Champagne and Orchids on the Queen Victoria
By Tin Thomas
*originally published in Cruise and Travel Lifestyles Spring/Summer 2011
Our expectations were high. Booked to spend a week on Cunard’s magnificent Queen Victoria exploring the fjords of Norway, we were whisked through pre-boarding formalities at the busy English port of Southampton in mere minutes and ushered to our Princess Grill suite on Deck 5.
We noted the little extra touches immediately: champagne chilling in an ice bucket, chocolate-dipped strawberries, orchids in a silver vase, fresh fruit nestled in a basket. It’s champagne and orchids all the way on Cunard, we were advised, and that’s the way it turned out, especially for we fortunate guests traveling in the added luxury of Queens or Princess Grill suites.
Although Cunard, one of the great icons of past British maritime glory, is now owned by the Carnival Corporation and has a multi-national crew, it remains a strongly British experience. For example, onboard the line’s three ships – Queen Victoria, Queen Mary 2 and the latest, Queen Elizabeth, there is a highly popular English pub and they still maintain the time honored tradition of English afternoon tea.
To sample this, we headed for the elegant Queens Room, the ship’s grand ballroom, to enjoy the tea ceremony which began promptly at 3:30 p.m. On the dot.
White-gloved waiters in short white jackets and black chokers with the Cunard crest at the neck fanned out with their trays across the packed room. The sandwiches were precisely trimmed, crust-less. And, yes, there was cucumber. The scones were warm from the oven, the clotted cream and preserves to hand. The tea poured darkly amber from a real teapot. A Mozart sonata sounded soothingly in the background.
We were enjoying one of the timeless treats of a great ship at sea, a popular feature of Cunard voyages for 150 years and as eagerly patronized as ever. Guests arrived in the Queens Room an hour ahead of time to snap up high demand seats near a window. Some, we noticed, arrived directly from lunch to snooze away the waiting time in a comfortable armchair.
Queen Victoria is a superb vessel that, in my reasonably well educated opinion, is one of the most elegantly luxurious ships sailing the oceans today. The tasteful décor throughout employs stylishly muted colors, and the quality of furnishings and finish is outstanding. Nothing cheap or tawdry has been allowed to creep in, plastic is rarely visible and gracious wood finishes (veneers, to conform to safety regulations) are evident throughout. Public areas are rich with grand staircases, ornate chandeliers and plush carpeting.
It’s easy to imagine Marlene Dietrich making a grand entrance down the sweeping main staircase, or David Niven, immaculate in his superbly cut tuxedo sipping a pre-dinner drink at the Champagne Bar. Dress aboard Queen Victoria is more formal than on most other ships today. It was interesting to see that post-dinner on one formal night, every single man in the Queens Room, the Chart Room cocktail bar, the Commodore Club observation lounge and in the Grills lounge was wearing black tie. No baseball hats were spotted.
Cunard’s two Grills classes are unlike anything else at sea. In a way, Cunard still maintains a kind of class separation. Guests traveling in the top category suites and in Queens Grill suites dine in the private Queens Grill; those in Princess Grill suites also have their own private dining room. Most of the guests travel Britannia Class and use the beautiful two-deck Britannia restaurant.
Grills guests also have access to a private lounge bar, to The Courtyard, a sheltered open-deck terrace where lunch and dinner can be served, and to a private sun deck atop the ship. All guests have access to every other part of the ship.
Our spacious suite gave us 381 sq. ft. of living space and a balcony with table and chairs. It goes without saying that the finest linens are used and there are plush Terry-cloth robes for the use of guests who can also choose from a nine-option pillow menu. The bathroom had a tub and shower and though there was ample closet room, the suite had surprisingly limited drawer space. There was a computer data port with Internet access and satellite TV, one screen facing the bedroom, another the separate seating area.
After settling into our suite we visited the Grills Lounge on Deck 11 and met with concierge Moses, who provided our table reservation in the Princess Grill restaurant – we were seated with half a dozen affable Brits – and booked a box in the Royal Court Theatre for the second night out, the first of two formal nights on this week-long cruise. Just one more touch of luxury, these first private theater boxes at sea come with Veuve Clicquot champagne, hors d’oeuvres and a chance to go backstage after the show.
Guests in the Grills restaurants sit at designated tables for 2, 4, 6 or 8 and can dine at any time between 6:30 and 9:00. Those dining in the Britannia Restaurant are divided into two sittings. From the very first dinner, the Princess Grill became the focal point of our cruise; every activity we chose, every shore excursion, was built around breakfast, lunch and dinner. As one splendid meal ended we found ourselves looking forward to the next.
The wonderful menus, superb presentation and the fine White Star Service had us counting off the hours till it was time to go back for more. The cuisine, served on fine china with crystal and silverware, was of the highest quality and guests had multiple choices to build a five-course dinner.Queen Victoria had plenty of dining alternatives at all times of day including the 24-hour Lido Buffet where themed buffet dinners were presented in addition to the usual fare. For US$20 at lunch and $30 at dinner, guests could dine in the 87-seat Todd English restaurant, choosing from the famous chef’s innovative Mediterranean creations.
And of course there was the Golden Lion Pub, which served traditional pub foods at lunch including fish and chips that met with the fullest approval of this aficionado of beer battered fish and well vinegared chips. Evening entertainment here ranged from karaoke to trivia quizzes and hearty sing along sessions.
We had elected to join this regal ship on a cruise through the majestic setting of Norway’s west coast with its deep, steep fjords, snow capped mountains and innumerable waterfalls. Guests and local residents alike were disbelievingly dazzled by the gorgeous weather that prevailed for all but one half day: in bright sunlight and with rich blue skies those fjords are among Europe’s most thrilling sights.
Things seemed to be a little out of scale as we rode the 90,000-ton, 964-ft long Queen Victoria into some of the narrower fjords and especially when we tied up at the little village of Flam and anchored offshore in equally tiny Geiranger at the head of one of Norway’s most spectacular fjords, dispatching the ship’s 2,200 guests ashore to flood villages where just a few hundred people live.
But the ship provided a splendid platform for wallowing in the beauty of this part of Scandinavia. At each of the four ports of call, fleets of coaches arrived to distribute guests around the port’s environs. In Stavanger, excursions took guests to see such local highlights as mighty Pulpit Rock and a medieval monastery. At Flam and Geiranger the trips focused on delivering guests to lofty lookouts where they could gaze down into the breathtaking fjords and look out over the still snowy and never ending mountain peaks of the roof of Norway.
Bergen, our final call, was possibly the most popular. This charming town enthralled everyone with its famous Bryggen, a Hanseatic quarter of quaint wooden houses, the quayside fish market and its multitude of stalls offering piled high seafood sandwiches and plates, and the funicular ride to the top of Mount Floien. Most exciting trip – a visit to Troldhagen, the former home of famed composer Edvard Greig set in a stunning mountain-top location overlooking forest and a placid lake.
Those of us on this voyage – Cunard does not call these ‘cruises’ nor Queen Victoria a ‘cruise ship’; she is an ocean liner, like her predecessors – were, of course, lucky to enjoy wonderful weather. As one of the ship’s enrichment speakers, American-living-in-Norway Jane Ann Davey, said: “Summer in Norway isn’t necessarily an annual event.” This year, for that one week at least, it was.
Mission accomplished: Expectations fulfilled.
