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

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As we shopped, I walked around eating my snacks with Sis :D We ate cheese corn stick Cheetos and tomato dracula Cheetos!

 

 

 

 

We walked around and shopped for souvenirs.

 

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We also passed by a few tourist attractions!

 

 

 

 

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After deliberating for a bit, we decided to walk to the Venetian Fortress to check it out.

 

 

 

 

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The pier was full of fishing boats!

 

 

 

 

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After much walking, we were finally here!!

 

 

 

 

 

While we were there, the wind suddenly picked up and the seas started getting rougher! The waves got quite large, and started throwing waves of water onto the pavement. We saw some people getting seriously splashed! You can see all the water on the ground! (Hehe it was actually really funny when a huge wave suddenly appeared and engulfed some joggers ^^)

 

 

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After running around, taking pictures, dodging waves and laughing when people didn’t manage to dodge them (hehe), we started making our way back.

 

 

 

 

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Look! We are here!

 

 

 

We walked along the water:

 

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And then walked along that ridiculously long road, back to the pier area.

 

 

We jumped on the shuttle that drove 5 minutes back to the boat. It was so full that it was packed with people standing in the aisles! When we got off the shuttle, I ran into my Swiss friends! They happily greeted me and shook my hand.

 

After we re-boarded the ship, we headed to the dining room for lunch.

 

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All of us got the Avocado, Tomato and Crab Meat Salad with Crème Fraîche and Truffle Oil Dressing:

 

 

(It was good, but beware of little shell pieces)

 

Dad also got the Chilled Summer Squash Soup with Curry:

 

 

(That just tasted … weird o_o)

 

For the entrée, I got the Linguini alla Frutti di Mare:

 

 

(Which was quite good)

 

Dad got the Kashmir Lamb Curry with Mango Chutney and Pappadoms:

 

 

(Cunard curry is done quite well, very similar to authentic thing)

 

Sis & Mom opted for the Salmon Cake with White Wine and Chive Sauce, Green Beans, Carrots and Turnip Batons:

 

 

(Which wasn’t bad)

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On to dessert!! :D

 

I ordered the Warm Chocolate Brownie with Whisky Sauce:

 

 

(It was REALLY good. It was warm and chocolaty and delicious!!)

 

Mom ordered the Coffee Tiramisu:

 

 

(Which was also quite good. Mom and Dad liked it)

 

After lunch we dropped off some documents regarding our debarkation:

 

 

While we were there, we saw the clothing donation drop off box that Cunard had set up for guests to donate any clothing they could to help provide relief for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

 

After back to Mom & Dad's room to eat a yogurt pill that would prevent stomach aches if we ingested something weird. We also tried eating some of the things we bought at the ports. First were the rose candies from Rhodes that Sis got.

 

 

 

Yeah… they were really gross, squishy gelatine pieces drenched in powdered sugar. Not good :/

 

The ring shaped pizza Cheetos however, were delicious :D

 

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After that, Mom & Dad decided to go catch the latter half of Star Trek into the Darkness, as it was halfway done already. Sis and I returned to our room to drop all of our things off and I ran upstairs to do my panoramic shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I noticed the really pretty Cunard crest on the deck chair, so I just had to take a photo of it :D

 

 

 

 

As I ran around the deck, I noticed the dining room. Look! It’s totally empty!

 

 

It was then that I discovered the rear of the ship :O

 

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New panoramic angles!!! ^^

 

 

 

 

While I was at it, I checked out the front of the ship, but there was nothing to see :/

 

 

At that point, it was just past 3pm. I ran back to the room to meet up with Sis to go exercise in the gym. At about 4pm while we’re exercising, Mom & Dad show up just to see if we're here. Dad kicks punching bag a few times before leaving. We leave shortly after that.

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After working out and returning to our room shower, a little while into Sis’s shower, the phone rings. It turns out to be the purser's desk wondering if I have re-boarded the ship. I said yeah, but 0they said it shows that I'm still on land. I say yes I've re-boarded, and they say they must've scanned wrong & apologize for disturbing me. o_o After that, we both get ready for dinner and head out! Here was tonight’s dinner menu:

 

 

 

For the appetizer, all of us order the Smoked Magret of Duck Breast with Artichoke, Walnuts and Redcurrents:

 

 

(It was odd … it tasted like ham o_o)

 

Dad ordered the Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Pesto:

 

 

(Which was nicely creamy, but tasted like nothing.)

