Live From QM2 Tandem Crossing

[eroller]

Great reports Crouton! I feel like I am there with you.

 

Best,

Ernie

[cusyl]

Thank you Crouton for that great report. Glad the CC log is still alive and well. Did you happen to notice how many had signed it since the beginning?

Don't imagine there are many sun deck days on the transatlantic, but plenty to do inside the ship.

 

A bad day at sea is better than a good day at work

26 cruises since 1964 -Proud member of O.A.T.C.

 

Queen Mary 2 Maiden Caribbean Voyage 1/31/2004

HAL Zuiderdam 3/27/2004

 

Carnival Miracle from Tampa 11/7/04

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[Hve2cruise]

Crouton.........Thanks for the daily reports! You have a gift in writing which allows one to picture being there.

 

Have a great time!

 

Helane

 

QM2 7/1/04

40+ Cruises

[Crouton]

Brief greeting from just 200+ nautical miles from Southampton.

 

I'm already starting to feel some sadness about the trip ending -- it's been such a meaningful, wonderful journey. Besides the ship, I now have a profound second reason to return in the future: the fallen chocolate cake with raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream in Todd English.

 

Actually, there's a third reason -- the super bubbly therapy pool in the Canyon Ranch spa: such a torrent of bubbles coming up from the bottom that you are all but supported by them.

 

In an hour or so -- about 2pm ship's time -- we are expecting a visit from various Royal Air Force planes and helicopters who want to take photographs of the QM2 and QE2 together. It sounds like we may even pose for them somehow. It will be one for the history books.

 

Cusyl, you'll be happy to know that there are around 50 signers in the book so far. The comment I remember best is Colin-Cameron's from the previous trip (w'bound transatlantic):"Waves breaking on Chartroom windows...Golden Lion underwater." It almost sounds like famous last words!

 

Keeping it short for now: lots of things to do before they make me leave this ship.

 

Best,

 

Crouton

 

[This message was edited by Crouton on 04-30-04 at 08:20 AM.]

[Linerguy]

As usual, great reports Tony!

 

I have to admit, in my hectic two days aboard QM2 last week, I completely forgot to sign the CC log.

 

I know I'll have a chance to sign it in July but, it would have nice.

 

Safe landing,

 

Russ

[mabinbklyn]

Thank you so much for your reports. It's been as close to being on the ship as possible from an office in Brooklyn!

 

Mary

 

BOS: 2004

QE2: 2003 & 1987

AOS: 2002

NE or SOA: 2003, 2001, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1986

Cunard Princess: 1989

Home Lines Atlantic: 1988

HAL Viendam: 1984

SS United States: 1968

 

until the Voyager of the Seas!

 

 

[dougnewmanatsea]

Just wanted to add my thanks for these reports - as close to being on the ship as possible from a home on Long Island. (Sorry Mary !)

 

QM2 sounds like a fantastic ship and I can't wait until I have the opportunity to try her out.

 

Doug Newman

Cruise Critic Message Boards Host

e-mail: shiploverny AT yahoo DOT com

[Crouton]

It's 11pm Friday in the UK and we dock at Southampton in 7 hours. I have 12 minutes left of my computer package and you get it.

 

Today at around 2pm we came within sight of Land's End in Cornwall. A Royal Airforce Nimrod reconnaissance jet and a Hawk fighter jet came out to welcome the ship. They did 3-4 dramatic, very close low level passes -- all caught on film by a TV (?) helicopter that also came out for pics.

 

QE2 came as close as she's been since the fireworks in New York, less than 1/4 mile off to starboard -- and posed with us as we crept along about 5 knots or so I think. Passengers lined the deck of both ships. A HM Customs patrol boat also came out.

 

As we entered the channel, a dense fog and drizzle suddenly enveloped us. At least in my mind, this seems somehow perfect given all the WWII movies. So we are blowing our whistle every 2-3 minutes like a fog horn -- which, having grown up in San Francisco, is like music to my ears.

 

This will be my last post from the ship. Thank you for your interest, and your lovely supportive comments. They have meant a lot to me.

 

I'll probably summarize from land shortly.

 

Crouton

[Trey]

CROUTON, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!

[seaventurer]

Crouton - This has been a most fabulous account of an event that will be branded in shiplover's minds, such as moi, forever. After studying and analysing the QM2 through its' construction - following closely the shakedown sailings, and hearing the responses from the initial passengers sailing her; to seeing the Discovery Channel show which I thought was amazing and now - to the tandem sailing. We are watching the creation of a historical era.

 

My take at this point is the QM2 is something to be praised - forget the faux moldings, and anything else that may seem trendy or cheap. Get right down to it and this ship is the best thing you and I will ever see for the sea - built in our life time. PERIOD.

