When Cunard spent £90million earlier this year on a substantial facelift for its flagship Queen Mary 2, they made a big fuss about its new cabins, carpets, and upgrades to dining rooms and kennels (yes, kennels).
We heard all about the 30 new Britannia Club-class suites, the first-time-ever single cabins carved out of the former photo gallery and part of the casino, and the extended facilities for well-travelled dogs and cats – complete with Liverpool lamppost and New York fire hydrant.
The big numbers were all about how much new carpet was laid – enough to cover 10 football pitches, if you’re asking – and how much paint was required to freshen up the hull: 2,500 gallons.
Cunard was uncharacteristically coy about the upgrades made in the bars and restaurants, so I put my diet and my waistband to the test and sampled as much as I could during a transatlantic crossing from Southampton to New York City.
First stop was the comfortable Carinthia Lounge, a complete transformation of the unwelcoming Winter Garden. Here I met Carnival UK’s head of beverages, Anthony Habert, and Cunard head of beverages, Edward Dieusaert, who have teamed up to assemble a historic collection of vintage port wines.
They date from an 1840 Ferreira, the year Cunard’s Britannia made its first scheduled transatlantic crossing. Three bottles of this extremely rare vintage have been bought, and with a retail price at $4,445, Habert does not really expect to sell any.
Other dates in the company’s 176-year history are marked by bottles from producers such as Sandeman, Croft, Taylor’s and Warre’s – with the most recent, a 1987 Niepoort, a mere $195 a bottle.
Younger vintages are sold by the glass, and are poured using the Coravin system that injects inert argon gas into the bottle.
Port tastings, from $10.95 for a discovery flight, and $27.50 for a vertical flight of different Niepoort vintages, are a feature of evenings in the Carinthia Lounge, which also serves a selection of Iberian wines.
The wine list has also been given a makeover. There are more than 450 fine labels on the newly-curated list, with some modern classics, such as California’s Screaming Eagle available for $4,500 a bottle or $495 for a 75ml glass.
More traditional labels include Château Lafite Rothschild, 1er Cru Classé ($950 or $105 per 75ml glass) and Château Mouton Rothschild, 1er Cru Classé ($775 or $85 per 75ml glass).
The Commodore Club bar has devised a selection of more reasonably priced cocktails themed on knighted ships’ masters. An early favourite is the Punch Romaine ($14) that bears the name of Sir Arthur Rostron, who was at the helm of Carpathia when it rescued all the survivors from Titanic in 1912. The drink was served on board Titanic and mixes Advocaat with Limoncello, cream sherry and lime juice.
When it comes to food, the velvet drapes and heavy sauces of the Todd English restaurant have been replaced by The Verandah, with circus-themed décor and a lighter, more modern menu.
The Kings Court buffet has been transformed – the removal of two panoramic lifts that linked it with the Grand Lobby means there’s more space for serving, with queuing much reduced.
The real charm of Kings Court reveals itself at dinner, when a small section is closed off and turned into a variety of themed restaurants changing throughout the voyage. One night it will be La Piazza, a family-style Italian trattoria, another it’s Bamboo, serving pan-Asian food influenced by Japan, Singapore, Thailand and China. Completing the changing line-up are Coriander (Indian), Aztec (Tex-Mex) and Smokehouse, serving classic American barbecue fare.
Think Buffalo chicken wings or Maryland crab cake for starters, buttermilk Southern fried chicken or Memphis-style baby back ribs marinated with a rich sauce of Jack Daniel’s and Coca-Cola. Book early to make sure you don’t miss out on the $15-a-head feasts.
Most passengers have their dinners at one of the two nightly sittings in the main Britannia restaurant. Menus here have been updated and refreshed, but the two deck-high room, with its spectacular tapestry showing a stylised Cunard ship against a New York skyline, remains much the same as before – apart from one corner where the Britannia Club restaurant has been extended to accommodate additional passengers from the new balcony suites.
The Grill restaurants – Princess and Queens – have also been updated, and in response to popular demand, there are now many more tables for two. Queens Grill is a venue where the menu is of little consequence – it’s merely a guide to what might be offered for dinner. In addition to the selection, which changes daily, there’s a lengthy a la carte, and guests are encouraged to request anything they might fancy, even if it’s not listed anywhere.
The man behind most of Cunard’s culinary development is executive chef Nick Oldroyd. He was hard at work behind the pass in the Carinthia Lounge as I boarded the ship in Southampton and later he plated up my sea bass main course in La Piazza. Or it could be his twin brother Mark, also a Cunard executive chef and also on this crossing. They are uncannily alike.
“The wow factor is back,” Nick tells me. “Queen Mary 2 is still a traditional liner but with a modern, contemporary twist.”
He sought inspiration far and wide to develop the menus. Yorkshire born and bred, he now lives in Florida, where he samples every new trend. The research has paid off. The remastered QM2 cuisine is more than a match for her freshly-painted hull and lighter, brighter interiors.
Good enough for many more transatlantic crossings and a good few world voyages.
Get There
- Queen Mary 2 departs Southampton for New York City on May 24, 2017 with the 7nt crossing starting at £1,879pp in a balcony cabin; Princess Grill: £3,999pp. Price includes return flight. cunard.co.uk 0843 374 0000.
- Tourist info: nycgo.com
TIME ZONE: UK to UK -5hrs
CURRENCY: US$ on board £1 = 1.XX
BEST TIME TO GO: May’s made for a classy crossing
