OzKiwiJJ Goes Posh!

[OzKiwiJJ]

9 minutes ago, Mareblu said:

Queen Victoria, being identical to Elizabeth, would be wonderful.  It's a great sadness that Cunard will no longer be doing an Australian/New Zealand season, although I suppose there is not the variety of itineraries that the northern hemisphere offers, so Cunard would be aware there would be fewer return guests.

They might come back in a few more years. With Melbourne seemingly out of action and Sydney desperately needing another cruise terminal east of the bridge they may have decided it's not worth it at the moment. Still, I guess they are able to keep their ships filled without Aussies onboard. Maybe we're too casual for Cunard? 🤔🙄🤣

[OzKiwiJJ]

10 minutes ago, Mareblu said:

Grilled octopus, when marinated and cooked to "al dente" tenderness, is exquisite.  No different to calamari.  My father was a keen fisherman, and when first spotting calamari (octopus, after all) on a menu, he declared that it should only be used for bait.  After he tried some of my dish, he never looked back, and ordered it whenever he could.  Old perceptions and biases die hard.

The main difference is that calamari is usually served as nice inoffensive rings, or in pieces. A whole octopus tentacle can be a bit confronting for some people. Mind you, even squid tentacles can be off-putting to some. Many, many years ago I was in the US with my ex and we ordered some salt and pepper squid as a shared appetiser. My ex refused to eat the "wiggly bits"! 🤣 They were the best parts. ☺️

[Mareblu]

5 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

They might come back in a few more years. With Melbourne seemingly out of action and Sydney desperately needing another cruise terminal east of the bridge they may have decided it's not worth it at the moment. Still, I guess they are able to keep their ships filled without Aussies onboard. Maybe we're too casual for Cunard? 🤔🙄🤣

I think the real reason is the stringent bio-foul inspection requirements for iconic spots in NZ waters.  Cunard apparently attends to QE's hull cleaning after the Aust/NZ season, so wouldn't want to attend to it before as well.  

[OzKiwiJJ]

46 minutes ago, Mareblu said:

I think the real reason is the stringent bio-foul inspection requirements for iconic spots in NZ waters.  Cunard apparently attends to QE's hull cleaning after the Aust/NZ season, so wouldn't want to attend to it before as well.  

Good point but I don't think it's the only reason.

 

Of course, realistically we only have a limited number of possible itineraries, most of which involve some sea days. The Australian ports are few and far between. NZ has a good selection of ports but getting there and back either involves too many sea days or a one way flight and cruise.

[Mareblu]

10 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Good point but I don't think it's the only reason.

 

Of course, realistically we only have a limited number of possible itineraries, most of which involve some sea days. The Australian ports are few and far between. NZ has a good selection of ports but getting there and back either involves too many sea days or a one way flight and cruise.

Yes. I agree with those observations as well.

[resordanis]

Really enjoying reading your review. Making me wish I had chosen this cruise over our upcoming Majestic Princess one. We have done 3 longish cruises on the current 3 Queens and love the library on all 3 for that length of time. I have to say that QE was our least favourite,  but after reading your review, I wish we had tried again. Have never done the Grills, so a little envious.  The only time we were going try The Grills our cruise was cancelled the night before due to Covid. Thanks again for letting us join your journey.

Edited January 28 by resordanis

[FeebeeH]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The upper level of the library.

 

 

The spiral staircase in the library.

 

What a marvellous looking library, so inviting to curl up in a comfy chair with book in hand.  I'm loving your report and will be dropping big hints to my husband about sailing on Cunard.  I originally come from the UK so if we miss out on a cruise when they no longer sail from Australia I could take one from Southhampton & have the opportunity to visit family......

[OzKiwiJJ]

34 minutes ago, resordanis said:

Really enjoying reading your review. Making me wish I had chosen this cruise over our upcoming Majestic Princess one. We have done 3 longish cruises on the current 3 Queens and love the library on all 3 for that length of time. I have to say that QE was our least favourite,  but after reading your review, I wish we had tried again. Have never done the Grills, so a little envious.  The only time we were going try The Grills our cruise was cancelled the night before due to Covid. Thanks again for letting us join your journey.

This was our first Cunard cruise and we found QE very comfortable but, of course, we haven't tried the other Queens. Grills was amazing. We've cruised on two luxury lines - Crystal and Regent - and the Cunard Grills experience topped both of those. Plus you have all the benefits of being on a bigger ship than most of the luxury lines - a proper theatre for starters.  