 

We've got what we all wanted - a classic ocean liner with style and class (funnel is still too short but it's the bridge thing). Architecturally, she is perhaps the finest designed and built ship EVER. QE2 is wonderful and I have sailed on her but QM2 is QE2 X 10.

 

I thought I would never want to sail on QM2 - too big, too many people, too fake...no more. I am seeking out my first cruise on her...and can't wait.

[dougnewmanatsea]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by seaventurer:

Get right down to it and this ship is the best thing you and I will ever see for the sea - built in our life time. PERIOD.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Until the sister ship .

 

(Before someone asks, no, I don't have some kind of inside information, but I would most definitely not rule out the possibility of a sister if QM2 does well.)

 

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Architecturally, she is perhaps the finest designed and built ship EVER.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm... No, there I can't agree. No doubt QM2 is a wonderful ship but the best designed, ever? I don't know if I could go that far. There are too many ships ecompassed in "all passenger ships, ever" to just go crowning her The Best.

 

From a functional standpoint there is no question that QM2 could run rings around her predecessors. I am not a naval architect but I would not be surprised if she is, in fact, functionally the best passenger ship ever conceived. But architecturally, as magnificent as she is, I don't know if she could actually surpass every other passenger ship ever built. There is nothing groundbreaking about QM2's architecture; she errs on the side of caution. Her design is conservative to a fault - just like her namesake, the first QUEEN MARY, which unlike QM2, was almost universally criticized when she entered service for looking obsolete compared to the flamboyant NORMANDIE. Stylistically, QUEEN MARY was derided as "an overgrown AQUITANIA". I suppose one could call QM2 an "overgrown QE2", but that would be QE2 circa 2004, not the original 1969 incarnation to which QM2 internally bears no resemblance whatsoever.

 

As I noted above, though, QM2's decorative cautiousness is in fact in the best Cunard tradition. Only one Cunard liner ever tried to be on the cutting edge of architecture - that was QE2 and we all know that Cunard spent the next 35 years trying to remake her in a more a traditional image. Cunard has always been a very conservative company, and I'm sure Sir Samuel himself would have it no other way, though no doubt he would be apalled by the frivolity of many of QM2's features - in some ways he might even be called an early proponent of modernism as he ordered that BRITANNIA was to have no decorative woodwork! So one might say that it's only natural that QM2 is a conservative, traditional ship, design-wise. It's also probably what the public wants in a new liner - after all, she is in reality an homage to the past, a state-of-the-art dinosaur. There is little purpose for an ocean liner in the 21st Century but to satisfy the desires of a nostalgic public. But nevertheless, part of me wishes that they had gone for something new, something daring, something really 21st century, rather than a ship which is by all accounts a stylistic compilation of the best liners of the past. It may be spectacular, but it's still completely derivative.

 

I'm not sure what I'd say the best-designed ship ever was - I doubt I could settle for one - but I'm pretty sure QM2 would probably not be on my list. For one thing, a sign of good design is that it stands the test of time, and it is far to early to tell if QM2's will.

 

Doug Newman

Cruise Critic Message Boards Host

e-mail: shiploverny AT yahoo DOT com

[seaventurer]

OK - Normandie - way ahead of her time. Voyager class (RCI) - for rock climbing and skating - great. RCI happens to design beautiful ships from an image standpoint and they lend themselves to the sea, but let's talk 60 foot waves - all steel structure - huge vertical spaces - combination of diesel and gas turbines...my point was and is from a passenger ship standpoint, nothing comes close as far as overal design from today's ship building standpoint.

 

I am sick of these crazy floating hotels that have reduced cruising to crap. I love my Radisson cruises because there is real service and style and the ships they have are nice.

 

QM2 may not be state-of-the-art from a decor standpoint, but look at the total sum of the product. She actually is one for all - 1st timers to Kings. You can be down and dirty or formally royal...and know that the QM2 will ultimately deliver.

 

From the North Atlantic to the Caribbean - this ship will do it all with style.

 

Four propulsion systems make her groundbreaking. 30 knots at 150,000 tons - come on. All steel - all high tech - and yes, there will probably be a second, but this is the now...and my point was and is we have never seen and probably never will see a ship of this proportion with real liner qualities built again...more to follow

[Crouton]

(Sunday, Noon -- Southampton UK)

 

On Saturday morning I woke up about 5am unable to sleep any longer. I opened the curtains to see the shoreline passing by silently in the fog -- a house here and a house there -- and then a flash, and another flash....people were already up and lining the shore to see the ship!

 

I got myself over to the forward observation area on 11 deck where perhaps a dozen other passengers were already gathered: 2/3 who had just awoken and 1/3 who had never gone to bed. Among the latter group I noticed that a single American woman had finally chosen among her several suitors and was smooching contentedly in a corner. A few had glasses of champagne.

