The Queen Mary II, christened by Queen Elizabeth in Southampton last week, is a luxury liner of the superlative and a worthy successor of Queen Mary I moored as a hotel ship and museum in Long Beach, California since 1969.
The Queen Mary II is the largest passenger ship in the world, at 150,000 tonnes, a length of 345m and a width of 41m. It is also the most expensive ship ever built at 870 million euros (US$1.1 billion) and at a height of 72m it is taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York.
Some 3,000 workers in the docks of Saint-Nazaire in France took two-and-a-half years to build the ship, welding together 52,000 tonnes of steel, 2,500km of electric cable, 250,000m2 of carpet and 500km of piping. More than 250 tonnes of paint was used, 2,000 bathtubs installed, 5,000 stairways and 80,000 lamps.
"The Queen Mary II could generate enough electricity to supply its home port of Southampton with electricity," says the press spokesman of the Cunard line in Germany, Ingo Thiel. That is a city with 200,000 inhabitants. A?blast from the ship siren can be heard from a distance of 18km, waking up anyone quietly reading one of the 8,000 books in the ship's library or observing one of the 5,000 works of art on board. A?separate museum features exhibits from the 165-year-old history of the Cunard line.
But there is hardly much opportunity to get bored on the six-day trip between Southampton and New York. The fitness and spa area measures 1,800m2 on two decks featuring five swimming pools, with an adjacent Winter Garden.
There is a mini-brewery for the thirsty and 10 restaurants for the hungry from the elegant Queens Grill to the Lido cafe. The College of the Sea offers anything from computer to photography courses. It also boasts with the first planetarium on board a ship.
Exhausted from all the activities on offer, the passenger can retire to one of the 1,310 cabins built for 2,620 passengers. Three quarters of the suites, cabins and apartments are equipped with a balcony. The smallest two-bed cabin measures 18m2. The suites are 47m2 large with a large balcony and living room area. The 200m2 duplex apartments have most space.
The first captain of the ship is 63-year-old Ronald Warwick, who has been master of the Queen Elizabeth II since 1990. His father, William Warwick, was an officer on both theQE2 and the Queen Mary and the first captain of the QE2 in 1968. Warwick junior commands a crew of 1,250.
The Queen Mary II, which departed on its maiden voyage on Monday, succeeds the legendary transatlantic liner QE2. Cunard will in future use the ship only for cruises. Apart from its 20 transatlantic trips per year, the ship will also travel other routes during the year. In summer it will sail along three Mediterranean routes and then on to Norway.
Its base ports abroad will be New York and Ford Lauderdale, Florida. Prices for the six-day trip on the Queen Mary II start at 1,590 euros per person in the prime season.
On April 25, the twin black-white-red colored QE2 and the Queen Mary II depart from New York for Southampton. In the 1940s there was one similar picture when both theQueen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary were docked in New York.
RSS