[OzKiwiJJ]

Day 6 - Hobart.

 

Finally we've managed to be in Hobart on a Saturday again and it's not raining this time. Of course Saturday is Salamander Market day!

 

I didn't feel like much breakfast, I was still recovering from dinner, so just had berries and toast. Thank goodness they had Vegemite which, to me, is the perfect tummy settler. They had quite a nice multi-grain bread but it was a bit over-toasted. Still, it went OK with lots of butter and Vegemite. 

 

After breakfast we got our wallets out of our safe and head off to the markets. It's a very pleasant walk to them. First we went past a whole lot of new restaurants that had opened in the ground level of a hotel that I think opened just before or just after the pandemic. Unfortunately none of them had their menus on display on the wharf-side walkway but some looked interesting. We hit the markets around the mid-point and turned left. They have grown immensely since we last went there in 2015. There was some great stuff for sale but we managed to get around half the market without being tempted. Then we broke off into a lovely plaza for a comfort break and refreshments at a cafe where we could sit down for a while. I had a fairly nice iced latte although given the size of the glass it was served in it really needed a double shot  of coffee as it only had a very mild coffee flavour. Still, it was refreshing. 

 

We headed back to the market and carried on from where we'd left off for our break. We spotted a stand that had some very interesting gins and liqueurs. I tasted the raspberry gin and really liked it, also the coffee liqueur, and the citrus liqueur which is made as a byproduct of their gin process. We bought those three but passed on the gin made from Carolina Reaper chillies! They wisely didn't offer tastings of that one but did have a milder chilli gin to taste.

 

A bit further along I spotted a stand that had some interesting earrings. Dangles made of coloured metal in various shapes so I bought three pairs - different colours and different shapes on each pair.

 

We made it to the upper end of then started back down the other side. I spotted a truffle stand - the truffle products brand of the truffle farm we'd passed on the Burnie excursion. They had truffle mustard so I bought some. I used to get truffle mustard years ago but it became harder to find so I haven't had any for ages. 

 

We eventually made it back to our starting point and it was definitely time for lunch. I recalled going to a really nice fish restaurant nearby in 2019. Blue Eye Fish had survived the pandemic so we went there. Oops, big mistake, there goes the budget again! They had local crayfish (lobster) on the menu, offered two ways - one hot in a Thermidor sauce, the other cold with a seafood sauce. Oh oh! I love cold lobster. It always tastes far nicer to me just boiled and chilled. And it was perfect. The nicest and freshest crayfish I've had since 2007 - that time it was from Nins Bins just north of Kaikoura in NZ and had just been caught and cooked. This one must have been just caught and cooked immediately too as the leg meat came out perfectly cleanly - that's a good test of how fresh a crayfish is. BTW it's interesting how Tasmania, Victoria and NZ all call them crayfish although they are actually rock lobsters. Luckily it was a reasonable walk back to the ship as we need to walk off that beautiful lunch. Rolf is going to have to lock me in our cabin on our upcoming Virgin cruise otherwise I'll be heading straight back to Blue Eye Fish hoping to encounter some more crayfish. 🤣

 

Tonight was the second Gala night with a Roaring 20s theme. I had gone through my kaftan collection and found one that had a vague art deco pattern in blues, turquoise, and purples. I found a sparkly headband on Amazon, then took my dress to Spotlight where I found a feather boa that was an exact match for one of the blues, and some feathers that matched the turquoise and purples. I modified the headband removing the white ribbons that came with it and replacing them with clear plastic elastic so I could hide it under my hair. Then I stuck some feathers behind the main piece of the headband. I was very pleased with the way it came out. Rolf wore his blue dinner jacket which wasn’t strictly 20’s attire but toned well with my outfit. Unfortunately we missed sailaway as we were showering and changing. It always takes a little longer on formal nights.

 

With this attire what else could we have as our predinner cocktail but a martini. Cunard have lovely Riedel martini glasses, a bit bigger than a standard martini glass but much easier to drink from as it has a slightly curved rim so the martini doesn't slosh over it. 

 

I have completely forgotten what we had as an appetiser. It was off the always available list and we chose it because it sounded nice and light. We followed that with a consomme Royale which was (barely) truffle scented and very enjoyable. We chose venison from the always available list and that was delicious as well. I decided to try the chilled cinnamon rice pudding but our wonderful waiter had me sussed by now and also served me the iced Grand Marnier parfait with an orange and olive oil cake. The rice pudding was nice but the parfait/cake was superb.

