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Live from QM2 - Dec 22, 2018 - Caribbean Celebration

cougaraz

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cougaraz

cougaraz

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Friday 28 December, at anchor, St. Lucia

Following our delicious nap yesterday afternoon, we dressed for dinner and proceeded, for the first time, to the Commodore Club for our before dinner drinks.  Whilst we had been in the physical room on both this and our previous voyage, I am quite certain that this was the first time we had sat down to enjoy a cocktail.  The atmosphere was very pleasant, with the shades still open as we had a very late sailing from Barbados.  Our waiter Orlando, was attentive and informative and we navigated a new menu of cocktail selections for the first time.  Melissa opted for a cocktail tilted an All Consuming Passion, a tribute to a former commodore’s deep passion for Liverpool football. Melissa shares no love of Liverpool football but selected the drink because of her consuming love of cruising. Overall, she found it to be delicious judging by the fact that she practically licked the empty martini glass once it was empty.  Myself, I went with the Queens Negroni and found that the balanced bitter flavors of the grapefruit and the gin played very nicely off of each other.  We had some cold appetizers and a few bites of cracker and olives while we enjoyed the atmosphere and a surprise of live harp music.  The harp, we were pleased to note, even had a Santa cap on it.  By the time we left for dinner at 830, the bar was quite full and had a very festive atmosphere. 

Speaking of 830, we have found that late seating dinner suits our plans and desires for this trip very well.  It frees up our afternoons for a nap followed by dressing and then a drink before dinner if we so desire.  The Britannia Dining Room is busy at late seating, but there are clearly a sprinkling of seats that are not taken on any given evening.  However, we are finding that as this cruise progresses, and we have multiple port visits in a row, the dining room is starting to become a lot less full!  For us, our table of six has maintained two empty chairs throughout the journey.  At this point, I am quite certain that no one is coming to join us. 

Speaking of joining us, we were expecting not to have table companions last night as our friends had said they would be dining in the buffet.  However, we were pleasantly surprised that they changed their mind and came just a few minutes after 830 to sit with us and eat!  They are so much fun and really do make the evening entertaining. 

As we have come to expect, our meal was once again quite the feast and we enjoyed it immensely.  Melissa was driving on the wine list last night and opted for a bottle of Chianti that was more delicious than its modest price might have indicated it would be.  As for menu selections, no surprise that my dear wife chose to have the salad featuring beets and goat cheese.  Across our entire relationship Melissa has been reliable in her steadfast love for beets in all their many forms.  I opted to start with the salt beef and horseradish hash, followed by the cold vegetable noodle salad.  My personal dining preferences are solidly omnivorous with a strong lean toward the carnivorous, but the few vegetarian dishes I have tried thus far have been very well executed and the menus consistently offers multiple options for every possible taste.  In another affirmation of her long-held food preferences, Melissa opted for the roasted butternut squash salad, which was more spinach than squash but that didn’t faze Melissa from inhaling it.

For her main, Melissa had the seafood pasta, which our waiter relayed had been so popular in the first seating that they had run out.  This pleased me in two ways, first that they had an excellent menu item on offer and second that they had not allowed the first seating to eat all of an item thus leaving the second seating without that option.  It was a large bowl of long pasta, mixed with a variety of seafood in a savory red sauce.  My main was the duck confit with some beans and mash.  Across the board, the plates were pretty clean by the time they were cleared.  Our usual coffee after the meal accompanied a selection of ice creams (dulce la leche, mango and peach) for Melissa while I opted for the warm apple and apricot tart.  The entertainers for the planned show last night apparently lost some of their equipment while traveling to the ship. Therefore, we opted to skip the replacement show of a classical guitarist and go to bed.

Before retiring, we placed our room service menu selections on the door along with a note asking that is be delivered as close to 7AM as possible.  The 7 to 7:30 window was moderately problematic for us as our show time for our excursion was 7:45 in the Kings Court Theater.  However, at 6:58 our tray of food arrived and we tucked in.  This was our third round of room service breakfast and Melissa has bridged the cultural divide of the Atlantic with a consistent choice of Weetabix for her cereal.  Weetabix is actually one of the first foreign staple foods that I learned about when my parents took me to the UK for the first time in the sixth grade.  My parents taught me to be a good eater, who had to try something before I could say that I didn’t like it.  They also taught me that when traveling, you should seek out something local or different to try as it gives texture and depth to your sojourn wherever you are.  As an adult, I have sometimes substituted the local libation in place of cuisine, but the lesson remains.  Overall, I owe my parents a great deal for the travel lessons they taught me: the research and planning are a huge part of the fun, the plan always goes wrong so don’t sweat it, try new things, carry what you pack and enjoy the little things you learn and see. 

Anyway, life lessons aside, we arrived on time in the theater and barely sat down before we were on our way to the tender.  Tendering remains ponderous which is partially inherent and unable to be improved and partially because the crew provides precious little direction and organization.  Assuming that the purpose of the tendering system is to safely move passengers to and from the shore in the shortest time possible, thus allowing more time for adventures, a more directive and planned system should be implemented.  Between a video on the TV and onboard direction, a loading system of moving people to the opposite ends of the vessel first and then filling toward the middle, with the reverse for departure would expedite the process dramatically.  A large portion of the back up is indecision, unfamiliarity and general friction in the loading and unloading of the tenders.  Still, the ride into the port was short and passed by three smaller cruise ships, one each from Royal Caribbean, Seabourn and SilverSea. 

Once on the pier, we had just a few feet to walk from the tender pier to queue up for our cruise to the Pitons (even still, we were a touched dismayed to hear a few of our fellow passengers complain about the length of the walk).  Our boat for the day was the Carnival Two, a large catamaran that pulled up right next to the tender pier.  The overall laydown of the excursion was a cruise to two distinct volcanic formations, known as the Pitons, followed by a beach break and then return cruise.  While we had a good time, my general comment is that the trip was very heavy on the cruise and light on the Pitons.   In fact, we got about 2 minutes at our closest point to the Pitons, before we were turning to a new destination.

