Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 39 days

Following yesterday’s exciting news that Her Majesty will be naming Queen Elizabeth on 11 October, our new Queen is getting closer to completion. She is now making her way back to Monfalcone, whilst undergoing her second set of sea trials, and on this Blog I have some exclusive pictures from the dry dock in Trieste which I received just a couple of days ago. Firstly though as usual, it’s time for this week in Cunard’s history for the week of 27 August to 2 September.

Thanks as usual for all your comments; it’s great to hear that you are as excited as we are that Her Majesty will be naming the third Cunarder to bear the name Queen Elizabeth, and how wonderful it is to see her name glistening after her new paintwork in dry dock:

Following her sea trials Queen Elizabeth has been in dry dock in Trieste, Italy receiving her final coat of paint before going in to service in less than six weeks time. This is a view of her bulbous bow and bow thrusters with a unique view of her bow as the water came back in to the dry dock, before she left for her second set of sea trials.

Meanwhile at her stern, her Azipods were also prepared for her sea going career; and what a difference, as they touched the water coming in to the dry dock:

This is the view of Queen Elizabeth’s starboard side stabiliser, again ready for sea.

What a great shot this is of the water entering the dry dock touching our new Queen’s newly painted and treated hull, ready for her second set of sea trials and entering in to service.

Although a huge amount of work has been taking place on the ship’s hull, progress is as fast as ever on board, with many areas being transformed in just a couple of weeks since our last set of photos. Here for example is the Games Deck, where final preparations are being made in the area where our guests will be playing Bowls, Croquet and Paddle Tennis:

Meanwhile at the other end of our new Queen, the expansive Lido pool area has the lighting in place, and the pool is certainly looking very welcoming in the beautiful Italian sunshine.

And in Queen Elizabeth’s stunning Garden Lounge, the mural above the bandstand is looking fantastic and makes a great centrepiece to this venue.

Then Cunard’s latest Queen was on her way for her next set of sea trials, looking superb with her newly painted livery. She is now heading back to Monfalcone for the last stage of outfitting and preparation for service, with Captain Chris Wells observing the latest trials.

Big thanks to Chris Knowles, Queen Elizabeth’s Senior Production Manager, for taking these amazing pictures and for sending them to me to post.

By the time Queen Elizabeth reaches Monfalcone, more and more of the ship’s company will be arriving in the shipyard, but the majority won’t be arriving for another couple of weeks or so, when they’ll be able to move straight on board.

I’ll be flying out in just 10 days time and will certainly look forward to seeing our new Queen, and rest assured I’ll keep you fully updated with all the news as it happens.

Meanwhile I’ll be back on Monday, with news of Queen Mary 2 latest star of the month as well as other news from around the Cunard world. Cheers for now, Alastair

Cunard are both honoured and proud to announce that Her Majesty The Queen will name our new liner Queen Elizabeth in Southampton on the 11th October.

You know it is quite remarkable to think that at the young age of 12, The Queen was present as her mother named our original Queen Elizabeth in 1938. During her marvellous 58 year reign, The Queen has also honoured Cunard Line by naming both the QE2 and Queen Mary 2. We often talk of our history and heritage , but it is our special links to the Royal Family that set us apart from any other travel company or cruise line. I was asked recently how excited we were at the prospect of the Queen Elizabeth naming ceremony to which I answered ‘Well there are ship launches and there are Cunard ship launches’. We have invited over 1,600 people from around the world to be present at the event in Southampton on the 11th October and the scene is set for something very British and very special. The launch of a Cunard Queen is indeed a part of history and we are very aware of our part in ensuring that the tremendous sense of British Maritime History continues for many years to come. It is also remarkable to think that with the arrival of Queen Elizabeth we will have ‘The Youngest Fleet in the World’ and so as well as a sense of history and heritage we look forward to delighting our guests around the world for many, many years to come.

For now we carry on with all the hard work that is needed to bring a new Cunard Queen to life – with a real sense of excitement and anticipation right around the company that we, along with our valued guests, are about to be part of something very special indeed. Below is the first picture of the ship on her her sea trials – I know I am biased but I think she looks fantastic

Best Regards

Peter Shanks

President and Managing Director

Cunard Line

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 41 days

While Queen Mary 2 is making her way across the Atlantic before her Canada and New England voyage, Queen Victoria is enjoying a mini voyage to France and Holland, before heading back to the Mediterranean. 

