Notes from Queen Victoria to the Mediterranean (& back)

[Host Hattie]

16 hours ago, deck chair said:

Hi from America.  What are the dining sittings in Britannia dining room?  IS the second sitting fixed with same table, waiters and table companions?  Thank you and be well.

Deck Chair.

5.45 and 8.15, both fixed.

[Host Hattie]

We had a second round in the Commodore Club to get rid of the taste of the first and then to dinner. A glass of warm formerly sparkling wine and a card from the Captain to welcome us on board. Still no neighbours and no sign of our rose wine.

I ordered red which arrived in time for our main courses, hopefully the sommelier will speed up or our waiters slow down.

I had the surf and turf and Mr HH the venison.

We went to the Queens Room to watch the ball, some interesting dancing and 2 female vocalists.

 

[Host Hattie]

Sea Day 

We were woken up by breakfast arriving, I'd ordered slightly less this morning. We watched the repeated lecture from yesterday and then sat in the sun on the balcony.

Mr HH went to enter the Blackjack tournament and we had lunch in the Golden Lion before the final. Our drinks order arrived completely wrong, I kept mine but Mr HH swapped his. One advantage of the app is that we could see the refund.

He finished 2nd, no prize unfortunately and we found a couple of free steamer chairs and watched the waves 

 

[Host Hattie]

It got a bit chilly so we returned to our cabin for a siesta. We can hear rehearsals in the theatre but it's not unpleasant. Mr HH left off his tie tonight but there were still plenty of jackets and a few ties in the Commodore Club. 

Still no neighbours so we arranged with the Head Waiter in our section to move to their table. We're right next to the walkway and I could see us wearing dinner by the time the cruise was finished. We got our rose wine before our starters tonight. I wasn't very inspired by the starters so I ordered a salad described as Avocado. When it arrived I remembered the complaint here, it was fine but it was mostly apple and lettuce with avocado in the dressing. We both had lamb for main course.

We finished in plenty of time to get a box for the Ida Girls show. The first number made my ears hurt but we enjoyed it by the end.

Just time to catch the last few numbers from the husband and wife duo in the Golden Lion.

[2BACRUISER]

On 9/24/2022 at 2:11 PM, Host Hattie said:

We slept well and our breakfast arrived on time, it seemed to come with lots of plates but we managed to deal with yogurt, a fruit plate, pastries and smoked salmon and scrambled egg.

Neither of our phones wanted to have anything to do with the wifi so we went to sit in a public room and set up 24 hours of the basic plan. It seems fine so far and is now working in the cabin as well.

At one point I had a message that my account had been locked so we joined the queue for assistance from the incredibly patient librarian who was dealing with everything from how do I set up email on my phone to Can I check these books out ?

The Captain's noon announcement sounded a bit more relaxed than yesterday, we are currently doing 23 knots across the Bay of Biscay so the ship is moving around a bit but we are due in Cadiz on time.

We went to Britannia for lunch and got a table for 2 overlooking the wake. Mr HH was slightly thrown by the new menus, no orange roughy !

Coming to this late having been out the loop for a few days. Looks like our usual evening table 458?

Lovely views over waves.  Have a great time well jealous xx

[Host Hattie]

2 hours ago, 2BACRUISER said:

Coming to this late having been out the loop for a few days. Looks like our usual evening table 458?

Lovely views over waves.  Have a great time well jealous xx

I'd have to check when we're back on the ship. Thanks, we're having a lovely time 

[Host Hattie]

We'd ordered juice and milk from room service to try and make sure we were up in time for Britannia breakfast. As it was I was awake in time for beautiful skies over Cadiz.

We were given the table underneath the globe, eggs Benedict was very nice, nobody bringing pastries round. I guess you have to ask but that would have been greedy!

We got our belongings together and went to find the gangway. There was a crew exercise going on and only one gangway in use so there was a moderate amount of chaos. We sat in the Grand Lobby to wait for the worst of the queue to pass. It wasn't helped by having to stop every time someone decided to get back on the ship. Mr HH was muttering rude things but finally we were off and catching the HoHo bus.

We got off at the beach and have had a lovely couple of hours in the sun and lunch.

[LadyL1]

Goodness HH, I hope all these trials and tribulations improve for the rest of your voyage. We are on the “shortie” after your return, and I am getting a little nervous; you seem very laid back about the misgivings!

Glad you enjoyed lunch on the beach in Cadiz as it is a lovely destination.

Thank you for posting and sharing your photos.

[exlondoner]

26 minutes ago, LadyL1 said:

Goodness HH, I hope all these trials and tribulations improve for the rest of your voyage. We are on the “shortie” after your return, and I am getting a little nervous; you seem very laid back about the misgivings!

Glad you enjoyed lunch on the beach in Cadiz as it is a lovely destination.

Thank you for posting and sharing your photos.

This is very interesting. I was thinking what a nice time she was having and you see it as a series of trials and tribulations.

[LadyL1]

17 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

This is very interesting. I was thinking what a nice time she was having and you see it as a series of trials and tribulations.

Little things that have been mentioned about the restaurant, and the not so wonderful cocktail in the Commodore Club! 