We sailed down the West coast of St. Lucia to the Pitons, stopping to interact with a very large pod of dolphins to the coast near the mountains.  Then, having made our way there, we loitered a borderline insultingly short period of time before beginning the return transit.  On our way back, we did buck some strong headwinds and this slowed our rate of advance, lest the passengers be wind whipped into oblivion.  We pulled into a small bay and had about 45 minutes to swim, lounge or snorkel.  We opted to snorkel  (thankfully we had brought our own gear) and the protected waters and amazing visibility gave us the chance to see plenty of tropical fish, some brilliant coral and a small bottom shark chilling out on a rock.  After swimming, the music was turned up and the taps on the rum punch were opened.  Without sounding too much the snob, the much-ballyhooed rum punch on the tour (and elsewhere) was really just rum poured into grocery store fruit punch and then delivered with sufficient gusto to convince the consumer they have something special.  That being said, of course, I imbibed and enjoyed the flavors, but mostly the ocean, the brilliant sunshine and being able to relax with my wife made the trip worthwhile.  We returned to the dock and had a very short walk to re-board the tender.  Once back onboard, we relished in reinvigorated hot water to rinse the remaining salt and sunscreen before heading to the buffet for lunch.

Speaking of the buffet, I told Melissa I was very excited for Fiesta Friday and a chance to have some Mexican food.  Truth be told, I didn’t know there would be Mexican food, but was pleasantly surprised to find tacos and accompaniments on offer.  I chose to indulge and enjoyed it, but the Cunard interpretation of Mexican cuisine does leave me a bit wanting.  The dishes are tasty enough and well-prepared, but I can’t help but thinking that they taste like the chef read a very well-regarded book on Mexican food, rather than spending some time in the taco shacks himself.  For example, they had everything available to stuff into your taco shell like ground beef, guac and lettuce but no cheese!  Still, the food at the buffet is very well-presented, abundant and varied.  It is hard to imagine anyone not being able to find something they would like.  By way of example, today one could have had tacos, Asian stir fry, roast beef, quiche, multiple potatoes and veg, sushi and sashimi, pizza, pasta, salad and sandwiches.  To say nothing of the fresh fruit and dessert offerings.  We had a nice variety and felt refreshed and nourished enough to head off for a nap.

Post nap, we were able to watch the tenders being retrieved from our balcony.  We popped the bottle of Prosecco my mom gave us as a gift and I am writing this while sipping some most delightful bubbles on our balcony as the sun fades in the Caribbean.  All things being equal, some nice wine, delightful breezes, an ocean sunset and time with the love of your life is a great way to end a day in St. Lucia. 

Tonight, we are headed to the Steakhouse and the Verandah and thus are anticipating a culinary festival celebrating the wonders on meat. (Now, if I can just talk Melissa out of her desire to share my steak so we don’t waste any meat).

That is all for now folks, we are in St. Maarten, along with four other ships, tomorrow.

 

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cougaraz

cougaraz

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Saturday, 29 December, in port St. Maarten

On the eve of our wedding anniversary, my dear husband reminded me of the old adage that “sharing is caring”, which is his way of kind way of asking me to be the guest blogger today. Not a problem. Having just finished studying for my MBA, I am happy to take a break from reading as we lounge on Deck 12 of the QM2 so he can continue plowing his way through Peter Akyrod’s riveting 500 page book titled “Foundations, The History of England from its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors.”

Watch out QM2 Quiz Champions, there are some Americans onboard who may give you a run for your money on early British history!

So to update you on our adventures since we last posted, Friday evening was spent dining in the specialty restaurant onboard, the Verandah Steakhouse. Overall, dinner was quite superb especially as we paid the extra $20 to start with the Seafood Tower as our appetizer.  The Seafood Tower consisted of king crab legs, lobster, langoustines, scallops, giant prawns (as big as your fist) and mussels. In San Diego, this tower would have easily gone for $120 at a top end restaurant, but onboard it was $20 and worth every penny! Being a lover of king crab legs, I found the meat to be tender and delicious. The rest of the seafood was also excellent even if I did spray prawn juice all over me trying to rip off his head!

For mains, Scott went with the 12 oz rib eye medium and I had a 12 oz NY Strip medium rare. Both steaks were perfectly cooked. Our sides consisted of a wedge salad, mashed potatoes, cheesy red potato casserole, cabbage and creamed spinach. The only disappointing fact was the wedge salad was pretty bland and was served with the steak and sides versus immediately before as we are accustomed to in the states. I notice this threw off a few Americans in the restaurant, who weren’t used to this order of dish service.

For dessert, we had a hard time making up our minds so the waitress, taking pity on us, brought us all three: apple pie with vanilla custard; strawberry pavlova; and a hot salted caramel fudge sundae with peanut butter ice cream. Overall, the last two, the pavlova and the sundae, won our votes for being superb. Being too stuffed to continue, we declined also eating a final cheese course at the end. We’ll save that for next time. The only negative we found with the restaurant was our waitress’ English was extremely limited, which made communication difficult. We also found the pacing of the meal to be a touch off. The second our Seafood Tower was done, the wait staff were delivering our steak and sides. A minute or two intermission (so we could have gone and washed our hands of seafood smell) would have been most welcome. But these minor complaints are churlish as the meal and ambience were superb. Overall, we definitely plan to eat at the specialty restaurant the next time we are onboard.

Friday night after dinner, we declined to go see a show as frankly we finished our meal quite late! So we headed to bed. The seas were a bit rougher Friday evening due to a storm but we both managed to sleep quite comfortably waking up Saturday morning quite refreshed. The QM2 pulled into a pier at the cruise terminal in St. Maarten around 8 am; however, before we disembarked, we had breakfast in the main dining room. For the first time on the cruise, we were directed to a table for two on the 3rd level of the Britannia Dining Room, which made for some excellent people watching.