As the world awaits, the excitement is growing with only six weeks to go before Queen Elizabeth’s maiden voyage, and as promised we’ll have some more pictures from her in Italy on Thursday. I know the big question is, who will be naming our new Queen and all I can say is that you’ll be finding out very soon.

Regular readers will have followed Queen Victoria’s maiden Round Britain voyage this summer, which was a huge success. Following the voyage, Brian Lynch, Queen Victoria’s Personnel and Training Manager sent me this great story, so I’ll hand over to him.

  Guest Blog

  Brian Lynch, Personnel and Training Manager

 Queen Victoria

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Recently one of our Cunard guests, Mr. Peter Hempsey, very generously offered the use of the beautiful cricket grounds in Greenock, during our stay. During his travels on Queen Elizabeth 2, Mr. Hempsey had noticed our crew practising cricket on the quay alongside the ship, and put forward this special offer on his holiday on Queen Victoria.

Greenock Cricket Club was developed in 1862, and to this day maintains the traditions of the Club, which seeks to encourage, promote and develop the sports of cricket, hockey and squash throughout the Inverclyde area. 

The club promotes and organises the participation in these sports by the youth of the area. It has a long and eminent history as one of the leading clubs in Scotland, and has won many honours both in the West of Scotland and most recently, since the introduction of national cricket, within the whole of Scotland. Here are Greenock Cricket Club Scottish Cup winners 2007:

The Officers and Crew of Queen Victoria accepted this thoughtful invitation in true Cunard fashion and a fantastic turnout of thirty eager players participated.

Everyone who took part embraced this exciting opportunity, and it was wonderful to watch crew members rise to the occasion and play a game that many of them had probably played since before they could walk!

Interestingly enough, third umpire decisions were made based on both sides agreeing and our crew played for the entire day, thoroughly enjoying themselves. We have a few “secret weapons” in our teams and it was marvellous to witness the teamwork and camaraderie amongst our players from the sidelines.

From the moment we arrived, our gracious hosts made us feel so welcome with their wonderful, warm Scottish hospitality. A delicious tea and hot lunch were laid out for us to tuck into, and I think we were all sorry that the day had to end.

After the event Mr. Hempsey wrote to me saying:  “Mary and I were delighted to be able to welcome you all to Greenock and Glenpark. Next year in September both Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 are calling at Greenock which, although is just at the end of our cricket season, I am sure the Club would be happy to offer the use of Glenpark for crew cricket matches, if the ships have players who would be interested in having a game.”

Mr. Hempsey kindly sent us this wonderful photo he took, which also appeared in the The Greenock Telegraph, which carried the story of the Queen Victoria cricket team at Glenpark. This picture shows the wonderful sight of Queen Victoria and the Paddle Steamer Waverley looking towards Loch Long, taken from Peter and Mary Hempsey’s home:

And this view of Queen Victoria leaving the Clyde looking towards Kilcreggan.

We also sincerely hope that this is the beginning of a special partnership between Cunard and Greenock Cricket Club, and that whenever our Cunard Queens are on Around Britain voyages, we are able to take up the challenge of making the most of recreation that only sport can bring about.

Thank you Brian for this great story, and thanks to Mr. Hempsey for his pictures. This sounds like the beginning of a wonderful tradition and we look forward to seeing the story develop further next year.

Brian is now on leave and will soon be joining Queen Elizabeth where he will be very busy training and helping Queen Elizabeth’s crew settle in, whilst they prepare for her maiden voyage.

Cheers for now, Alastair

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 46 days

Queen Mary 2 is on her way back to Southampton, after her Norwegian voyage, while her sister Queen Victoria is also returning to Southampton after her Mediterranean voyage. Meanwhile as the world awaits Cunard’s new Queen, more and more staff are arriving in Italy in anticipation of Queen Elizabeth’s delivery in just over five weeks. Next week we will hopefully bring you some pictures from Trieste, where she is currently in dry dock receiving the final coats of paint to her hull, before returning to Monfalcone for the last stage of her outfitting.

By the way, I’ve just discovered that there are a few rooms left on her voyages sailing this year (although not her maiden voyage which sold out in a record 29 minutes!) so if you’re quick you may still get on board.

