Cunard doles out royal treatment people, love

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Cunard doles out royal treatment
Learning the Grill here is classy, elegant and not at all what you think
When the first person you meet in the elevator on a passenger liner confesses he's on his 12th Cunard around-the-world cruise, you know you're on a ship with some serious fans. "Twelfth?" I asked incredulously. He just laughed and nodded.

Cunard's latest ship the Queen Elizabeth, now on its maiden aroundthe-world voyage, seems filled with people who have sailed on the line before and love it for its sense of tradition and history. They've all come anxious to check out the newest member of the Cunard family.

Christopher and June Cork of Kent, England, are going around the world, Southampton to Southampton, along with about a third of the Queen Elizabeth's 2,092 passengers. They'll be celebrating their 40th anniversary and Chris's 62nd birthday on the ship. "It's just our time to do something like this," June said. They're experienced cruisers and were previously on the Queen Victoria, but June prefers the Queen Elizabeth. "It's a bit better, newer." June especially liked the Garden Lounge, a beautiful light-filled room with the feel of a conservatory. Chris thought the Royal Theatre was "just amazing."

Cunard, the venerable British company that has been running passenger liners since 1840, is now owned by Carnival, but Carnival has wisely let Cunard continue to do what it does best -offer elegance and luxury in an understated, British fashion. Think art deco style in rich creams, browns and burgundies, rather than neon; croquet and lawn bowling courts instead of climbing walls; and a stately theatre that regularly fills all 832 seats for lectures.

A well used library with more than 6,000 volumes provides ample reading material, even for those passengers in for the 107-day world-cruise long haul.

References to the two previous Queen Elizabeth ships are numerous: one of the most striking is a 5.6-metre wood inlay of the original ship in the Grand Lobby, designed by Queen Elizabeth's nephew David Linley.

Historical touches even include somewhat of a class system. "Grills" might sound to North Americans like a place where burgers are served, but here it's the traditional name for the first classes, Queens Grill and Princess Grill. The Grills have larger cabins, their own restaurants, lounges, outside decks and even a separate concierge.

I was fortunate enough to be one of several writers hosted by Cunard for a week on the new Queen Elizabeth, in the Princess Grill, where we were, indeed, treated like princesses.

As with everyone else in the Grills, we had our own table and designated server, who learned our tastes and was willing to cater to our every whim, including, for example, ordering three desserts so we could have a taste of them all.

Staff even gracefully accommodated the eccentric -such as the gentleman seated by himself nearby who filled the unused half of his table with a changing group of figurines ranging from long-necked Caribbean women carrying baskets to a small squirrel atop a clock.

The excellent cuisine featured mostly traditional dishes such as coq au vin and duck a l'orange, with the occasional less successful foray into fusion, such as halibut with Thai spices. Every meal was served with multiple courses using multiple plates and cutlery with a pattern

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Cunard, the venerable British company that has been running passenger liners since 1840, is now owned by Carnival, but Carnival has wisely let Cunard continue to do what it does best -offer elegance and luxury in an understated, British fashion