The original Grill Room on Quarter deck was closed and the space became part of the expanded Columbia Restaurant. (Passengers previously assigned to the Grill Room would now dine in the Queens Grill).
1972 refit: In order to obtain an additional 225 seats to give the Columbia Restaurant a capacity of 810, the restaurant was enlarged and extended forward taking in, and replacing, the Grill Room on the port side and a chunk of the galley on the starboard side (the galley could be made smaller with the introduction of the dedicated galley above for the Britannia Restaurant).
To incorporate the former Grill Room into the Columbia Restaurant the settees in the Grill were recovered in the same as the Columbia and the Race chairs (as in Columbia and Britannia) were introduced and replaced the original leather ones; new carpeting and furnishings were introduced.
The Grill Room Bar on One deck was also closed with the space being used for storage purposes. However, the spiral staircase linking Grill and Lounge was retained.
And so from 1972 there was only the Queens Grill, Columbia Restaurant and Britannia Restaurant until, to appeal to larger deluxe passenger audience the Grill Room was bought back in 1976 and named Princess Grill. In 1977 the Britannia became Tables of the World and so it went on.....
The design of the 'new' Princess Grill was entrusted to Dennis Lennon and included perspex lights on pink table cloths at night with bulkheads panelled in Burgundy red leather and velvet and shiny metal trim. The original Grill Room Lounge on One deck forward was re-opened with the re-introduction of a Grill Room above. The area was decorated in the same style as the Grill itself. Passengers would gain access to the Princess Grill through the Princess Grill Lounge on One deck via a spiral staircase.