In today’s post we have some exciting news about the shopping on our new Queen that has just been announced, but that’s after this day in Cunard’s history for the week 21 to 27 August:

Ever since Queen Mary entered service in 1936, Cunard’s Queens have been famous for offering exciting on board shopping and have featured some of the finest luxury brands and gifts from around the world.

Queen Elizabeth’s ‘Royal Arcade’ will look fairly similar to the one on her sister Queen Victoria.

The shops on board our new Queen will feature many familiar names, but some new ones will join them. An impressive addition to the line up is Fortnum & Mason, who will open the first-ever sea-going branch.

Since 1707 Fortnum & Mason has been the quintessential English store, situated in the heart of London’s Piccadilly, and issued with three Royal warrants. The branch on board Queen Elizabeth will offer unique foods, gift wear and award-winning hampers.

Guests on board Queen Elizabeth will also be able to purchase brands that have never before been available at sea. Our Cunarder will be the only ship in the world to feature the following luxury products: 

• Hackett: Men’s designer clothing by Hackett of London are known as producers of the finest authentic and classic menswear; ‘The home of the essential British kit’.
• Harris Tweed are world renowned for their genuine hand-woven Scottish woollen fabrics.
• Anya Hindmarch is the English fashion accessories designer who always had a passion for bespoke details and Queen Elizabeth will feature the latest designs on board.
• Chopard: For 150 years Chopard has offered watches and jewellery of exceptional quality, exclusively created to the highest standards in Geneva. To celebrate the launch of Queen Elizabeth the company has produced the ‘Chopard Queen Elizabeth watch’ – a limited edition watch combining the dual branding of Chopard and Cunard.
• Penhaligons have been issued with two Royal warrants and their products are made in England using the finest rare ingredients from bergamot to jasmine.
• Aspinal of London was founded on the fundamental premise of offering their customers the most beautiful objects of unsurpassed quality and design for home and living.

This is what two of our new stores will look like:

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To celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s introduction, three brands have launched special items: 

• Clogau: The jeweller to The Queen has produced a gold Queen Elizabeth limited edition pendant exclusively for Cunard.
• Rotary: A specially commissioned ‘Queen Elizabeth watch’ will only available onboard the Queen Elizabeth.
• Halcyon Days: The Company has commissioned a special pillbox that links the heritage of the brand with luxury at sea.

A new ‘Cunard Signature Collection’ on board Queen Elizabeth will offer a premium logo collection ranging from travel accessories to designer clothing. Cunard were the first to offer suit hire facilities at sea, and Queen Elizabeth will continue this valuable service with Moss Bros Hire being available to provide everything needed for elegant formal events.

Following the announcement, Peter Shanks, Cunard President and Managing Director, told me:

   “Decades of experience have told us that the on board shopping      experience is important to our guests and Cunard has an unrivalled reputation for providing the finest shopping at sea. Queen Elizabeth will be no exception and I am very excited with the range that will be offered on board by quality world-famous brands that are a perfect fit with the Cunard brand”.

Well that’s it for this Blog but I’ll be back on Monday with some pictures of Queen Elizabeth in her dry dock in Trieste, Italy along with some new interior pictures as well. Next week I hope to catch up with Queen Elizabeth’s sisters as well. Cheers for now, Alastair

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 49 days

I was going to bring you more news from Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria today, but having just received news and pictures from Queen Elizabeth’s Sea Trials, I’m afraid they will have to wait until next week. Sea Trials are a very important stage of the new build process, where the ship undergoes numerous tests to ensure she will perform to expectations when she is delivered to Cunard. Queen Elizabeth’s Hotel Manager, Robert Howie, is already in the shipyard and sent me this special Guest Blog, so I’ll let him take up the story:                                                                                 
 

   Guest Blog
   Robert Howie, Hotel Manager
   Queen Elizabeth

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On 13 August at 8.44am, Queen Elizabeth slipped her lines and quietly, under her own power for the first time, left the shipyard in Monfalcone with around 300 shipyard employees, contractors, Carnival Corporate Shipbuilding Inspectors, Lloyds Register and Cunard representatives on board.

Although the weather wasn’t at its best it was still quite a sight to see our new Queen moving out from her outfitting berth, a journey she will make again in less than two months time, but then it will be for the last time and heading not for Trieste, but Southampton.

During the trials many manoeuvring, incline, blackout and stability tests were carried out as the ship was put through her paces by the Fincantieri team. The tests were continuous for three days, and trust me being almost thrown out of bed as the ship underwent her incline tests during the night, proved that!

