Birthdays are a funny time; they bring a chance to reflect on past accomplishments but also focus the mind on what we still want to achieve. I was offered the chance to visit Cunard’s flagship Ocean Liner Queen Mary 2, so I was a very happy to spend my birthday onboard!
Cunard has played a small but not totally insignificant role in my family’s lives so this a visit I was really looking forward to. However, even with an array of wonderful experiences under my belt, I still couldn’t help but get the butterflies of excitement I as caught first my glimpse of her from the Mayflower Dock in Southampton. The QM2 is a beauty, classy, elegant and enticing, I couldn’t wait to get onboard. Although she’s just over 20 years old she’s had a multi-million-pound refit so was gleaming. As a fan of art-deco, I instantly fell in love with her and being greeted by the crew in their smart red uniforms I felt like I’d step back in time. The QM2 is the world’s only ocean liner, built to cut through the water with grace and that’s why she’s perfect for her many trans-Atlantic voyages she is famous for.
My parent’s first set sail on the Queen Elizabeth I back in 1965; they were newlyweds and about to embark on an incredible four years living and working in the US. Cunard celebrates its rich and glorious history so when we were given a tour of the ship, we would stumble across various artefacts or prints that would celebrate the company’s unique history. There are photographs of the stars that have sailed on her vessels, and information panels celebrating the story of Cunard. On one of these panels, “Food Glorious Food” it highlights unsurprisingly the importance of the cuisine on board.
It featured menus of the past and one was from a Gala Dinner on July 4th, 1965; my parents sailed over to New York at the very end of June so I can take an educated guess that this menu was for the return sailing back to Southampton. Regardless of this rather tenuous connection, I really enjoyed reading the menus from the 1930s and onwards, especially the 2024 menus as we sat down to lunch – which was, of course, delicious and a suitable veg, meat and fish option for both starters and mains. They can cater for dietary requirements of all descriptions too if they know in advance. However, one interesting culinary fact is that if you book either a Princess or a Queens suite you can order off menu and have lobster every night if you wanted it, which I would!
Lobster is not the only benefit of booking one of the Cunard ‘Grills’ suites, as they are called. They are spacious, cleverly and beautifully designed and both the Princess and Queens suites have their own individual restaurants. The Queens Suites also have their own butler service and for both levels afford the opportunity to have an elevated experience, which, when you are sailing with Cunard the bar is already set quite high. No photographs will really do these “staterooms” justice but whether your budget stretches from the Penthouse Queens Suite to the Britannia Staterooms you will find a happy place that you can call home for a few days here.
