Over recent weeks, Cunard Line has been celebrating ten years of ‘the Grandest Ocean Liner Ever Built’ – the Queen Mary 2. To mark the occasion, the Queen Mary 2 and her two sister ships – the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria – sailed into her home port of Southampton together in formation. Southampton is the only port in the world to have hosted the Three Queens three times. It is also a rarity to see all three of the ships in Cunard Line’s fleets sailing together, and the occasion with captured spectacularly in several photographs released by the line.
As the flagship of the Cunard fleet, the Queen Mary 2 has a proud and illustrious reputation, so her
10th birthday celebrations were sure not to disappoint. The revelry began early in the morning with a birthday salute on the ship’s whistle and a spectacular firework display capped off the festivities.
The Queen Mary 2 was christened by the Queen and her husband – Prince Phillip the Duke of Edinburgh – so it was only appropriate that the Duke returned to the ship for her 10th anniversary –
which he did in his own typical style. Phillip shared a joke and had a chat with the ship’s crew whilst on a tour of the vessel and the Duke also signed the ship’s visitor’s book, but when asked if he would like to blow the Queen Mary 2’s whistle, surprisingly he said no!
Following the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit aboard the Queen Mary 2, she set sail on a commemorative transatlantic voyage to New York, with a number of prominent guest speakers travelling aboard, including former captain Commodore Ron Warwick and her original designer, naval architect Stephen Payne.
On her return voyage from New York to Southampton, the famous ship will carry a different, and possibly more exciting, host of special guests. Hollywood director Wes Anderson – whose films include The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic, Academy Award-winning actress Tilda Swinton, screenwriter and producer Roman Coppola as well as actor Jason Schwartzman will all travel aboard the vessel, attending special screenings and question and answers sessions to discuss their latest film – The Grand Budapest Hotel – amongst other interesting topics.
This is a particularly special occasion in the cruise industry – especially for the Cunard Line – as their pride and joy, the Queen Mary 2, reaches the grand age of ten. With plenty more exciting voyages and wonderful itineraries planned for the vessel over the next few years, we expect the Queen Mary 2 to keep sailing for many more years to come!
If you would like to learn more about some of the voyages that the Queen Mary 2 will be making throughout 2014 and 2015 and book your place on-board, take a look at the Cruise118.com website or call our dedicated Cruise Concierge team, who will be happy to discuss all of the potential options.
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