For breakfast, I decided to go with my usual of Weetabix and two fried eggs, but I decided to mix it up and also order some cinnamon raisin french toast as our tour didn’t include lunch. Scott elected to have Weetabix as well and a ham and swiss cheese omelet (that was perfectly cooked as no browning), hash browns and brown toast. Overall, our service was quite good especially as the waiter serving the pastries stopped by our table numerous times to verify we didn’t want another one! 

After breakfast, we had a couple of hours before our afternoon tour begun, so we decided to mosey down the pier and check out the cruise terminal.  Despite the hurricane devastation still apparent on the island, the cruise terminal in St. Maarten was all new and refreshed. Most of the shops are jewelry shops, so we elected to not visit any of them. However, we did manage to find the duty free store, Admirals, selling water  for us to drink and huge  gouda cheese rounds (took a lot of hard and fast persuasion on my end to dissuade the hubby from buying a 6 kilo round of gouda).  We also decided to stop and share a guava berry liquor colada (the national liquor of St. Maarten) on the pier as we people watched people walking off the QM2 and the Carnival Fascination docked directly across the pier. Made for some good entertainment as people were obviously excited to be on the island!

At 11:45 am, we made our way down to the pier to join our Cunard Island Delights tour directly in front of the ship. This folks, started the worst cruise tour that we have ever been on (and that is saying a lot) but we made the best of it.  What made the tour awful, was the lack of leadership by either the Cunard tour representatives or the tour company organizers and guides! For instance, as soon as we got on the pier, a giant rain storm broke out.  The tour operator told all of us to line up on the pier 2x2 but as the storm intensified, they finally told us to take cover – except there was no where to take cover as the gangway getting back on the ship was at a dead stop as they had a lot of senior folks trying to get back on the ship versus taking us to the bus. Once the storm ended, the tour representative remained huddle on the pier checking her cell phone for a good 10 minutes before folks started pestering her about what the plan was. The Cunard rep was nowhere to be found.  Finally, one of the tour company guides decided (despite having only 20 out of 41 of us) that we should start making our way down the pier to the buses. She declined to accompany us.

We arrived at the cruise terminal (no rep in site) and through chance spotted our bus parked at the curb. After pounding on the door, the bus driver opened the door and allowed us on board. After we got on the bus (and about 30 additional folks) we then proceeded to wait, wait some more, before finally the guide came on and stated that they needed 8 of us to move to another bus to even out numbers. Being fairly mobile, we decided to join the other bus only to find it was remarkably older bus and a mix of Carnival passengers with some QM2 passengers mixed in at the last minute at well, which made the overall feel on the bus somewhat awkward.

The rest of the tour didn’t get much better. Our tour guide spent most of the tour reading her written script verbatim the entire time but never setting foot off the bus or giving any sort of helpful direction. Our three destinations, a restaurant to watch a cooking demonstration, a rum distillery, and a perfumery were all nice but the lack of leadership on the tour or knowing what to expect made enjoying the tour difficult. Also, the tours themselves weren’t comfortable. Our group size was almost too large for the rum tour and the perfumerie. It was also hard to hear the cooking demonstration at the restaurant because it was a bar with music on. Plus, things weren’t well explained.  For example, as soon as we arrived at the restaurant (that was serving hamburgers and chicken wings despite it being a best of the island tour) asked us for our order but there was no communication given that people had to pay out-of-pocket. We  had been on enough cruise tours before, to figure this out but sadly a few others did not know. Some simple leadership and communication would have made the tour a lot more enjoyable.  

Finally, at 4:30 pm (almost an hour later than expected) our bus made it back to the cruise terminal. A lot of our Carnival peers by this point were sweating profusely, as their ship had a 4:30 push time and it wasn’t clear if we were going to make it in time or not.  The tour guide, completely unaware of the 4:30 push time or even what it meant, was of no use but we did notice the bus driver was doing his best to make it to the pier in time. Anyhow, long story short, avoid the Island Delights tour. Visit the Topper’s rum distillery on your own and definitely the Tijon perfumery on the French side, but avoid the tour.

Arriving back on the ship around 4:45, we were completely starving so after dropping our bag off at the room, we headed to the Kings Court buffet to enjoy a late afternoon tea before napping before dinner.  We really enjoyed our “snack” of some freshly baked scones with clotted cream, finger sandwiches, and a sausage roll that my husband spotted in the “Hot Food” oven on the side.  Our snack was completely delicious with me moaning as I took the last bite of my scone covered in cream and jam. My husband had a similar moan when he bit into his sausage roll. The only negative of the buffet, if there is one, was spotting the gentleman who decided grabbing a cucumber sandwich with his fingers from the tray, eating it in the middle of the buffet,  and then grabbing another one with his fingers, was perfectly acceptable.  Thankfully, some perfectly timed glares from a lot of women in the buffet, quickly put an end to that nonsense!

Well, hope you enjoyed my recap of our time in St. Maarten.  Tomorrow my dear husband should be back manning the blog post.

 

 

 

 

 

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orvil

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Reminds me of our tour on the QV to Ponte Verde.  We were supposed to go see these amazing views across the island and some beautiful inland lakes.  The approach of Hurricane Arthur caused torrential rains and ruined the views.  The normal plan would be to get off the bus at various locations and take a picture of some vista.  Alas, it was not to be.  The rain was coming down so hard that when the guide offered to let the passengers off to the bus take a picture only one hardy Brit accepted the invitation.  She accepted different three times.  Each time returning looking like a wet rat.  At the last stop while she was off taking a picture and struggling with her umbrella that was turned inside out in the storm, one of the other Brits said in a voice that carried across the hot, wet bus, "Somebody kill her and let's go to tea."  The entire bus erupted in laughter.  The Special Relationship was safe.  She boarded the bus dripping wet for the third time.  You had to admire her persistence.  We instructed the tour guide to skip the rest and we went back to the ship for tea like the civilized people we were. 

