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| Cunard Queen Victoria 2016 Spain & Morocco and Canary Islands Celebrations |
General Days at Sea and Southampton
This is the area where we are collecting a picture gallery, in particular, of views and food round the ship which adds to the general introduction. In due course it will be used to update the introduction. The Queen Victoria is now 10 years old and is due for a major refit which will make some major changes and make her much more like the Queen Elizabeth. The whole shape of the stern will change with the addition of extra cabins into the new near vertical stern. This also increases the size of the rear deck for loungers considerably. Internally the current Chart Room will be changed into a new Britannia Club Restaurant like on the Queen Elizabeth. During this cruise and the next we will try to get a series of 'before' pictures.
The other major change this cruise where we will be updating our pictures is the Verandah Restaurant. The verandah was a huge improvement over Todd English which the QM2 and Victoria both started with. The food in the Verandah changed little for many years with both an A la Carte and Degustation menu in the evenings. The Degustation was excellent value at $35 for ~7 courses depending how one counted. This has now changed to a single fixed price 7 course menu in the evenings at $49, similar to the degustation menu but with more but less exciting choices - for example the pigeon in chocolate and hot Fois Gras have disappeared, as has the trio of sweets. The increase in price has been too much for many people and the restaurant has seemed relatively quiet in the evenings. To preempt the write up for the next cruise this is being addressed on the World Voyage by the addition of a intermediate and very restricted 'Discovery' menu at $35 and the concession that the Diamond World Club lunch voucher can also be used towards a dinner. The 'New Veranda' no longer claims to be French sourced in France now it is inspired by French and Spanish Mediterranean and certainly the cheese is a pale imitation of what is was a few years ago and certainly not sourced in France. It is clear that Zimmermann's vision of a Michelin Star at sea has sunk without trace. That said it is nice to have a change and one gets a very pleasant meal.
We will also put some pictures of the 'Alternate Dinning' in the Lido. Again there has been an increase in price and the 'themes' are periodically updated. Currently the themes are: Bamboo (Pan Asian), Coriander (Indian), Aztec (Mexican), La Piazza (Italian and Smokehouse (American comfort) which run in a typical sequence with four days of each then a change.
Princess Grill Cabin and Restaurant
Round the Ship
