Join me as we take a look at one of the most luxurious ways you can ever cruise:
in Cunard Queens Grill. I'm Gary Bembridge of Tips For
Travellers. I'm going to take a look at Queens Grill and I'm going to take a look
specifically at the accommodation, the dining, the facilities and the extra
little perks and benefits that makes Queens Grill so different and so special.
As I tell a little bit about the Queens Grill accommodation, I'm going to show you
around a couple of examples of different cabins. First of all I'm going to show
you what the Master Suite (the Caronia Suite) onboard Queen Victoria looks like.
Cunard is a very traditional line. It's been going for an extremely long time,
and they still follow a very classic way of cruising. There's three key categories
on board the ship and they are slightly segregated. You have Queens Grill,
which is a little bit like traveling first class if you were flying, you have
Princess Grill, which is a little bit like if you were flying club or business,
and then they have Britannia. Within Britannia there is Britannia Club and
Britannia. Whilst the bulk of the cabins on board are Britannia and
they range from inside to balcony, the ultimate is Queens Grill. There are a
range of cabins ranging from Grand Suites, Master Suites, Penthouse Suites
and Queen Suites, and they all graded between Q1 and Q6 with Q1 being Grand
Suites and Q6 being a Queen Suite. The cabins on board Queen Victoria
and Queen Elizabeth are the same but Queen Mary 2 has slightly different
cabins because it's different ship design/ Queens Grill cabins are generally
pretty spacious and they have a fairly classic decor a feel to them, which is
sort of art deco inspired, and try to hark back to the glory days of cruising
the sort of the 40s 50s and 60s. The great thing, as you probably noticed in
the Queens Grill, is you have a bath and a shower on board. Both Queen Elizabeth
and Queen Victoria suites have a separate bath and shower but on Queen Mary 2 in some
of the lower grades (Q5 and Q6) it tends to be a shower within the bath.
Another type of suite on board is the Penthouse Suite which is both Q3 and Q4.
So, here's an example of a Penthouse Suite. You have butter service in all of
the Queens Grill suites and you'll also have a cabin steward looking after you.
You also have a complimentary bar which gets replenished based on what you
want, you also get to choose some spirits. So whilst the bar has things like beers
and soft drinks in, you can then choose spirits from a menu. You get daily fruit.
You have a turndown service every night. You have coffee and tea making
facilities, with a very nice Illy coffee making machine. When you arrive you get
champagne on arrival and you get a treat, which is normally strawberries dipped in
chocolate. another great thing is a pillow concierge so you can choose from
a wide range of different types of pillows, and in the evenings you get
served canapes. The cabins are spread out across different decks, and that's
because most of the Queens Grill cabins are midships which, of course, is
the best place to be if you're in rough waters. You can see that
the cabins are pretty luxurious.
They are, I think, very tastefully and very beautifully done. So the great thing
about being in Queens Grill, certainly on Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth,
is you have a dedicated Grills area. Access is controlled by your keycard and
it's up on Deck 11. In this area you have a small lounge, which is also a bar
so you can meet here for drinks before or after meals. It's also where you have
the Concierge desk. You have a dedicated Concierge who will do things like book
tours for you, give you advice about things around the ship and basically
answer any of the queries that you may have. Also up here you have the
Queens Grill restaurant and the Princess Grill restaurant and also a dedicated deck.
Up above the restaurants is a very large deck where you can go and sunbathe and
there's another lower deck which is just outside of the Grills lounge. On Queen
Mary 2 it is much more spread out and it's not a dedicated area as it is on the
Victoria and the Elizabeth. many people think that Cunard ships are very
segregated but most of the ship is open to all. So the main decks, public areas, the theatre
the casino - that's all open to everybody. There's
only certain parts of the ship that are restricted to Queens Grill. So it's much
more around the accommodation and the dining experience in practice.
Queens Grill restaurant is pretty magnificent and the great thing about
eating in Queens Grill is you have your dedicated table and dedicated staff.
