“Well, it’s hard to believe that spring has sprung and we have already made it through a successful first quarter of 2025! It’s great to see that we are on track to achieve our goals this year – the first quarter is so important (and very hard work) from a sales and marketing perspective to ensure that happens..” – Katie McAlister, Cunard President
Along with the trading performance it’s also been a time where we work on our more strategic projects and it’s exciting to see the progress we are making with communicating the Cunard difference, getting ready for our longer deployment in the US and the work we are doing to reshape and reposition our Grills experience.
Of course, it’s always busy at sea but this quarter we had two of our Cunard Queens undertake world voyages; Queen Victoria is already back from her South American circumnavigation, with a great NPS score, and Queen Anne is on the homeward leg of her maiden round world voyage.
With Captain Inger for Queen Anne’s maiden NYC call
I was lucky enough to catch up with the Queen Anne team right at the start of their journey after a bumpy transatlantic crossing in January and then again in Miami.
As part of our growth strategy for North America, our aim was to get as many travel agents and journalists on board as possible and really maximise the time we had in port to make sure people really understand Cunard and the fantastic product that we have on board. The team did a fantastic job of hosting the events and it was great to see the ship so busy and the team so proud to show her off.
I was also fortunate to catch up with Queen Anne again in Hong Kong to join the gala dinner that we host for all our full world voyage guests. Being the maiden voyage, we have a very high number of full world voyage guests, almost 1,200, but we managed to organise a venue and entertainment that was special and felt very fitting for the occasion, and our guests loved the evening.
It was so nice to spend time chatting with our guests, most of whom are our most travelled guests – the ‘Cunarders’ and real afficionados of the brand. It was great to hear from many of them that from their experience spending time onboard our newest Queen, she is becoming their favourite ship in the Cunard fleet!
Whilst in Hong Kong I was also able to get on board the lovely Queen Elizabeth, fresh from her refit and admire her very stylish make-over. She really does look fabulous, the Queens room is really transformed and her outdoor spaces inspired by Queen Anne are perfect for Caribbean sunbathing and Alaska glacier gazing.
It was so good to spend time with the team on board too, they are usually so far away, and it was great to check-in and see their enthusiasm for the upcoming Japan season and then Alaska.
I also got to meet Queen Elizabeth’s ‘Star of the Month’, this is an award whereby crew members are commended by their colleagues for delivering an outstanding White Star Service and for bringing to life our Culture Essentials, so I felt very lucky to capture this photo with Suriana Pasaribu, Dining Stewardess. Congratulations, Suriana!
Last, but not least, it was fantastic to see Team Cunard recognised at the King’s Trust Million Makers Awards this month. Our amazing team did a brilliant job raising an impressive £51,144 for The King’s Trust and received a special commend at the awards ceremony – which was so well deserved.
There’s lots to look forward to over the next few months, as we celebrate our 185th Birthday, with events for guests on each of our Queens, crew celebrations, something for our colleagues in Southampton and our international offices, and a very special event in Liverpool.
It will also be the time where we start to see our beautiful new advertising and move into our new look and feel ahead of revealing our new Grills proposition.
As a 185-year-old business, modernising and staying relevant is something that we have been doing forever but it feels great that in our 185th year we can talk about the new evolution in Cunard luxury and demonstrate how we are evolving our luxury credentials.