 

QE2 had somehow slipped by us in the night and was already docking at the northern quays (?) about a mile ahead of us. Meanwhile, 4 large tourist boats -- more or less filled -- were sailing alongside us silently in the greyness. This went on for a bit until a locally restored 20's steamship, the Sheildhall, let loose with a shriek of its old cascascading "whoooooop....whooooop....whoooop" steam whistle. QM2 responded, and I imagined that half of Southampton was rolling over in bed going "what the f...!!?? was that?!!"

 

We docked at the Queen Elizabeth II terminal -- again a profoundly minimalist maneuver for such a massive ship without tugs. We had arrived -- precisely on time of course.

 

The disembarkation process got underway, and Cunard had the whole thing extremely well organized and it went off without a hitch. I don't know if it will sound funny here, but my favorite announcement was "The Avis rental car agent has come aboard and is now available in the Casino." It sounded to me like you were definitely taking your chances!

 

Leaving the ship was sad and (emotionally) difficult -- stepping out of the Cunard cocoon and all of the celebrity attention we had received during the past week. For me personally though, I was also glad in a way to experience once again how life goes on -- especially when I finally saw Pam Connover dressed in her full signature hat and Commodore Warwick in his regalia -- being wisked off in a silver Mercedes minivan to another media ceremony of some kind in town. I would not want to do this allthe time, and I won't hold it against Pam for having avoided us all during the trip: she must be exhausted at one level. (She did leave her name on the passenger list though).

 

...Skipping ahead to around 3pm Saturday, I was sitting in my hotel room which has a paritial view of the harbor when I heard the blast of what I thought was QM2's whistle. I ran to the window to find Queen Elizabeth 2 heading back out to see -- escorted by more boats than I have seen or would see here for Queen Mary 2.

 

This was extremely touching: after all, she was 'just' going to drydock. But I really got that people love and were honoring that ship as she should be -- and she looked absolutely beautiful in the clear, sunny day which had managed to manifest since morning. Even though she was just off to Germany for 3 weeks of refitting, there were hundreds of people (crew? VIP's?) on her deck waving. As she sailed slowly down river past QM2, there was an exchange of three whistle blasts that was poignant and deeply moving to me -- and she was gone.

 

Skip ahead to 5pm Saturday.... Traffic has been jammed along the Southampton waterfront all day because of the ships. Partly because of that, and because I was feeling wiped out -- I decided to skip the Blue Funnel Cruises "farewell cruise" for QM2. I wandered down to the Town Quay to see what I could see, and the little cross-river "Hythe Ferry" was just boarding -- so I bought a round trip ticket for £3.60 (there's a 'pound sterling' key on this computer!) and joined a hundred other folks with the same idea to watch QM2 depart.

 

Happily, her decks were full of passengers, and she looked beautiful lit up by the sun. The trip across the river took about 12 minutes, and by the time we started back for Southampton again, QM2 had let go her lines and was underway -- accompanied by perhaps 2 dozen craft of various sizes, many of whom had been loitering around throughout the day. The captain of our little ferry slowed down so we could all have a nice long look.

 

After we arrived back at Town Quay, I stood and watched QM2 disappear around the corner and out of sight behind the Cunard terminal. As I watched her disappear, I began to feel as though my journey had truly come to an end.

 

I very much look forward to hearing what the trip on QE2 was like and hope that people will post some stories here.

 

Kind regards,

 

Crouton

 

P.S. The best souvenir of the tandem crossing that I have seen are the lapel pins available at OceanLinerLapelPins.com. You can order them via the website, and you won't be disappointed.

 

[This message was edited by Crouton on 05-02-04 at 08:52 AM.]

[friedchickN]

Thanks for all the great posts, Crouton. It's the next best thing to being there...although it does make us all a little jealous.

[Crouton]

test

[cusyl]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Thanks for all the great posts, Crouton. It's the next best thing to being there...although it does make us all a little jealous <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
My thoughts exactly!!

A bad day at sea is better than a good day at work
26 cruises since 1964 -Proud member of O.A.T.C.

Queen Mary 2 Maiden Caribbean Voyage 1/31/2004
HAL Zuiderdam 3/27/2004

Carnival Miracle from Tampa 11/7/04
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[LucyDiamond]

Crouton,

Thank you so much for your wonderful reports. You have a great writing talent! I feel like I was there. I don't know how I'm going to wait 6 months for my QM2 experience.