 

Mom ordered 2 more appetizers instead of an entrée. One of which was the Guinea Fowl Consommé with Game Dumplings:

 

 

(It just tasted like MSG water LOL)

 

The other was Fresh Green Asparagus with Blood Orange Segments and Citrus Dressing:

 

 

(Not bad.)

Edited August 1, 2014 by lovely_serenity

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The rest of us ordered the Grilled Paillard Steak Diane with Pont Neuf Potatoes and Cognac Mushroom Sauce:

 

 

(Very disappointing. It was like a Salisbury microwave steak, thin and dryish. I didn't finish it.)

 

For dessert we had the Apricot Cheesecake:

 

 

(The cheesecake part was okay, but the base was still that same disgusting ginger base)

 

Note: Most cheesecakes on board done very well, either a lump of cream cheese, or a Jell-o mousse thing

 

The other dessert we got was the Chocolate Macadamia Nut Tart:

 

 

(Initially, they gave Dad some random apple tart, dad reacted like o_o ???. They took it back, and then gave him chocolate tart pie thing. It tasted okay.)

 

Notes in regards to dinner:

 

- Today, our assistant/head server’s coordination was terrible. There were wrong orders, they briefly disappeared, they took forever to clear plates and basically only took care of the 3 tables behind us who complained day 1

- For desserts, anything with chocolate is usually good

 

During dinner, we were discussing tips. Apparently, if you do the automatic gratuity, it goes into a pot and is distributed, but until their paychecks show up, they don't even know you've tipped them. It's better to remove automatic tipping and give them tips in cash in envelopes instead, because the cash you give them goes straight into their pockets, so if cruise lines tell you otherwise, like if you don't do automatic and give the worker cash straight, it'll go into a pot anyways, they were lying to you.

 

We were also deciding whether or not we should even tip assistant server. He hasn't even been at our table for half the cruise. He never even introduce himself. He only serves the tables that complained about him. Our table and the table further away didn't complain and we're pretty ignored. Literally, their cups have no water. They finished it halfway through the dinner. Our cups were almost always empty. Our 2 tables still have our bread plates on our tables throughout the whole meal and today they hadn't even offered us bread. It wasn’t until dessert that they noticed the bread plates, did they remove them. Our appetizer plates were sitting here so long; the servers from another sector couldn't stand it anymore, so they came over and removed them. Our assistant server was so lazy and slow at doing everything; he ordered food at the kitchen slow which meant our food shows up really slow too. Our finished plates always sat there for so long, and these 2 are always walking back and forth past it. Our bar drinks guy however, was very professional. He removed our wine glasses really quick, even though we never ordered anything, and always came over and wished us an enjoyable meal.

 

Note: This guy was literally the worst assistant server we had ever had.

 

After dinner, we headed up to the Lido to check out what was being served.

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2014 by lovely_serenity

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After that, we headed to the theater to get seats for tonight’s performance. Tonight was Mike Doyle, comedian singer! He was my other favourite musical performer of the cruise!

 

 

 

He was very good at singing, comedy and impersonations! (Although there was a lot of British humour in the beginning that I didn’t understand ^^”) The most impressive part however, was when he sang Paverotti’s Nessun Dorma in Italian and successfully hit the end high note! It’s so interesting when he puts himself into the mode of people such as, Pavorotti, Tom Jones (sang “It's Not Unusual”), and the lady who sang gold finger in James Bond.

 

After the show, we returned to the Lido for the special chocolate buffet! The area was swarmed with people with cameras such as me LOL. Here are the pictures I took of the dessert display:

 

 

 

 

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They had also arranged for the EOS String Quartet to be playing there!

 

 

After the photo session was over, they opened the buffet for eating. Initially we were just going to just wait for the line to die down, but after quite a while, it evidently wasn’t. Sis and I then just got in line and waited forever. We got enough food for all 4 of us.

