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The British feel

Like all ships operated by United Kingdom-based Cunard, Queen Anne has a particularly British feel. It’s a vessel where mushy peas and fish-and-chips (along with other British culinary favorites) are on the lunch buffet not just once a sailing but every day, and afternoon tea is a major event. It’s also a ship where one of the busiest drinking spots is the (very traditionally English) pub.

But beyond such Britishness in food and drink, it offers a uniquely British style of prim and properness that is perhaps Queen Anne’s most distinctive feature. It is a ship, for instance, where even on nights when the dress code is a relaxed “smart” casual, most passengers arrive for dinner in a jacket, some in full coat-and-tie. It’s a vessel where you generally don’t see people being loud or garish or otherwise inappropriate.

For American cruisers increasingly aghast at the way some passengers behave (and dress) on mass-market American vessels, where anything-goes American values rule the day, it can be wonderfully refreshing — a throwback to what cruising was across the board not all that long ago. Of course, for some Americans, it might come off as just plain stuffy.

What I didn’t love about Queen Anne

The hard-to-navigate top deck

Getting around the top deck of Queen Anne is easy — if you’re staying in a top suite. Otherwise, it’s like navigating a maze. That’s because a significant chunk of the middle of the top deck is devoted to a private sunning area for the swells in top suites. If you’re not booked in such a suite (and thus do not have the secret keycode to enter and cross this elites-only zone), you can’t easily get from the sunning and sports deck areas at the front of the ship to the pool area at the back. The only way to do it is to descend into the interior of the vessel and walk across its already congested buffet restaurant (called the Artisans’ Foodhall).

This, in turn, adds to the congestion of the buffet, which itself has design flaws (most notably, its self-serve drinks stations are inexplicably located along the crowded walkways through the eatery, such that you’ll smack right into people pouring hot coffees and teas as you work your way across the space).

The crowds

Queen Anne is more packed with people than Cunard’s three other vessels, in a way that affects the experience. Seats are hard to come by for some shows, and the crew seems more harried than usual. The cabin experience is also diminished in some cases.

The numbers tell the story: At 113,000 gross tons, Queen Anne is 24% bigger than Cunard’s last new vessel, the 14-year-old Queen Elizabeth. But Cunard has jammed 44% more cabins (and thus 44% more people) onto the vessel. Queen Anne holds 2,996 passengers at double occupancy (two passengers per cabin), up from Queen Elizabeth’s capacity of 2,081 passengers at double occupancy. Notably, this drops the ship’s “space ratio” of space (measured in hundreds of cubic feet) to passengers to just 37.8, which isn’t a great number. By comparison, Queen Elizabeth has a space ratio closer to 44. The line’s flagship Queen Mary 2 has a space ratio around 56.

The spotty service

I truly was excited to sail on Queen Anne, as I’ve long loved the elegance and refinement of Cunard vessels. I figured Cunard’s first new ship in 14 years would set a new benchmark for the brand. Alas, what I experienced on board was a vessel that wasn’t quite functioning right, mostly in the area of service.

I’ve sailed on more than 200 ships in 30 years of writing about cruising, including lots of just-out-of-the-shipyard vessels, and I’ve rarely encountered one where the crew members seemed as untrained and indifferent as they seemed on Queen Anne. It wasn’t in every space. The servers in the exclusive restaurant for Princess Grill passengers were fabulous, catering to my every need. The bartenders at the casino bar (Room 1840) were a delight. But in many other venues, I regularly encountered crew who didn’t seem to know what they were supposed to do or how to interact with passengers. Some venues also just didn’t have enough staff to function properly.

If my Princess Grill suite had a flaw, it was in the lack of adequate storage in the room. Given the formality of Cunard ships, which requires that passengers pack elegant eveningwear (think ballgowns and tuxedos) in addition to everyday clothing, the storage needs for Cunard passengers are higher than for passengers on some other lines. Cunard ships (and Queen Anne in particular) also often make longer sailings that require more clothes.

