"Live from" Queen Elizabeth to the Mediterannean! My First Cunard Experience

[lovely_serenity]

You all look great for formal night.

 

Haha thank you! (:

 

Food looks good especially the vanilla lemon soufflé with the limoncello sauce.

 

Indeed, I thought the soufflé was wonderful!

[lovely_serenity]

I've never been on a Cunard cruise where only 30% of the men wore dinner jackets on a formal night.

We were on QE a few weeks before you and I would have said it was closer to 90% on our trip.

 

Ahh, I mean that it was formal night, and so only 30% of men wore TUXEDOS, the rest of them more regular suit jackets. Basically all the men were wearing some sort of dinner jacket or another!

[Host Hattie]

Ahh, I mean that it was formal night, and so only 30% of men wore TUXEDOS, the rest of them more regular suit jackets. Basically all the men were wearing some sort of dinner jacket or another!

 

So what differentiates a Tuxedo from a dinner jacket ?

 

(Over here they are the same thing as far as I know - having said that I don't wear one !)

[melody hounddog]

Hi Sarah

 

I am enjoying your review very much. Love all the wonderful pictures of Rome, the ship and the food. All your photos are wonderful. Thanks for taking so many of them.

 

I have never been on Cunard but am eager to try it out. Especially for a transatlantic. You photos make me feel we would fit right in.

 

We primarily cruise on Princess. I see that you have tried many different cruise lines. I am curious to know which one is your favorite line and why?

 

Thanks.

[lovely_serenity]

So what differentiates a Tuxedo from a dinner jacket ?

 

(Over here they are the same thing as far as I know - having said that I don't wear one !)

 

A tuxedo is this kind of jacket with the high up lapels and shiny fabric:

 

 

A regular suit (dinner) jacket is not as shiny and has a different kind of lapel/collar thing:

 

 

*Correction on my end: There were actually quite a few men who wore tuxedo jackets, but not all men wore tuxedo dress shirts. They just wore regular dress shirts and a bowtie to pretend.

 

Tuxedo dress shirts have buttons, collars and a different material on the chest part like this:

 

 

and regular dress shirts have a collar like this:

 

[alibabacruisers]

go to "user CP" at the top title for Cruise Critic on first page, then go to Edit Options, then go to "Thread display options", then uncheck "show images". The pictures will not download when you view the thread. Instead, there will be a link to each picture which you can simply click and quickly see the picture that was posted. This really helped me a lot. I assume this will also prevent pictures from downloading on all threads, but sometimes they don't anyway, and you have to click on a link. I am not computer savvy, so not sure why some pictures download and others don't, but for this thread it really helps the viewing time.

 

Penny :)

 

P.S. Sarah: I enjoy your posts, especially the one about the HAL Volendam!

 

Thanks for the tip!

[pmb1]

So what differentiates a Tuxedo from a dinner jacket ?

 

(Over here they are the same thing as far as I know - having said that I don't wear one !)

Let's continue to keep it simple: two different terms describing the same garment - Tuxedo (American English) and dinner jacket (British English).

 

If you really want to start a sartorial spat try ranting about notch vs shawl jacket collars, or wing vs lay down shirt collars, or cummerbunds vs vests. But I hope you don't.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hi Sarah

Our flights were cancelled so -- no cruise. Spent yesterday trying to clear up the mess.

There are also white dinner jackets (as well as ivory and other colors). DH used to have a white one.

Check out this site:

http://www.finetuxedos.com/tuxedos/mens-dinner-jackets.html?utm_source=microsoft&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=white%20dinner%20jackets&utm_content=1562529053&utm_campaign=Dinner%20Jackets

[lovely_serenity]

By this time, we could see that Sis was starting to doze off. We left the restaurant, passed by this alcohol display (there were many scattered around the ship):

 

 

And arrived in our respective rooms. This was sitting on the bed:

 

 

I put it on the vanity to check out later and Sis napped for a little while. I noticed that they had this displayed on our televisions as well!

 

 

Everyone who needed to go to the bathroom did, and Sis slept until it was almost show time. Tonight’s show was called “la Danza”. Although Sis slept through most of it, I quite enjoyed it! We arrived at theatre 15 minutes before the show was supposed to start, but it was already packed. All of the box seats were sealed off because it was one of the “pay for special treatment” nights. We couldn’t find a seat on the higher level, so we were going to go downstairs to find one. While we were on our way out, a staff member asked us if we wanted to sit in the booths. Somewhat confused, our faces told them that we were not interested in purchasing the special treatment packages (LOL), and so that was why he added to his question “they’re free”. We gladly accepted and made our way to our 3rd favourite seats (closest to the stage). Since they couldn't sell them and the show starting shortly, they gave them to us for free. How nice :-) Soon enough, the show started. (Sis already passed out LOL).

