Just back from our 10 day QM2 cruise

[fizzy1]

The Kings Court at lunch time produce some of the best stir fry meals that I have ever tasted, and I have had my fair share I can tell you. Regarding the seating, I think most people tend not to look too far for a seat after obtaining their food. A short walk in either forward or stern direction will produce as much seating as you need.

Alcoholic drinks in the different bars are on a par or slightly cheaper than the average UK establishment.

I have made enquiries with Cunard and have received authority for anyone who has a complaint about the QM2 or the food to send me their ticket and I will travel on their behalf. Spending money would also be appreciated.:p Happy Cruising.

'Share what you know, learn what you don't'

can't agree with you more, we have eaten chinese food throughout the world including many cities and towns throughout china and the stirfries at the king's court hold their own very well and were fab

[Shopinpat]

BETH,

 

I believe you did hit the nail on the head regarding the maitre d. We did ask about shrimp cocktail and were told no. I never did ask about ceaser salad. Maybe if we ordered the day before it might have been possible.

We did realize that it is a lot of people to serve in one night so we just let it go and never asked again. As you know none of us went hungary! ha

Sure wish I could have had one more of those mascapone deserts they were wonderul.

 

Pat

[SeaMatesNYC]

BETH,

 

I believe you did hit the nail on the head regarding the maitre d. We did ask about shrimp cocktail and were told no. I never did ask about ceaser salad. Maybe if we ordered the day before it might have been possible.

We did realize that it is a lot of people to serve in one night so we just let it go and never asked again. As you know none of us went hungary! ha

Sure wish I could have had one more of those mascapone deserts they were wonderul.

 

Pat

 

At the risk of being deemed irrelevant,

 

Having to order a caesar salad a day ahead? My word, we are not talking about a chocolate soufflee here, but a simple salad that can be put together in 30 seconds. Whoever made you feel hesitant to ask for such a simple thing should have been made to walk the plank...IMHO

[Benzowner]

At the risk of being deemed irrelevant,

 

Having to order a caesar salad a day ahead? My word, we are not talking about a chocolate soufflee here, but a simple salad that can be put together in 30 seconds. Whoever made you feel hesitant to ask for such a simple thing should have been made to walk the plank...IMHO

 

I agree to a point, however if 100 guests decided to have something simple but different to each other, what state would the galleys be in, bearing in mind how many passengers QM2 carries? I beleive that is the reason for the days notice.

[imacruizer]

At the risk of being deemed irrelevant,

 

Having to order a caesar salad a day ahead? My word, we are not talking about a chocolate soufflee here, but a simple salad that can be put together in 30 seconds. Whoever made you feel hesitant to ask for such a simple thing should have been made to walk the plank...IMHO

 

The things that are included on the "Always Available" menu should not need to be ordered a day ahead. This would include steak, chicken, and caesar salad. Things that are not included on the "Always Available" menu like shrimp cocktail should be requested a day ahead.

 

Beth

[Brit and proud]

Ok folks

 

What is actually on the "always available" menu and how do you find out what requires notice ie the prawn "shrimp" cocktail...if it was not for this site i would not have heard about it.

 

Just wondered why no mention in any of the Cunard information

 

Brian

[imacruizer]

Ok folks

 

What is actually on the "always available" menu and how do you find out what requires notice ie the prawn "shrimp" cocktail...if it was not for this site i would not have heard about it.

 

Just wondered why no mention in any of the Cunard information

 

Brian

 

Excellent question, Brian! AND one to which I don't know the complete answer. On some cruiselines, the always available items are printed on the menu each night. On others, one must know to ask. Cunard does not make it readily known.

 

On the first night, I would ask your waitstaff what items are "always available". If they say they don't know, then I would ask the maitre d'. In my personal opinion, none of the "always available" items are that exciting and I rarely order them. I have just remembered that a baked potato (jacket potato) and perhaps other types of potatoes are always available, also. So again, the always available items that I am aware of include steak, baked chicken breast, caesar salad and potatoes.

