What an amazing day last Tuesday was, and another milestone in Cunard’s 171 year history. In the first of three Blogs we will go back to those two very special days, and to begin today’s blog, it’s a pleasure to hear about the arrival of our two Queens from our President and Managing Director, Peter Shanks.

President’s Blog

Peter Shanks

President and Managing Director

Cunard Line

Each year I venture down to Australia and New Zealand to spend time on our ships as they reach the half way point of their World Voyages. It is a long way from my front door, my family and my trusted Labrador, and I have to admit it was quite a daunting prospect to be away from the family and away from the office for such a long time. But I have to tell you we have encountered some very moving moments down under on Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth and I would like to share some of those moments with you.

Welcome home……after a 27 hour flight, and struggling to get to grips with a 13 hour time difference, I arrived onboard Queen Elizabeth in Auckland. I was greeted by our Hotel Manager, Robert Howie, who said: “Welcome home”. After such a long journey and in the familiar surroundings of Queen Elizabeth, I really did feel at home amongst my Cunard colleagues and loyal guests. It was a busy time in Auckland and Wellington as there was so much interest from the local press. There were also presentations to Travel Agents and the first highlight of the trip; the Queen Elizabeth World Voyage Dinner. In line with Cunard tradition, we take all of our full world voyage guests out to dinner to thank them for coming with us. It was a marvellous evening, including a full New Zealand ‘Hakka’ to welcome our guests. We’ll have a separate post about that next week after I return from Queen Mary 2’s World Voyage Dinner which will also be in Auckland.  As Queen Elizabeth left Wellington, I flew to Sydney to prepare for the arrival of our two Queens.

Oh Dear……….quite an amusing moment on Sunday morning as I became a tourist and took a two hour Captain Cook’s tour around Sydney Harbour. It turned out that there were about 200 people on the boat; 199 Holland America guests and me. As much as I respect our sister cruise line, I could not helping seeing the funny side as the lady providing the harbour commentary spent most of the two hours telling all the Holland America customers about the pending arrival of Cunard Line and their two Queens. So I kept my hat on, head down and enjoyed the irony of the moment.

The magical arrival of two Queens……..Fast forward to 0600 on Tuesday morning. I am standing on the steps of the Sydney Opera House surrounded by thousands of people. Some had paused on their morning jog, some had stopped by on their way to work but all had come to see the arrival of Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth. There was a marvellous feeling of expectation in the air; where were they, would they be on time and would they come in together, but I had every faith in our Captains.

Then round the headland and into the incredible Sydney Harbour came Queen Mary 2. I have seen her so many times, but back came the goose pimples and all around me I could sense the excitement. But hang on a minute, where was Queen Elizabeth? I could not stand the suspense so I called a colleague on the Bridge of Queen Elizabeth to be told ‘don’t panic we are just coming round the corner’. And round she came; the two ships approached Fort Denison as the sun came up.

There were nine news helicopters in the sky above us, and both ships were a wall of flash bulbs as over 4,600 Cunard guests were treated to a moment they would never forget.

I was proudest person lucky enough to be standing on the steps of Sydney Opera House. After much whistle blowing Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 headed for their respective berths.

It was apparent that Cunard had arrived in Sydney and we were set for an interesting 24 hours!

Thank you Peter for a great perspective of this incredible day. For all of us on Queen Elizabeth it was so wonderful to be guided in by our Flagship, and as she turned in front of the Sydney harbour bridge she looked so graceful.

As she came even closer you could almost hear the cheers from Queen Mary 2’s guests, if it wasn’t for all the cheering from our guests!

Then as our sister headed for her berth, Queen Elizabeth started to turn towards Circular Quay, with the magnificent Sydney Harbour Bridge creating a wonderful backdrop for our stay.

Sydney is always a highlight for our crew as well as our guests and for our Australian crew on board it’s a fantastic homecoming. For one of our Hair Stylists in the Royal Spa, this was an opportunity to meet up with family members after four months away. Beverley Chilcott, from Brisbane, has worked on all four Queens and was very excited to see a banner from her parents and children on the quayside as we got closer:

By 7.00am Queen Elizabeth was nearly at her berth as Queen Mary 2 edged towards hers, but you could still see her iconic red funnel above the trees.

As Queen Elizabeth got closer and the lines were being tied up, we could see Peter Shanks, on the quayside being interviewed by the Sydney TV news programmes.

