During the last couple of years, Cunard
Line, and its flagship Queen Mary 2 in particular, have seen the
retirement of a substantial number of senior officers including
Commodore Bernard Warner, Captain Paul Wright, Captain Nick Bates and
Hotel Manager John Duffy. It is also my understanding that
Entertainment Director Ray Rouse is now semi-retired. Those familiar
with the Cunard world know that these people played a significant
part in bringing the Queen Mary 2 into service and shaping the on
board experience.
Now they have been succeeded by a new
generation of leaders. Some of them have only been with Cunard a
relatively short time. However, it is now their responsibility to
take Queen Mary 2 into the future.
This is a more difficult task than
taking over the leadership of any other major passenger ship. Queen
Mary 2 was built as a transatlantic liner and although she does other
types of voyages, her mainstay is the crossing between New York and
Southampton, England. Whereas at one time hundreds of ships were
making this journey on a regular basis, only one ship makes regularly
scheduled transatlantic crossings today. The question that
constantly haunts Cunard is whether there is enough of a market for
such voyages to even sustain one ship.
The direct crossings on Queen Mary 2
are different than the transatlantic re-positioning cruises that
cruise ships moving from the Caribbean to Europe or vice versa do
during the Spring and Fall. On a direct crossing, there are no port
days. Thus, the focus of the voyage is on what happens onboard, not
on the ports. In addition, it is a shorter voyage than the
re-positionings even though with the high cost of fuel, Cunard has
lengthened its crossings in recent years to reduce fuel consumption.
Queen Mary 2 was designed with such
differences in mind. The ship is geared for sea days, with
facilities and programming to occupy your time fully. Furthermore,
the ship was designed to withstand whatever weather she may
encounter on the Atlantic and still proceed at speed and in comfort.
There is a core of people who love the
traditional crossings and their elegance. Consequently, Cunard has a
very high number of repeat passengers. However, in order to sustain
the ship, it must also attract other vacationers and holiday-makers.
Thus, Cunard must balance preserving
tradition with providing the type of onboard experience that
contemporary travelers seek in an ocean voyage. Queen Mary 2's
predecessor, Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) managed to tread this tightrope
for nearly 40 years. As one who traveled on QE2 many times, I can
attest that she constantly evolved throughout her career.
I recently met with some of the new
generation of Queen Mary 2's senior officers and asked them about
their vision for taking the ship forward. As noted earlier, even
though some have only been with the line for a relatively short
amount of time, I was struck by their commitment to preserving the
Cunard heritage, which goes back some 170 years. At the same time,
they recognized the need to move forward. But changes will be done
in a keeping with the Cunard style, not by merely copying whatever
becomes popular on other ships.
Beyondships interview with Captain
Kevin Oprey is posted at
http://www.beyondships2.com/queen-mary-2-captain-oprey-interview.html
Our interview with Hotel Manager Robert
Howie is at
http://www.beyondships2.com/queen-mary-2-howie-interview.html
And our talk with Entertainment
Director Keith Maynard is at
http://www.beyondships2.com/queen-mary-2-maynard-interview.html
We have also updated our Queen Mary 2
section with new daily programs and with new photos so that the photo
tour of the ship reflects the changes that were made in the 2011
refit. http://beyondships.com/QM2.html
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