Friday 26th – Sunday 28th September, 2025 – Southampton to Ålesund

Despite not being wholly convinced by the whole “let’s go on a cruise” hype, we found ourselves handing over our car to the parking people at Southampton, dropping our luggage off with the baggage handlers, and embarking on Cunard‘s newest ship, Queen Anne, ready to head off on what Cunard were calling a “Norway And The Northern Lights” trip, 12 nights out from Southampton calling at Ålesund, Tromsø, Narvik and Stavanger, returning to the UK on Wednesday 8th October.

The cat had been dropped off at the cat hotel (or cat jail as he sees it), and we’d battled our way through Southampton traffic, including the truly grim roadworks on the M27 which seem to have been going on for all of this century as far as I can tell, then avoided the Southampton Boat Show traffic, and the queues to get into Ikea, so it was a relief to get on board and, after checking in at our designated assembly station, to hunt down the friends we were travelling with, J and J. They were in the on-board pub, the Golden Lion, and had managed to secure a table for four in the face of stiff opposition! This scrum was because the “staterooms” weren’t ready and would not be until around 2pm. There was nothing for it but to have lunch while we waited! I went for the toasted cheese sandwich, assuming it would be a delicate little thing. It really, really wasn’t. It was very good though.

Once we were finally able to get to our rooms, the afternoon was frittered away with a quick visit to the Britannia Club restaurant to see where our table was, followed by serious unpacking. With twelve nights worth of dinners, and a formal dress code, we’d opted to push the boat out as regards dressing for dinner. That meant a fight with the wardrobes and the clunky coat hangers to try and get everything organised and the suitcases stashed away under the beds. While we were doing that, the ship headed off from Southampton, encountering another of the Queens as she did so. This led to an outbreak of sirens sounding in greeting.

On the advice of J and J (and because they were away in Namibia when the trip went on sale) I had booked us into Britannia Club, which gives you a little more in the way of perks, and in this instance, in 7132 and 7137 we had matching rooms on either side with massive balconies. Cunard say: “Take advantage of prime sea views from your own private, outdoor space in one of our Britannia Club Balcony staterooms, with additional benefits and features to make your voyage even more special. Enjoy access to the intimate Britannia Club restaurant, with a reserved table throughout your voyage, plus speciality teas and coffees and priority embarkation and disembarkation, along with a myriad of features typical of a Cunard stateroom at sea.”

We took it in turns to sit out on the large balcony and watch the world go by until we’d finished packing, showered and changed, and it was time for pre-dinner drinks in the Chart Room. There is low level music in there, and a lovely cocktail list offering drinks based on zodiacal signs. The irony of that is that both mine and Lynne’s signs offered a gin-based concoction and we both hate gin. By the end of the trip, we had worked our way through 10 of the 12 cocktails, and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. We still hadn’t touched the gin ones though!

We headed in to dinner and met our waiting staff (Anthony and Kudza) and our sommelier (Harry). They would prove to be spectacularly good in terms of anticipating our needs, and in the case of Harry, recommending some great wines. The only fault I could find with the food was that the cheese trolley contains cheese aimed at people who are afraid of cheese! Other than that, the food was excellent and the service was just right. We opted to get a sensibly early night, and were delighted to return to our room to see that in addition to leaving us our chocolates, and the following day’s Daily Programme, Jerick, our steward, had formed various items of nightwear into new and interesting shapes!

On Saturday morning I woke up early, determined to maintain my running programme, but first spent 10 minutes wrestling with the coffee machine and failing to get it to work! The only place to run on board, apart from the treadmills in the gym, is Deck 3, the Promenade Deck. So I headed down there at 08:00 (you’re not allowed to run before then or after 20:00) to get my mileage in, while coincidentally enjoying a spectacularly fiery sunrise. It was most impressive. What wasn’t quite so impressive, after I completed my 8 laps, was then spending around 10 minutes roaming Deck 7 trying to remember our room number! It doesn’t help that your cruise card, which acts as a key as well as being used whenever you buy anything on board, contains all sorts of very useful information, but does NOT include the room number. We’d opted for room service for breakfast and after that it was a matter of deciding what to do with the day. This was the part that was worrying me prior to boarding. Would I be bored? Would there be enough interesting activity? I had brought plenty of reading material, and I was looking forward to some time doing pretty much nothing because work had been hellish in the month before and I really did need a break, However, I’m not used to having nothing to do, and I wasn’t sure it would suit me. I need not have worried.

Activities of many types are available, especially on sea days, with stuff I did want to do, and a lot of stuff I didn’t want to do with everything from ballroom dancing and chairobics (both of those a big fat no from me) to art talks and fencing (which would be a yes though I never did get round to the fencing lessons). What all four of us were keen on were the Cunard Insight sessions, with a variety of speakers on a wide-range of subjects, some relevant to the journey, and some not. Particularly interesting and useful was a series of astronomy-related talks from Howard L. G Parkin, who would also lead aurora spotting sessions on board when weather permitted. We also had a celebrity speaker, Winter Olympics skeleton gold medal winner Amy Williams, who was fascinating, if clearly barking mad (anyone prepared to voluntarily hurl themselves down a mountain on a tea-tray is of questionable sanity in my book). We also had a whole Norwegian-related talks from Shena Lewington, who bills herself as a family historian, but has a much more varied background than that! The last of the Insight speakers was Matthew Towler, about whom you will find next to nothing on line, but who was fascinating on the subject of spying, security, and related topics. We fitted in three talks on the first full day, with a break for lunch, and then pottered around getting our bearings in glorious sunshine. It was so good I was able to sit on the balcony for an hour mid-afternoon. I was definitely starting to relax.

We missed the Port Presentation which was something of a selling session for various excursions that you could buy. We opted to do our own thing in port, because I’d done my research and we knew what we wanted to see. J and J had cancelled their independently booked excursion to hunt the Northern lights from Tromso when they realised they might not get back on board in time given the departure on board time of 2am. We caught up with the presentation later on our in-room TV and didn’t feel it added anything we hadn’t already researched, though we did go and pre-buy some tickets for the Hop-On, Hop-Off buses in Ålesund and Stavanger.

The sea day pattern was set when we went to the Chart Room for pre-dinner drinks again and were joined by J and J after they’d finished watching the final of the women’s rugby World Cup in the Pavilion. Thereafter we drifted in to dinner, and a relaxing catch up before bed.

Day 3 was much the same but came with the first gala evening, one of the things we liked so much about our previous much shorter “taster” cruise to Hamburg in 2023. Cunard are relatively strict about these things, and say: “From 6pm onwards, a smart attire dress code applies in most bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues. This typically includes for women cocktail dresses, skirts or tailored trousers with an elegant top. For men: collared shirts with trousers; jackets are optional but encouraged. On Gala Evenings, a more formal dress code is observed in these same venues. Guests are invited to embrace the occasion with for women: floor-length gowns, cocktail dresses, or smart trouser suits, and for men: dinner jackets, tuxedos, or dark suits with a tie or bow tie. Not permitted: jeans or casual wear.”

We were more than happy to go along with this, having always been fans of dressing for dinner! Day 3 was themed as black and white and we complied.

Afterwards we encountered one of the six official ship’s photographers, Arthur, who was so lovely that we booked a session with him later in the trip.