I’ll have more pictures from Sydney in a couple of days but talking of reunions you may be interested to hear of another important date coming up. On 3 March maritime history will be made, when Queen Victoria and Queen Mary will meet for the first time.  At approximately 6:00pm, Queen Victoria will sail into Long Beach Harbour to meet Queen Mary, and the two ships will exchange whistle salutes amidst a sparkling fireworks display.

This rendezvous marks only the second time in Cunard’s history that a modern Queen has visited her docked sister ship; the first was in February 2006 when, on her maiden call to Los Angeles, Queen Mary 2 met her namesake.

This historic event also signals the celebration of a significant milestone:  the upcoming 75th anniversary of Queen Mary’s maiden voyage from Southampton, on 27 May 1936. Talking about the event Peter Shanks said:

“After the spectacular Cunard Royal Rendezvous in New York with our three modern Queens back in January, it is quite fitting that we continue the grand celebration on the West Coast. Queen Mary is an important part of our history and legacy and what better way to salute her than with a visit from Queen Victoria to celebrate the completion of her debut Americas season.”

For those not lucky enough to be on Queen Victoria the best viewing location will probably be on the Promenade deck of Queen Mary, at the aft of the ship. The good news is that I understand admission will be free for guests to board the ship to experience her attractions, including different tours, shopping as well as the Observation Bar and dining at the Promenade Café, Sir Winston’s and the Chelsea Chowder House

That’s it for the moment but I’ll be back in a couple of days with part two of the Sydney Rendezvous Blog with some wonderful video footage as well. Cheers for now, Alastair

David Stephenson

Hotel Manager

Queen Mary 2

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Shocked by the severity of the earthquake in Christchurch New Zealand, and coupled with the fact that Queen Mary 2 was due to call in the port of Lyttelton on her 2011 World Cruise two days after the quake struck. The ship’s company have felt connected to the misfortune that has beset this beautiful area on the South Island, and wanted to do something to help.

Of course the ship’s call in Lyttelton was no longer an option for our guest so a call in Wellington was hastily arranged and successfully executed, so for the guest’s time in New Zealand was unaffected.  To show the ship’s support for the people of Christchurch Queen Mary 2 donated 4,900 bottles of water to the relief agency. 

The picture below shows Peter Shanks and Commodore Warner handing the consignment over to Captain Charles Smith the Marine Services Manager for the Port of Wellington who kindly arranged shipment to Christchurch through the New Zealand Navy.

Guest Blogger 

David Jones 

 Corporate Communications Manager 

Carnival Australia 

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Australia is a very important market for Cunard Line but we now have an even better idea of just how deep and abiding that bond is following the historic Royal Rendezvous in Sydney of Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth on February 22-23.  

The dual visit of Cunard Line’s flagship and the maiden visit to Sydney of Queen Elizabeth on her inaugural World Voyage recalled an earlier Royal Rendezvous when the original Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth met in Sydney on April 9, 1941.  

Our Sydney visit was very busy farewelling our Australian guests and welcoming many more on board along with the customary visits by travel agents and media conferences.  

We also had a major charity event on board Queen Elizabeth for The Chris O’Brien Lifehouse at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, an holistic cancer treatment centre being established in memory of a revered Australian doctor.  

Over at Queen Mary 2, preparations were being made for a moving remembrance service and lunch being held the following day in honour of ‘Australia’s Finest Generation’, which recalled the earlier Royal Rendezvous.  

Around 50 former Australian soldiers and airmen now aged in their eighties and nineties, who sailed to war on the original Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, came on board Queen Mary 2 for the service and lunch in their honour.  

Queen Mary visited Sydney 13 times during the war and Queen Elizabeth was there on nine separate occasions to carry military personnel to the Middle East and Singapore. The ships became known as the ‘grey ghosts’ because of their dull grey wartime paintwork 

Many of the veterans who came onboard Queen Mary 2 this week sailed from Sydney following the earlier Royal Rendezvous in April 1941. We also welcomed a special guest – a 92 year old Australian air hero who returned from the war known as the ‘man who saved Queen Mary’. 

Cyril Burcher, a former Royal Australian Air Force pilot was decorated for an encounter in the North Atlantic when he saved Queen Mary from being attacked by a U-boat while he was flying on escort duty on June 12, 1943, here he is with Peter Shanks: 

As we discovered during the recent Royal Rendezvous in Sydney, thousands of Australian families have a strong emotional bond with ships of Cunard Line, both past and present, because of the historic events that were commemorated as part of the visit by Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth.    

