Dinner Attire in Kings Court

[guernseyguy]

OMG, Guernseyguy, that is a priceless story;

 

Since you enjoyed that one I'll tell you my other 'Mrs Thatcher and the queen story'.

 

In 1983 the US invaded Grenada, of which the queen is head of state. The queen learns of this while listening to BBC Radio 4 over breakfast.

 

Buckingham Palace telephones Downing St: 'The queen will see Mrs Thatcher'. Oh....we don't have anything scheduled, Mrs Thatcher is rather busy'. 'You don't understand. The queen will see Mrs Thatcher'.

 

Thatcher has to drop everything and tear over to Buckingham Palace.

 

She is shown into the audience room. Protocol dictates that once the queen sits, Mrs Thatcher may sit. The queen does not sit. The queen is used to standing for long times at ceremonies. Mrs Thatcher is not. So they stand. For 45 minutes.

 

The queen wants to know how one of her countries has been invaded by Mrs Thatcher's best friend, Ronald Reagan, and how the queen only gets to find out about it from the BBC.

 

Mortified, embarrassed and humiliated Thatcher returns to Downing St and has Reagan - asleep in California - woken in the middle of the night, and as the saying goes, tears him a new one.

 

On the other end of the phone, observers note that all Ronald can get out is 'Yes, Margaret' and 'But, Margaret'. After she hangs up on him, Reagan shakes his head and says 'What a woman!'

 

Quite. But which one?

[VirginCruiser II]

:D :D ;D

 

Gari,

You'll be glad to know that he does not possess a cummerbund (or cumberbund as a friend referred to it many years ago when they were fashionable attire for ladies).

As for the shirts ... he's not a snooker referee but he is a cricket umpire. However, we do leave the white coat at home- although on reading these boards- it could come in useful sometimes. ;)

heywood

 

...but only in the tropics!;)

[VirginCruiser II]

Priceless.

[heywood]

I was thinking more in the lines of..'They're coming to take me away ha, ha!' ... :eek:

[north east girl]

Just to reiterate - it may be worth you booking for any of the a la carte evenings that particularly take your fancy. We booked for the Lotus one evening on our TA in April and had a fabulous meal. Every table was occupied.

Have a great time.

Hi Bispham Boo, How far ahead did you need to book an evening table for Lotus. On our TA in September we never had an evening meal anywhere else only Britannia. On our next trip we will have to try the other venues.

 

Catherine

[Bispham Boo]

Catherine

we booked in the afternoon we wanted to eat there, maybe we were lucky to get a table! I'm jealous that you've already booked another trip. We are considering doing a short trip next year, as my 2 stepsons are keen to try cruising - get 'em in the habit young!

[north east girl]

Catherine

we booked in the afternoon we wanted to eat there, maybe we were lucky to get a table! I'm jealous that you've already booked another trip. We are considering doing a short trip next year, as my 2 stepsons are keen to try cruising - get 'em in the habit young!

I was very surprised that I would like the crossing so much just had to have something to look forward to. I've been looking at a short trip say 4 days, may be able to afford it. Will have to wait and see.

 

How old are your stepsons?

 

Catherine

[Bispham Boo]

They're 18 and 13, the elder one will hopefully be off to university next September so we want to do a big trip before then. Our TA in April this year was our honeymoon, so they weren't on that! :D

[Rivermike]

I was going to disagree with the shoreside representation that only the Chef's Galley required reservations, but since I had never first-hand sought to dine outside the restaurants, I did not want to speak without authority.

 

Please note that the only way to be sure to secure a seat in the alternate restaurants is to call between 10:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m. There is nowhere on board to make a reservation. You will not know which restaurants are open each night until you get the daily news the night before. Just the Cunard Way!

[north east girl]

They're 18 and 13, the elder one will hopefully be off to university next September so we want to do a big trip before then. Our TA in April this year was our honeymoon, so they weren't on that! :D

I'm sure they will enjoy it. You never know it might start a trend, it could end up costing you a lot of money.

 

Catherine

[axelskater]

I'm new to this Board and therefore wish to tread carefully. I must admit, however, to some frustration over yet another query from someone who summarily dismisses the concept of dressing formally, on the QM or presumably at any other time, as suitable only for a high school "prom" or some other juvenile event that a mature traveler has presumably "outgrown" at some point. This attitude seems to pop up regularly on this Board, normally in the form of "I'm too worldly wise to dress formally" or "I'm too busy to dress formally" or "I'm too well traveled to dress formally" or some such nonsense. To say that I disagree utterly with this attitude would be an understatement, and I simply wish to express my position that this attitude is worthy of all the distain that greets it on this Board. There, I said it.

 

Having missed the era of civility in both general manners & dress due to age, I sail on Cunard to get a taste of life when it was the only way to cross, people believed in dressing for dinner, cursing out loud in public was frowned upon, and although life may have not been as convenient, it was perhaps more elegant. Every year & soemtimes twice for the past 5 years, I get to live in a different time for a few weeks. And come back to the conveniences of modern life refreshed. And if people don't like formality then why do they sail on Cunard? No one has ever really answered that question, everyone just seems to squabble over it. There are other lines with great serivce & less formality.

[axelskater]

My partner and I are sailing on QM2 for my 40th in December - 1st time cruisers. I must say, the dresscode is a bit of a tricky one and some of these posts make it sound like there are right fuddy duddy's on board.:p We'll be taking a couple of really dressy outfits (tux and evening dress) and that will be it. My partner's only 37, so a tie is out of the question -no-one wears a tie these days - not if you're under 65 anyway! He'll still look smart nevertheless. We'll be sailing from NY to the Caribbean - when will it start to get warm? Day 2,3?

 

 

I have sailed on QM2 8 times and I am under 40. Are you on the Dec 210 sailing? I am on that one - there is a roll call for it. The Caribbean in general is slightly less formal (daytime) but honestly - on semi formal nights, you will not see people without a tie in the dining room. As of Dec of 08 Caribbean, you will be asked to return to your stateroom for your jacket/ sportcoat on elegant casual nights in the dining room. No matter what people say - Cunard enforces the dress code & they give people advance notice of it.

[KingoftheQueens]

I'm more inclined to the view that it isn't for you.

 

Sir Martin

 

I look forward to meeting you on QE's maiden voyage....., "Sir" Martin

 

Pip-Pip!