Cunard TransAtlantic Crossing. 23rd - 29th June 2024 Southampton to New York.

[PoohBears#1fan]

We had such a lovely time on this cruise with a couple of days in New York afterwards, due to flying straight off to LA the day after returning, I'm only just getting around to posting.

We left the car at Heathrow T5 ready for our return and had booked a coach down to Southampton, whilst not our preferred way to travel, this was the most straightforward way to get there as well being considerably cheaper than the trains, with no changes.

It was absolutely fine, we'd prebooked our seats on the coach so had nabbed the front row and it was really quite painless, with next to no traffic. Turns out many who had taken the trains weren't so lucky and were meet with significant delays, the official Cunard transfer was obviously also affected by this as they delayed sailaway.

We are aware that Cunard can have a reputation for being snobby, with the enforced dress codes every night but this really wasn't our experience at all - although we did overhear a couple of conversations amongst older long term cruises who felt things had changed and not for the better! Mostly the cruise felt very 'live and let live' and we saw all kinds of dress styles.

Our cabin

Really generously sized verandah

There were 2 gala nights where formal dress was enforced in specific venues, but for anyone who didn't want to participate, they did still have the option of going to the buffet instead.
We were aware of complaints about the food and service, specifically from one very prolific You Tube channel who had taken this cruise a couple of weeks before us and were VERY critical, I honestly don't know what they were complaining about. We also actually met the lovely Jamie Robins onboard, if you cruise and you're not watching his Vlogs on You Tube (@travelblogjamie) what are you even doing? 😂

We ate in the MDRs most nights and found the food to be very good and the service was also great, gala nights the food was a lot better. The buffet had sushi and sashimi on it every day, which was a VERY welcome discovery for me

Despite booking freedom dining, Cunard had managed to book us onto early dining which we weren't able to cancel! We tried twice, over the phone and at the purser's desk! Luckily it didn't affect us going ahead with freedom dining anyway, just felt like a big flaw in the their system as each night there was a table reserved for us that we hadn't asked for and didn't want!

We didn't eat at any speciality restaurants as didn't feel the need and never made it to afternoon tea, with breakfast, lunch and dinner each day there was no chance!

Breakfast in bed being included is a really lovely touch that Cunard offer - hot breakfast & coffee. DCL offer cold breakfast and P&O won't bring you coffee with your breakfast when we did the TA with them in November!

The weather wasn't the best being a North Atlantic crossing which did mean that the upper decks were often closed, which was a shame, but mostly the promenade deck was open and the hot tubs were lovely and warm - DH braved a pool one day, too cold for me!

Arrived in New York, cruising in under the bridge and past the Statue of Liberty was as amazing as we'd hoped. Disembarkation wasn't the best and took hours, due to our late arrival into NY and waiting for CBP to process everyone, we sat around for hours waiting to be called, madness that they still made everyone vacate their rooms at the same time despite delaying that night's embarkation, so they had much longer to turn them around.

We took an Uber from the cruise port into Manhatten and were lucky enough to get an early check in at our hotel so we could dump our bags and get out into a very sunny New York.

Spent most of the day browsing 5th Avenue and exploring Central Park, before we walked up to Times Square and found the diner we ate in on our first ever visit in 2008 on Broadway, a lovely dinner there before making our way back to the hotel to crash! 🙂

Just brunch in Times Square and some shopping on our last day before making our way to Newark in the hope of getting on one of the very busy flights home, fortunately we were lucky and got seats in Traveller Plus after having jump seats released for us as getting actual seats was looking unilkely!

A gorgeous holiday, lots of much needed rest and time together before we hit the ground running again back home!

[Mortimer Mouse]

Interesting to hear your experience.
Did you find you were less jetlagged in New York?

[PoohBears#1fan]

Originally Posted by Mortimer Mouse

Interesting to hear your experience.
Did you find you were less jetlagged in New York?

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Yes, as we lost an hour a night over 5 nights rather that 5 hours in one go.

I actually prefer an Eastbound TA as you arrive home refreshed with no jet lag.

[ryanlaur]

Great cruise trip report…..thanks so much for sharing. 😀

[BevS97]

I saw the very critical vlog a few weeks ago so it’s interesting to hear you enjoyed your cruise. I do think some of the cruise bloggers have extremely high expectations and find things to complain about.

[CarsonMac]

You say you flew back to the states the day after getting back... how was that getting through immigration? I've often wondered if they would be funny about flying back to the USA straight after leaving it!

[PoohBears#1fan]

Originally Posted by CarsonMac

You say you flew back to the states the day after getting back... how was that getting through immigration? I've often wondered if they would be funny about flying back to the USA straight after leaving it!

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I’m cabin crew so they’re used to us coming & going every week!