Return to Queen Elizabeth, Such a Suite Ride

It was coming up to 12 months since the end of our first-ever cruise, and our second cruise was only a few short weeks away. Shortly before departure, I received an email from Cunard with an “invitation” to bid on a stateroom upgrade. Considering that this would likely be my last cruise (yeah right! – Lee), I thought it would be nice to go out in style and put in a minimum bid for a Princess Grill mini-suite.

Queen Elizabeth arriving at Sydney

I later received an email saying that our upgrade bid was unsuccessful, so I logged in again and increased the bid by $20. Surprisingly, we then received another email from Cunard saying that our bid for a Princess Grill mini-suite was successful!

Soon it was time to fly up to Sydney, where we had booked a night at the Sydney Harbour Hotel, located at The Rocks. It’s super close to the Sydney OPT (Overseas Passenger Terminal)—stumble out of reception and you’re practically on your ship!

I was so excited that I found it hard to sleep but eventually drifted off.

I woke early and headed to the hotel roof just in time to see the Queen Elizabeth dock at the OPT. I thought I’d let Lee sleep in, so I headed out to take a few photos of the ship and the sights around Circular Quay. I then returned to the room, showered and changed, before we checked out and went for a light breakfast.

Welcome back bubbles

Our boarding time was soon upon us, and we headed for the terminal. Lee seemed a bit confused when I headed for the priority boarding line (I hadn’t told her we were staying in a suite!), and we were on board within minutes. Our first stop was the Princess Grills restaurant, where we met our maître d’, advised them of Lee’s dietary requirements (vegetarian), and discovered our allocated dining table.

Afterwards, we wandered around to reacquaint ourselves with the ship, grabbed a drink, and enjoyed the sunshine up on deck. At 5pm, we headed to the restaurant for our first taste of Princess Grills luxury dining (missing sail-away).

That night, we headed to the Garden Lounge for trivia, where we met two lovely couples—Cora and Bruce, and Jill and Dave—whom we would meet up with regularly over the course of the voyage.

Dressed to the nines on Gala Night

After two fabulous and relaxing sea days, and our first Gala-Night of the cruise (I had the Beef Wellington before it fell out of favour, thanks Erin), we woke to the beautiful sight of Airlie Beach—an absolute tropical paradise located in the Whitsundays. Being January and the height of summer, it was incredibly hot. After allaying Lee’s seasickness concerns, we caught a (very smooth) tender into town. Airlie Beach truly fits the description of paradise, with its stunning natural beauty, though the heat was intense (thank goodness for the freezer section at the local Woolworths!). We found a local masseuse for some much-needed deep tissue massage/torture, then headed back to the ship.

The next day, we stopped in Townsville—the first cruise ship to visit the port. Lee was feeling unwell, so I ventured into town alone, explored the city centre, and toured the Queensland Museum Tropics. The main attractions were the HMS Pandora and the Sea and Reefs exhibits—both of which were fascinating.

We were due to visit Port Douglas the following day, but sadly the stop was cancelled. No one could tell us why, so rumours spread and everyone had a theory: “They’re saving on fuel,” “The weather was bad,” “They couldn’t organise tenders.” I guess we’ll never know for sure. As disappointing as it was, we visit Port Douglas quite often, so it wasn’t a huge loss for us.

We had an overnight stop in Cairns. Lee was still under the weather, so I ventured into town on my own and visited the Cairns Aquarium—highly recommended, I might add.

The Gorgeous Airlie Beach

After departing Cairns, we were in the Garden Lounge enjoying a trivia session with our new cruise mates when the weather suddenly turned foul. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by the sound of plates and other items smashing as we hit a violent squall and developed what felt like a significant list. After what felt like a couple of minutes, the captain came over the PA system (short of breath, I might add) to say that everything was under control and that we had listed five degrees (it felt like more to me!). With the bad weather behind us, we headed for a lazy sea day sail-by at Willis Island before setting course for Brisbane.

Returning to Queen Elizabeth via a Tender

We encountered some pretty rough seas, and because Lee was still unwell, she threatened to disembark in Brisbane and fly home. Luckily, the seas improved and she felt almost human again by the time we departed for Sydney. The 12-night trip was nearly over—we had one sea day left. Lee was well and truly on the mend and joined us for bingo, where she was lucky enough to score a win! Sadly, she had to share it with someone who called “Bingo!” about two minutes later. First come, first served in my book!

The next morning, we docked in Sydney. Having never disembarked there before (it was only our second cruise), I had no idea how long to allow to get to the airport from Circular Quay, so I booked a 4pm flight. We arrived at the airport by 10am, so had an extremely long wait before our flight.

Overall, I loved our second voyage on the Queen Elizabeth and was quite sad that Cunard would no longer be sailing from Australia. So, I started looking for alternatives and found a four-day cruise out of Melbourne (handy!) on Crown Princess in October.

Our cruising journey is just beginning….