Cruising with Cunard

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How many luxury cruise lines can boast 185 years of sailing? Very few. How many can claim a rich and varied history, starting with running the mail between the North American continent and the UK? Only Cunard. They have sailed over 249 ships throughout their 185 years and currently boast a small fleet of four vessels: The Queen Victoria, Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth, and, their latest addition, the Queen Anne. In our interview with Cindy Woloshyn from Cunard on our Passport Diaries podcast, we talk about Cunard’s history, how the company has adapted and modernized over years as traveler tastes and the cruising industry has evolved, some of Cindy’s favorite itineraries (including Alaska and the Eastern Caribbean), and even what it’s like to do a World Voyage to all seven continents.

Here’s a peek into our conversation:

Cunard’s 185 Year History

CINDY WOLOSHYN
“We started 185 years ago in Halifax by Samuel Cunard. There is a very big maritime history over there – they’ve got a museum and everything to him – and over the years we’ve had 249 different ships. At this time, we have four (we never have a big fleet, but we do switch our fleet up) and Cunard started by running the mail between North America and over to the UK, to South Hampton. And then over the years, so many of our ancestors have come over from Europe to North America, and so we’ve got a very big history of bringing many of our citizens over. It’s so interesting to me – I’ll be at a consumer event and I’ll have a lot of people come up to me and be like, “My great grandmother came over on a Cunard ship” and they’ll show me stuff and it’s just amazing to see the pictures or the old tickets that they had. It is really incredible.

Then, of course during the war, it was actually the Grey Ghost. It took soldiers back and forth during the war years. So we’ve had a great history. There is an amazing history of Cunard and it’s something that really amazes me… we have all this heritage and all this tradition, but yet we like to modernize it and still offer a modern experience but keep that history. That’s important to us.”

TRAVELSTORE
Is Cunard doing anything in particular this year to celebrate 185 years?

CINDY WOLOSHYN
“We are! We’re having some amazing theme cruises throughout this year to celebrate 185 years, and we’re doing a big 185 Year Transatlantic Crossing that will be super special this summer.”

Transatlantic Crossings

TRAVELSTORE
Have you personally experienced a Transatlantic crossing? If so, what is it like?

CINDY WOLOSHYN
“When I first got hired 12 years ago, my head office said, “OK we need you to experience what we sell, so take on the Transatlantic Crossing on the Queen Mary 2.” That was my husband’s first cruise! He had never cruised a day before that, and to this day that’s still his favorite cruise that he’s ever done – and he’s done now, like 27 cruises in the last 12 years! It is very, very special, and we had one of the roughest sailings that the captain had seen in many years, but nothing stopped! We were still dancing, we were still going to the spa, we were still doing fencing lessons, we were still watching Broadway shows. Nothing stopped. It was amazing. Incredible experience.”

TRAVELSTORE
What else is there to do on a Transatlantic Crossing? Because there are a lot of sea days!

CINDY WOLOSHYN
“We do have a list of 101 Things To Do on a Transatlantic Crossing. It’s a fun list to try to see how many you can get done. My husband and I only got 49 done, so we still need to go back and do more. We have amazing spa with hydrotherapy pools and saunas, or we have a two-story library that has over 10,000 books. On the Queen Mary 2 we do have a 3D Illuminations Theater where we play four shows a week. And that’s a very special experience for we are the only one at sea that has that. We do fencing lessons, painting classes, dancing lessons…we do afternoon teas. We have guest speakers come on board from different areas of life. Sometimes they’re actors or actresses, sometimes they’re singers, or they [could be] an astronaut or a historian, and they’ll come and share their stories with you. You can really be as busy as you want or as much as you want to relax, because you are at sea for seven days when sailing the Transatlantic crossing.”

The North American Queen & The Caribbean

TRAVELSTORE
We hear you have some exciting news to share about new itineraries coming up!

CINDY WOLOSHYN
“Starting in May 2025, Queen Elizabeth is going to be sailing from the West Coast and the East Coast all season long. We’ve never had a ship North America based! She’s going to do 7, 10, and 11-night cruises to Alaska round-trip out of Seattle until about end of September. At the end of September, she’s going to do a 21-day or a 19-day Panama Canal itinerary where it’s going to go 21 days from Seattle through to Miami, or 19 days from San Francisco around through to Miami. For the first time ever, we’re going to be based out of Miami! We’re going to visit some amazing Caribbean islands. The 9-day is a western Caribbean itinerary. The 12-day is an eastern Caribbean. (I like to say it’s East, but it has a toe in the South, because it hits places like Barbados and Tortola – places that you don’t usually get in the east Caribbean.) That’s my favorite – I’ve already got myself booked for next January! I love that itinerary, so I’m super excited. Then in April of 2026, Queen Elizabeth goes back through the Panama Canal back to Seattle and then we’ll be doing Alaska all summer of 2026.

Dressing to the Nines: Gala Nights

TRAVELSTORE
Gala Nights are very iconic of Cunard – tell me about what it’s like to dress-to-the-nines aboard a Cunard ship.

CINDY WOLOSHYN
“Our Gala Nights are very, very special to us. We love celebrating. For us, we want to have New Year’s Eve throughout the year! I don’t feel like we celebrate enough. You know what? The grass is green, it’s a Thursday, and I’m walking – I think we should celebrate. And so for us our gala nights are a celebration.

I will say about 85% of our guests go for the gala night. They want to make it special and they love the Broadway show, the dancing, and the orchestra afterwards. You can wear your tuxedos and your ball gowns and we definitely have guests that go right to the max with it. It’s really up to the guests. We have said, you know, for gentlemen a nice suit and tie and for ladies a nice cocktail dress is perfect.

We do have some guests who don’t want to do the tuxedo and gown; maybe it’s been a long day on a shore excursion and they’re exhausted, so they want a casual evening. We have casual opportunities for our guests as well. They can enjoy casual dining at the Golden Lions pub and the Corinthia Lounge has tapas, so there are casual experiences as well.
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Check out our full conversation with Cindy on our YouTube channel or anywhere you get your podcasts to hear more about the Alaska itinerary, World Voyages, her favorite restaurants about the ships, and more!

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