The 249th ship, and the newest ideas afloat
At 113,000 tons and 2,996 guests, Queen Anne is the newest ship in the fleet and, after Queen Mary 2, the largest — the 249th to fly the Cunard flag, delivered from Fincantieri and entered into service in 2024. She is the ship where the line got to start from a blank page while keeping everything that makes a Cunard voyage a Cunard voyage. The Queens Room ballroom, the Royal Court Theatre, the Golden Lion pub, the Britannia and Grill Suites dining rooms, White Star Service and Cunard Insights — all present, all correct. What is new is everything around them: brighter rooms, a bolder palette, and the widest wellness and entertainment footprint Cunard has ever built.
I have not sailed her — my own Cunard hours are on Queen Mary 2, the Atlantic crossing I make with my husband Chase. But I know because I go, and if I have not been aboard a ship, I know the people who have. She launched into a chorus of advisor and press reports, and the ones I trust — colleagues in my consortium, my Cunard business development contact — describe the same ship: unmistakably Cunard, and the most modern way into the line for a guest who wants classic bones without a dated interior.
Wellness, the Bright Lights Society, and the Grand Lobby
Three things set her apart from her sisters. The first is wellness: Queen Anne carries the fleet's largest such footprint, anchored by the Mareel Wellness & Beauty spa and a dedicated Pavilion Wellness Studio for movement and classes — a real answer for the guest who wants to keep a routine at sea. The second is the Bright Lights Society, an intimate late-night show bar built for cabaret and live performance, a genuinely new note in the Cunard evening. The third is the Grand Lobby, rebuilt around a soaring commissioned artwork that turns the ship's social crossroads into its signature room. Add pickleball, the Panorama Pool, and the aft Tramonto terrace for sunset, and you have the broadest menu of ways to spend a sea day in the fleet.
Where she sails, and who she is for
Queen Anne works the line's marquee seasons — Mediterranean and Northern Europe summers, British Isles sailings, Canary Islands and transatlantic repositioning, and her early world-voyage segments. I match her to first-time Cunarders who want the classic experience without an older ship's patina; to active couples who care about a real gym, a spa, and room to move; and to multi-generational groups who need the range — a Grill Suite for one cabin, a balcony for another, a kids' and teens' offering, and enough aboard that nobody is bored on a sea day. If you want the crossing, that is Queen Mary 2; if you want the intimate week, Queen Victoria; the long world arc, Queen Elizabeth. Queen Anne is the one for the traveler who wants the newest ship in the fleet doing the most.