 

We finally made it to one of the shows. This one was Palladium, inspired by the London Palladium show. The performers were excellent and there were some very beautiful dance routines. It was one of the best cruise ship shows we've ever seen. After the show we headed up intending to finish off the night in the Commodore's Club but ended up watching some karaoke instead. A couple of the singers were amazing. Thank goodness we had a sea day as it was after midnight when we got back to our cabin.

[OzKiwiJJ]

My attempt at a 20's look!

 

[Mareblu]

13 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Day 6 - Hobart.

 

Finally we've managed to be in Hobart on a Saturday again and it's not raining this time. Of course Saturday is Salamander Market day!

 

I didn't feel like much breakfast, I was still recovering from dinner, so just had berries and toast. Thank goodness they had Vegemite which, to me, is the perfect tummy settler. They had quite a nice multi-grain bread but it was a bit over-toasted. Still, it went OK with lots of butter and Vegemite. 

 

After breakfast we got our wallets out of our safe and head off to the markets. It's a very pleasant walk to them. First we went past a whole lot of new restaurants that had opened in the ground level of a hotel that I think opened just before or just after the pandemic. Unfortunately none of them had their menus on display on the wharf-side walkway but some looked interesting. We hit the markets around the mid-point and turned left. They have grown immensely since we last went there in 2015. There was some great stuff for sale but we managed to get around half the market without being tempted. Then we broke off into a lovely plaza for a comfort break and refreshments at a cafe where we could sit down for a while. I had a fairly nice iced latte although given the size of the glass it was served in it really needed a double shot  of coffee as it only had a very mild coffee flavour. Still, it was refreshing. 

 

We headed back to the market and carried on from where we'd left off for our break. We spotted a stand that had some very interesting gins and liqueurs. I tasted the raspberry gin and really liked it, also the coffee liqueur, and the citrus liqueur which is made as a byproduct of their gin process. We bought those three but passed on the gin made from Carolina Reaper chillies! They wisely didn't offer tastings of that one but did have a milder chilli gin to taste.

 

A bit further along I spotted a stand that had some interesting earrings. Dangles made of coloured metal in various shapes so I bought three pairs - different colours and different shapes on each pair.

 

We made it to the upper end of then started back down the other side. I spotted a truffle stand - the truffle products brand of the truffle farm we'd passed on the Burnie excursion. They had truffle mustard so I bought some. I used to get truffle mustard years ago but it became harder to find so I haven't had any for ages. 

 

We eventually made it back to our starting point and it was definitely time for lunch. I recalled going to a really nice fish restaurant nearby in 2019. Blue Eye Fish had survived the pandemic so we went there. Oops, big mistake, there goes the budget again! They had local crayfish (lobster) on the menu, offered two ways - one hot in a Thermidor sauce, the other cold with a seafood sauce. Oh oh! I love cold lobster. It always tastes far nicer to me just boiled and chilled. And it was perfect. The nicest and freshest crayfish I've had since 2007 - that time it was from Nins Bins just north of Kaikoura in NZ and had just been caught and cooked. This one must have been just caught and cooked immediately too as the leg meat came out perfectly cleanly - that's a good test of how fresh a crayfish is. BTW it's interesting how Tasmania, Victoria and NZ all call them crayfish although they are actually rock lobsters. Luckily it was a reasonable walk back to the ship as we need to walk off that beautiful lunch. Rolf is going to have to lock me in our cabin on our upcoming Virgin cruise otherwise I'll be heading straight back to Blue Eye Fish hoping to encounter some more crayfish. 🤣

 

Tonight was the second Gala night with a Roaring 20s theme. I had gone through my kaftan collection and found one that had a vague art deco pattern in blues, turquoise, and purples. I found a sparkly headband on Amazon, then took my dress to Spotlight where I found a feather boa that was an exact match for one of the blues, and some feathers that matched the turquoise and purples. I modified the headband removing the white ribbons that came with it and replacing them with clear plastic elastic so I could hide it under my hair. Then I stuck some feathers behind the main piece of the headband. I was very pleased with the way it came out. Rolf wore his blue dinner jacket which wasn’t strictly 20’s attire but toned well with my outfit. Unfortunately we missed sailaway as we were showering and changing. It always takes a little longer on formal nights.

 

With this attire what else could we have as our predinner cocktail but a martini. Cunard have lovely Riedel martini glasses, a bit bigger than a standard martini glass but much easier to drink from as it has a slightly curved rim so the martini doesn't slosh over it. 