On the Sunday, the weather brightened as we ‘cruised’ in circles and carried out more manoeuvres around the Adriatic. This is the view from just above the illuminated Queen Elizabeth sign looking aft to the lido deck.

Queen Elizabeth entered the dry dock in Trieste at around 4pm, with the water soon being drained from the dock. By the time I had left at 7pm, Fincantieri were already starting to prepare the exterior of the ship for her final coat of paint. Queen Elizabeth will remain in dry dock until the end of the month when she will complete her ‘Owners (Cunard)’ Sea Trials when Captain Wells will be in attendance. 

The outfitting of the ship will continue whilst in dry dock and in fact over the weekend, while we were on Sea Trials, I noted a significant move in areas nearing completion. This is the view of the open decks looking towards the Yacht Club and the new Games Deck.

The Pavilion Pool and Garden Lounge with its magnificent roof are also looking very impressive.

It looks equally fantastic from the inside.

Inside the finishes are being applied, such as the tiling and glazing, all of which reflect the theme of an English Conservatory.

Meanwhile the Lido Restaurant, Princess Grill, both levels of the Britannia Restaurant and Commodore Club are all now fully carpeted, so we will be loading the furniture into these spaces within the next two weeks. This all helps on the sea trials, as the weight gives a more realistic feel to the ship.  

Having attended many sea trials, I have to say that this one was probably the most uneventful, in that everything seemed to run to plan. Unfortunately we had no gala dinners, full production shows or any of the glamour that we will have come 12 October, but we all managed to keep ourselves occupied!

Thank you very much Robbie for this fascinating post. I also received a message from Queen Elizabeth’s Chief Engineer, Colin Black who told me more about the technical aspects of the sea trials.

Of the sea trials Colin said:

“The Bridge Navigation went very well, and the SOLAS Steering test was very impressive with full service speed and hard steering to 35 Degrees to port then starboard. This was repeated several times to test all conditions of steering operation with a speed of 21.7 knots. Then the forced roll at 9 degrees was impressive that it only took a few seconds for the fins to stabilise the vessel. It was good to see all six engines running at one time with all of them performing to expectations. The propulsion was tested with excellent results under load increase and decrease demands.”

Thank you Colin for the technical viewpoint as it’s always interesting to see this stage of the process, and you cane look forward to seeing more pictures from Queen Elizabeth in dry dock in Trieste next week. Also a big thank you to Evhad Kunovac for taking these great pictures. Evhad will eventually be working as the Concierge in the Grills Lounge but is currently working the Crew Office as more and more crew join the ship.

I’ll be back on Thursday when I’ll be sharing some exciting breaking news about the Shops on board our new Queen. Thanks again for logging on and please keep your comments and questions coming in. Cheers for now, Alastair

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 53 days

While Queen Mary 2 is in Norway, and Queen Victoria is back in the Mediterranean, Queen Elizabeth is less than eight weeks from her Maiden Voyage and the momentum is building towards her completion at an amazing rate. She has just passed another major milestone after passing her first set of sea trials. She is now in dry dock in Trieste where she will receive her final coat of paint on her hull, before her second set of sea trials heading back to Monfalcone. I will be getting pictures from this over the weekend and will post them on Monday.

Today we have the last in the series of Vlogs from our visit to the shipyard a couple of weeks ago, but that’s after for this week in Cunard’s history from 20 to 27 August:

In this Blog we are focussing on the Entertainment venues on our new Queen, and before we get to some new pictures which arrived just last night, here’s the final Vlog in the series with a bit of a wrap up of our visit as well.

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Thank you for all your comments about the Vlogs, and thank you to our Cameraman Andrew for all the great shots as well as his team for doing such a fantastic job in editing all that footage back in London. We really enjoyed the bit in this Vlog with the White Star Bellboys’ “We Are Cunard”, with Cunard’s President and Managing Director, Peter Shanks. It seemed to be a milestone in itself to see our crew on board, beginning work on her delivery and bringing the White Star spirit to Queen Elizabeth.

Since the Vlogs were made, the pace of progress has been incredible with this shot of the Queens Room, from the balcony on deck 3, showing the newly installed chandeliers and completed dance floor.

