A few food/drink related questions

[OarToOar]

Hi, I have a few questions concerning an upcoming cruise on the QM2 I will be travelling Queens grill.

 

1) Does the Queens Grill restaurant still utilise an A La Carte menu? Looking at old menus the last A La Carte I have come across is from some years ago.

 

2) Does the ship pick up fresh food at the various ports (Fish, fruit, etc) or is it all loaded at Southampton and stored for the entire journey?

 

3) in your stateroom, you are provided 2 bottles of spirits of your choosing, is this any spirit, or is it just House Vodka, House Whiskey, House Rum, etc?

 

4) Are we allowed to embark with food items? I'm not talking big stuff, just a box of chocolate, a jar of pickle I enjoy with cheese etc.

 

5) Are drink served tableside within the Casino?

 

Thank You

[pmb1]

1) Does the Queens Grill restaurant still utilise an A La Carte menu? Looking at old menus the last A La Carte I have come across is from some years ago.

 

Yes, at least in July, 2013. Here it is.

 

2) Does the ship pick up fresh food at the various ports (Fish, fruit, etc) or is it all loaded at Southampton and stored for the entire journey?

 

According to what we were told during the Behind the Scenes Tour, almost all of the food is loaded at Southampton.

 

3) in your stateroom, you are provided 2 bottles of spirits of your choosing, is this any spirit, or is it just House Vodka, House Whiskey, House Rum, etc?

 

The Liquor Request Form states: "Please feel free to specify substitute products, however these may incur an additional charge."

 

4) Are we allowed to embark with food items? I'm not talking big stuff, just a box of chocolate, a jar of pickle I enjoy with cheese etc.

 

Yes.

 

5) Are drink served tableside within the Casino?

 

Sorry, no idea.

[cunardaddict]

1) Does the Queens Grill restaurant still utilise an A La Carte menu? Looking at old menus the last A La Carte I have come across is from some years ago.

 

Yes, at least in July, 2013. Here it is.

 

2) Does the ship pick up fresh food at the various ports (Fish, fruit, etc) or is it all loaded at Southampton and stored for the entire journey?

 

According to what we were told during the Behind the Scenes Tour, almost all of the food is loaded at Southampton.

 

3) in your stateroom, you are provided 2 bottles of spirits of your choosing, is this any spirit, or is it just House Vodka, House Whiskey, House Rum, etc?

 

The Liquor Request Form states: "Please feel free to specify substitute products, however these may incur an additional charge."

 

4) Are we allowed to embark with food items? I'm not talking big stuff, just a box of chocolate, a jar of pickle I enjoy with cheese etc.

 

Yes.

 

5) Are drink served tableside within the Casino?

 

Sorry, no idea.

 

1 yes

2 supplies sare taken in ports on long journes like the WC. But if ports are not met supplies will be short i.e. eggs on WV 2013 QM2 to Dubai :(

3 a limited choice of standard spirits will be offered

4 I always take loads of our lokal speciality sweets. Crew loves that ;)

5 yes

[Salacia]

hi OarToOar. Yes, drinks are served tableside in the casino at the usual charge. There is a small but convivial bar in the casino if you should wish to have your drink there.

[CruznTom]

I haven't witnessed any conviviality (or patrons for that matter) since they banned smoking at the casino bar. ;):)

[Salacia]

I haven't witnessed any conviviality (or patrons for that matter) since they banned smoking at the casino bar. ;):)

 

Good point, Tom. I must have been having a flashback :D

[Pushka]

On the WC there are two tender ports in a row, with two sea days prior, five sea days between those 2 ports and then another 3 days until the next port. So if rough seas, a total of 10 days between land stops. Although I'm thinking there wouldn't be the loading of supplies at the tender ports anyway. So that's a lot of food supplies being loaded in at Brisbane, and the next land port is Shanghai. Makes for interesting logistics.

[Whitemarsh]

Pugwash once posted on here all the ports that they load supplies at. Apparently the reason they only have a finite number of supply ports has something to do with quality control. Sydney & Hong Kong were amongst them.

 

Having said that, I do remember seeing some sort of foodstuff being loaded at Brisbane. Not sure what it was or where it came from (could have been flown up from Sydney).

Edited January 8, 2014 by Whitemarsh

[Salacia]

In addition to food supplies, the ship also takes on fresh water at various ports...

 

"When she is on her transatlantic runs, QM2 makes all of her own fresh water. This is done using three Alfa Laval Multi Effect Plat Evaporators, each of which can produce 630 tons of water a day "which is far in excess of what we actually consume". When the ship is doing a cruise, the time at sea tends to be less and thus there is not as much time to make water. As a result, QM2 does have to purchase fresh water in some ports of call."

copied from http://www.beyondships.com/QM2-art-Watling.html

[Curlu]

In our recent QM2 behind the scenes tour we were told about the quality assurance too and how they often have to send whole pallet loads back, apparently Dubai is one of the worst ports for quality and Japan has the best fruit and veg!

 

Pamela

[Pushka]

We watched lots of "something's" being loaded on in Melbourne too. Probably replacing the Aussie beers nearing the end of the circumnavigation.

[claret300]

3) in your stateroom, you are provided 2 bottles of spirits of your choosing, is this any spirit, or is it just House Vodka, House Whiskey, House Rum, etc?

 

We've done two QG cruises. On both we asked our butler for Bombay Sapphire rather than the gin on the list and that was provided without quibble (and without additional charge). On the first, a summer cruise, we asked for Campari. This wasn't on the list, but it was also provided with no problem. Our butler also ensured our fridge was stocked with orange juice each day, as that was our preferred mixer for Campari.

 

Slightly savvier on our recent November cruise, we managed to drink our way through both original bottles (with a little - not much - help from guests) and they were replaced immediately.

[Yoshikitty]

On the TA crossing back in November, I attended the 'German hour' with the Executive Chef Klau Kremer on the QM2. He said all the meat (I can't remember if he said fish, too) were frozen and shipped from England (sometimes from Germany, too) It's cheaper to do it this way than to buy the fresh ones from Australia and other countries. And, they know the quality of the meat they get from their suppliers.