 

Here are the pictures I took of the show:

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

 

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

 

It was basically an hour or so of different kinds of dance. It was quite impressive. Something I noticed midway through, was the fact that all of the music was performed live by a band:

 

 

Impressive, right? No backtracks whatsoever!

 

 

 

 

The performance itself was quite well done. After the show ended, I woke Sis up and we exited the theatre. We passed by the Queen’s Room and saw that the Cunard Ball was taking place:

 

[capnpugwash]

This is wonderful, we are already at day 2/3 of the cruise and it has only taken 3 months and 335 posts to reach this point.

[cunardaddict]

This is wonderful, we are already at day 2/3 of the cruise and it has only taken 3 months and 335 posts to reach this point.

 

A cruise to be remembered for are lifetime :D

[lovely_serenity]

This is wonderful, we are already at day 2/3 of the cruise and it has only taken 3 months and 335 posts to reach this point.

I know, right?

[Shallwe123]

This is wonderful, we are already at day 2/3 of the cruise and it has only taken 3 months and 335 posts to reach this point.

 

Indeed, our cruise in September was one which we will never forget - loved the ship and met fabulous friends onboard. Sarah, keep it going because if I don't hear from you for a couple of days - I feel very sad... And get withdrawal symptoms... Thank you for keeping the dream alive x

[lovely_serenity]

Splendid photos Sarah, lovin it so far :)

The photo below is of a meal I had on the QE that contained snails :confused:.

It was recommended by our waiter on the guarantee that if I didn't

like it I could change it.

 

 

 

Haha, thank you very much! (: Oo, I actually had that! The escargots were actually quite good! Mine looked very similar to that one! (Great photo by the way ;))

[lovely_serenity]

Hi Sarah

Loving everything.

Trying to catch up.

Will be doing a lot of catching up in the middle of March IF our flights aren't cancelled on Friday due to major ice/snow storms.

 

Hi! :) I'm very happy to hear that! Where are you flying to?

[lovely_serenity]

Hi Sarah

 

I am enjoying your review very much. Love all the wonderful pictures of Rome, the ship and the food. All your photos are wonderful. Thanks for taking so many of them.

 

I have never been on Cunard but am eager to try it out. Especially for a transatlantic. You photos make me feel we would fit right in.

 

We primarily cruise on Princess. I see that you have tried many different cruise lines. I am curious to know which one is your favorite line and why?

 

Thanks.

Hi! :)

 

That is wonderful! I'm pleased to hear that you're enjoying it. ^^

 

Oo, I think you'd enjoy it. The general atmosphere is unlike any other ship I've sailed before.

 

Oh, that is a wonderful question. I was hoping someone would ask that! I have SO much to say LOL.

 

Well personally, I've preferred Disney/Celebrity/Holland.

 

In regards to Disney, if nothing has changed since I last sailed, the food was by far some of the best I've ever had at sea, the atmosphere is relaxing and cheerful, I love Disney (LOL), and it has literally the best evening shows I have ever seen on a ship. They are Broadway level. The production value for the musicals and whatnot aren't cheap LOL. The presence of kids was also not too noticable. It might've been because they were all in the kid's club.

 

For Celebrity, I am actually a little unsure of whether or not we were just lucky or something, but we sailed during the last season of one of the ships that eventually got sold to some other European company. Anyways, this was one, if not the best cruise we had ever had. The food was amazing, the service was impecable (mainly due to our amazing waiter/assistant waiter), the atmosphere was relaxed and sophisticated, and the shows were pretty good. I'm not sure if that has changed, because recently, Celebrity has developped a more "adult party" theme instead of the relaxed, sophisticated feel I got.