While we are on the subject of lighting, the chandelier has also been installed in the Yacht Club on deck 10. Work is still taking place on the remaining lighting fixtures and nautical finishes that will feature in this venue.

Moving to the Royal Court Theatre, the team of theatrical outfitters have arrived, and are busy installing the technical aspects of the Theatre. Richard Parker is overseeing this important process, while Queen Elizabeth’s Senior Production Manager, Chris Knowles and some of his team have now arrived to help. My thanks to his Crew Chief, Ryan Quinlan, who sent me these pictures last night. The first shows a very busy stage with one of the many lighting bars ready to receive the lighting fixtures in the foreground.

And yes, you will have noticed that all the seating and carpets have now been installed and like everything else, immediately covered as you can see in this photo.

This is a rare view from the stage itself showing the line sets that will bring the scenery for our new shows in and out. All the bars have to be weight tested for safety, which you can see with the red weights hanging off one of the bars.

Everything in the Theatre is going well, ready for the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Company to begin their rehearsals on stage towards the end of September. Meanwhile they are still very busy in Northampton, rehearsing all the exciting Production Shows that will premiere on our new Queen. As Queen Elizabeth will be their first ship for many of the cast, they were all invited to spend a day on Queen Victoria last Sunday, while she was in Southampton.

This was a perfect opportunity for them to get a feel of what their ship will be like as they looked around Queen Victoria’s Royal Court Theatre, the dressing rooms and of course their cabins as well as the other crew and guest areas. We couldn’t resist taking a photo of the cast of 21 on stage with Lisa Cotterill who has been involved in the creation of the new shows.

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They were then treated to a special performance from Queen Victoria’s Royal Cunard Singers and Dancers. As many of them knew each other we thought it would be fun to get both casts on stage, for a rare photo opportunity – all 37 of them!

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The Queen Elizabeth Theatre Company left at the end of the day saying goodbye to old friends and new, very excited at the prospect of joining their ship in just a few weeks time.

I’ll be back on Monday with some pictures from Queen Elizabeth’s sea trials, and then on Thursday we have some exciting breaking news about the Shops on board our new Queen. It’s a busy time of Blogging so please keep your comments and questions coming in. Cheers for now, Alastair

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 56 days

In today’s Blog we are going back to Monfalcone in Italy to catch up on the progress of our new Queen, this time focussing on the restaurants with more pictures and another Vlog.

With less than two month’s to go some of our crew have started to arrive in the yard to begin the set up process and oversee the finishing touches. Although some of the deck department are already there such as Deputy Captain, Hamish Sunter, Captain Chris Wells will be arriving later in the month.

As you know Queen Elizabeth’s Hotel Manager has also arrived and joining him recently, was Food and Beverage Manager Glenn Milway. Some of you will know Glenn, as he was also Food and Beverage Manager for the set up team of Queen Victoria, and he is very busy at the moment looking at all the galleys, bars and restaurant areas.

These areas along with the rest of the ship are looking great, and now probably for the first time, you don’t need too much of an imagination to see how our gracious new liner will look in October when she arrives in Southampton. One of my favourite areas of Queen Elizabeth is this magnificent staircase at the entrance of the Britannia Restaurant.

On the upper level there’s very little left to do before the furniture arrives with the specially designed carpet having already been laid and immediately covered to protect it.

Just behind this reception area, where the Captain’s table will be, you can see the space ready for a dramatic and brand new piece of artwork which will be arriving soon.

There was a lot of excitement from all of us including the press, to see the new Britannia Club Restaurant, which will offer open seating dining to guests in Britannia Club Staterooms. The special glazed panels on one side of the restaurant were covered while we were there, and they were just about to install the leaded glass ceiling lights, which will make the area look stunning.

Meanwhile up on deck 9 the Lido had also made tremendous progress with many of the final touches now being added, but it is certainly quite recognizable.

The Grills area of Queen Elizabeth may have been the last part of the superstructure to be added but the Restaurants, Lounge and Courtyard have been dramatically transformed. You can see the tremendous progress in this picture, which shows with the rich wooden veneers being finished in the Queen’s Grill Restaurant.

I know there’s a huge amount of interest in the Dining venues on Queen Elizabeth, so for those who haven’t seen it yet, you can find out more from our post, which includes details of the exclusive Verandah Restaurant, on this link to our Blog in June.

http://wearecunard.com/2010/06/07/

I’ll be back on Thursday with the final in our series of Blogs and Vlogs from Italy for the moment, with a focus on the Entertainment venues and some pictures we have just received from the shipyard over the weekend. We’ll have some news soon from the Sea Trials, as well as updates from both Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria.