 

I have completely forgotten what we had as an appetiser. It was off the always available list and we chose it because it sounded nice and light. We followed that with a consomme Royale which was (barely) truffle scented and very enjoyable. We chose venison from the always available list and that was delicious as well. I decided to try the chilled cinnamon rice pudding but our wonderful waiter had me sussed by now and also served me the iced Grand Marnier parfait with an orange and olive oil cake. The rice pudding was nice but the parfait/cake was superb.

 

We finally made it to one of the shows. This one was Palladium, inspired by the London Palladium show. The performers were excellent and there were some very beautiful dance routines. It was one of the best cruise ship shows we've ever seen. After the show we headed up intending to finish off the night in the Commodore's Club but ended up watching some karaoke instead. A couple of the singers were amazing. Thank goodness we had a sea day as it was after midnight when we got back to our cabin.

Another marvellous review, Julie.  Thank you.

[Mareblu]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

My attempt at a 20's look!

 

Perfect!

[resordanis]

21 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

This was our first Cunard cruise and we found QE very comfortable but, of course, we haven't tried the other Queens. Grills was amazing. We've cruised on two luxury lines - Crystal and Regent - and the Cunard Grills experience topped both of those. Plus you have all the benefits of being on a bigger ship than most of the luxury lines - a proper theatre for starters.  

 

21 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

This was our first Cunard cruise and we found QE very comfortable but, of course, we haven't tried the other Queens. Grills was amazing. We've cruised on two luxury lines - Crystal and Regent - and the Cunard Grills experience topped both of those. Plus you have all the benefits of being on a bigger ship than most of the luxury lines - a proper theatre for starters.  

Yes, the theatre is great and love the Royal Boxes too.The shows were also very good as were the guest speakers. Glad you enjoyed your holiday!

[Cbtours]

44 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

My attempt at a 20's look!

 

You look awesome ! Well done

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, Cbtours said:

You look awesome ! Well done

You should have seen some of the gorgeous dresses worn by those who were slim enough to wear them. Stunning!

[Cbtours]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

You should have seen some of the gorgeous dresses worn by those who were slim enough to wear them. Stunning!

Its nice when people make the effort 

[arxcards]

7 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Good point but I don't think it's the only reason.

 

Of course, realistically we only have a limited number of possible itineraries, most of which involve some sea days. The Australian ports are few and far between. NZ has a good selection of ports but getting there and back either involves too many sea days or a one way flight and cruise.

I am a bit surprised, as they are adding another ship to their fleet. There are lots of bits to it. Add the cost of international flights for those from the UK that would usually make up the numbers, post covid jitters from those that believe that Ruby Princess caused it, cost of living and a general slump in our cruise numbers.

 

Great review too. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

16 hours ago, arxcards said:

I am a bit surprised, as they are adding another ship to their fleet. There are lots of bits to it. Add the cost of international flights for those from the UK that would usually make up the numbers, post covid jitters from those that believe that Ruby Princess caused it, cost of living and a general slump in our cruise numbers.

 

Great review too. 

But even with the new ship they'll only have four ships in their fleet. Two of those are relatively small at around 2000 lower berths, QM2 has just under 2700 lower berths, and their new ship has just under 3000 lower berths. 

 

I suspect there are a lot of factors that affected their decision to stop homeporting in Australia.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Day 7 - At Sea.

 

I didn't sleep all that well so was a bit grumpy when the alarm went off. If it hadn't been my brand new phone it might have ended up overboard! 🤣

 

I had my usual breakfast of berries, fried eggs and hash browns. Our waiters are great at providing me with very strong tea for breakfast and I really needed it this morning. 

 

Trivia was in the Garden Room this morning. We were lucky to get a table but it wasn't our morning for trivia, we had the worst score of our whole cruise. We went back to our cabin to find the dreaded luggage cover over the bed. I guess we need to do some packing! We had just enough time to pack up all our dirty laundry before lunch. It fitted perfectly in one of our overnight bags, which we usually use for shoes.

 

For lunch I started with an intriguing sounding dish - cucumber pannacotta with citrus cured salmon. Although it was a lovely, refreshing appetiser, the pannacotta had very little cucumber flavour and was just a tad too firm but the creaminess complemented the salmon beautifully. Then I had the crispy fish tacos. I expected crispy fish in a soft tortilla but what I got was a crispy bowl (but not the usual hard taco shell) filled with a tasty fish mix. I finished with a very nice creme caramel with vanilla bean mousse and plum compote.

