The Paw Collection: Queen Mary 2 Day Seven: May 5, 2010

Surprisingly, as we were nearing Southampton, England (the ship would be arriving the next morning of May 6^th), the weather was still fairly unpleasant.

My day, for the most part, was fairly uneventful. Since the weather was chilly we spent most of it indoors again. Natalie and April made sure to continue visiting me during each of the visiting hours, but there wasn’t much to do other than sit around given the weather was so unpleasant.

For whatever reason, Natalie and April were exceptionally tired on this day seven of the voyage. They decided to skip their daily 10-11am work out and nap during that time, instead.

After lunch, Natalie and April got up enough energy to see the Planetarium show. The Planetarium show is in the Illuminations theatre, which is on deck 3 of the ship. This is the same theatre where the movies are played.

During the Planetarium show, the viewer sits in a reclining seat and stares up at a 3-D screen where planets, stars, etc. are swirling all around and narrator is providing educational commentary on all things outer space.

Well, unfortunately, since Natalie and April were so exhausted, they both fell asleep during the 30-minute show. They blamed the dark room and the ceiling full of stars for their dozing off, I just considered this a silly excuse for just wanting more sleep.

Somehow, though, Natalie and April managed to wake up enough to visit the Commodore Club for inventive drinks again that night. It must’ve been just what they needed, because Natalie and April seemed perfectly awake (almost too awake!) during my 8pm visiting hour. It was then that Natalie told me they would be going to the best restaurant on the ship that evening, which was Todd English.

Todd English is a very famous chef who opened a restaurant on the Queen Mary 2. It costs additional money to visit the restaurant (in all other restaurants of the ship, the food is included in the cost of the room), but, according to both April and Natalie the meal was well worth it.

For dinner, Natalie had pork tenderloin wrapped in Serrano ham, served with chorizo and clams in a savory broth. April had a very tender steak with béarnaise sauce. For dessert, April had a cheese plate and Natalie had a deconstructed carrot cake (cinnamon cake topped with cream cheese icing that was sitting over finely chopped poached cinnamon apples and carrot ‘caviar’.) For drink, Natalie and April chose a refreshing Italian Prosecco and after the meal Natalie had a perfectly foamy cappuccino to cap off the best dinner of the trip, by far.