 

 

 

 

 

After enjoying our late night sweets, we sleepy shuffled back to our rooms to rest. After reading my daily newspaper, I drifted off to sleep.

 

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End of Day 10

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Day 11: At Sea

 

Tuesday, November 19, 2013 : Formal

 

 

I awoke at about 8am and went to eat breakfast with Sis in the Lido. Here was Sis’s breakfast:

 

 

 

And here was mine:

 

 

 

After eating, we went back to our room. Unfortunately, there was massive motion all day, and we had all become bedridden. It was just as captain Christopher Wells had predicted the night before. Sis, Dad and I had all been so affected by the motion, we literally could not move. We were just lying down watching T.V. Apparently, Mom was the only one who was unaffected. I gave her the camera so she went to take pictures of the lunch menu for me!

 

 

 

When I tried to get up, I felt seriously dizzy. I was literally sweating & nauseous. :(

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After Mom ate in the Lido, she brought some food back for us so that we wouldn’t starve to death.

 

Here was what Mom ate in the Lido:

 

 

 

And here was what she brought back for us! (It turned out to be the other sushi day!)

 

 

 

 

 

We sort of dragged the coffee table next to bed and ate lying down ^^”

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We laid there until dinner time, but force ourselves to get up because it was formal night. Here were our formal night outfits!

 

Mom & Dad:

 

 

Sis:

 

 

Me:

 

 

We then headed to dinner. Here was tonight’s menu:

 

 

 

For appetizers, we got the Escargots Bourguignon with Garlic Herb Butter:

 

 

(Which was quite good)

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Sis got the Beef Consommé with Truffle Royal and Chervil:

 

 

(Which she liked because it water like MSG water)

 

Sis didn’t get an entrée, but the rest of us got the Broiled Lobster Tail with Sesame-crusted Jumbo Shrimp, Parmesan Tomato Palif and Newburg Sauce:

 

 

Note: I am SO sorry, I was so out of if, I didn’t take a picture of the lobster before I ruined it D:

 

(The fried shrimp was good, the lobster was terrible. It tasted weird and it was soggy.)

 

Midway through the meal there were announcements calling for teams to incinerator room because of a minor fire in one silo. (Side note: sloppy utensil placement) I saw many other people leave due to the motion as well. Partway through the meal, our head server stopped and looked odd. It had turned out that he was seasick too! o_o He brought candied ginger over for us in an attempt to ease our stomachs. We all ate one. The thing is … remember how I absolutely cannot stand ginger? Well I held my breath, threw it in my mouth, chewed, swallowed and took a breath. The taste hit me like a tonne of brick. I suddenly felt it coming up and covered my mouth. I literally almost got sick right there. I quickly rinsed my mouth with water and stuffed a fried shrimp into my mouth. Sigh, all better =_=” taste covered.

 

Dad felt too seasick that he had to leave halfway through the meal, and then later Sis left too.

 

Note: This is something I observed. The lady head server’s station next to ours with a male assistant worked very quickly. She's super relaxed and works her assistant like a mule. Focuses on customer service and never leaves her station, and has assistant running nonstop back & forth.

 

We ordered dessert but really, it was just Mom who was able to eat it. One was the Macadamia and Ricotta Cheese Crème Brûlée:

 

 

The other was the Baked Alaska with Flambéed Morello Cherries:

 

 

After dinner, I kind of walked down the hallway in a zigzag motion, literally staggering in my heels. I turned in at about 7:30pm (so basically … immediately after dinner).

 

Mom who was unaffected by the motion went to watch the show “Paladium Nights”. It was apparently not bad, but full of British songs she wasn’t familiar with. She didn’t know any of the songs besides the final James Bonds ones.

 

I woke up in the middle of the night at around 4am. I experienced the biggest waves I had ever encountered (it was really freaky!!) It felt as though I was briefly lifted off the bed, before being placed back down! 0_0

 

*Note: Sorry for the short day, but the motion was just too terrible. To make up for it, here is a picture I took of my stuffed tiger that I always take with me when I travel :D

 

 

 

End of Day 11

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P.S. Here were the documents of that day.

 

Daily Progamme: