Whilst this ship - like its sister ship Queen Victoria - is well-designed and its public areas spacious and artistically decorated, Cunard’s failings are the way it treats its passengers both on board and at ports of call. Cost-cutting on food and services has resulted in a deterioration of standards over the years. Coupled with rip-off prices on drinks and tours it is no longer the leading cruise line of years gone by and certainly does not give value for money.

My wife and I have been on many cruises on all Cunard Queens. This was our sixth on Queen Elizabeth but our first in its Britannia restaurant. We decided the food served in the Club and Grills restaurants - which the brochure describes as the “finest food” - was simply not worth the high extra cost. And, though the brochure states food in the Britannia restaurant is “superb”, we found that it was unsatisfactory. Over the years, food has become of poorer quality, the quantity has been reduced and its presentation unappetising - except for the extra-charge Verandah restaurant. Several times we ate in the self-service Lido and the Verandah. Even fish and chips in the Golden Lion pub were far better than the similarly described meal in the Britannia - where only 4 chips accompanied the fish. Complaints on board the ship and, in the past, directly to Cunard management have had no effect.

The midships balcony cabin we occupied could not be described as roomy but the main problem was the small size of the bathroom. We booked a cabin with shower but the moulded-plastic shower cubicle was the smallest we have ever experienced, being only 70cm wide and 58cm deep. It was not possible to bend down in it to pick up the fallen soap so it was a case of having to step out of the cubicle to recover it. Read more