Cheers for now, Alastair

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 60 days

Welcome to another Blog and thank you again for all your comments from our coverage of the progress of Queen Elizabeth; we’ll be posting two more Blogs and Vlogs next week. Meanwhile as Queen Victoria heads back to Southampton on Sunday, before heading to the Mediterranean, her big sister will be in her home port on Saturday ready for a voyage to Norway’s stunning North Cape. We have another great story from Queen Mary 2 after this week in Cunard’s history from the week of 13 to 20 August:

Before I get to that story on Queen Mary 2, I would like to follow up on our post from 29 July which shared her remarkable meeting with the Artemis Investments rowing boat as she crossed the Atlantic.

The great news is that when the four rowers touched the quayside at St Mary’s, in the Isles of Scilly, just before 1500 BST on Saturday 31 July, they had smashed a 114-year-old record by crossing the Atlantic in 43 days, 21 hours and 26 minutes. The record was last set by Norwegians, George Harbo and Frank Samuelson, who crossed the Atlantic in 55 days and 13 hours.

The Artemis North Atlantic Rowing Challenge crew left New York on 17 June and Skipper Leven Brown said it had been a “pell-mell, helter-skelter” trip, saying that the journey to break the record had been “a pleasure”, despite everything. He added, “The funniest thing for me was walking up the quayside – after more than six weeks of not walking, my legs felt more than a bit unsteady!”

What an amazing achievement and our congratulations to them and thanks again to Captain Bates and the crew of Queen Mary 2 for bringing us the story.

This week we go back to our flagship to celebrate more fundraising activities, as Sports Director, Marc Wilkinson takes up the story.

   Guest Blog

   Marc Wilkinson

   Sports Director, Queen Mary 2

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Recently on Queen Mary 2 a large number of guests, led by Jean Clark and Jane Thorpe, assembled on the Promenade Deck underneath the ship’s clock at exactly 11.00am on the last day of a Westbound Crossing. The start of the procedings was conducted by Hotel Manager, David Stephenson and Entertainment Director, Paul O’Loughlin.

Many of the gathered runners were wearing the Cancer Research UK, T shirts to raise awareness for the charity. 

Amoungst the faces in the crowd supporting Cancer Research UK, was award winning actress Celia Imrie who is very involved with the heart charity and she was about to embark on a tour of the U.S. Myself and Karen, the sports team, ran the event and here I am starting the race.

Asistant Entertainment Director Paul Wiggins manned the water station and supplied thurst quenching refreshments, of the non acholic type, to our large group of volunteers who were pounding the large open teak decks of Queen Mary 2.

According to Paul after seven laps around deck he became flooded for requests for some stronger beverages as for the first time on the Westbound Crossing the clouds parted making way for some blistering 87 degree walking weather.

There was some bad news however for this event, as the two chicken suits arranged for the  Hotel Manager and the Entertainment Director didn’t make their way from the dry cleaners in time for the event. Here Paul pleads his innocence on the missing outfits as the mobs gather to question him!

Overall the event was a huge success and is still gathering money from guests who are donating via the website. On average it took the group 43 minutes to walk the 10 laps of Queen Mary, where 3 laps equals 1.1 land mile.

A huge thank you to all departments that helped with organising the event, from the film crews who produced the appeal on the morning show to the bar department who arranged soft drinks for the guests, even though some faces looked disappointed when the celebratory champagne was put on hold to the cocktail party that evening! 

Anyone can make donations to Cancer Research UK via their website. 

Our thanks to Jean, Jane and all the guests that took part in this worthy cause. It was a fantastic event enjoyed by everyone. Meanwhile I’ll update everyone on the whereabouts of Paul and David’s chicken costume and will send pictures of their charity run around deck…………..

 Thanks Marc

Thank you Marc for a great post on such a worthwhile event. In fact I’ll be seeing Marc in a few weeks time, as he’ll be the Sports Director on Queen Elizabeth, during her maiden season. 

I’ll be back on Monday with the next in our series of blogs from Italy, with a focus on the Dining areas followed by a look at the Entertainment venues on Thursday.