Cunard Line President and Managing Director, Peter Shanks, said at the remembrance service that it was now possible to reflect on the human cost on all sides of a conflict that no one would want to see repeated.    

Thank you for a great guest blog David, we will have more updates and photos from the events in Sydney from our President and Managing Director Peter Shanks next week.

Thank you as always for all your great comments and feedback after what has been the most amazing couple of days in Sydney. I know many of you have seen some of the pictures, and we’ll be posting some over the weekend and again next week along with some video, so I’ll only keep you waiting for a couple of more days!

For this Blog we are going back a few days to Queen Elizabeth’s visit to New Zealand last week. This was of course before the devastating earthquake that hit the city of Christchurch. Cunard ships have docked in Lyttelton for many years, and I know how much our guests enjoy visiting Christchurch, so our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been affected by this terrible tragedy. A few of our readers have asked if our itineraries have changed, Queen Mary 2 will now call into Wellington on Saturday instead of Lyttelton.

Queen Elizabeth received a wonderful welcome when she visited the Bay of Islands, Auckland and Wellington, which I’ll share with you after this week in Cunard’s history for the week of 24 February to 2 March:

A very special event took place when Queen Elizabeth made her maiden visit to the Bay of Islands last week and she looked marvellous anchored in the bay.

The Captain and Officers were invited to take part in an official Powhiri. A Powhiri, which is pronounced Powfiri is a traditional Maori cultural welcome ceremony. It took place at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds which is New Zealand’s most historic site as it is where the nation’s founding document was signed between Maori chiefs and the British Crown in 1840. Interestingly enough that of course was also the year in which Samuel Cunard’s first ship; the Britannia sailed from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The grounds also preserve New Zealand’s first flag, which was in use for just six years.

It was a great day and one of the Officers who attended was Queen Elizabeth’s White Star Trainer, Emma De- Wilde, so I’ll let her take up the story of the day’s events;

Guest Blog

Emma De-Wilde

White Star Trainer

Queen Elizabeth

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I had no idea what to expect from the morning’s events, although Princess Grill Maitre D’Hotel, Patu Kerei was able to enlighten me on the way as he had attended a Powhiri before. He lives not too far from the Bay of Islands and was extremely excited as he was meeting his cousin. In this photo Captain Burgess is joined by some of the officers including, Patu, Chief Purser, Jonathan Leavor, Environmental Officer , Peter Hughes and Captain’s Secretary, Nicole Bruce:

On arrival at the grounds we were welcomed by a representative who explained the procedure of the traditional Maori ceremony and the history of the site.  The sun was shining and I felt extremely honoured to be part of this special occasion. After taking in the beautiful surroundings, we made our way round to the very impressive carved meeting house known as the Whare Runanga where the Captain was confronted by the warriors and challenged to see if we came in peace or war. The Captain picked up the challenge dart (Rautapu) which is the sign that we come in peace.

Before entering the Whare Runanga we had to remove our shoes and ladies were not permitted to sit on the front row as “the men are known as the protectors”. 

The ceremony was spectacular comprising of speeches (Karakia), prayers, songs (Waiata) and rousing war dances (Haka). I even warmed my voice to sing Jerusalem and enjoyed the traditional shaking of hands and pressing of noses (Hongi).

Now it was confirmed that the Captain and his visitors had come in peace, the atmosphere was relaxed and back in the grounds there was an opportunity for conversation and photographs with the warriors. Here I am with some of my colleagues on the day from left to right, Environmental Officer, Peter Hughes, Chief Purser, Jonathan Leavor as well as Julie Hughes and Mathias Theis from the Purser’s Office.

I can honestly say it was the most extraordinary, surreal experience I have witnessed and I thought only ceremonies like that were for the movies. I will cherish the memories of the day and look forward to sharing the history and photographs with friends and family back home.

Thank you Emma for another great report from the day, and yes what an amazing day it was. Two days later Queen Elizabeth docked in New Zealand’s largest city and home to about with one third of the country’s entire population, Auckland. The ship docked right in the centre of the city with its landmark Sky Tower only a few streets away. The view from the ship’s Bridge was incredible.

I was able to take the photo as I was on the Bridge to meet a special guest. I had received a message from Max Johnson, who told me he was an 18 year old studying to be an architect specialising in the design of boats.

