Queen Mary 2

1 · POSITION

Cunard presents Queen Mary 2 as the largest ocean liner ever built and the only one making regularly scheduled crossings between New York and Southampton, with her four hundredth crossing completed in 2024. She was built by Chantiers de l’Atlantique to a design led by the naval architect Stephen Payne, launched in January 2004 and christened by Queen Elizabeth II. The line describes her as fourteen decks tall, standing some sixty-two metres above the waterline. [1]

2 · THE ROOMS ARE SORTED, AND SO IS DINNER

The line counts 1,353 staterooms, of which 983, or 73 per cent, have private balconies, together with 172 suites and penthouses, two Grand Duplex apartments and fifteen single staterooms. Dining follows the room: the Britannia Restaurant and Britannia Club, the Princess Grill and the Queens Grill, the Steakhouse at The Verandah and the Kings Court. The Golden Lion is a public house and the Carinthia Lounge a day room. More than fifty nationalities serve aboard. [1]

3 · TWENTY-FIVE DAYS AT BLOHM+VOSS

In 2016 the ship went to Blohm+Voss in Hamburg for twenty-five days of work reported at 132 million dollars. The Winter Garden became the Carinthia Lounge, extended to the promenade windows, serving café snacks by day and entertainment in the evening. The Queens Grill and Princess Grill restaurants and their suites were redesigned with more tables for two. The Verandah replaced Todd English, and the Kings Court buffet was restructured. [2, 3]

4 · ROOMS ADDED, AND A LAMP POST

The same refit added thirty Britannia Club balcony staterooms on a forward upper deck, fifteen Britannia single staterooms on a mezzanine taking part of the casino, and five Britannia inside rooms. Room for ten more animals was fitted, with an expanded outdoor deck carrying a Liverpool lamp post and a New York fire hydrant. Cunard calls hers the only kennels at sea and keeps a Kennel Master to run them. [1, 2, 3]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ The register dates her 2003. Cunard’s own account gives a launch in January 2004 and a maiden voyage that year, and nothing fetched here supports 2003. The register’s flag speaks of hull and freeboard; the line gives height above the waterline, not freeboard or plating, so that claim is untested by this entry. The Verandah was reported in 2016 as French and Spanish; Cunard now calls it a steakhouse. The room counts are current, not those of 2004. [1–3]