Cheers for now, Alastair

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 62 days

Welcome to part two of this Blog, which continues to follow a small group of press, as they previewed Queen Elizabeth last week at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy. Thanks again for all your comments as the excitement continues to build. Interesting as many of you have noticed, today is exactly nine weeks before the Maiden Voyage. So here’s the second post following the tour of our new Queen, along with some more interviews.

As the tour continued in to the Golden Lion Pub, the progress from our last visit continued to astound me, with this venue, like so many others, starting to look familiar.

This is Café Carinthia, which will be larger than the one on Queen Victoria and one of the many areas where the deck head panels and lighting fixtures were already complete. Many of the decorative panels and features were also finished, but had been immediately covered in protective sheeting.

You may recall in the Vlog (I think that word will stick, Steve!), we posted last Thursday, that I mentioned the Art Deco Chandelier which was about to be installed in the Grand Lobby. This morning I was delighted to receive an Email from Robert Howie, who is Queen Elizabeth’s Hotel Manager. He is busy with the set up process in the shipyard, and he sent me this photo, which I’m sure you’ll agree, makes a stunning addition to the elegant Grand Lobby.

Meanwhile outside the ship, there is a huge amount of activity with stores arriving daily, as well as the hundreds of shipyard workers who are busy ensuring Queen Elizabeth will be ready to leave Monfalcone at the end of September.

First she’ll be going on her first set of Sea Trials this Friday, so we’ll make sure we bring you some pictures from that.

Meanwhile you may be interested to hear that Queen Mary 2 will be in Southampton on Saturday and Queen Victoria in her homeport as well on Sunday, as they continue their summer seasons. In fact in my next post on Thursday I’ll be bringing you more news from our flagship, and then on Monday we’ll have the next in our series of blogs from Italy, with a focus on the Entertainment areas on Monday and the dining venues on Thursday.

Cheers for now, Alastair

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 63 days

Welcome to another busy week of blogging as we continue our series of Blogs and Video Blogs from our recent visit to see Queen Elizabeth in Monfalcone, Italy, where she’ll be for just nine more weeks in preparation for her maiden voyage on 12 October.

Before we get to the next in the series of Blogs from that visit, thank you for all your comments from our first post last week; it’s great to hear from you as the excitement builds. As so many of you mentioned, the progress is indeed breathtakingly impressive, and yes, it’s great to get a real insight of how our new Queen will look when she is finished in just over two month’s time.

We spent a couple of days filming, and at the end of the first day, we met a small group of press who had come to enjoy a preview of our new Queen the following day. In today’s blog we follow them on their tour around Queen Elizabeth. We have two more Video Blogs (or as Steve Braithwaite says Vlogs – great name!) from the visit coming soon. Before I share some photographs from the visit – let’s view the video:

As you saw, the press arrived at the gangway to be greeted with a White Star Welcome from Cunard’s Bellboys, who were on hand throughout the tour to offer refreshment, cooling towels and guidance. Despite the huge amount of work going on, they still looked fantastic in the Grand Lobby greeting everyone.

Being very much a construction site, everyone was issued a hard hat and then guided on a carefully planned route. It was quite noisy, so the first opportunity to stop off and talk about our new Queen was in the Card Room on deck 2. Here Cunard’s President and Managing Director, Peter Shanks, introduced Queen Elizabeth’s Hotel Manager, Robert Howie (Right) and Chief Engineer Colin Black (Left).

The tour highlighted some of the special features that our guests will enjoy in the various venues and areas of Queen Elizabeth. The Midships Bar on deck three of the Grand Lobby will have special cabinets featuring Cunard memorabilia and we were given a preview of what one of them will look like.

The tour then proceeded aft to the Britannia Club and Britannia Restaurant and we’ll bring you pictures and video of the restaurants next week as well as the entertainment venues. An unexpected deviation gave everyone a glimpse of the largest galley on Queen Elizabeth, with much of the equipment already in place just awaiting a thorough cleaning!

Proceeding aft past the Queens Room we reached the Royal Arcade where we left this part of the tour. We’ll return with the second half of the visit tomorrow and it will feature more pictures, another video as well as some more fascinating interviews.

On Thursday there’s more news from Queen Mary 2 and then two Blogs from Queen Elizabeth next week. In the meantime please do keep your comments and questions coming and I’ll do my best to answer them. Cheers for now, Alastair