He said that he had sketched all the ships that had entered Auckland for the last couple of years and having followed this Blog and Queen Elizabeth’s construction, he had drawn a picture of the three Queen Elizabeths and wanted to donate it to the ship.

That seemed like a great idea so we invited him to come on board to hand the picture over personally. Here he is with Chief Officer Denis Balic and Second Officer Chris Case.  

And here’s a close up of his wonderful picture.

After the presentation Thomas Quinones from the Entertainment Staff gave him a tour of the ship and it was great to see how excited Max was to be able to look around the latest addition to the Cunard Fleet.

He wrote to me the day after saying:  

“The tour of the Queen Elizabeth gave me an exciting insight into Cunard history and life. The Queen Elizabeth is the most interesting new ship to grace our shores and will be loved by many, certainly me. The tour from Thomas showed me a different side to cruising. That being aboard a Cunard ship, whether a passenger or visitor, you feel a part of something very special; an experience unlike any other. Unlike other ships, a tour aboard QE enables you to feel the 170 years worth of history displayed aboard.”

It was a great pleasure to have him on board and we wish him all the best in his future. Well, that’s it for this Blog but I’ll be back tomorrow with the first pictures of the Sydney Royal Rendezvous. Cheers for now, Alastair

With Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth making their final approaches to Sydney, this week marks another historic Cunard Rendezvous. At about 6am on Tuesday morning (which is Monday evening at 7pm in London and 2pm in New York) the two Queens will pass through the Heads and make their way in to the famous harbour, and I’m sure many of you will be watching it on the Web Cams.

For us on Queen Elizabeth, it’s been an amazing journey heading across the Pacific to New Zealand. The weather was fantastic all the way, and the welcome was as warm as ever. I’ll have more Blogs on that later in the week.

Many of you will recall Queen Elizabeth’s Madrina Dennie Farmer, who was at the Float Out ceremony. It’s amazing to think that was it was just over a year ago, but as a reminder you can read more about it by following this link:

http://wearecunard.com/2010/01/18/

Dennie is on board Queen Elizabeth for the World Voyage, and I was fortunate enough to be invited to a special presentation a couple for days ago.  Dennie had brought the original bell from the first Queen Elizabeth with her and this is the bell that was rung by Commodore Warner at the New York Stock Exchange on the 13^th of January.

http://wearecunard.com/2011/01/17/

Until recently it was on Queen Mary 2, where it had been since January 2004. It was taken on just before Queen Mary 2’s Maiden Voyage, but Dennie felt the right home for the bell was now on the new Queen Elizabeth. Here’s Denny making the presentation to Captain Julian Burgess with Hotel Manager Robert Howie and Chief Engineer Colin Black also at the presentation.

Dennie also announced that she would be generously donating the original bell from the Carmania, as a replacement, and that presentation will be made when Queen Mary 2 arrives back in Southampton at the end of her World Voyage.

Speaking of Queen Mary 2,  I was delighted to hear from the Assistant Entertainment Director, Rachael Fish who had a story to share about an important Charity Auction that had recently taken place. I’ll let her take up the story:

Guest Blog 

Rachael Fish, Assistant Entertainment Director

Queen Mary 2

Since late last year, Queensland has been hit by flooding and cyclones that have destroyed homes and businesses causing devastating disruption to every day family life. Queen Mary 2 took up the challenge to raise some money for the people of Queensland in conjunction with the Salvation Army and Variety, the children’s charity.  

Variety made us aware of some of the children in Queensland that had suffered due to the floods, having equipment that was vital to their everyday life completely destroyed.

A charity auction was held on the 16th of February 2011, and featured many items that had been donated by guests, Cunard President and Managing Director Peter Shanks as well as the Officers, Staff and Crew aboard Queen Mary 2.

Items for the auction included a Transatlantic Crossing on board Queen Mary 2, a one month vacation in Sarasota, Florida, holiday homes in Australia and Captain Paul Wright even donated his formal jacket, complete with gold trimming!

The Entertainment Staff organised the event along with Bruce Newey, who was a guest from Sydney, Australia. Bruce was instrumental in raising money for the charities and even hosted the auction. Here he is in full flow:

Bruce did an amazing job selling items which included one of the ship’s lifebuoys (a spare one I might add!), which was sold for $550. It was advertised as one size fits all as demonstrated here by Entertainment Director, Ray Rouse!

One unique experience up for auction was for a personal Bridge visit and the opportunity to blow Queen Mary 2’s whistle at noon. This was won by Mr. and Mrs. Lawson, who generously bid $1000. Here they with Second Officer, Connor Mulligan showing them the controls of our flagship.