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cougaraz

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Sunday 30 December, in port St. Thomas

For those of you who preferred Melissa’s writing style, I apologize as Scott is once again in charge of the keyboard tonight.  After returning from our rather disastrous sojourn on the St. Maarten tour and our delicious visit to the buffet, we relaxed a bit and then dressed for dinner.  I will pause here for one more rant on buffet behavior.  I bring it up because it continues to occur and it has even been mentioned by our tablemates at dinner.  On what planet is it possibly acceptable to eat with your hands in the buffet service area and then continue to tough the serving utensils? For the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone in a supposedly civilized society, sailing on a luxurious and sophisticated vessel can think that such behavior is acceptable!

Rant ended, let us rejoin the story with dinner on Saturday evening.  We again joined our dinner companions at our usual table.  I started with the lamb kofta, as did Melissa, and followed with the acorn squash panna cotta while Melissa opted for the oxtail consommé.  Of note, generally hot soups are served first if they are ordered.  Our table has had a very nice flow to the meals as generally our table mates also prefer two starter options before the mains.  However, the starters are mostly of a delicate size and thus two, or even three really wouldn’t be gluttonous.  We both chose the duck a l’orange for our mains.  Honestly, duck is a protein we don’t often cook at home and it was nicely executed.  Dessert for Melissa was the pear tart tatin and I ordered the carmelized lemon tart.  Both were excellent and catered to Melissa’s love of pears and my preference for sour flavors. We opted to  pass on the show as we were tired and one of the great things about our vacation has been the opportunity to truly rest and recuperate from a tough year.

Sunday morning in St. Thomas was a gorgeous Caribbean day and the sky was dotted with cotton ball clouds, but mostly blue and temperatures were warm.  Our original plan was to take the ferry across to Water Island, lay on the beach and eat fish tacos for lunch.  However, we made a change and decided to stay on the ship.  For some, this may seem anathema, but for us it made sense.  We basically had the entire ship to ourselves and we were still able to enjoy some of the gorgeous weather.  We had breakfast in the dining room and once again were treated to a fine meal.  I think that one of the easily overlooked luxuries of cruising is the fresh baked breads.  At every meal, a bounty of bread products fresh from the baker’s oven are on offer, with the breakfast options changing daily.  I think that after becoming an experienced cruiser, one can stop noticing some of the details that really make the experience special.  Freshly baked bread, three meals a day is one of those things that is unique and wonderful about being on a great ship.  After breakfast, we proceeded up on deck and spent some very nice time by the pool reading and relaxing under the lovely blue sky.  Those of you following along will be happy to know that I will finish Foundation before the end of the cruise, but despite having volume two teed up from the library, it appears that may be a bit ambitious.

Lunch found us back in the dining room, Melissa started with the orange cream soup and was not a huge fan.  There was nothing wrong with it, she just didn’t prefer the flavors.  Food is subjective and I don’t view this as a negative mark against Melissa or the chef.  It is not possible for every dish to please everyone, but cruising offers a great opportunity to sample new items. I started with the liver pate and it was delicious!  Organ meats and pates are not often on offer where we live and eat, so it is quite a treat when available on the menu.  We both had the crab salad with avocado before proceeding to our lunch mains.  Melissa had the lamb Kashmir and we both really liked it.  I had a chicken and avocado wrap and while it was well executed, I found the flavor to be a bit pedestrian and uninteresting.  Our desserts, however, we fantastic.  I had the pear Charlotte, which was rich and thoroughly decadent and Melissa had a Black Forrest mousse.

Our post-lunch plan looked a lot like our pre-lunch plan, napping, reading, hot-tub dipping and generally just relaxing.  We, of course, had some tea in the Kings Court, with delicious scones, cream and jam, but we do prefer coffee to tea.

For those of you who need a reason to tune in tomorrow, we will bring you a swashbuckling tale of great drama onboard Queen Mary 2…the night the lights went out.

That is all for now folks, see you in 2019!

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tag1000

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On 12/26/2018 at 7:01 AM, luckymal said:

It is not always the children’s fault for creating trouble, but their parents failing to check their problems.🙄

 

This reminds me of one time I was having lunch in the Britannia Restaurant.   Two children were emptying the salt and peppers shakers on to the table cloth while their parents simply watched.  The waiter came by and took the salt and pepper shakers and said “that is not done on Cunard”.  The parents just shrugged while the children were speechless.   I had a silent chuckle!  

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Captain-John "Live from...." Rare

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10 hours ago, tag1000 said:

 

This reminds me of one time I was having lunch in the Britannia Restaurant.   Two children were emptying the salt and peppers shakers on to the table cloth while their parents simply watched.  The waiter came by and took the salt and pepper shakers and said “that is not done on Cunard”.  The parents just shrugged while the children were speechless.   I had a silent chuckle!  

 

Kudos to that waiter! I understand why staff sometimes don't want to enforce rules (or decency, as in this case!) if they get hassle from guests. But frankly (and sadly), it needs to happen more often

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20 hours ago, cougaraz said:

Sunday 30 December, in port St. Thomas

 

For those of you who preferred Melissa’s writing style, I apologize as Scott is once again in charge of the keyboard tonight.  After returning from our rather disastrous sojourn on the St. Maarten tour and our delicious visit to the buffet, we relaxed a bit and then dressed for dinner.  I will pause here for one more rant on buffet behavior.  I bring it up because it continues to occur and it has even been mentioned by our tablemates at dinner.  On what planet is it possibly acceptable to eat with your hands in the buffet service area and then continue to tough the serving utensils? For the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone in a supposedly civilized society, sailing on a luxurious and sophisticated vessel can think that such behavior is acceptable!

