Cunard Queen Anne World Voyage: 107 Nights, 30 Ports, 19 Countries

We boarded Queen Anne in Southampton for her inaugural World Voyage, 30 ports across 19 countries over 107 nights, and set sail into a rough winter Atlantic crossing that cost us a day in New York, cut from two to one. We made the most of it anyway, walking four miles across the city for Japanese BBQ before pushing on to Miami, then Cartagena, Colombia, for a brief few hours ashore.

The Panama Canal was one of the voyage's genuine bucket-list moments, watching the locks raise Queen Anne toward Gatun Lake and out into the Pacific. From there, Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala brought a trip to the UNESCO site of Antigua, followed by Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, our first experience of tendering ashore. San Francisco gave us a rare two full days, Alcatraz on day one, Fisherman's Wharf and clam chowder in the rain on day two. Our final stop in the Americas was Hawaii, two days that closed with Kualoa Ranch, the filming location for Jurassic World and, more importantly Lee, Lost.

Six days at sea crossing the Pacific brought us over the international date line and the equator before our first stop in the Southern Hemisphere, Apia in Samoa, followed by Tonga, one of the hardest places in the world for tourists to get permission to visit at all.

New Zealand followed, two days in Auckland including a full day at WETA Workshop, then Tauranga, which we genuinely considered as somewhere we could live, and a quiet stop in Paihia. Sydney gave us two unforgettable days, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House lit up at night, before Cyclone Alfred forced Cunard to cancel our call into Brisbane entirely and reroute us up the coast. The Great Barrier Reef followed, jet skis at Airlie Beach and the Kuranda Scenic Railway through the rainforest near Yorkey's Knob.

Partway through this leg, fellow World Voyage passengers Alan and Alison got married on board, the first wedding of Queen Anne's inaugural voyage, conducted by the Captain, and we were honoured to be asked to witness and sign the register. Our final stop in this leg was Darwin, extended to an overnight after the missed Brisbane call, a relaxed couple of days including the underground WWII Tunnel Museum.

Leaving Australia, Queen Anne passed through the Sulu-Celebes Sea, an area with a history of piracy, under heightened security, water cannons ready and spotter boats watching, though the passage itself was uneventful. Manila followed, a hit list built around MOS Burger and a long walk to the Conrad Hotel for massages, then Hong Kong, one of the genuine highlights of the voyage.

In Hong Kong, ShangTing's mum flew in from Taipei to join us for two days, and Queen Anne was granted rare special permission to sail directly out through the harbour that evening. From there, Vietnam brought a trip into Ho Chi Minh City with fellow passengers Alan and Alison, egg coffee, and a genuinely sobering visit to the War Remnants Museum. Singapore gave us two days, from the underground malls and Gardens by the Bay's light show to Chinatown and Hainanese chicken rice the following morning.

Not long after Singapore, illness finally caught up with us, several days confined to the stateroom recovering. Once back on our feet, Port Klang in Malaysia was a quieter stop, a shuttle to a nearby mall while still regaining strength, followed by Penang, one of the best food stops of the entire voyage at Two Frenchies, and a stroll through George Town's old streets and jetties.

The original itinerary for this leg was very different, a route through Colombo, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat, and Egypt via the Suez Canal. Cunard redrew the whole route to avoid the Red Sea, now considered too dangerous to transit, and the new itinerary took us instead through Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia, and Senegal.

Mauritius brought a day at C Beach Club, cloudy but still a proper beach day. Then came the leg's real difficulties. A South African visa complication, tied specifically to a Taiwanese passport, meant an overnight stop in Durban was lost entirely, and in Cape Town only one of us was able to go ashore, a walk along the V&A Waterfront and an unexpected, nostalgic stop at a Wimpy. Namibia brought a similar visa problem, with Taiwan not even listed as an option in the online system, keeping us on board once again. Senegal was different, a shared decision this time, having missed the Yellow Fever vaccination required to go ashore safely, and after seeing other passengers returning early with reports of an unwelcoming atmosphere, we chose to stay close to the ship rather than risk it.

Three difficult stops in a row, but Queen Anne brought us back to good spirits with an Easter celebration on board before we turned back toward Europe. Our final port of call was Tenerife, a proper last day ashore, the Pyramids of Güímar, a local market in Santa Cruz, and Iberico pork for dinner.

Our final days on board were genuinely emotional. We tried the two specialty restaurants we hadn't yet visited, Aranya for Indian food and Tramonto for Mediterranean, and returned once more to Aji-wa, the restaurant that had become our favourite on the whole ship. One of the loveliest surprises of the final stretch was the Queen Anne Passenger Film Festival, fellow guests presenting films they had made and edited themselves during the voyage, some documenting their own version of this same journey.

As we approached Southampton, we were joined by Queen Mary 2, the ship where our own cruising story began. 107 nights, 30 ports, 19 countries, Queen Anne's maiden World Voyage and ours, together.