My wife and I recently went on a 10-day cruise aboard the Queen Mary 2, from New York through New England to Ville de Québec.

Fighting the crowds at the ship's buffet plus the noise of the dining room was exhausting enough, but the experience of being "herded" all over the place left one depleted. Still, I was looking forward to the dining experiences, the highlight of our previous cruises---but my hopes in that department were quickly dashed. From the first bite, the Thai curry was agonizingly flavorless, as was the eggplant cannelloni. Some of the fish (tuna?) was literally too tough to swallow, and the miso soup contained indigestible things that resembled strips of cellophane. I love sea vegetables, but this was something else. At breakfast, some of the fruit was either unripe or well beyond its prime. On the second or third day I wrote a letter to the head of the food and beverage service complaining about these incredible deficiencies. I suggested (as examples) that the curry needed some hot peppers and the cannelloni needed some garlic. I regret that I didn't mention their herbal deficiencies, because from that point on, the head waiter decided that I needed to be served garlic and hot peppers with every meal. If that was all I could get, I decided to take it---after insisting that the garlic and peppers needed to be fresh, not canned. From that point on, I was pursued at every luncheon and dinner meal with a little dish of chopped garlic and (presumably) peppers, but the peppers---if that's what they were---tasted more like parsley. I pointed that out to the Indian head waiter. who I hoped would be sympathetic to such matters, but he seemed to be surprised and powerless to change anything, in spite of assurances to the contrary. One evening we decided to abandon the formal dining room and dine in a dark corner of the one small buffet with its limited selections. I was immediately detected by somebody on the staff, and my little dish of chopped garlic and insipid green things was presented without my even being asked if I wanted them that night! There was no escape! I fully expect to start receiving them in the mail any day now! By the way, my letter to the food and beverage person was never acknowledged.

One day at breakfast we met a sophisticated French-speaking lady from Montréal who shared my views on the food, and she cautioned us NOT to invest money in the expensive specialty restaurants on the ship. Pity. Read more