 

Rant ended, let us rejoin the story with dinner on Saturday evening.  We again joined our dinner companions at our usual table.  I started with the lamb kofta, as did Melissa, and followed with the acorn squash panna cotta while Melissa opted for the oxtail consommé.  Of note, generally hot soups are served first if they are ordered.  Our table has had a very nice flow to the meals as generally our table mates also prefer two starter options before the mains.  However, the starters are mostly of a delicate size and thus two, or even three really wouldn’t be gluttonous.  We both chose the duck a l’orange for our mains.  Honestly, duck is a protein we don’t often cook at home and it was nicely executed.  Dessert for Melissa was the pear tart tatin and I ordered the carmelized lemon tart.  Both were excellent and catered to Melissa’s love of pears and my preference for sour flavors. We opted to  pass on the show as we were tired and one of the great things about our vacation has been the opportunity to truly rest and recuperate from a tough year.

 

Sunday morning in St. Thomas was a gorgeous Caribbean day and the sky was dotted with cotton ball clouds, but mostly blue and temperatures were warm.  Our original plan was to take the ferry across to Water Island, lay on the beach and eat fish tacos for lunch.  However, we made a change and decided to stay on the ship.  For some, this may seem anathema, but for us it made sense.  We basically had the entire ship to ourselves and we were still able to enjoy some of the gorgeous weather.  We had breakfast in the dining room and once again were treated to a fine meal.  I think that one of the easily overlooked luxuries of cruising is the fresh baked breads.  At every meal, a bounty of bread products fresh from the baker’s oven are on offer, with the breakfast options changing daily.  I think that after becoming an experienced cruiser, one can stop noticing some of the details that really make the experience special.  Freshly baked bread, three meals a day is one of those things that is unique and wonderful about being on a great ship.  After breakfast, we proceeded up on deck and spent some very nice time by the pool reading and relaxing under the lovely blue sky.  Those of you following along will be happy to know that I will finish Foundation before the end of the cruise, but despite having volume two teed up from the library, it appears that may be a bit ambitious.

 

Lunch found us back in the dining room, Melissa started with the orange cream soup and was not a huge fan.  There was nothing wrong with it, she just didn’t prefer the flavors.  Food is subjective and I don’t view this as a negative mark against Melissa or the chef.  It is not possible for every dish to please everyone, but cruising offers a great opportunity to sample new items. I started with the liver pate and it was delicious!  Organ meats and pates are not often on offer where we live and eat, so it is quite a treat when available on the menu.  We both had the crab salad with avocado before proceeding to our lunch mains.  Melissa had the lamb Kashmir and we both really liked it.  I had a chicken and avocado wrap and while it was well executed, I found the flavor to be a bit pedestrian and uninteresting.  Our desserts, however, we fantastic.  I had the pear Charlotte, which was rich and thoroughly decadent and Melissa had a Black Forrest mousse.

 

Our post-lunch plan looked a lot like our pre-lunch plan, napping, reading, hot-tub dipping and generally just relaxing.  We, of course, had some tea in the Kings Court, with delicious scones, cream and jam, but we do prefer coffee to tea.

 

For those of you who need a reason to tune in tomorrow, we will bring you a swashbuckling tale of great drama onboard Queen Mary 2…the night the lights went out.

 

That is all for now folks, see you in 2019!

 

Hi again Cougaraz,

 

If you have time before reaching NY can you comment on your Enclosed Balcony Stateroom, we are in 5215 for the Far East a Voyage.  

 

Best Wishes,

 

Georgina1

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cougaraz

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4 hours ago, Georgina1 said:

Hi again Cougaraz,

 

If you have time before reaching NY can you comment on your Enclosed Balcony Stateroom, we are in 5215 for the Far East a Voyage.  

 

Best Wishes,

 

Georgina1

I will try to write some more tomorrow, we are in the 5100s and loving it!

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Continuation of Sunday, 30 December, and 31 December, at Sea, en route to New York

We rejoin our story in the evening as we headed down to the Golden Lion Pub for Trivia.  We have played a fair amount of trivia on this cruise, but alas not with great success yet.  Still, we enjoy the atmosphere in the Golden Lion as it is usually relaxed, fun, a bit boisterous and the wait staff is generally very friendly and quick with drink service. One of the notable points about this ship is that the beer selection is quite extensive. To my observation, ships have generally been slow to adapt to the wide proliferation of craft beer, but Queen Mary 2 has a wide selection, heavily tilted toward the UK breweries.

We joined our usual dinner companions and once again had a very festive and frolicking evening around the table.  They have a seemingly endless supply of crazy stories and adventures.  It would also appear that after 10 days with them, they have been almost everywhere!  For the men at the table, there was no hesitation on ordering the sautéed chicken livers.  Our dining partner said they reminded him of food his father used to cook. I enjoyed them tremendously, but am positive that no chicken liver was ever cooked in the house that I grew up in! Melissa opted to start with the pea soup. She has tried a lot of soups onboard and been pretty happy with the quality and variety on offer.  All four of us dining together had the Vietnamese style seafood salad and it was a nice, cool offering.  My main was the pork belly, which was tasty, but not particularly remarkable and Melissa had the golden beet risotto and received the most massive food portion we have seen on the ship.  She ate all she wanted, I had several large bites, it was very good, and it was still a mostly full bowl.  We both chose the bread and butter pudding and our usual coffee with a couple of petit four bites. 

We opted to skip the show and retired to our room.  After changing into our sleeping clothes, reading for a few minutes and just climbing into bed, Melissa said she thought the air conditioning had just shut off.  Indeed the room was quiet and a dim light had come on over the door to our cabin, which cannot be controlled by a switch.  I poked my head into he hallway and found that while there were lights on, they were more widely spaced than normal.  Between that and the very, eerie quiet, it was quite plain that we had suffered some sort of electrical casualty on board.  A quick look on our balcony showed the ship still making substantial way through the water, but upon checking a few minutes later, I surmised this was just our momentum as we quickly came to be dead in the water.  It is also noteworthy that the exterior lighting of the ship changed, with very bright quartz or xenon style lights illuminating the water line.  About this time, the Captain came on the announcing system stating that there was in fact an electrical problem onboard and asking that those in their cabins remain there and that those in public areas remain seated while the problem was addressed.  Melissa asked what we should do and I rolled over and said, go back to sleep.  I would venture that the power was out about 20ish minutes before coming back on, which restored our electrical power and turned on the TV.  At no time did we feel in danger, unduly disrupted or frightened.  I have spent an entire career on ships and a minor electrical casualty in the night that was quickly resolved caused no anxiety for me.