 

I do not think the shrimp cocktail is on the always available menu. As I mentioned in another post, we asked our waiter about it one night and he offered to serve it to us the next night. We accepted and everyone else at our table decided to order one, also. When we arrived in the dining room the next night he had it waiting for us. Were we just lucky with this particular waiter? Who knows.

 

Personally, we find many things on the menu each night in the Britannia that we want to order. So the other items are not that important to us.

 

Good luck.

 

Beth

[imacruizer]

if it was not for this site i would not have heard about it.

 

Just wondered why no mention in any of the Cunard information

 

Brian

 

I forgot to mention, Brian, that one of the advantages of reading Cruise Critic is that you learn so many things you would not know otherwise!!!

 

Beth

[SeaMatesNYC]

I forgot to mention, Brian, that one of the advantages of reading Cruise Critic is that you learn so many things you would not know otherwise!!!

 

Beth

 

And not always relevant, but a bit of diversion every now and then keeps things lively, in my humble opinion.:)

[Ginger11]

"And the few children that were on the ship I felt sorry for. The parents just seemed to want to get away and drink at the bar and let the children fend for themselves. Not a ship for childrenin my opinion."

 

Thank you very much for a very balanced and fair review. I have eaten in Kings Court many times and although I think the food itself is pretty good for a buffet, I do agree it can be chaotic.

 

However, as someone who has sailed twice on the QM2 with her young child, I want to say that they have a fabulous children's program. I went back the second time mainly for that reason. My son was 2 the first time we went and he was 3 the second--both times he has come back with happy memories of the "big ship," especially the chocolates that the steward left in our cabin every evening :)

 

The nursery is open most of the day and their staff is superb. They have a lots of toys and a ball pit that my son loved. They also have a childrens pool and play area on deck 6. Why the parents you saw were not taking advantage of these facilities I can't say. We also enjoyed the indoor pool and the ship itself is just great for exploring.

 

I know they are not known as a family ship, but they do have stuff for families with young kids. And frankly, the fact that you can leave your child in a safe, fun environment and go off and have a drink at the bar is great!

 

Ginger

[Brit and proud]

Excellent question, Brian! AND one to which I don't know the complete answer. On some cruiselines, the always available items are printed on the menu each night. On others, one must know to ask. Cunard does not make it readily known.

 

On the first night, I would ask your waitstaff what items are "always available". If they say they don't know, then I would ask the maitre d'. In my personal opinion, none of the "always available" items are that exciting and I rarely order them. I have just remembered that a baked potato (jacket potato) and perhaps other types of potatoes are always available, also. So again, the always available items that I am aware of include steak, baked chicken breast, caesar salad and potatoes.

 

I do not think the shrimp cocktail is on the always available menu. As I mentioned in another post, we asked our waiter about it one night and he offered to serve it to us the next night. We accepted and everyone else at our table decided to order one, also. When we arrived in the dining room the next night he had it waiting for us. Were we just lucky with this particular waiter? Who knows.

 

Personally, we find many things on the menu each night in the Britannia that we want to order. So the other items are not that important to us.

 

Good luck.

 

Beth

 

 

Beth

 

Thank you for the reply, i was interested as 1 of our party is quite a plain eater, i am not one to try different things while in a restaurant incase i dont like them....i have all ready told my other half that i am going to try food i would normally not touch....if i dont like it, i have access to other food places on board....

 

Cases out of loft (attic) dusted and starting to pack :)

 

Brian

[rainbowslady]

Hi Pat! Will you be posting photo's? I hope to have mine partially downloaded by this weekend to Flickr.com I'll reply back to the roll call thread once I've got them in. Maybe you will recognize us from the table next to yours (maybe) as we were close to the captains table also! Table #68, an 8 topper.

Valerie

[JulesUK]

One tip we would pass on would be to bring a travel kettle for your room. There are no tea and coffee making facilities in the room but it is available 24 hours a day in Kings Court. However, if your room is situated a long way or you don't want to wander up there in your PJs, bring a kettle.

 

We took one along and it was invaluable, particularly as the hot water in Kings Court isn't quite boiling so the tea doesn't always taste so good.

 

We ate in the Britannia some nights and used to ask the waiter for a jacket potato or extra veg. It was always available.