Lucy

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QM2 sailing out of NYC! 06-Nov-2004

[cruisr]

Hi Crouton,

I guess you are heading back now as the ship docked yesterday. I was so busy on the 4-16 crossing that the only one's I got to meet were Shipping Out and her family one day for tea at the Winter Garden. Left a note for Cadmun but unfortunatly they called back when I was not in the cabin and left a message with my 13 old which I never got....Sorry guys.

I was holding a big white sheet of paper over my balcony on deck 6 around 8:OO am ish when I saw the circle line boat on our starboard side but then I dashed up to find where they were shooting Today show shots. So, I guess my hello to you and Liner Guy went unseen.

Quick email to say the 4-16 crossing was the best I ever had been on. Saw lots of old friends from past QE2 crossings and it was wonderful. She handled the force 10 winds and seas beautifully.

We're back again on Friday for the Mother's Day cruise to nowhere. This time bringing Husband and 13 year old.

Cheers and bon voyage

[Crouton]

Here's [url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/dorset/3675965.stm"]the BBC article[/url] on the transfer of the Cunard flagship title in Southampon.

Here's a [url="http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/hampshire/southampton/news/SOTON_NEWS_NEWS1.html"]photo[/url] that captures something of the moment when QE2 passed QM2 (docked) departing Southampton Saturday around 3pm for her Germany refit.

Crouton

[Colin_Cameron]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> This went on for a bit until a locally restored 20's steamship, the Sheildhall, let loose with a shriek of its old cascascading "whoooooop....whooooop....whoooop" steam whistle. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
For some if us the Sheildhall has other memories. She was Glasgow's 'sludgeboat'. Each night she would fill her tanks with Glasgow's sewage at Sheildhall and each day she would sail 'doon thae watter' with lots of day trippers and off Ailsa Craig she would open her tanks and deposit all of the previous days collection into the sea. Return to Sheildhall in the evening, unload her passengers and refill her tanks all over again.

Ahh! Happy days.

[cadum]

Cruisr

We too are sorry we didn’t get together. All in all a wonderful trip to remember for a long time to come. Starting with the great Sailaway in Southampton with the Streamers and Music and all through the crossing it seemed like the beautiful past was back especially to see well-dressed people on all occasions. And of course let’s not forget the wonderful New York arrival. Surely our paths will cross again and we will meet.

cadum

[rexford]

Many thanx Crouton for such superb reporting on your grand voyage. Congratulations on your remarkable trip. As others have said, it was just like being there. I've been on QE2 six times, am looking forward to my seventh and, thanx to you, my first time on QM2.Best wishes.

[Calliope]

WOW! The QM2 is a wonderful ship albeit with some problems. Overall though I'm ready to book again when the newness wears off and prices drop.

The food ranged from good to excellent in Britainnia Restaurant and the various King Court venues, and very good at Todd English. The fish and chips at the Golden Lion were great after waiting forty-five minutes to get them, and having my partner's order and mine nearly given to the single little lady at the table behind us.

And that's my biggest gripe, the service is unreliable. Waiting for fish and chips and my beer for such a long time despite several inquiries into the order's status was very frustrating. The staff didn't seem to care. On the other hand, the dining room waiter was very good and realy preformed two jobs, his and his assistant waitress'. She was seldom to be found. Our stewardess Meihela was stellar, and always greated us in the morning with a warm and genuine smile.

The evening shows were enjoyable and "Rock @ the Opera" and "Apassionata" were highly praised by all whom saw them, including myself. I'd say that entertainment on the QM2 eclipses that on the QE2, atleast what I saw during the QE2's 2003 Panama Canal transit.

It was great fun having Crouton as a fellow passenger aboard. His enthusiasm is wonderful along with his accurate epistles home! Reading them this morning I relived the trip, and I appreciate having his cyberspace record available for those in the future! Keep up the good work, and i hope to see you again on a Cunarder!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"When we presently got under way and went poking down the broad Ohio, I became a new being and the subject of my own admiration. I was a traveler!"
Mark Twain

[nathan]

I returned Friday from back to back crossings on QM2. Like everyone has said, the ship is absolutely stunning. I experienced no real service issues, and I actually thought service got a little better on the return trip.

This trip really was the trip of a lifetime. The sendoff from New York was amazing, and sailing side by side with QE2 was incredible. I expected the second leg of the trip to be a bit of a let down, but I was lucky enough to be invited to the Commodore's table, and met some liner nuts like me, and had a ball. It's going to take a lot to top this trip.

I enjoyed meeting the CCers on board.

[cusyl]

Glad you had such a wonderful trip, how fortunate you are to have made it. We hope to book her again next year.

A bad day at sea is better than a good day at work
26 cruises since 1964 -Proud member of O.A.T.C.

Queen Mary 2 Maiden Caribbean Voyage 1/31/2004
HAL Zuiderdam 3/27/2004

Carnival Miracle from Tampa 11/7/04
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