Even Queens need to freshen up from time to time and Cunard’s flagship Queen Mary 2 is no exception in this regard. She will visit the dry dock in November 2011 to undergo unspecified upgrades. Originally this was supposed to take three weeks, but a few weeks ago Cunard announced it would take only 13 days. This has now been further slashed to seven days.

The time gained with the shorter sojourn in the dry dock will be put to good use: QE2 will now be able to fit in an unscheduled four-night cruise at the beginning of December.

She will leave Southampton on the 8th December and visit Zeebrugge in Belgium and Le Havre in France to give passengers the opportunity to do some European Christmas shopping. The award-winning four-tenor singing group Blake will provide entertainment during the trip.

With fares starting at only £599, the cruise is undoubtedly aimed at those who want to test the waters of cruising before venturing into a longer cruise.

Cunard has not divulged exactly what upgrades Queen Mary will undergo yet. They are in fact quite secretive about the whole affair and refused to say more than: "All the cabins and most of the public rooms on the ship will be refurbished."

Rumours are doing the rounds that the under-utilized Winter Garden will receive a makeover and possibly be converted into a coffee bar. This will allow Sir Samuels to be used for what it was intended in the first place: a wine bar. We will just have to wait and see what Cunard really has up its sleeve.