 

We ate in Todd English one night but the food wasn't to our taste - far too rich and too much of it. We also had most of the staff introducing themselves to us at some point during the meal which is a bit disconcerting when you are having a cosy romantic meal for two.

[bobnatt]

"Things that are not included on the "Always Available" menu like shrimp cocktail should be requested a day ahead."

 

We were on the February 2nd Panama/Caribbean cruise and the most over rated food item was the "jumbo shrimp cocktail". It should have been labled the "shrimp, shrimp coctail." The shrimp were small by every standard and if Eliot Spitzer were still the Attorney General in New York State he would have initiated a class action lawsuit against Cunard for misrepresenting a jumbo shrimp cocktail...

 

All jumbo shrimps should be offended...

[MoonNyl]

the most over rated food item was the "jumbo shrimp cocktail". It should have been labled the "shrimp, shrimp coctail."

Could "Jumbo" have been referring to the size of the portions, rather than the size of the individual "shrimp"? :D

[ILUVMTL]

My partner and I also returned on Feb. 29 from the Caribbean cruise. It was our first time on the QM2 and my first time on Cunard. Some of our experiences were similar to Pat's, others different. As Pat said, people have different expectations and desires, and so anyone's comments are just that - one person's views. I definitely benefited from avid reading of Cruise Critic comments prior to my voyage and I hope my comments will help others.

We flew into Newark Airport early on the departure morning. We took an ordinary taxi from the taxi queue outside the baggage claim area and 45 minutes and $90 later we were at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. It was just before noon, the Terminal and Cunard staff were pleasant and we were in our cabin in about ten minutes! Our luggage arrived about 30 minutes later. Our cabin was an inside one, D3, on Deck 10 aft. It was well-appointed although quite small, especially the bathroom and especially the shower! There was plenty of storage space, hangers, etc. I found the mattress on my bed too soft for my taste. Perhaps it is possible to ask for a board to be inserted as is done in some hotels. I didn't try. Our cabin steward introduced himself and asked about our preferences. We saw him twice a day on most days and whenever we returned to the cabin, magically everything was refreshed. For me, since I spend little time in the cabin, the only downside of an inside cabin is not being able to see what the weather is like first thing in the morning. This is remedied by, before going to bed, putting the in-cabin TV on the channel which shows the bow camera. Thus at night the screen is dark but in the morning the weather can be observed. Not quite a porthole but cheaper than an outside cabin! The ship is simply magnificent! Generally it is well-signed and easy to get around, with just a few exceptions. Lots of elevators and stairways. Whenever I was not sure how to get somewhere I must have had a quizzical look on my face because a smiling crew member would somehow materialize and direct me! The little pocket map Cunard provides was also very helpful. The amount of public space is amazing. Nothing seems crowded except the Kings Court buffet on occasion and the Promenade Deck deck chairs on warm sea days. On our cruise I was surprised to find that there were 1600 British passengers, 600 American, and 400 miscellaneous (including us! - Canadian). Generally the passengers were friendly and helpful.