But I would love to be in the Med just now.☀️

[Host Hattie]

30 minutes ago, LadyL1 said:

Little things that have been mentioned about the restaurant, and the not so wonderful cocktail in the Commodore Club! 

But I would love to be in the Med just now.☀️

They are really only little things and the cocktail was my own fault, we've not been out of the country since February 2020 and our last long cruise was September 2019 so it's very good to be back. I'm sorry if I'm making it sound as if we're not enjoying it.

[Host Hattie]

The HoHo bus company have an app which tells you when the next bus is due at your stop, very handy except when it suddenly drops from 15 minutes to 3 and the next one is 36 minutes later 😱 Fortunately our sunbeds weren't far from the bus stop and there were a few other people waiting so we made it. We would have been fine on the later one as all aboard time was 5.30.

The duty free shop in the terminal building said cheaper than Gibraltar and the crew certainly seemed to be stocking up ! 

 

[frankp01]

Thanks for the updates; it sounds like you're having a great trip. Since late seating is back to being at a fixed time, have you noticed if seats at the bars have reopened? On our last trip, I seem to recall, they were still closed off.

[exlondoner]

13 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

They are really only little things and the cocktail was my own fault, we've not been out of the country since February 2020 and our last long cruise was September 2019 so it's very good to be back. I'm sorry if I'm making it sound as if we're not enjoying it.

To me it sounds as if you are having a great time. It does show why some reviews are so bad, if such little things are regarded as trials and tribulations.

[Craigrlewis]

Think the cocktail sounds more appealing than the warm wine!

sounds a lovely trip

enjoy 

[Host Hattie]

28 minutes ago, frankp01 said:

Thanks for the updates; it sounds like you're having a great trip. Since late seating is back to being at a fixed time, have you noticed if seats at the bars have reopened? On our last trip, I seem to recall, they were still closed off.

Yes they have 

[Kynance]

@Host Hattie - very much enjoying your notes from QV. Thank you for taking the time to post them. I know you are not a fan of buffets but if you happen to walk through, could you please advise whether the Lido is back to self-service? I’m seriously looking at booking one of QV’s short voyages in November which still have availability  but will have to convince a slightly grumpy Mr Kynance. He really prefers the Lido for breakfast & lunch but won’t be keen if he can’t serve himself. (He is fussy about his bacon!). On the other hand, having seen sticky toffee pudding on the Golden Lion menu, that may pacify him!! 🤣

[grayjay]

@Host Hattie: I'd like to add to the " thank you"s as we haven't been on a Cunard ship since 2019 ( Oh yes, CoVID of course kept us away from cruise ships for a while) but will board Queen Victoria at the end of November, looking very much forward to it and especially being hopeful to see the Christmas decorations popping up around the ship at that time.

It's one of my fondest memories - we did a similar cruise on QE a few years ago and loved it.

So enjoy your holiday and we'll all be glad of more news you can send.

[longton]

2 hours ago, Kynance said:

@Host Hattie - very much enjoying your notes from QV. Thank you for taking the time to post them. I know you are not a fan of buffets but if you happen to walk through, could you please advise whether the Lido is back to self-service? I’m seriously looking at booking one of QV’s short voyages in November which still have availability  but will have to convince a slightly grumpy Mr Kynance. He really prefers the Lido for breakfast & lunch but won’t be keen if he can’t serve himself. (He is fussy about his bacon!). On the other hand, having seen sticky toffee pudding on the Golden Lion menu, that may pacify him!! 🤣

We were on the Queen Victoria last week.

 

All the Lido buffets are now self service.

[Host Hattie]

30 minutes ago, longton said:

We were on the Queen Victoria last week.

 

All the Lido buffets are now self service.

Thank you for saving me a trip there 😊

[Kynance]

47 minutes ago, longton said:

We were on the Queen Victoria last week.

 

All the Lido buffets are now self service.

Thank you! 

[Host Hattie]

We stayed on our balcony for the sail away exchanging waves with passengers on the Mein Schiff in port with us. We got away first time today !

We went for a pre-dinner drink in the Gin & Fizz bar, one day we'll order something other than a Sloe Ahead and The Mary Rose but not today.

Sunset was 8.16, I just caught  it on the way to dinner 

[groryjm]

1 hour ago, Host Hattie said:

 

Thankyou for this "live from...". Sunsets at sea are the best

 

Hope to on board QV for the first time in two weeks 🙂

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by groryjm

[Host Hattie]

There's one thing which could be a deal breaker - no Teddies in the shop 😱

We caused some consternation when we sat at our new table last night, who knew moving 6 inches could bring a new waiter and Head Waiter. Same Sommelier though, whether it was the fact that the high maintenance table of 5 next to us were late arriving, I'd signed up for the wine lunch the previous night or everything has settled down, but we had 2 bottles of wine opened by the time starters arrived !

Another nice dinner and out in plenty of time for a box at the variety show. Still not a massive fan of the singing and dancing (no disrespect to the performers) but the comedian was entertaining again.

We called it a night (no afternoon nap today) and took a risk by not ordering breakfast.

[exlondoner]

Why no bears? It seems a bit careless.