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Cunard's 2016 programme offers more overnights and longer stays in port

Cunard's 2016 programme offers more overnights and longer stays in port
Cunard announced its May to December 2016 cruise programme which sees the the three ship fleet travelling over 205,000 nautical miles.

Between them Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth will call at 100 destinations in 34 different countries, including five maiden calls: Gaspe (Canada), Genoa (Italy), Pointe-a-Pitre (Guadeloupe), Saguenay (Canada) and Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides.

Programme highlights include ten overnight calls in: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Istanbul, Madeira, Geiranger, Quebec, Reykjavik, Boston, St Petersburg and Venice as well as 14 evenings in port (ship departs 2100 hours or later) in Barcelona, Bergen, Dubrovnik, Invergordon, Kotor, Kusadasi, Madeira, Monte Carlo, Mykonos, Istanbul, Tenerife, Trieste and Valencia.

Queen Victoria will operate Mediterranean fly cruises from July to November from four different embarkation ports - Rome, Venice, Athens, and Barcelona.

The 2016 Mediterranean fly programme provides an opportunity for passengers to attend the Arena di Verona Opera festival where large-scale opera evening performances are given in Verona’s Roman amphitheatre, which was capable of holding 30,000 spectators.

There are three opportunities where an overnight stay in Venice will allow passengers to take an evening tour to Verona.

All Cunard cruises in 2016 have a sea day on the first day of the voyage; the majority of the cruises also have a sea day on the day before disembarkation Angus Struthers, Cunard director, said, ‘Research has shown that it is important to strike the right balance between port days and sea days on any cruise.’

Queen Mary 2 will make 19 Atlantic crossings between Southampton and New York or vice versa, from May to December 2016, split into three main voyage types: 
 crossings of seven or eight nights duration and eight-nights including a call at Halifax.

In 2016, Queen Victoria will be operating a pair of transatlantic crossings for the first time. These voyages will have a duration of nine-nights and each will feature either Halifax or Cobh as an additional port of call.

Queen Elizabeth will operate regular ex-UK voyages while Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2 offers selected departures during the year.

In total there will be 28 round trip Southampton cruises offered by all three ships.