Queen Mary 2 Photo Tour and Other Cruise News

I recently completed my 18th voyage on Queen Mary 2. In part, all of these voyages are the result of the fact that QM2 goes to a variety of places. Not only does she do transatlantic crossings but she cruises to Canada/New England, the Caribbean, Norway, Germany, and to other places. In other words, one voyage on QM2 is not going to be exactly like the one before it and the one after.

Another factor that I like about QM2 is her nautical properties. She was designed to cross the North Atlantic and during the design process simulations were done to test her against the worst Atlantic storms on record. As a result, even though she towers over the water, she is remarkably stable in bad weather. Even with waves washing over the dining room windows some 30 feet above the waterline, I have noticed that most of the passengers are out and about in the public rooms. She also manages to plow through the waves at a good speed even when other ships are heaved to.

The third factor that draws me back to QM2 is the atmosphere. The programming onboard tends toward the cultural and the intellectual. Thus, she is stimulating as well as relaxing. There is also the sophistication of the bars and restaurants as well as the traditional formal receptions. While I enjoy the less formal ships as well, QM2’s style is more closely attuned to my personality.

One result of all this is that the QM2 section of Beyondships is one of the largest on the site. I have done interviews with several of her captains, senior officers and managers in an attempt to give people a behind-the-scenes look at the workings of this historic ship. In addition, there are pages of photos, menus, daily programmes and other information. At about this time last year, I updated the section to reflect some of the additional information that I had accumulated over that year. So too, I have done an extensive update of the QM2 pages on the site this year adding dozens of new photos and information collected this year.

The QM2 section of the site is at http://www.beyondships.com/QM2.html
and the photo tour begins at http://www.beyondships.com/QM2tour1.html

Turning to other items in the news. . . .

Celebrity has announced that the name of the fourth ship in its Solstice class will be Celebrity Silhouette. These are beautiful ships. I was recently on the second ship of the class, Celebrity Equinox, and was impressed by the grace of her contemporary design. In addition, Celebrity has created numerous options for guests to choose from in the activities and in the dining. The third ship in the class, Celebrity Eclipse, is being built at the Meyer Werft yard in Pappenberg, Germany and is scheduled to enter service in April 2010.

Speaking of new-builds, the Silver Spirit of Silversea Cruises entered service on 23 December. The ship is aimed at the luxury end of the market, carrying just 540 passengers. This is the line’s first new ship in several years and while a small ship, 36,000 gross tons, she is considerably larger than the other ships in the Silver sea fleet.