Cunard Cruise Line is a cruise line that has survived for over 175 years. It managed to survive the collapse of the transatlantic crossing business with the birth of jet liner travel that destroyed most companies. Today it flourishes as a prestige cruise company – and the ONLY one that has a scheduled transatlantic service and the ONLY one with a true Ocean Liner in its fleet.
Cunard is the company that I have cruised or crossed the Atlantic with more than any other cruise line. I am drawn to the British Nature of the line, with its long history and heritage.
I have been on all of the recent fleet, Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, and am a Platinum Level Frequent Traveler. On this feature page are many of the articles, audio podcasts and videos I have made about the history, heritage and advice and tips of cruising with Cunard.
My Cunard Heritage and History Articles
- 10 historic events that helped to define the iconic Cunard Cruise Line and all it stands for. This is stunning and long surviving cruise line dates back to the 19th Century. These are 10 events that have marked the remarkable history of the line.
- Cunard and the history of transatlantic crossings. The line was a pioneer in creating scheduled transatlantic crossings, and is the only cruise line that still has a scheduled service. This article explores that history.
- Is Cunard retaining its distinctiveness now that it is owned by the massive Carnival Cruise Conglomerate? Many feel that Cunard is changing, this article explores if this is more to do with cruise passenger trends and demands – or due to being “Americanised” and “Carnival-ised.
- Cunard Cruise Line History: how design and decor have been used to differentiate Cunard. A look at 3 aspects of design and decor that set Cunard aside from other cruise lines – some dating back to the very first ships!
Cruising with Cunard
Queen Elizabeth Geiranger
- Highs & Lows of Cruising on Cunard Queen Mary 2. 3 highlights and 3 low-lights based on spending 3 weeks on-board the QM2
- Cunard Transatlantic Crossing on Queen Mary 2: a day-by-day journal of what it is like to be on a crossing from New York to Southampton.
- Cunard 7 Nights Norwegian Fjords Cruise. Day-by-day journal and review, including all the port reviews.
- Queen Mary 2 World Voyage. My observations, insights, tips and advice about travelling on a world voyage in a 6-part audio series I recorded whilst on board two legs of the world voyage from Sydney to Dubai
My profile of doing a Transatlantic Crossing on Cunard Queen Mary 2
- Food Glorious Food: Guide to 24 Hours of Eating
- Profile of Passengers on a Crossing
- Power of the Atlantic
- Cunard Insights Program Observations
My Cunard Cruise Tips and Advice: Before a cruise, On-Board and During The Cruise
Queen Mary 2 Rotterdam
How to get the best Cunard deal for your cruise or crossing. Advice on tips to ensure you get the very best price.
The history of afternoon tea – on land and at sea. This article explores the very English tradition of afternoon tea on land, and how the cruise industry – and Cunard in particular – has taken on the tradition.
Cunard Behind-the-Scenes Tour Review and Photos. This costs at least $120 and at most 20 people can go per excursion run on sea days. What will you see, and is it worth doing?
How Cunard keep Norovirus at bay. Keeping Norovirus at bay, and Cruising with a Norovirus out-break on-board – what it is like.
Cunard World Cruise
I spent 12 weeks cruising on the Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth on multiple legs of their world cruises. Follow the experience and get insights and tips in my 12-part series:
- Week One: Southampton to the Azores
- Week Two: Port Canaveral to Aruba
- Week Three: Aruba to Guatemala via Panama Canal
- Week Four: Guatemala to San Francisco
- rest to follow
My Cunard Ship Reviews
- Cunard Queen Mary 2 Penthouse Suite.
- Cunard Queen Elizabeth.
- Cunard Queen Victoria
- Cunard Queen Elizabeth 2 (2004 review before the ship was retired). My video tour inside the QE2.
My Cunard Audio Podcasts
- Transatlantic crossing: On-board experience Part 1 and On-board experience part 2
- Cruise Ship Jobs Behind the scenes interviews: Entertainment Directors; Hotel Manager & Executive Chef; Social Host & Gentleman Host
- Behind the scenes insights and tour on Cunard Queen Elizabeth
- Cunard Queen Elizabeth Review
- Cunard Queen Victoria Review
- Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Crossing
My Cunard Videos and Tours
- Cunard Queen Mary 2. Winter Crossing and Full Ship Video Tour
- Cunard Queen Mary 2 Q6 Suite
- Cunard Queen Mary 2 Q4 Penthouse Suite
- Cunard Queen Elizabeth Tour and Review
- Cunard Queen Elizabeth Q4 Suite
- Cunard Queen Victoria Q4 Suite
- Cunard QE2 Tour – Part 1 (interiors) and Part 2 (exteriors and sea)
General Cruising Advice and Tips
You can also read about more general cruise advice and tips by visiting my Tips for Travellers Cruise Page, where you can read many articles of advice and tips, including:
- Tips for first time cruisers.
- Why and when a cruise is better than a land based vacation.
- The main types of and cruising destinations.
- How to get the best price for your cruise.
- How to save money on port excursions.
- How to get the most of of cruising the Caribbean, Fjords, Transatlantic Crossings and other regions.
Help me to improve the Tips for Travellers blog by doing a short 10 question survey online: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tipsfortravellers
Why does Cunard rip off single travellers by as much as 200% on the price of any one cabin instead of getting singles to share? I’ve done that many years ago in hotels in mainland Europe
Roger. The surcharge for solo travellers is large, as you say. It can be 100% if taking a Grills cabin. I think we will see this change as they seem to be starting to put in dedicated solo cabins. The Queen Elizabeth is in dry dock now (May / June 2014) and they are adding in 12 ocean view and one inside solo cabin…. Hopefully this will be the trend across all their ships as they all face dry dock periods. Gary
Hi Gary
I taking my mother on the QM2 leaving Sydney this Friday cruising for 2 nights only to Brisbane. I have two questions. I really want to go to the afternoon tea and the planetarium on the Saturday sea day. Can you book both of these? Also, could you give me a short itinerary for what to do in board for such a short trip.
I really enjoy your podcast and have my mum listening to it prior to our departure.
Cheers,
Tom
Just listened to your review of St Kitts. So many errors. The island is only 23 miles long, 5 miles wide. You also state Christopher Columbus discovered the island… what about the native Arawaks and Caribs? Christopher Columbus only named it. Although there are thousands of monkeys on the island, I doubt they exceed the population (55,345).
Hi, Gary. I’ve enjoyed many of your videos and learned a lot. I came to your web page to learn more but was disappointed to discover that most of the hyperlinks on the Cunard page no longer work. The only ones I found that work are the QM2 World Voyage observations, the four World Cruise videos, most (but not all of the videos in the section titled “My Cunard Videos and Tours,” and the audio podcast links for the QM2 transatlantic crossings (nos. 1 and 6 in the list above). I know it is a lot of work to maintain a web site and links can go amiss when material is moved or reorganize, so you are probably not aware of this problem. Many of the topics look fascinating and I’d love to access them. I’ll poke around the site to see if I can find them elsewhere but thought you’d want to know of so many “broken” links on this page.