We are counting the days down until we board Cunard’s Queen Victoria in Southampton for the start of a voyage to the Baltic and back. Its been a long time coming, having booked it in October 2016 (we like to plan ahead!). It is also 18 months since our last cruise which was onboard the Queen Mary 2 from New York to the Caribbean and back……so feel we are long overdue our fix of sea time.
This will be our longest voyage to date – a full 2 weeks. Our first cruise was in 2008 when we boarded Queen Victoria on a 7 night voyage to the Norwegian Fjords as part of my 40th birthday year.
We had the most amazing trip – firstly the scenery was spectacular, and the weather gorgeous for most of our time in the Fjords. But we just fell in love with life onboard Queen Victoria. I had always thought that the QE2 was a luxury I would never experience…..she was still sailing in 2008 in her final years of service and it was a close call whether to go on her or the snazzy new ship joining the Cunard fleet. We chose Queen Victoria, and I think it was the right decision……I have a feeling that although QE2 would have been amazing, it may well have spoilt some of the mystic in my mind about her – sometimes its good to just yearn for something even if you could attain it.
Needless to say whilst on Queen Victoria we both agreed we had had a great trip and would be back – and perhaps consider a trip for my 50th. Well here we are – and yes we are going on a voyage for my 50th…..but this is our 8th cruise in those 10 years.
Holidays are one of the things that I think we would call luxuries – not only is our holiday time precious to us, but we also enjoy “splashing out’ a bit. So of those 7 previous cruises 5 have been in Queens Grill onboard Cunard, and 1 onboard a Seabourn luxury small cruise ship. We have also slipped in 1 Britannia level cruise onboard Cunard’s Queen Victoria with friends……and we had no aversion to the Britannia level…but as I said we like to treat ourselves while we can, so we are again travelling in a Queens Grill suite for this trip – in fact the very same cabin we were in on our first voyage!
Itinerary
- 6th July – Embark at Southampton
- 7th July – Sea day
- 8th July – Hamburg
- 9th July – Sea day
- 10th July – Copenhagen
- 11th July – Sea day
- 12th July – Visby
- 13th July – Helsinki
- 14th July – St Petersburg (overnight stay)
- 15th July – St Petersburg
- 16th July – Sea Day
- 17th July – Kiel
- 18th July – Gothenburg
- 19th July – Sea day
- 20th July – Southampton – disembark
Our plan is to record our voyage through pictures and blogs here. The countdown continues…..
Married at the Ritz 