Monday, 31 December, at Sea, en route to New York

New Year’s Eve dawned sunny and gorgeous again.  In fact, since leaving St. Thomas we have enjoyed gorgeous weather, with very calm seas, warm temperatures and abundant sunshine.  We took our breakfast in the dining room as it is such a nice way to start the day.  I find that pastries and breakfast offerings to be very well executed and love having table service to start the day.  I opted again for the full English offering, while Melissa had a ham and cheddar cheese omelet.  After breakfast, we played morning trivia in the Golden Lion and then proceeded to enjoy some of the gorgeous weather on deck with a couple of quick miles around the deck.  We took lunch in the main dining room and honestly, it was a bit uninspired.  I think that perhaps the chef was saving everyone to be ready for the New Year’s Eve feast to come.  I had the chicken and mango starter salad, Melissa had the hot onion and thyme soup, followed by the Fritto Misto for me and a tuna melt for her.  I had a couple scoops of ice cream for dessert and Melissa just had some coffee.  Honestly, if you are in the mood for fish and chips, I recommend the Golden Lion, but that is a story for our next post.

In the afternoon, we visited the planetarium where they had a unique offering, a live tour of the sky offered by an onboard Cambridge astronomer.   We happen to have an astronomer onboard who has been offering some live star viewings and he graciously offered to run the planetarium system showing the ship’s current position and what the night sky looks like, if you had perfect visibility at our exact location on the night of 31 December 2018.  It was a great show and really nice change of pace from the pre-recorded offerings in Illuminations.

We took the opportunity to grab a nap and to hydrate in anticipation of the night to come! We dressed in our finest and made our way down the Golden Lion by about 6:30 in anticipation of the count down to the new year in the UK at 8 pm.  When we arrived, we were able to claim two of the last available seats, 90 minutes later, we could hardly move.  On a funny note, on arriving in the pub, Melissa and another lady discovered they were wearing basically the same gown, Melissa’s was floor length and the other woman’s was tea length, but otherwise they were identical.  One had some from Lord and Taylor in New York and one from Bloomingdale’s in San Diego go meet in the middle of the ocean.  They had a good laugh about the odds of such a thing happening.  We settled in for a drink and watched as the crowd in the pub grew and grew and grew and grew.  By a quarter to eight, midnight GMT, the room was absolutely packed, I am not sure many more people could possibly have fit in.  At this point, the entertainment staff started playing music to entertain the crowd and both of us chuckled when Sweet Home Alabama was selected despite it being a UK countdown.

 We kept looking for someone elderly or mobility challenged who might need our seat, but everyone around us seemed able bodied so we stayed in our seats.  Much rejoicing occurred as the new year entered in the UK and then the pub quickly emptied.  We took the chance to find a cooler part of the ship and have a formal portrait taken by one of the ship’s photographers.

We entered the Britannia Dining Room to find it decorated with balloons and Happy New Year hats, tiaras and noise makers on every table.  There was also a custom menu for last night that featured some of the highlights of the year for Cunard.  Honestly, the offerings last night were tremendous, if I had the ability I would have tried one of everything and been happy to it, but the realities of physics and the human body precluded such an adventure.  Nonetheless, I tucked in with a hot starter of haggis with neeps and tatties, while Melissa had the roasted butternut squash soup.  No surprise that Melissa opted for anything on the menu with the words butternut squash.  Then we both had the salmon and crab cannelloni which was absolutely superb.  My main was the beef Wellington and it was very well executed, the meat was a nice medium rare, the pastry was crisp and it arrived piping hot.  Seeing as the old year was fast fading, I also had our team bring me a lobster tail.  Melissa jumped on the lobster tail train as well as it was a nice piece of seafood served with a really nice little spinach souffle. Dessert for both of us was the Baked Alaska with the usual accompaniment of petit fours and coffee.  I think that the meal was a solid summary of my overall experience in the dining room, particularly at dinner on this trip, the menu was diverse and offered a wide selection, the food was well executed, served hot and delicious and the service excellent.

Of note, our table did manage to consume a commendable amount of Champagne during the meal, of the rose variety! After dinner, we parted ways with our companions and investigated the Queens Room, but found it to be absolutely packed.  The bubbly was flowing, people were dancing and generally having a great time, but a seat or room to even stand comfortably was not be found.  One note on last night is that everyone went all out on the attire.  Men, women, boys and girls were all dressed to the nines and ready to party.  Retreating to the Golden Lion around 1130, we ran into our dinner mates who just happened to have two seats available.  We joined them and enjoyed a drink and stories until just about five minutes before midnight local time.  Then we made our way out to the main lobby for the final countdown, balloon drop and a complimentary glass of something that someone who has lived their life in total isolation from the civilized world considered to be an appropriate beverage for human consumption, that person was wrong.  If you get what you pay for, then the free “Champagne” last night should have come with five dollars.  I am not exaggerating when I say that it tasted like convenience store wine, mixed with light beer that had been aged in the sun.  Not good!  However, the celebratory mood continued as we made our way up to the Kings Court buffet for the biggest surprise of the cruise.

They had a real, old-fashioned, no holds barred, Midnight Buffet!  Those of you who have been cruising for more than 20 years will remember when ships used to put on elaborate, even themed, midnight buffets almost every night and this was a throw back to those days.  They had ice sculptures, mountains of seafood, specially prepared breads, a ship made out of cheese, custom cupcakes, an entire section of hand-crafted chocolates and a host of employees who had clearly invested tremendous time and energy into putting on such a show.  It really was fun, festive and exciting.  With all the champagne that had been consumed, people were in a festive mood and very jovial.  Of course, we couldn’t really eat much since our end of the year feast had only proceeded the beginning of the year feast by about two hours.  Still it was a fantastic way to ring in the new year and close out of night.  It is possible that a couple of homemade donuts followed us back to our cabin as insurance against a harsh morning dimmed by a hangover.