While there was enough storage in my room to pack away everything my companion and I brought for a weeklong sailing, it would have been tight if we had been on one of the ship’s longer two-week sailings. I can’t imagine how it’ll work for passengers on the monthslong around-the-world sailings that are planned for the vessel starting in January.

One detail of the room I truly loved was the placement of large nightstands with large drawers on each side of the bed where I could hide away all my electronics and their cords, books, papers, glasses and the like. Bedside storage at this level is increasingly rare on ships. What’s more, each of the nightstands was topped with a U.S.-style 110-volt outlet, a British-style 220-volt outlet, and both USB-A and fast-charging USB-C ports. Bravo, Cunard, for knowing how to keep us charged.

Other Queen Anne cabin tidbits:

• Every cabin has a small hair dryer that works with the ship’s specific current. Leave yours at home.
• Rooms have nicely wide personal safes that can hold even a big laptop.
• There are Cunard-red “Do Not Disturb” magnets to stick to your door when you don’t want to be disturbed. Flip them over, and a steward will make up your room. It’s not a sophisticated system, but it works.
• Cabin televisions offer a wide range of movies on demand at no extra charge, a nice touch (some of Cunard’s competitors charge as much as $11.99 to watch a movie).

The Princess Grill suites seem like a sweet spot to me when it comes to the higher-end accommodations on Queen Anne. They get you the same exclusive access to private indoor and outdoor lounge areas as the higher-priced Queens Grill suites and access to a private restaurant, too, but at a significantly lower price point.

That said, if you’re looking for the ultimate in Queen Anne swankiness, you’ll find it in the Queens Grill suites.

The best suites on Queen Anne

The two largest Queens Grill suites, called Grand suites, measure an astounding 1,440 square feet — nearly five times the size of my Princess Grill suite. They boast a bedroom, a master bathroom with a separate bath and shower, a large living room, a dining room, a powder room, a private balcony, and a walk-in closet.

Also impressive are the ship’s four Queens Grill Master suites, which measure 896 square feet. They also feature a bedroom, a master bathroom with a separate bath and shower, a living room, a dining room, a powder room, a private balcony, and a walk-in closet.

The remainder of the Queens Grill suites are split between Queens Grill Penthouse suites, which measure 501 to 527 square feet, and slightly smaller Queens Grill suites, which measure 484 to 500 square feet. Each has a bedroom, a bathroom with a separate bath and shower, a living area, and a private balcony.

In addition to fresh flowers, Queens Grill suites come with personalized stationery, fresh fruit daily, predinner canapes and a complimentary minibar, including alcoholic drinks and soft drinks.

As noted above, Queen Anne’s designers have packed a lot more cabins on Queen Anne than on earlier Cunard ships, and they did it in part by shrinking the size of some cabins. While standard balcony cabins on Queen Anne are just a tad smaller than balcony cabins on the line’s past two new ships (236 square feet versus 239 square feet), the differential with Princess Grill suites is more noticeable.

Princess Grill suites measure 335 square feet on Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria — about 10% more space than my Princess Grill suite on Queen Anne. Princess Grill suites on the line’s flagship, Queen Mary 2, measure a far more generous 381 square feet.

At the Queens Grill level, there are notably no two-deck-high duplexes measuring more than 2,000 square feet on Queen Anne, as you’ll find on the Queen Mary 2, which remains Cunard’s reigning monarch for over-the-top accommodations.

Related: Cunard cabins and suites guide: Everything you want to know

Queen Anne restaurants and bars

Cunard has never been known for having ships that offered lots of dining options, but that changed notably with the debut of Queen Anne. It boasts 15 different places where you can grab a bite — more than double the number on the line’s other ships. It also offers quite a few bar options, including several new-for-the-brand venues.

Restaurants

As on all Cunard ships, the dining scene on Queen Anne revolves around four main restaurants: Britannia, Britannia Club, Princess Grill and Queens Grill — only one of which you will experience during any given cruise.