 

We headed back to our cabin with the intention of completing our packing before afternoon trivial but I was feeling so tired I had a snooze instead. Luckily I woke up in time and thank goodness for the espresso machine in our cabin. I needed a booster to get me trivia-ready.

 

We joined up with another couple for trivia. The questions were a lot trickier than previous trivia sessions so although we scored reasonable well for us we didn't think it would be a top score. Much to our surprise we were first equal with another team. The trivia host only had one tie-breaker which, unfortunately, was a question that had been used in an earlier trivia session so both teams got it correct. So we were joint winners which was fine by us. ☺️

 

Unfortunately we really did have to finish the packing before dinner, as well as showering and changing. It took us a bit longer than we'd intended so we had to skip our pre-dinner cocktail. We had the escargots to start with. They were nice but needed a bit more garlic, after all escargots are just an excuse to indulge in lots of garlic butter! We both chose the Rack of Rare Breed Lamb which was lovely and seemed slightly different to the lamb we'd had earlier in the cruise. They never said what the rare breed was though. We had pre-ordered the Crepes Suzette for dessert and they were delicious. The sauce was made at the table and the crepes finished in it. It had just the right balance of citrus, mostly orange (zest, juice and flambeed Grand Marnier) but with a sneaky hint of lemon zest as well.

 

Diego had found another Amaro for us to try so we adjourned to the Grills Lounge for a final nightcap. This Amaro was a lighter one than some of the ones we'd had before, quite different to the one we'd had a couple of nights ago. 

 

We got to bed later than we intended and we needed to have a reasonably early start as breakfast would finish at 8:30am.

[OzKiwiJJ]

The entrance to the Golden Lion Pub.

 

 

It's hard to believe this pub is on a cruise ship!

 

 

The entrance to the Grills Lounge.

 

 

The view from the Grills Lounge. The loungers and chairs had just been packed up for the night.

 

[Cbtours]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The entrance to the Golden Lion Pub.

 

 

It's hard to believe this pub is on a cruise ship!

 

 

The entrance to the Grills Lounge.

 

 

The view from the Grills Lounge. The loungers and chairs had just been packed up for the night.

 

Every corner pub in northern England seemed to be called the golden lion lol

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 minute ago, Cbtours said:

Every corner pub in northern England seemed to be called the golden lion lol

That's interesting. I don't recall seeing a Golden Lion pub on our big UK trip in 2013 but I do recall seeing lots of Red Lions.

[Cbtours]

Just now, OzKiwiJJ said:

That's interesting. I don't recall seeing a Golden Lion pub on our big UK trip in 2013 but I do recall seeing lots of Red Lions.

Maybe it was more peculiar to where I lived in Manchester 😁

[Cbtours]

Just now, Cbtours said:

Maybe it was more peculiar to where I lived in Manchester 😁

But it’s true there were plenty of red lions too

[OzKiwiJJ]

Day 8 - Disembarkation

 

The alarm went off far too early! It didn't take us long to get dressed and pack the last of our bits and pieces in our carry-ons. Although we had been issued with the usual disembarkation luggage tags we had no idea what time slot our Light Blue 1 was. Not that it bothered us as we never rush off as soon as the group is called and we could always wait in the Grills Lounge if necessary. As it happened our group was called just as we were going up to breakfast. Tough! I'm having my brekkie first!

 

I had hoped to have Eggs Benedict again but the menu on disembarkation day was limited so they weren't available. So I just had my usual, berries followed by fried eggs and hash browns, and one last pain au chocolate. 

 

Sadly we left the Princess Grills MDR for the last time and went straight down to disembark. Since this was a domestic cruise it was all very easy, just find the bags and head out to the pick-up area to call an Uber, which came very quickly. We were home by 9am. 

 

Much to our amusement as we reached the bottom of the escalator in the OPT the lady standing there took one look at our carry-ons and said "I know where your bags are!" We do have a very distinct logo hand-painted on all our luggage. That came in very useful at an airport once as someone tried to make off with one of our bags. Luckily one of the security guys spotted us standing waiting for the missing bag and also spotted someone else with a bag with that logo. The guy who took it still tried to insist it was his bag until the security guy pointed out our other bags.

 

We just dumped our bags in our spare room. We had to go out shopping but I wanted another cup of tea first. Unpacking could wait until tomorrow!

Edited January 29 by OzKiwiJJ