 

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luckymal

luckymal

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You both have sent fantastic reports while on this cruise, having cruised quite a lot with Cunard myself, Ican close my eyes and visualise the parts of the ship you are in and enjoy. That was a true statement when you mentioned about the free Champagne, *You get what you pay for*. I hope Cunard have given you some FREE time on the internet, for the good P.R. You have done with these comments. I would think your journey is almost over so once again THANK YOU and have a great New Year.🍷😂😂

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cougaraz

cougaraz

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On ‎1‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 10:17 AM, Georgina1 said:

Hi again Cougaraz,

 

If you have time before reaching NY can you comment on your Enclosed Balcony Stateroom, we are in 5215 for the Far East a Voyage.  

 

Best Wishes,

 

Georgina1

Georgina, 

 

We loved our sheltered balcony.  It gave us the chance to look out, enjoy the views and the fresh air when we liked, but sheltered us from too much hot sun and wind.  It is also VERY private, with no one above being able to see you.  The one downside is that you have to stand to see out, if you sit, you have the fresh air and the wonderful sounds, but not the view.  For us, it was not an issue.  Otherwise, our cabin was fantastic, there was minor hot water hiccup, but otherwise we found it to be a tremendous value and the perfect home base for our adventures.

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cougaraz

cougaraz

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Tuesday and Wednesday 1-2 January, at sea en route New York

Unfortunately, dear readers, I am writing this from the lounge at JFK airport, which means that our fabulous cruise has come to an end.  However, there is still plenty of story to tell and I will finish with the tale of our last few days at sea.

New Year’s Day dawned bright and clear for us and despite our festive activities the evening and early morning before, we were actually feeling quite well.  One note, is that by the time we ventured out of our cabin, the ship was immaculately clean and there was no evidence of the revelry that had occurred.  On a previous Princess cruise, the morning of January 1st had found the ship looking a little bit like a frat house and the crew had to work until midday before everything was ship shape again.  No such embarrassment on Cunard of course.  Our first stop was at the ticket desk for Illuminations to collect a ticket for the afternoon planetarium show.  Unfortunately, our efforts would prove unsuccessful, as despite our tickets, there was no show because of technical malfunction just prior to the show.  A pro tip for those of you married to a spouse or traveling with a family member who requires coffee for the health and safety of those around them, there is a full beverage station on deck two near the ticket desk for the planetarium where appropriate caffeine therapy is available while you wait for your tickets.  It can go a very long way to ensuring domestic tranquility in the morning.

We had breakfast in the dining room as was our custom whenever possible and then took care of a little business, ordering a couple of portraits for printing, confirming our departure arrangements and playing trivia in the Golden Lion Pub.  We returned to the Golden Lion Pub for our first and only pub lunch of the cruise.  We had no trouble finding a seat and ordering our meals.  I opted for the fish and chips and Melissa had the Chicken Tikka Masala.  The fish and chips was excellent, I got a very nice, large piece of white fish in a crispy and flavorful batter, with some thick cut chips, mushy peas and tartar sauce.  The table had English mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise and malt vinegar available as condiments.  Melissa’s Chicken Tikka Masala was graded as outstanding based on having to stop her from continuing to eat when she got down to the bare plate!  We split and bread and butter pudding for our dessert.  Washed down with a couple of good English ales, it was a very fine meal indeed.  Speaking of New Year’s revelry, we did see a woman enter the pub about 11AM still wearing her sunglasses and she and the bartender had a friendly exchange about how much fun she had the night before. 

Of course, such arduous exertion required us to take a short afternoon nap to recharge our batteries and ensure that we were in fact ready for the last formal evening of the cruise.  We did stop by the buffet for a quick tea and scone.  The theme for the last night was the Roaring 20s Ball and there were quite a few flapper dresses and more than a handful of gentlemen turned out in the their best throw-back attire.  Generally, everyone was well dressed, but it was notably not as much of a maximum effort as we had seen from the passengers the night before.  I cannot much blame them for that.  Back-to-back formal nights, especially following New Year’s Eve is a bit of a stretch for everyone.  We did manage to find a seat in the Golden Lion for pre-dinner trivia and once again wiped out! 

Dinner with our new friends was once again a highlight of the evening, with a fine menu to ring in 2019.  Melissa and I both had the lobster bisque which was very flavorful and not so rich as to be overwhelming.  Seeing how 2019’s resolutions had no realistic chance of being implemented prior to our return home, I opted for two starters.  The empanada was a very nice bite and the accompanying sauce was one of the few genuinely spicy offerings on the cruise.  Living in the American southwest, I grew up with spicy flavors in my food and find that I do miss them on a longer cruise as they just apparently don’t have a broad enough appeal to appear regularly on the menu.  I also had the gravalox, which was nice, but not exactly transcendental.  Melissa also enjoyed an empanada.  For my main, I had the fillet and was impressed that I received a very nice cut of fillet that was cooked medium rare as I had ordered it.  While I prefer a nice strip steak or ribeye to fillet, this was a very nice piece of meat and I enjoyed it.  Plus, I didn’t really need a giant hunk of cow on the plate at this point in the meal.  Speaking of giant, Melissa ordered the seafood crepe and was presented with an enormous portion, that resembled a burrito much more than a crepe and was absolutely bursting with a wide variety of seafood wrapped up inside.  Slightly daunted by the massive culinary object on her plate, she disassembled it to get after the delicious filling and enjoy it with the sauce and accompanying rice.  It was the second main Melissa had ordered from deep into the second page of the menu that featured a very large portion.  Perhaps, there was a trend there to be explored, but alas, our cruise was ending and we did not have sufficient time or capacity to conduct a thorough examination.  For dessert, we both chose the chocolate souffle and it was nice conclusion to the meal.  Personally, chocolate souffle with chocolate sauce is not really my favorite combination, I prefer the base flavor of the souffle and the sauce to contrast.  My favorites definitely trend toward tarter fruit based on liquor based sauces, but the souffle fairy hasn’t found her way to my house anytime in the last 15 years, so I cannot really complain about the options with any conviction.  We skipped the show and headed to bed after a cup of coffee and a few petit fours.