In keeping with Cunard’s old-fashioned class system of dining, you’ll be assigned a table in one of the four eateries for the duration of your cruise based on the type of cabin you book.

The vast majority of passengers — those in the least expensive windowless inside cabins, ocean-view cabins and most balcony cabins — are assigned to the least intimate of the four eateries: the expansive, two-level Britannia Restaurant. It’s packed with close-together tables that can hold 596 people at a time — a banquet hall sort of number.

Dinners on the lower level of the Britannia Restaurant take place during two fixed seatings each night, while the second level is reserved for diners on an open-seating plan (arrange this in advance). Breakfast and lunch have open seating.

Passengers who pay up for one of 162 premium balcony cabins will be assigned a table in the more intimate Britannia Club restaurant. It’s designed to hold up to 339 passengers and doesn’t turn over tables for multiple seatings. If you book this class, you have a specific table in the eatery that is available whenever you want to dine during breakfast, lunch and dinner hours.

Even more intimate and upscale are the Princess Grill and Queens Grill restaurants, which are assigned to passengers staying in suites. The Princess Grill is for passengers booked in the ship’s 127 smaller suites, known as Princess Grill suites. The Queens Grill is for passengers in the ship’s 65 biggest suites.

In the Princess Grill and Queens Grill, as with the Britannia Club restaurant, you’ll have a specific table that is available to you whenever you want it during dining hours.

Among the four main eateries, I only was able to experience the Princess Grill, as I was staying in a Princess Grill suite. Serving mostly classic Continental cuisine, it offered a refined dining experience with top-notch service, as you’d expect from an eatery reserved for passengers in top suites. Elaborate dishes such as chateaubriand and Dover sole meuniere (the latter expertly deboned and plated tableside) were available every night, as were such showy desserts as bananas Foster and cherries jubilee that were flamed tableside — a throwback to first-class travel during ocean liner days.

In addition to the four eateries above, Queen Anne also has a wide range of alternative dining options — something that isn’t the case with other Cunard ships.

These include four new-for-the-line extra-charge dining concepts: Aranya, an Indian eatery; Tramonto, serving Mediterranean dishes; Aji Wa, a Japanese restaurant; and Sir Samuel’s, a steakhouse.

I tried nearly all these new restaurants while on board and, alas, was disappointed with them all for varying reasons.

Both Aranya and Tramonto, which came with upcharges of $35 and $20, respectively, seemed like eateries added to the ship as afterthoughts. Both were in carved-out corners of the buffet area, and they had the ambience you might expect from such a location. From my table at Aranya, I looked out over a sad landscape of empty tables and a trolley cart with glasses in the buffet. Tramonto’s ambience was better, thanks to the addition of a built-in wine cabinet blocking the buffet view. But it still suffered from being aside one of the main thoroughfares into the buffet.

Foodwise, the 38-seat Aranya was the biggest disappointment. The “carefully crafted spice-led journey” that it promised was almost devoid of spice across much of its (very limited) menu. A turbot wrapped in banana leaf came out dry. The one choice of naan that was available (plain) had the consistency of cardboard. It was nothing like the fabulous Indian eateries you’ll find all over the ship’s home country (for a similar cost, my companion and I feasted on truly wonderful Indian cuisine in London just the night before boarding).

Aranya also was plagued by servers who seemed only half awake (one server tried to fill our water glasses with tap water twice in five minutes, even though we clearly told her the first time we were drinking sparkling water).

The cuisine at the 38-seat Tramonto wasn’t quite the disaster it was at Aranya, but too many dishes at this venue arrived cold, tasteless or otherwise underwhelming, and the servers were inattentive, even absent at times.

Both Aranya and Tramonto suffered, I suspect, from not having their own kitchens on-site. It appeared that waiters at both outlets were walking out of the eateries periodically to head to the buffet kitchen to grab dishes. They also apparently had to travel long distances to get drinks, as the eateries had no bars of their own. Our charge for sparkling water at Aranya posted as coming from the Panorama Pool Club bar, suggesting that our server had to walk to the back of the ship to get it.

