My wife and I sailed on Queen Victoria for a short 5 night post Christmas break to Hamburg and Zeebrugge in January 2013. This was in no way what some cruisers call a ‘taster’ cruise: it was our fourth time on Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria is a 1,990 passenger cruise ship posing as an ocean liner. Basically a stretched and modified ‘Vista’ class ship which entered service in December 2007.
From the moment of embarkation passengers cannot help but recognise an interior reminiscent of yesterday’s ocean liners…
Queen Victoria offers a considerably wide choice of accommodation, ranging from inside cabins to suites with balconies. Cunard has a unique system of allocating passenger’s dining restaurants in accordance with their accommodation grade.
For this cruise we chose a Princess Grill stateroom on 4 Deck…
Princess Stateroom 4091
Passengers in Britannia accommodation use the Britannia Restaurant, a two deck high restaurant where there are 2 seatings for dinner and open seating for breakfast and lunch…
Princess and Queens Grill accommodated passengers each have their own restaurants. On Queen Victoria these are located on Deck 11 and both have full panoramic windows the length of the restaurant…
Princess Grill
The Lido Café on 9 Deck also enjoys panoramic views with indoor and outdoor seating and features a multi-line self-service buffet arrangement…
One of the many hot and cold drink dispensing area
Whilst we were on board there was an alternative dining venue, Todd English, which required a cover charge. Since 1st June a new alternative dining venue, The Verandah, opened to replace the Todd English Restaurant and is based on the same concept as the award-wining Verandah Restaurant on Queen Elizabeth, with a slightly different menu.
Not a permanent dining venue but one that attracts great attention is the Queens Room High Teas…
Around the Ship
All Cunard ships have exceptionally good libraries and Queen Victoria is no exception. The library is on two deck levels, linked with an elegant spiral staircase…
Another Cunard trademark is the floral decorations around the ship…
The lower Royal Arcade stairway
…which has the casino and the Golden Lion Pub on the lower level…
The Golden Lion Pub
…while the upper floor of The Royal Arcade is the ship’s Shopping Mall…
Queen Victoria has a particularly smart ‘Royal Spa’ and fitness centre…
Internet Café
It shouldn’t be forgotten that all Cunard ships have a number of self-service Laundry facilities , at no additional cost…
Entertainment:
Royal Court Theatre
Queens Room
The Chart Room
Commodore Club
Champagne Bar
Winter Garden
…and a dedicated Card Room…
The Card Room
As this was a cruise to Northern Europe in January there was never going to be any chance of making good use of the upper decks, except for exercise and sightseeing. Queen Victoria is blessed with an extensive Promenade Deck which also offers a degree of cover…
She has two open swimming pools, again, not much use for those on this cruise, including the Pavilion Pool…
Itinerary:
Our first full day at sea was spent transiting the North Sea,under unusually pleasant conditions, as we headed for Hamburg
. This was our vista from our breakfast table in the Princess Grill…
On day three we arrived in Hamburg…
View from viewing platform of St. Michaelis Church, Hamburg.
We had a further day at sea as we headed for Zeebrugge. On this occasion we made the train journey from Blankenburg and spent the day visiting the Belgium town of Ghent…
Gravensteen castle of the Count, Ghent
Summary:
This was a short but very enjoyable cruise that gave us our first visit to Hamburg together. Queen Victoria is a very pleasant and elegant ship to sail on and I’m sure we will return to her in the future.
Solent Richard's Cruise Blog 
For a post New Year mini cruise it was certainly a great itinerary and blessed with great weather and excellent company. I also got to bump into one of my former high school teachers and his lovely wife, although we were both in touch via facebook neither was aware the other was on board – QM2 a great ship to enjoy! 🙂