Here we go - again!!

After our "World Cruise" on P&O Oriana and Arcadia - Brisbane to Brisbane - 12 months ago and our month long cruise to Tahiti via a number of South Pacific Islands on P&O Pacific Pearl in July, we weren't expecting to do any more cruising for quite some time. My son has moved to Germany for his work - so plans were in place for a relatively inexpensive and short visit to him. But sometimes things just "pop up" and they are too good to resist. In this case, it was a package of 3 cruises - one after the other - on Cunard's Queen Victoria (to Baltic/Scandinavian/Russian ports), Queen Elizabeth (to western Mediterranean ports) and Queen Mary 2 (to Western European lowland countries ports). These three cruises all tie together with a meeting of the 3 "Queens" in Southampton Harbour on 5th June 2012 to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth 2. This will be only the second time that these 3 Queens have been together- the first being in New York Harbour.

This trip (still over 6 months away) will kill a number of birds with one stone for us. Firstly, the opportunity to experience all three of these Cunard ships, secondly to visit the Baltic/Scandinavian ports (including St Petersburg, Russia for a 2 day stopover), thirdly to see a little of Europe from the Mediterranean ( we cruised straight past Gibraltar last time - how frustrating was that!!!)  and finally to ride on some of these super high speed trains on the European continent and through the Channel tunnel- all things that have been on our "bucket list". It will also mean that we get to have a tryout of the new (to us) Airbus A380-800, about which I have heard great things.

 Off we go to London via Singapore Airlines A380-800

Queen Victoria - to Kristiansand Norway, Oslo Norway, Copenhagen Denmark, Stockholm Sweden, Helsinki Finland,  St. Petersburg Russia, Tallinn Estonia, Zeebrugge Belgium (for Bruges)

Queen Elizabeth - to Gibraltar, Costa Smerelda Sardinia, Civitavecchia Italy (for Rome), Livorno Italy (for Florence/Pisa, Monte Carlo Monaco, Barcelona Spain 

Queen Mary 2 - to Rotterdam Netherlands (for Amsterdam), Zeebrugge Belgium (for Brussels), Le Havre France (for Paris) 

         Last but not least - the Eurostar and the French TGV high speed trains to Germany

Once we are in Germany, I am sure we will get to ride on the German ICE trains.

Deposit has been paid - research for the various ports done. All we have to do now is to wait for the next 6 months to pass. After our experience of waiting for 6 months for our planned (but aborted) 6 week driving tour of the UK in early 2010 and then waiting for another 6 months for the World Cruise in late 2010, I said I would never book that far ahead ever again - but here we are!!