Aji Wa, the Japanese eatery, had a much better atmosphere and served lovely sushi and other Japanese dishes. Its main flaw was disorganized service. During one of two visits, we sat at the sushi bar, ordering small sushi plates directly from the chef (as instructed) a couple at a time. Alas, nobody cleared these dishes away as we finished them, such that dirty dishes were piling up all around us by the end of the evening. We then sat for 20 minutes waiting for someone to notice we were done and bring us a bill. We finally got one, but just for our drinks. We had to wait again for a second bill for the food portion of the meal — a separation of charges that surely makes sense to someone in the accounting department at Cunard’s U.K. headquarters but, of course, is nonsensical to the customer.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to try Sir Samuel’s, Cunard’s new signature steakhouse. The eatery was unavailable for the entire week I was on board due to a private event that was being held in the space.

Other places to dine on Queen Anne include the Golden Lion pub, a mainstay of Cunard ships. On Queen Anne, it features a tasty new pub menu designed by chef Michel Roux Jr., who owned London’s Le Gavroche restaurant, the first U.K. restaurant to receive three Michelin stars. (He also created an exclusive gala menu for the Queens Grill restaurant.) I particularly loved the steak-and-ale pie. It looked underwhelming on the plate but was fabulously rich and yummy.

You’ll pay up to $11 a plate for lunch at the Golden Lion, but it’s a worth-it upcharge. Some items, such as the quintessentially British Scotch eggs, are available at no extra cost.

In addition, Queen Anne passengers can eat in casual comfort at the Artisans’ Foodhall, the ship’s buffet. It features active food stations instead of traditional self-serve buffet lines, with a chef standing by at each station to make a dish just for you — a nice upgrade. There also are preplated dishes available to grab and go. The array of dishes is more limited than on some mass-market ships, but I never had trouble finding something to suit my taste.

That said, for something fast and casual, my favorite outlet, hands down, was the new-for-Cunard Wellness Cafe on the second level of the ship’s Pavilion pool area. Part of Cunard’s expanded focus on wellness, it offered no-extra-charge, built-to-order healthy food bowls that were not just tasty but beautifully plated. You could pick from a long list of healthful items such as edamame, kale, quinoa, roasted broccoli and charred cauliflower and top it all with grilled salmon and other proteins, as well as fresh dressings such as miso, lime and ginger. It was the one new eatery on Queen Anne that was a clear home run.

Eat there, and then blow your calorie count at the nearby Pavilion Gelateria, which serves massive extra-charge gelatos starting at a very reasonable $2.50 for one flavor. The Pavilion is also home to a grill for no-extra-charge burgers and hot dogs.

You’ll also find small bites available from morning to night at the Carinthia Lounge. Located off the Grand Lobby, it’s a European-style coffee bar by day with lovely handmade pastries and other elevated breakfast bites at no extra charge. At night, it morphs into a wine bar that serves artisanal cheese and charcuterie sourced from small producers for an extra fee (on my sailing, $6.50 for a selection of three cheeses or meats).

The Carinthia Lounge also serves oysters on the half shell at night ($6.50 for three oysters) and a few other small snacks that pair well with wines.

Room service is available day and night with several solid options including the same Michel Roux-designed burger you can get in the Golden Lion pub. That said, many of the better items come with an upcharge, which isn’t always the case with room service menus on ships. The burger will set you back $11, while the room service steak — from the ship’s Sir Samuel’s steakhouse — will cost you $25 to $29, depending on whether you order a sirloin or filet. With an added lobster tail, the plate cost jumps to $40 to $44.

Bars

If you’re heading out for a drink in the evening on Queen Anne, you’re probably heading to one of two places: the Commodore Club or the Chart Room.

Located at the top of the ship overlooking the bow, as it is on all Cunard ships, the Commodore Club is the hot spot for drinks in the evenings, and for good reason. It’s an elegant and inviting space with an impressive martini menu, friendly bartenders and lively entertainment (on my sailings, a pianist who took requests and played to the crowd).

