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Regal ship Queen Mary 2 rules the seas

Lifestyle Travel » Cruise Travel

By Chris Atchison

The Queen Mary is one of the most modern ships on the seas.

A grand lady is patrolling the high seas and she deserves all of the respect that her regal name demands. The Queen Mary 2 has been the subject of unprecedented media hype over the past two years, first as the world awaited her launch from a Southampton, England, shipyard in January 2004, and since as cruising enthusiasts have tracked her summer voyages across the Atlantic and throughout the Caribbean in the winter months.

When I stepped aboard QM 2 it quickly became evident that she is less a showpiece than a piece of history.
One passenger overheard passing through the ship’s Grand Lobby captured the feelings of those onboard—mine included-in just three words: “This is special.” And it truly is.

At a height equivalent to a 23 story building and almost four football fields in length, she is the largest ocean-liner ever to cross the Atlantic and can carry approximately 3,090 passengers. Beyond sheer size, her launch was a signal to the cruise industry specifically, and the travel industry in general, that the day of the great, grand ocean-liner had returned.

“What we found is that there are three triggers in people’s willingness to consider transatlantic travel,” Cunard Marketing Director David Gevanthor says of the drive to revive that brand of ocean cruising.

“First, there’s the historical aspect of day’s past and traveling in leisure.”

Gevanthor and Cunard have counted on names of old liners such as the Queen Elizabeth 2, and even that of the ill-fated Titanic, to romanticize the notion of sea travel.

“The other premium out there is time,” he points out. “The transatlantic process gives people the time to decompress.” But Cunard’s key marketing strategy has been to remind people that air travel is not as commodious as in the past.

“The other thing we realized is that travel is not very comfortable anymore, Gevanthor adds. “You have to arrive at airports three hours early, and first-class isn’t what it used to be.

“We want people to think of this as a resort experience that connects two of the best cities in the world, New York and London.”

As with any first-class resort, this one offers an elite level of service. The onboard spa is operated by Arizona’s famous Canyon Ranch and boasts a space of approximately 20,000 soothing square feet. Standard cabins are combined with luxury duplex apartments, complete with butlers to provide a range of accommodation for all travelers.

Cunard, the line that operates the QM 2 has plucked the best of its staff from other vessels to bring the new flagship up to five-star speed only weeks after its first sailing.

Robert Cheatle, the maitre d’ at the Queen’s Grill, the best restaurant aboard QM 2, relates a story from his days serving on Queen Elizabeth 2 that illustrate those high standards.

A tough passenger on the QE 2 once asked Cheatle for a special meal. He wanted an elephant steak. In true polished English fashion, Cheatle didn’t flinch. Instead he looked his challenger in the eye and asked: “Will that be Indian or African, sir?”

Cheatle escaped to deal with business before I could ask him whether he managed to find the pachyderm delicacy. No matter, the point was taken and understood—anything is possible aboard the QM 2.

The remarkable technological features on the ship make those sorts of grandiose service promises possible. Beyond her cutting-edge performance specifications, the ship boasts the first seaborne planetarium and a business centre that could rival the operations of any land-based office.

Those technological features are not merely limited to luxurious asides, but are a key feature in finding solutions to pre-eminent security concerns.

To put it simply, luring eager passengers onboard the Queen Mary 2 is an easy task. Keeping those wishing to sabotage her and the entire cruise industry off is a taller order.

Security concerns have loomed large over the world’s largest ocean liner since reports began to circulate that the ship was high on Al Qaeda’s list of preferred targets.

Carnival Inc., the parent company of the Cunard Line which operates the Queen Mary 2, denies that the ship was ever a prime terrorist target. But passengers quickly realize that the company is leaving nothing to chance where security is concerned.

Those boarding the ship are photographed and provided with a photo identification card that also serves as a form of credit for making purchases onboard. Anyone embarking must also pass through a metal detector and have their bags scanned for explosives or harmful devices.

Identification cards are scanned once passengers board the ship and again while disembarking. Still, Carnival Inc. president Mickey Arison feels that the heightened security measures are standard practice.

“The ship gets the same level of security as all of our other ships,” he says.

Arison told TNNworld.com that despite downplaying terrorist threats, the cruise line is in close contact with U.S. government agencies regarding any possible attacks.

“We have people at the highest level of security clearances who were getting daily updates (from the U.S. government prior to her January, 2004, launch) - now those updates are less frequent. They have a list of names that we keep an eye on.”

Those worries fall to the wayside at night when the gowns and the tuxedoes are unpacked, pressed, draped over their owners and the ship comes to life in true elegant form.

The Empire Casino and the adjacent bar area are a meeting point for passengers seeing and being seen on what might be their only opportunity to sail on the grand lady.

Those same people retire to the ship’s nightclub, G32, for a more modern taste of the transatlantic high-life.

By the end of this voyage, it’s clear to me that the Queen Mary 2 is a celebrity in her own right. She is for my generation what the Titanic was for that of my great grandparents.

She is, in every sense of the word, royalty.

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