En Route to Adelaide, Australia

With two sea days before we reach Adelaide, I’m continuing with my discussion of life at sea on the Queen Elizabeth.

Dining at Sea

There is good news and bad news about food on the ship. The good news is it’s fabulous and available twenty-four hours a day. The bad news is it’s fabulous and available twenty-four hours a day.

We’ve found the food served on the Queen Elizabeth to be the best we’ve had at sea. Trying to counter all the extra calories we have consumed, we are climbing the stairs, walking around the promenade deck, and playing games on the Games (sports) Deck.  We would probably have to walk day and night to stay at the same weight. I think it’s going to be a losing (or perhaps I should say a “gaining”) battle. We’ll see how successful we’ll be.

The menus vary a lot and the selection of food is frequently based on the countries we are visiting. One exception was the menu for the Burn’s Night celebrations. January 25 is the birthday of Robert Burns, the great Scottish poet. That evening, haggis and many other Scottish specialties were featured on the menu. The entertainment that evening included lots of traditional Scottish songs and dancing of the Gay Gordon.

The Queen Elizabeth provides a number of places to eat. The dining rooms (Britannia, Britannia Club, Princess Grill, and Queen’s Grill, depending on your cabin assignment) are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For less formal dining, a buffet in the Lido is open 24-hours a day. Snack bars on the deck provide fast food. Afternoon tea is available throughout the ship but more formally in the Queen’s Room where waiters bring teapots to your table and platters of sandwiches, cakes, pastries and scones to select from (to the sound of harp music). And if all that isn’t enough, 24-hour room service is available.

One couple told us that they eat all their meals in the dining room because it forces portion control on them. Maybe, but it would also mean spending a lot of time ordering and waiting for your meals. Time versus portion control? Hmm. We may have to give that some thought. We have breakfast and lunch at the buffet with far too many things to select from.

One of the chefs behind the buffet line asked if we were enjoying the food and was there anything we would like to see that we haven’t seen already. They really want you to be happy with the food. John mentioned that he would like to see fried bread at breakfast (it’s a British thing). He told John to ask someone behind the counter for it and they would make it for him. The next day at lunch, the chef asked if we had been able to get the fried bread at breakfast. I was amazed that he even remembered the request, or me for that matter. The next day John asked for it, and they fixed it for him, much to his delight (and the possible dismay of his cardiologist).

In the Lido, you have the option of getting your beverage or waiting for a cart brought around by a waiter who will serve coffee and tea at your table. I’ve not seen this done on ship before, but I’m sure it cuts down on the number of people spilling their beverages when the ship sways.

Lido Seating Area Set Up for Dinner

For our evening meal in the dining room we have an assigned table, which we share with a couple of retired college professors from California and a couple from Worthing, England (on the Brighton Line). If you’ve ever seen the play/movie “The Importance of Being Ernest,” you’ll understand why that got a good laugh. We discovered that we had been on the 2008 QE2 world voyage with the couple from Worthing. We shared some funny memories of that trip, including that of the well endowed woman who walked around the ship and hot Easter Island in a bright orange jumpsuit and a fur coat, the man they put off the ship on Easter Island for his outrageous behavior, rumors of fights in the laundry room, etc. It shows that you never know when you are going to run into someone you’ve met before and that you might go home in someone’s bank of memories. When I return home I plan to post the log I kept of the 2008 trip.

The Queen Elizabeth does not have a midnight buffet. It’s just as well since most of the passengers are in bed by that time. Food is available in the Lido 24 hours a day, so anyone who wants a snack at midnight can find it there. However, in each segment of the voyage they have a grand afternoon tea with beautifully displayed desserts.

The Verandah Restaurant is an alterative dining area, serving French cuisine all sourced from France. Dining there requires a reservation and a fee. To celebrate Valentine’s Day and the 42^nd anniversary of our meeting on that day, we had a lovely dinner there. It was very formal French dining but made relaxing by two of the assistant waiters we’ve seen working in other areas of the ship. They were so cute, obviously learning to be quite proper in their service, but at the same time with a glint in their eyes that showed they were having fun—kind of like playing grownup. They gave me a long-stemmed red rose and brought us white chocolate that had “Happy Anniversary” written on it in dark chocolate. The dinner was fabulous, and we had a wonderful evening. It made for a memorable anniversary celebration.

Valentine’s Day/Anniversary Celebration Dinner