Food, always a touchy topic it seems! We had delightful tablemates (two Brits, two Americans) and so ate all of our dinners in the Britannia Dining Room. We found the room impressive, the service excellent and the food varied between very good and excellent. The menu options were more than sufficiently numerous and varied. I sometimes would check out the evening menu on the cabin TV, thus allowing me to take into account earlier in the day what I would likely choose for dinner. I was somewhat apprehensive about the dress code, not because I disapprove, but because some of those who post comments seem obsessed with it. Well, on formal nights I wore a dark suit, white shirt and tie and was never made to feel uncomfortable. I saw very few people who were less formally dressed on the formal nights. It turned out to be a non issue. I did find the 'elegant casual' dress code somewhat bizarre. The vast majority of men wore business suits with dress shirts with no tie and the top button unbuttoned. Rather than look elegant or casual they tended to look like they hadn't quite finished dressing! On these nights the majority of women seemed to wear dressy cocktail (short) dresses (lots of sequins, beading, lame, etc.). I don't think 'elegant casual' works well - maybe they should make those nights 'informal' or else do 'resort casual' allowing, for men, no jacket but dressy resort style shirts. Just a thought. Breakfast we ate mostly in the Britannia. Food was only so-so. I soon realized that if you want your food cooked to order you need to order fried eggs - other options were obviously cooked ahead and kept warm. Also there are roaming servers (as opposed to your table server) with coffee, toast, and pastries. There are many of these and they are continually asking you if you want what they are serving, not knowing, of course, that you have said 'no' to the previous umpteen offers. Not a good system. Also very noisy at breakfast. The maitre d' at breakfast was very annoying. We would ask for a window table if we saw them available and he routinely said none was available! My partner solved the problem by saying that we would wait for one. We then always got one immediately. Bizarre. We typically ate lunch in the dreaded King's Court. I guess I am in a minority here. Given the number of people that they need to feed I think they do a reasonable job. I am not sure how it could be improved and still keep the variety of food, types of food, and wide spread of time over which lunch is available. The food options are very numerous, and were good to excellent (IMHO). Sometimes things got a bit chaotic, but, as someone commented, if you take your tray and walk farther away from the serving areas it is much easier to find a table. We actually were able to find a window table without exception. The staff, I found friendly and helpful. Several times I saw the buspersons(?) helping mobility challenged passengers to a table with their tray. I wouldn't want to have all my meals there but for lunch I found it to be just fine. And there are other alternatives if one can't handle the 'chaos'. Twice we ate lunch in the Golden Lion Pub. The food was excellent pub fare and and it was quiet and not at all chaotic! I agree with Pat that Afternoon Tea was delightful and is served in a number of venues. A limited version is even served to those in deck chairs on the Promenade Deck. We went to only one show and it was disappointing, although the venue was very good. Similarly the planetarium was a great venue but the show we saw was poor - the information was at the second grade level! Loved the Commodore Club, Chart Room and Library - all good places to read during the day. Drinks were fine and surprisingly reasonable in price.

We did excursions in three ports. In St. Kitts we did the scenic railway organized by Cunard (apparently it is not cheaper to do it oneself). It was fine. In Barbados when we exited the ship we walked into the Barbados Tourist Office in the Terminal and they arranged a taxi tour for us with a charming gentleman (Carson) for about 60% of the Cunard price. It was excellent. In St. Lucia we did the private tour organized by Cosol Tours. I had learned about Cosol on Cruise Critic. Cosol (the owners nickname) delivers exactly what he promises. I emailed him a week before the cruise and he emailed back a confirmation and met us after we got off the tender just as promised. If you search on Cruise Critic for 'Cosol' you will find many descriptions of his tour, and he has a website. Definitely recommended. By the way, the tendering process seemed well-organized and allowed wonderful views (and pictures!) of the ship. Unlike Pat we found the crew generally to be very friendly and helpful. If they were not happy they managed to hide it from us.

I was quite concerned about disembarkation as we had a flight from Newark at 11 am! I spoke to a very sympathetic young lady in the Tour Office (they coordinate disembarkation). The upshot was that we carried our luggage off ourselves and she arranged that we were the first ones off the ship. Thus we there was no line-up at US Customs or at the taxi queue. We were off the ship and in a taxi by 8 am, at the Newark airport by 8:45, and at the Gate by 9:15!

A great ship and a great trip. Very few negatives - hated the art(?) that littered the Winter Garden, the tables of cheap jewelery and watches lining the Grand Atrium, Port maps and description which have no information other than for shopping (not of interest to us), and the $27.50 for pictures taken by the Cunard photographer.

[GeorgeW]

"...hated the art(?) that littered the Winter Garden, the tables of cheap jewelery and watches lining the Grand Atrium, Port maps and description which have no information other than for shopping (not of interest to us), and the $27.50 for pictures taken by the Cunard photographer..."

 

I took a photo of one of the ' green olives at play ' pictures just because no one would otherwise believe how awful it looked. HAHA

 

Thank you for mentioning the few things that could be improved.

[inai]

Very nice and informative review on your trip.:)

[Brit and proud]

"Resort casual"....done think that would go down to well on Cunard, I dont know, but do other ships have this...apart from Stelios Orange One that is

 

 

Brian