The Commodore Club is such a popular venue on Cunard ships that the line has made it bigger than ever on Queen Anne, even bigger than its counterpart on Queen Mary 2, which is a far bigger ship.

Just off the Grand Lobby, the Chart Room is the main bar and lounge for the ship’s lower-deck interior areas. It has a creative list of specialty cocktails themed around the signs of the zodiac (I loved the Leo-themed Natural Leader cocktail, made with pisco, lemon juice, raspberries and elderflower syrup) and the stylish art deco-inspired decor.

A third major drinking spot in the interior of the ship is the Golden Lion pub, which is just down the hall from the Chart Room past the Queens Room — the ship’s ballroom. It’s definitely the place to go for a pint of beer and a chat or a full-blown pub meal. Just be warned that it sometimes morphs into a karaoke club at night and is often taken over by trivia and bingo sessions, which sort of wrecks the cozy British pub ambience. In my view, it’s a space that suffers from mission creep, though people who love karaoke, trivia and bingo with a side of John Smith’s bitter ale surely will disagree.

Another option for a drink in the afternoon or evening is the Carinthia Lounge. As mentioned in the dining section above, it’s a coffee bar by day but morphs into a wine bar as the day goes on. It has a wonderfully diverse wine list that includes things like Hungarian furmint, a wine you don’t normally find at cruise ship bars.

Alas, as an evening drinking spot, the Carinthia Lounge suffers a bit from a ho-hum setting along a sometimes busy corridor through a shopping area — the reason, I suspect, for why it wasn’t drawing much of a crowd at night when I was on board. It also closes down early. It’s much more popular during the day when it functions as a coffee bar.

Note that the Carinthia Lounge is one of the venues on Queen Anne where the servers seem particularly out to lunch. You apparently get to order just one coffee here, after which your server will disappear, never to be seen again.

Yet one more bar option, one that is something of an unexpected gem, is the bar attached to the ship’s casino, Room 1840. Most casino bars on ships are dreary places you don’t want to visit unless you’re in the casino to gamble. But the Room 1840 bar is both striking in its design and home to a fabulous cocktail menu focused on Negronis (in addition to a classic gin Negroni, you’ll find creative variations on the Campari-infused elixir made with everything from double-oaked whiskey to tequila).

The Room 1840 bar is also one of the few bars on the ship where you’ll find proper oversize ice cubes for cocktails such as Negronis — something that is standard at any semidecent cocktail bar on land but sorely missing from most Queen Anne bars (to be fair, this is a flaw not just with Queen Anne bars but bars on most cruise ships).

And, no, Room 1840 isn’t smoky. Unlike on most ships, you can’t smoke in the casino on Queen Anne.

In addition to the above, there are small interior bars attached to the Queens Room, the Bright Lights Society cabaret theater, the Artisans’ Foodhall and the Sir Samuel’s steakhouse. But none of them are venues you’d necessarily visit specifically for drinking. They are more bases for the waiters serving these various areas.

On the outside decks of the ship, you’ll find bars at all the main sunning and pool areas, including at the front-of-the-ship sports deck (known as the Observation Deck) and at the back-of-the-ship Panorama Pool Club. One of the outdoor venues, Cabana, is a new-for-the-line rum-focused venue touting 50 different brands of the drink.

The Bright Lights Society (the name is an oblique reference to the fact that Cunard was the first ocean liner operator to use electric lights on its ships) was a fun and lively venue — when I was able to get into it. Alas, all six performances of what some passengers said was the best show in the venue, the interactive murder mystery “Noir,” booked up seemingly instantly on the first day of my cruise, so I never was able to get a reservation to see it.

With Queen Anne’s passenger count significantly higher than Cunard’s other vessels, there just isn’t room in the Brights Light Society venue to accommodate the demand for its shows.

