Queen Anne - Spain & Portugal from Southampton
Cunard's newest ship, Queen Anne, sails a 14-night round-trip from Southampton down the Iberian coast, pairing Lisbon and the Balearics with the Andalusian ports of Malaga and Cadiz.
Price Range
$
Budget
*Prices vary by cabin type, sailing date, and availability. Confirm rates with Cunard before booking.
Ship Details — Queen Anne
View full Queen Anne details
Year Built
2024
Tonnage
113,000 GT
Passengers
2,996
Crew
1,225
Decks
14
Class
Halifax
Itinerary & Route Map
Loading map…
Where this cruise calls, day by day
8 ports and 7 sea days over 14 Nights.
- Day 1Southampton port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Southampton
United KingdomDepart Day 2 · At sea
Day 3 · At sea
- Day 4
Lisbon
PortugalPortShips come in under the Ponte 25 de Abril and tie up alongside the Tagus with the city climbing the hills in front of you, which makes this one of the better arrivals in Europe. Lisbon spreads across seven hills, so a port day means trams, funiculars and a lot of stairs. The monastery and tower at Belem are a separate district downriver and need their own leg of the day.
- Jeronimos Monastery and Belem Tower, plus a pastel de nata at Pasteis de Belem
- Sao Jorge Castle and the Alfama lanes below it
- Tram 28 through Graca, Alfama and Estrela
- A half-day to Sintra and the Pena Palace, about 40 minutes out
- Getting ashore
- Most ships berth at the Lisbon Cruise Terminal at Santa Apolonia, close enough to walk into Alfama in about ten minutes.
- Best months
- Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct
Day 5 · At sea
Day 6 · At sea
- Day 7Palma de Mallorca port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Palma de Mallorca
SpainPort - Day 8Barcelona port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Barcelona
SpainPort Day 9 · At sea
- Day 10
Cartagena
SpainPortA naval city on a deep natural harbour, and one of the rare Mediterranean ports where the ship parks essentially in the historic centre. Cartagena's Roman theatre was only rediscovered in 1988 under a demolished quarter, and its excavation reshaped the whole downtown. Two thousand years of layers, from Carthaginian walls to modernista shopfronts, sit within a few blocks of the quay.
- The Roman Theatre and its Rafael Moneo-designed museum entrance
- ARQUA, the national museum of underwater archaeology
- Castillo de la Concepcion, reached by the panoramic lift
- The modernista buildings along Calle Mayor and the Punic Wall site
- Getting ashore
- Ships berth at the Alfonso XII quay right beside the old town - a five-minute walk off the gangway.
- Best months
- Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct
- Day 11
Malaga
SpainPortThe main gateway to the Costa del Sol, but the city itself has quietly become an art destination - Picasso was born here and there are now several serious museums within walking distance of each other. A Moorish fortress and the castle above it dominate the centre, and the remodelled port district puts shops and restaurants right where you disembark. Granada and Ronda are both feasible as full-day trips.
- The Alcazaba fortress and the Gibralfaro castle walk above it
- Museo Picasso Malaga in the Buenavista palace
- The cathedral, known locally as La Manquita for its unfinished second tower
- A day trip to the Alhambra in Granada, roughly 1.5 hours inland
- Getting ashore
- Most ships use the Levante quay by Muelle Uno, a 15-20 minute waterfront walk into the centre; larger ships at Muelle 2 rely on a shuttle.
- Best months
- Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct
- Day 12Cadiz port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Cadiz
SpainPort Day 13 · At sea
Day 14 · At sea
- Day 15Southampton port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Southampton
United KingdomArrive
What to know about this sailing
Drawn from 8 traveler threads about Queen Anne out of Southampton, none on this exact itinerary, 39 about Iberian routes on other ships, the route data and the port notes above (18 Queen Anne threads exist overall).
Half of this fortnight is spent at sea, and that is the design rather than a flaw: seven sea days, including the two-day Bay of Biscay crossing in each direction, buy six Iberian and Balearic ports without a flight. The order is a deep-then-back pattern. Lisbon comes first on day four, then two more sea days round Gibraltar to Palma and Barcelona at the far end, after which the ship works westward through Cartagena, Malaga and Cadiz before the two-day run home, so the Mediterranean ports arrive as a block in the middle week and the last three calls are the Andalusian ones. Queen Anne's own maiden voyage from Southampton in May 2024 went to Lisbon, so the opening leg is the one she has run since her first week. The route threads are consistent that these ports mostly sit inside their cities, Seville and Granada being the day-trips from Cadiz and Malaga rather than places the ship reaches, and that mid-September is a good month here: warm and sunny but past peak season, with one poster recalling a heat wave in Palma.