You have the same table and you have the same waiting staff the whole time you're
on board. There are lots of tables for two, you
can obviously choose combinations of two, four or a larger tables but most people tend
to choose smaller tables and eat with whoever they're traveling with. The other
tables are quite nearby so you do get to talk and meet other people.
There's also normally a very large table for about eight people in the center of
the restaurant which tends to more be for solo travellers, but you often find
couples who do want to interact and mix with other people will have that big
table. The important thing about eating in Queens Grill is you have an
enormous choice. You have breakfast menu which is absolutely enormous with pretty much
anything you can think of! You have a lunch, again with multiple courses and
lots to choose from like soups, starters,
salads, sandwiches, main courses and desserts.
Dinner is really important. Dinner is from 6:30 to 9 and it's open seated dining,
so anytime you want to go. You have a daily menu which consists of starters,
soups, main courses and desserts and you also have an ala carte menu which
this stays the same every day, and it has an enormous a choice. Very
importantly on the ala carte is a series of dishes which you can pre-order, things
like duck a L'Orange, Dover sole, Lobster
Thermidor, Chateaubriand and Beef Wellington. These you you need to
pre-order at lunchtime. You can also order off menu! So again at least by
lunchtime you can order anything you want. So if you perhaps feel like roast
chicken for dinner or you want shepherd's pie or cottage pie you can
order off menu. Also very importantly as it's not on the menu, but also for dinner
you can ask to have caviar as a starter. So there's a little sort of inside trick.
If you do want caviar it's not shown on any menu but you can pre-order
that at lunchtime and have that as your starter. The other thing that you
have in the Queens Grill area are two great features, one of which is Alfresco
dining. So particularly if you're cruising through warmer parts of the
world, you can also have your meals outside in the alfresco area. Another
great feature is afternoon tea. Cunard is famous for their afternoon tea and
the main afternoon tea takes place down in a Queens Room. However if you're
traveling inQueens Grill or Princess Grill they do afternoon tea up in the
Grills Area. Sometimes it's served in the lounge but many times it's
served in the Princess Grill restaurant every day at 3:30 (except normally for
embarkation day). I think the food in Queens Grill is absolutely magnificent.
It really is top-notch. I would say it's the best food I've had anywhere.
beautiful quality and absolutely magnificent. The main facilities then
just to recap for Queens Grill: you have the dedicated lounge,
dedicated deck, dedicated concierge and of course your
dedicated dining area. So, what are the other perks of traveling in
Queens Grill. These end up being quite useful. You have priority check-in, so
when you come in there's normally a specific Grills check-in area so
sometimes when you check-in bear in mind that there are up to 2,000 passengers
checking in, so it's always great to have a dedicated check-in which moves much
quicker and much faster than if you're traveling in Britannia. So that's a
perk. You also a priority boarding and disembarkation, so you get onto the ship
first and you also get off the ship first. You might be disembarking as early
as say 8:00 a.m. in the morning where the last Britannia guests only get off
at 10:00 in the morning. You also have priority with tenders if you're in
tender ports. Depending on the ship you're on sometimes that's only for some
of the higher Queens Grill suites so Q1, Q2 and Q3, so the Grand Suites, the Master Suites
and the Penthouses. But there normally is some sort of priority with tendering
so if you're not getting a tour and you're on a tender port then Queens Grill
has some perks. But the main perks about being in Queens Grill are really the
accommodation and the dining. That's the real big difference because there's
not lots of dedicated facilities. What will it cost to Cruise in Queens Grill?
Queens Grill suites will start from at least $800 per cabin for two people per
day. So you should expect to pay between 500 and $1,000 per person per day.
Queens Grilll is definitely a very luxurious way of cruising and is
probably one of the most luxurious and special ways of cruising. There's a lot
of energy and effort put into making the accommodation feel very luxurious and
very plush, Very high quality dining and the service is very
attentive, and then you have all those other little perks like the
complimentary bar, the concierge, priority embarking but really the real heart
of Queens Grill is the accommodation and the dining. So if you are thinking of
splashing out do take a look atQueens Grill. If you found this video helpful
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