QUEEN MARY 2 - DAY 7

Before dinner last evening, we went to the Queens Lounge for a glass of wine.  We have enjoyed coming to this lounge for a pre-dinner drink.  It is located across form the Queen’s Grill and there is one bartender and two women who take the orders and served the drinks and canapés.  Last evening was the third and final Formal evening of this cruise and of our adventure.

Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at the Queens Grill.  The Queens Grill can accommodate around 100 people.  It is open seating and we have a specific table, which is ours for the evening or for breakfast or lunch.  Many of the tables are for two but some are for four and a few are for eight people.  Most everyone makes it for dinner but they do arrive at various times.  Some make it for one or both meals but others will pass on breakfast and/or lunch preferring to have it in their room and/or at the buffet.  Our preference was to have each meal in the restaurant.  The only exception will be the last morning of the cruise when we plan to have breakfast in our room.

The waitress who takes care of us is Sibonney who is from Peru.  She is very professional and attentive and from day one she picked up on our preferences.  She remembered the salad dressing we prefer, that Anne Marie is allergic to Oranges, that Keith likes Pepper but no Pepper for Anne Marie and that we don’t use butter on the dinner roll, or the cereal we enjoy and what we like to accompany it.  While some waiters and waitresses pick up on these types of details some do not. 

There are two assistants; Chandra from Mauritius and Nathaniel.  We realized that we can’t remember where he is from. 

The sommelier is Dickson who is from India.

We are not quite sure how many tables they cover but they work as a great team.

We began our meal with Caviar for Keith and a Beef Consommé for Keith.  Caviar is not on the menu but we learned we could order it from Senior Maître d’ Osman. 

For our next course we both had Mixed Gourmet Lettuce with Asparagus, Mushrooms, Olives, Tomatoes, Red Onion, (for Keith but not Anne Marie) and Mozzarella Cheese.

We both had the same entrée which was Broiled Lobster Tail with Sesame Crusted Jumbo Shrimp and Parmesan Tomato Pilaf.  We also had the Medley of Steamed Vegetables and Keith had a plain Baked Potato.

For dessert Anne Marie had the Canyon Ranch Spa Selection of the Tiramisu and Keith had a fruit plate.

All in all it was a delicious meal.

On our way out we spoke with Maître d’ Osman and we ordered a very nice meal for tomorrow. 

We thought the presentation was unique with the cinnamon spread out to appear as a fork and a spoon.

The good news is before we went to bed last evening we set the clock back one hour and will do so again tonight so that by the time we arrive to New York City on Friday morning that we are on Eastern Daylight Time.  Cruising West to East is always very preferable in our opinion and that has been the case on this cruise.  We like setting the clock back rather than forward.

Keith was up early again but actually got the benefit of one more hour of sleep as he went to sleep normal time before considering that we set the clock back one hour and he was up the same time as usual.

He read and wrote at the King's Court which is an enormous buffet dining venue with some sections open 22 of 24 hours per day.  He had coffee there.  

Once Anne Marie woke we took our last early morning walk of the crossing as tomorrow morning we will be getting ready to depart the QM2.

We enjoyed breakfast in the Queens Grill where we each had cereal, a banana and stewed prunes for Keith.  We looked over the luncheon menu which always accompanies the breakfast menu just as the dinner menu always accompanies the breakfast menu.  It took us a day to learn this but this way if you don't see something that you like for lunch or dinner you have time to pre-order something else.  If you prefer the night before you could see the following days lunch or dinner menu as well.  Speaking of dinner, we had pre-ordered that the night before with the Maitre d. We even ordered a real dessert.  After all, this is the last night of our adventure as we are making it back to home.

After breakfast we each went out on our own as we have done the past few days.  Keith worked out at the Fitness Center and Anne Marie walked the ship and we both did this for close to one hour.  This gave the steward and the butler time to ready the room and after that we did more packing since we will be disembarking tomorrow morning.  Speaking of disembarkation on our door early this morning was a letter with luggage tags.  We do have priority disembarkation and can disembark anytime starting at around 8:00 AM or afterwards.  We will not need to disembark so early as our car will be coming a little later for us.

There was a lot on the program for today.  Unlike on the other days when many of the lectures were focused on the QM2 and or Cunard, today’s lectures were about world events.  Historian & Arabist Eamonn Gearon gave the first talk about his experiences living and working across the Greater Middle East.  The second lecture was given by Dr. William Fowler who spoke about the millions of immigrants who crossed the Altantic between 1814 and 1914 including around fifty million people who began new lives in Canada and the United States of America.  The afternoon lecture was given by Dr. Stephen Payne who we first met at the Captain’s Reception and found him to be an excellent speaker who talked about the time of travel in the air by the likes of the Graf Zeppelin and Hiddenburg and the projects of today to build new air type of ships for travel.

We had lunch in the Queens Grill Restaurant.  Keith had a large salad entree that he pre-ordered in the morning with our waitress and Anne Marie had a sandwich and salad combination.  

In addition to the enrichment activities, we also walked in the afternoon, and for the first time we walked outside for part of the walk.  On one of the decks there are tables set up inside the ship with various board games.  We decided to play Rummykub and Anne Marie was the winner.  

We also finished all our packing except for the final items we will put in our suitcases this evening before we go to bed.

This evening we will dine in the Queens Grill.  We will be setting the clock back one additional hour too.

Keith & Anne Marie