The “Noir” show was the only show in the venue for three of the first four nights of the cruise. For the last three nights of the sailing, the space was home to “Fizz,” a cabaret-style show with musical and burlesque elements and a loose storyline of romance for which I did manage to snag a reservation. It was energetic and amusing, with the cast of five pulling in the audience to become part of the show.

Additional entertainment, including the occasional comedy show, vocalists and silent discos, takes place in the Queens Room, the ship’s ballroom. On Queen Anne, it’s a space that has gotten a makeover compared to the ballrooms on other Cunard ships to make it more multipurpose, and it often hosts some of the same acts that play on different nights in the Royal Court Theater.

With clusters of modern ball lamps hanging from its ceiling, evoking planets floating in the sky, and a stunning, multicolored marquetry wood floor as a counterpoint, the Queens Room has a dreamy, make-believe quality unlike anything seen before on a Cunard ship.

A large digital screen behind its semicircular stage and high-tech lighting add to its more modern feel.

The Queens Room is also rounder in its design and more open to its surroundings. Its top level, in particular, is open to an area of boutique stores and the passing traffic of passengers moving between the front and back of the ship.

Queen Anne itineraries and pricing

Of Cunard’s four ships, Queen Anne is the one that spends the most time sailing out of Southampton, England — Cunard’s traditional home. Nearly all its sailings during the year begin and end in the port.

Still, that doesn’t mean Queen Anne only sails in the vicinity of the British Isles.

For all but the first few months of the year, Queen Anne operates an unusually wide array of Europe itineraries out of Southampton that can get you to just about every corner of the continent, from the far reaches of the Baltic Sea to the full expanse of the Mediterranean.

Some of Queen Anne’s Europe sailings out of Southampton go all the way to the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa.

Queen Anne’s trips from Southampton are diverse not only in where they go but in length, as the ship operates everything from quickie two-nighters to Hamburg, Germany (a good way to test the vessel to see if you like it), and seven-night sailings to Northern Europe to far lengthier voyages of 14 to 19 nights to the Mediterranean and Canary Islands.

During the first few months of every year, Queen Anne sets off from Southampton on an even more ambitious voyage around the world. Since the ship’s debut in early 2024, it has become one of Cunard’s main ships for such lengthy voyages.

Prices for Queen Anne sailings start around $400 per person, based on double occupancy, for a two-night sailing from Southampton to Hamburg. More typical seven-night sailings out of Southampton start at $1,159 per person, based on double occupancy. The ship’s first world cruise, a 107-night trip kicking off in January 2025, starts at $17,536 per person.

The above rates include all taxes and fees.

Note that you’ll pay a significant premium to stay in Queen Anne’s Britannia Club, Princess Grill and Queens Grill accommodations as compared to standard Britannia cabins. A voyage where a balcony cabin in Britannia class starts around $3,000 per person might cost closer to $5,000 per person if you book the same balcony cabin in Britannia Club class or $7,000 per person if you book a Princess Grill suite. A Queens Grill room on the same voyage might set you back more than $9,000 per person.

What to know before you go

Required documents

A passport is required for all itineraries, and passports must be valid for at least six months. The name on your reservation must match that on your passport. Double-check if you’ve recently gotten married or use a different version of your name.

Gratuities

Queen Anne guests will find an automatic service charge of $16 to $18 per person, per day, depending on cabin category, added to their onboard account and final bill. You are allowed to adjust this amount at the Purser’s Office desk before disembarking.

In addition, a 15% gratuity is added to bar bills. You should not feel pressured to add an additional tip.

Wi-Fi

In recent years, Cunard has upgraded the Wi-Fi service on its ships and now offers a relatively fast connection through Starlink satellites. As is often the case with cruise ships, the service isn’t free, nor is it inexpensive. Passengers can choose an Essential plan that allows web browsing and access to emails and social media sites for $18 per day if bought for the entire voyage (24-hour access is available for $24). A Premium plan allowing for streaming costs $24 per day if bought for the entire voyage (24-hour access is available for $36) is also available.

