widespread demonstrations and civil unrest’, something that’s never happened on any previous cruise I’ve been on. Changes to the itinerary due to bad weather, yes. Demonstrations and civil unrest, no. But that’s the French for you.
The ship returned to Southampton in the early hours of this morning and, truthfully, the only moment I felt a tiny pang of regret for not going was when I was sent a photo of my wife (and friends) enjoying afternoon tea (a Cunard speciality). That apart, I’ve been on a lot of cruises, including a very similar cruise on the Queen Anne shortly after the ship’s launch in 2024, so it really wasn’t a hardship to miss this one.
Talking of which, it was announced a few weeks ago that Carnival, the owners of Cunard and P&O Cruises, intend to reshuffle their fleet in 2029 and transfer the Queen Anne to P&O. After completing a world cruise, Cunard’s most recent addition will be refurbished and renamed, just five years after the ship was launched.
To put this in perspective, Cunard currently has four ships, the others being Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth, so from 2029 the youngest ship in the Cunard fleet will once again be Queen Elizabeth which was launched in 2010 and by 2030 will have completed 20 years of service, which is mid-life for most cruise ships whose operational life rarely exceeds 40 years.
I know this is a first world problem of no interest to most people, but it doesn’t suggest a particularly rosy future for Cunard whose ships accommodate significantly fewer passengers than many modern cruise ships, although I personally consider that to be a good thing. Cunard passengers tend to be a bit older too, which I also like, but it may not be so good for business if we are literally a dying breed. On the other hand, everyone gets older eventually and older people arguably have more disposable income to spend on holidays.
All things considered, I would be disappointed if this marks the beginning of the end of the Cunard brand, as some people are speculating. Then again, it’s unlikely I will outlive every one of the three remaining Queens so, unless the parent company decides to sell or repurpose the entire fleet before their sell-by date, there should be many more opportunities to enjoy afternoon tea at sea.
See also: Was Queen Anne doomed from the start? (The Maritime Historian’s Substack)
Halloween on Cunard’s Queen Anne. Launched in 2024, the ship will transfer to P&O Cruises in 2029.