Queen Anne threads are few and none are from this itinerary, so the ship-on-route picture comes from her other Southampton round-trips. An August 2025 review of the two-week Iceland loop found embarkation and disembarkation well run at Southampton and the ID-card payment system slow; a poster who spent a hundred nights aboard in her first year said the extra specialty restaurants kept the food from repeating over long stretches, which matters more on a fortnight than a week. A 2024 reply warned against booking any new ship in its first season; she is now into her third. The one comparison worth making is price. Sky Princess runs a twelve-night Canaries and Madeira loop from the same port with Lisbon in common at a fraction of this fare, and Celebrity Apex's eleven-night Canaries and Portugal is higher; neither goes into the Mediterranean, so Queen Anne is the only way in this catalog to reach Barcelona and Palma from Southampton without flying. This suits sea-day people who want Cunard's formality and a no-airport holiday to Andalusia; it does not suit port-a-day travelers, who get six calls in fourteen nights, and the toddler threads on Cunard, including one weighing Queen Anne against Apex, agree the line runs a night nursery but little else for small children.
Questions about this sailing
Is September a good time for a Spain and Portugal cruise from Southampton?
Yes, by the route threads' account. A January 2025 poster weighing a mid-September Southampton itinerary with the same Lisbon, Cadiz, Malaga, Palma and Barcelona calls was told the month is normally sunny and warm without peak-summer crowds, though one reply remembered a heat wave in Palma at that time of year. The same thread's advice was that the Spanish and Portuguese berths are within their cities, with Seville and Granada as the long transfers.
Where can I store luggage in Southampton between two Cunard cruises?
Cunard told a 2025 poster it cannot transfer bags between Queen Mary 2 and Queen Anne, even with both sailing from Southampton a week apart. Replies suggested asking Cunard again about its luggage-delivery service and pointed to a Stasher luggage-storage point at the Marlands Shopping Centre in the city centre as the practical option for leaving half the bags while touring England in between.
Onboard Amenities
Cruise Highlights
About the Ship
What Travelers Say About Queen Anne
Reviews of the ship itself — the same for every Queen Anne sailing. Distilled from 21 traveler threads, passenger reviews and travel blogs.
Queen Anne is Cunard's first new ship in 14 years, debuting in May 2024, and easily its most modern - widely judged the line's most beautiful new build since Queen Mary 2. The roughly 3,000-guest vessel keeps Cunard's British ocean-liner DNA of formal nights, afternoon tea, ballroom dancing, and a dress-up crowd, but wraps it in a light, contemporary, art-deco-tinged interior rather than the heavier traditional look of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. The vibe is refined and grown-up, skewing toward older, affluent, heavily British travelers, yet reviewers also pitch it as the friendliest Cunard ship for first-timers.
What People Love
- Stunning modern design widely called Cunard's most beautiful new ship since Queen Mary 2, with a double-height Britannia Restaurant and dramatic Queens Room ballroom
- Retractable-roof Pavilion Pool (magrodome) is rare on Cunard and usable in any weather
- Expanded Mareel Wellness & Beauty spa with thermal suite, heated loungers, experiential showers, and a salt sauna
Common Complaints
- Inconsistent, sometimes thin service is the most common first-year complaint, with crew described as undertrained relative to Cunard's famed White Star standard
- Feels crowded for its size - it carries notably more passengers than Queen Elizabeth without a proportional increase in space, causing food-hall congestion
- Popular shows (such as the Noir murder mystery and Bright Lights Society) sell out almost instantly
More Europe Cruises
View all Europe cruisesViking River Cruises
Viking Longship - Rhine River Journey
Celebrity Cruises
Celebrity Apex - Canaries & Portugal from Southampton
Regent Seven Seas
Regent Seven Seas Explorer - Northern Europe
Princess Cruises
Sky Princess - Canary Islands & Madeira from Southampton