The above rates allow you to log in on a single device. Multidevice plans are also available. They’ll cost you more in absolute terms but are a much better value if you are buying Wi-Fi for several people. On my voyage, a multidevice plan for four devices was the same cost as buying two single-device plans.

Note that top-tier members of the line’s Cunard World Club loyalty program get credit toward buying internet plans.

Carry-on drinks policy

Cunard allows every passenger of drinking age to bring one bottle of wine or Champagne onto ships at boarding. The line charges a corkage fee if you bring the wine or Champagne to an onboard restaurant or other public areas to drink.

Smoking policy

Smoking (including e-cigarette smoking) is allowed only in designated outdoor areas. It’s forbidden in cabins, on cabin balconies and — with one exception — in all other indoor areas of the ship. The exception is that passengers can smoke cigars and pipes only (no cigarettes) in Churchill’s Cigar Lounge, the ship’s dedicated space for cigar smokers.

Unlike on some cruise ships, smoking is not allowed in Queen Anne’s casino.

Laundry

Queen Anne has self-serve launderettes on cabin decks where passengers will find washers, dryers and ironing boards for use at no extra charge. Even the detergent is free. The ship also offers extra-charge laundry, pressing and dry cleaning services.

Related: Everything you need to know about cruise ship laundry services

Electrical outlets

You’ll find North American-style 110-volt outlets and European-style 220-volt outlets in cabins, along with USB ports.

Currency

The onboard currency is the U.S. dollar. But you won’t need cash while on board. Queen Anne operates on a “cashless system,” with any onboard purchases you make posting automatically to your onboard account. You’ll receive a keycard that you can use to make charges, and Cunard will charge your credit card at the end of the sailing to settle the balance.

While on board, you can check your balance at the Purser’s Office or via your in-cabin television.

Drinking age

You must be 18 to consume alcohol on Queen Anne in most parts of the world. When the ship is sailing in U.S. waters, Cunard enforces the U.S. drinking age limit of 21.

Dress code

During the day, there is no specific dress code, and people dress casually. If it’s a sea day, and you’re bound for the pool deck, that means looking like you’re going to the beach — T-shirts, shorts and bathing suits are just fine. Just note that swimwear is not permitted in indoor dining areas, so you’ll want to change from that bathing suit before heading to lunch inside the vessel.

During the evenings, there is an official dress code, and it’s more formal than at many lines. Cunard has always been known as a line where passengers dress up — and its dress code reflects that (though it’s not nearly as formal as it was just a few years ago).

On most nights, the Queen Anne dress code is “smart” attire, which Cunard defines as a dress shirt and trousers, skirt and a top, or a cocktail dress. Jackets are optional, but many men do wear them. Some men even wear coats and ties on casual nights. This is a ship where passengers get very dressed up, and you might feel out of place if you don’t.

Unlike on some lines, jeans are not allowed in restaurants in the evening, and the line is strict about it. You will likely be turned away if you show up in them, and you’ll definitely get dirty looks from Cunard’s formality-loving regulars.

Every few nights, the dress level on the ship becomes much more formal as the ship holds “gala evenings.” These are shipwide events where passengers are encouraged to dress to the nines, and they generally do.

There are typically two gala evenings on every seven-night cruise and more on longer sailings. Cunard asks men to wear black tie or dark suits. For women, Cunard suggests floor-length dresses, ballgowns or off-the-shoulder cocktail dresses.

Cunard typically designates a theme for each gala evening, set in advance so you can plan your wardrobe. Examples include Black and White Gala Evening, when passengers are encouraged to wear black and white, and Red and Gold Gala Evening, when red and gold are the go-to colors. Some sailings also have a Masquerade Ball, where the line suggests passengers spice up their attire with masks.

Note that if you really, really hate the idea of getting all dolled up for a gala evening, you’ll find that there are a few designated places on the ship (such as the pub) where you still can drink and dine without the formality. That said, the dress-up nights are a big part of the Cunard formula. If it doesn’t sound appealing to you, maybe you’re picking the wrong ship.

Related: What to pack for your first cruise