The second day of the year found us sailing under graying skies, but still on a very smooth sea.  The sea temperature remained warm as we crossed the Gulf Stream, but air temperatures began to drop noticeably through the day.  This is as good a place as any to discuss the temperature in our cabin.  We were in a sheltered balcony on deck 5 and generally speaking, we loved our room, so much that we plan to sail in a similar cabin again next year.  However, I would have preferred to be able to make the room a bit cooler, not a lot, maybe 3-5 degrees Fahrenheit would have been perfect.  With the temperature control set to the coldest setting, our room was just tolerably cool under static conditions, but could become quite warm post shower or with the hair dryer running.  A quick opening of the door to our balcony usually cooled the room quickly at night, but there were a few warm moments.  To my mind, the middle half of the temperature settings on the control should represent the sweet spot and the upper and lower quarters should be for when a more dramatic, but temporary temperature adjustment is desired.  However, our control never budged from the coldest possible setting throughout the cruise.  It was really just a minor annoyance, but it did bear mentioning.

We had breakfast in the dining room and I lamented the dwindling opportunities for me to indulge in black pudding for my breakfast.  I do not know anywhere near my home that has it on offer and I am quite certain that a homemade version isn’t likely in 2019, so I will have to make the most of my opportunities when we cruise and when we travel to the UK.  After breakfast, we picked up our photographs, played some trivia and spent about an hour reading.  I am happy to say that I did finish Foundation and am ready to embark on Tudors when I get home. 

For lunch, we headed to the Verandah Steakhouse.  The lunch menu offering is similar to, but more limited than the dinner menu.  I started with salt beef brisket hash and, to the surprise of no one, Melissa had the beets and goat cheese. My main was the eight ounce sirloin with onion rings and mashed potatoes, while Melissa opted for the burger also with onion rings and some fries.  I thought the food was very good, but remain a bit underwhelmed with the service.  Over two meals, one dinner and one lunch in the Verandah, I found the service to be overly cool, acceptable in terms of attentiveness and generally forgettable.  My expectation is that given the additional cost, the special nature of the restaurant and the emphasis on quality and ambience that they espouse the service should be remarkably better than in the main dining room.  However, the reality was that the dining room consistently offered better service.  In my short list of complaints about this cruise, this is one of the standouts, the service in the Verandah should be remarkable, memorable and exquisite.  However, our experience was pedestrian, uninspired and just acceptable.  That being said, the dessert was AMAZING! The toffee, peanut butter and fudge brownie sundae was certainly one of the very best offerings for dessert we had during the entire trip.  The combination of the ice cream and the salted caramel was absolutely delicious!

What happened next was unexpected and wonderful while also being slightly terrible!  We signed up for the cocktail tasting in the Commodore Club.  For those that aren’t familiar, the Commodore Club drink menu features a collection of seven signature cocktails that were created to celebrate some of the outstanding personalities of the Cunard commodores over the decades.  Perhaps I will have time to do a full write up on each of them in the future, if people are interested.  However, for now, I will summarize.  We were treated to a sample size of seven cocktails, prepared in front of us by Anna and her bartender associates, each accompanied by a story.  There were nine passengers in a attendance and two seats left unoccupied, although they had been set.  The entire experience lasted just under an hour and a half.  Our group was quite a jovial conglomeration of five Americans and four Europeans, all in very good spirits.  While the cocktails were not full-sized, I would surmise that we ended up with about 3-4 full drinks worth and then a surprise full-size cocktail at the end, thus completing a rather aggressive round of day-time merry making.  Anna was fantastic with the mixing, entertaining and service and we really did have a great time.  After a thorough examination of the menu, Melissa remains dedicated to the All Consuming Passion as her favorite, while I prefer the Chieftain of the Clan.  We really enjoyed the experience, but perhaps did not need quite so much alcohol in the afternoon before packing, but it was memorable and a great exposure to some first-rate mixology.

As you might imagine, what followed next was a very substantial nap!  Post-nap, we packed and managed to channel our marital teamwork into the effort, completing the job in just about an hour.  We dressed for dinner and headed to the Golden Lion for our last round of trivia.  Our dinner companions surprised us, but despite our combined efforts, we were unable to deliver a win.  However, our planetarium experiences paid off with a couple of easy correct answers.  Our last meal in the dining room was fitting finish to our cruise.  I started with the beef rolled around boursin and California rolls, while Melissa had the corn chowder and California rolls.  The California rolls were pretty bland to be honest.  For my main, I had the veal and it was a very nice plate of meat, Melissa opted for the Chicken Masala.  Hers was, as expected, very delicious and thoroughly enjoyed.  She opted for the souffle to finalize the dessert enjoyment of the trip and I had a chocolate ganache that was sinfully rich and satisfying.  Some final petit fours and coffee found us saying our farewells to Darwis and Alceo before saying goodbye to our dining companions and new friends.  We are very hopeful that we will be able to dine with them again on the same cruise next year!

I want to get this posted, so I will stop now and finish with our disembarkation and a full-wrap up when we get home.

I also have tons of pictures and a couple of cool videos that I will get posted once we get home.

Thanks for all that have followed along and left such nice compliments!

 

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Host Hattie

Host Hattie

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Thanks for another wonderful instalment, I'm so sad that your trip has come to an end. As you mentioned in your first post we don't get many "Live from" threads on this board so it's been a real pleasure to read one as thorough and entertaining as yours.

 

Come back soon .....

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Mudhen

Mudhen

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This really was a lovely blog. We had just gotten off from the previous Caribbean cruise on Dec. 8th.

Loved your comments on the food you had, the excursions you took and your general take on the QM2.

Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year!

Linda and John

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