 

For HAL, I thought the food was sometimes hit and miss, but there were a lot more hits than misses. I recall quite a few good dishes and only a few gross ones (LOL). It also had quite the relaxed, comfortable atmosphere (that obviously, you can see that I prefer ^^), and awesome ice cream c:

 

For me, my priorities are set as food, then everything else can vary :P because how I see it, service is usually pretty good on cruises, so I shouldn't have to worry about that. Shows are usually pretty good and can sometimes be hit and miss, usually hit. I like bigger ships because they rock less and there are more amenities. And atmosphere is quite important to me too. I dislike noisy, crowded, rowdy people/areas, so as you could probably tell, I'd normally pick a calmer, more adult atmosphere over a noisy family/party ship any day. So the only factor that really sets cruises apart from each other (for me at least) is the food.

 

I hope that helps c:

[lovely_serenity]

Hi Sarah

Our flights were cancelled so -- no cruise. Spent yesterday trying to clear up the mess.

There are also white dinner jackets (as well as ivory and other colors). DH used to have a white one.

Check out this site:

http://www.finetuxedos.com/tuxedos/mens-dinner-jackets.html?utm_source=microsoft&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=white%20dinner%20jackets&utm_content=1562529053&utm_campaign=Dinner%20Jackets

Oh no! Why? What happened? :( that's terrible! What was the cruise that was planned?

[lovely_serenity]

A cruise to be remembered for are lifetime :D

 

Right? :D :D

 

Indeed, our cruise in September was one which we will never forget - loved the ship and met fabulous friends onboard. Sarah, keep it going because if I don't hear from you for a couple of days - I feel very sad... And get withdrawal symptoms... Thank you for keeping the dream alive x

LOL aw that's so nice! :D I try to update it as frequently as my schedule can allow, but I am still trying my best! I will work hard to feed your need of Sarah blogging :p

Edited February 18, 2014 by lovely_serenity

[lovely_serenity]

Some more pictures I took of the Cunard Ball: (tonight’s theme was Cunard Ball, so the suggested dress code that apparently nobody follows, was supposed to be :

 

“Formal Wear.

Gentlemen – Tuxedos,

Ladies – Evening gown.

Appropriate black and white gowns and accessories”.

 

The theme description: A Cunard tradition and the first Royal Event of the voyage. Includes the classic “Officers Gavotte” dance.

 

 

 

Once we were done watching the people dancing, we headed to the atrium to take some pictures (which you saw earlier, the ones of our attire.) We then returned to our rooms to change into more casual wear for our late night snack at the Lido. (I don’t know why, but I have a picture of Mom & Dad’s room):

 

 

Anyways, Sis passed out onto our bed as soon as we got there, so we just left her there and went to eat by ourselves LOL.

 

We then headed to the stairwell and went up one floor. I got a glass of milk:

 

 

And an ice cream cone:

 

 

For the first chunk of our cruise, they only had these teeny tiny baby sugar cones (which could hold like, a squirt of ice cream). They later replaced them with normal ice cream cones you’d find at McDonalds (except lighter, thinner and more breakable LOL).

 

There was also this pasta station that was tonight’s featured display next to the buffet area:

 

 

Dad loves pasta.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Oh no! Why? What happened? :( that's terrible! What was the cruise that was planned?

 

Those of us living on the east coast of US have been experiencing massive snow storms for the better part of the last month. As a result thousands of flights were cancelled just as we were about to fly to Tampa -- ours among them. Even though we had always go 2 or 3 days before embarkation, many airports were closed for the better part of 5 days. There was no way the airline could get us to Tampa in time to catch our cruise. Thank heavens for insurance.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am surprised the ball wasn't more crowded than that.

[lovely_serenity]

Those of us living on the east coast of US have been experiencing massive snow storms for the better part of the last month. As a result thousands of flights were cancelled just as we were about to fly to Tampa -- ours among them. Even though we had always go 2 or 3 days before embarkation, many airports were closed for the better part of 5 days. There was no way the airline could get us to Tampa in time to catch our cruise. Thank heavens for insurance.

 

Oh my goodness, that's unfortunate. Actually, I believe a week ago, we on the West coast of Canada were supposedly due to have some sort of freak snow storm! I knew it was a current coming from the States, but I had no idea that the east coast was getting hit as well! Good on you for having insurance though. What cruise was it supposed to be?

[Victoria2]

Oh my goodness, that's unfortunate. Actually, I believe a week ago, we on the West coast of Canada were supposedly due to have some sort of freak snow storm! I knew it was a current coming from the States, but I had no idea that the east coast was getting hit as well! Good on you for having insurance though. What cruise was it supposed to be?

 

The weather on the east coast has been headline news around the world.