Amongst the items was the Navigation Chart for that leg of the World Voyage, which I am holding here with a member of our Stage Crew, Peter Winter.

Everyone was so generous but I have to mention one lady, Dorothy Fisher, who bid on almost everything to raise more money…. what a fantastic lady!!! One of the items Dorothy bought was an Australian flag scarf:

The auction was a huge success and it raised over $25,000 and there are still more activities to come, so we look forward to making a real difference to these worthwhile charities. Our thanks again go to everyone who took part and especially those who were so generous with their bidding.

Thank you very much Rachael for an inspiring story and congratulations to everyone on Queen Mary 2 for raising so much. In fact raising money for charity is a Cunard tradition on a World Voyage and here on Queen Elizabeth we have already started with many more events planned over the next couple of months.

The day after the auction Queen Mary 2 arrived in Fremantle, her first Australian port on this year’s World Voyage. One of our Cunard Insights Lecturers, Blogger and Author, Chris Frame captured some great pictures of her arrival.

And here she is just coming along side to a wonderful welcome by local well-wishers.

Chris also took some video which you can see on this link: -

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj91Ji_-wpg

 Thanks for the link and the great photos Chris, I’m sure we all agree she looks fantastic.

I hope you enjoy watching the Royal Rendezvous, and of course I’ll have pictures, and Vlogs coming to you soon with the highlights of the day. I’ll be back on Thursday with some great pictures of Queen Elizabeth’s Maiden calls to New Zealand and next week we’ll be celebrating Cunard’s latest Stars.

Cheers for now, Alastair

It’s been another very busy week on board our ships, and as always it’s been great to read your comments and hear how many of our readers are following friends and family on their voyages around the World with Cunard. We’ve been busy passing on your good wishes to our guests on board so feel free to keep those mentions coming.

Meanwhile although our Queens are in different parts of the world, they have all been celebrating the day of romance in their own way and I’ve got news and pictures of that after this week in Cunard’s history for the week of the 17 to 23 February.

On 13 February, while Queen Victoria was in Los Angeles for the second of four visits during her Americas season, renowned Chef Todd English hosted members of the Entertainment Publicist Professional Society, media and other guests for a luncheon in his restaurant on board.

One of the most decorated and respected chefs in the world, Todd English was named the National Rising Star Chef by the James Beard Foundation early in his career and in 2001, Bon Appétit recognised him as “Restaurateur of the Year.”

He made history once again when he launched his first and only restaurants at sea aboard Queen Mary 2 in 2004 and Queen Victoria in 2007, both simply called Todd English. The restaurants highlight Chef English’s interpretive Mediterranean cuisine. Many of you will be familiar with his restaurants on Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2 and we posted a blog about him and his work in this Blog:

The day after Queen Victoria celebrated St. Valentine’s Day in traditional Cunard style with a signature ball in the Queens Room hosted by Social Hostess Marianne Corlett, and here she is pictured with Sports Director Warwick Newton:

Meanwhile Assistant Entertainment Director Keith Maynard was getting in to the spirit by hosting the Marriage Game Show, and here he is seeing how well three couples, including John and Barbara from California pictured here, actually knew each other!

As always our Queens are beautifully decorated on these occasions, and the Food and Beverage Team on Queen Elizabeth did a great job with fabulous Grand Lobby display.

During the afternoon in the Queens Room, members of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Company presented a specially prepared performance of “Hearts and Harps”, joined by Pianist Dustin Turner and Harpist Fiona McGee, in an elegant celebration of love through music and poetry.

On Queen Elizabeth we also ran a Valentine’s Dedication service to raise money for our World Voyage Charities. Guests were invited to write a message to their Valentine which would then appear in a special flyer that was delivered to guest staterooms with their Daily Programme. Guests were invited to enclose a donation with their message and the dedication accompanied by the biggest donation would appear on the front page of the Daily Programme itself. It was a great success with lots of dedications proving romance is alive and well on Queen Elizabeth, and we raised over $450 for our charities. This was the winning dedication.

Congratulations to Helen McMaster who wrote the dedication for her husband Andrew. I caught up with them both later that evening as they had their picture taken in the heart shaped arch of balloons that evening in the Queen’s Room at the Valentine’s Ball

Earlier in the evening as guests entered the restaurants on all our ships, the ladies were presented a red rose, and in this photo Headwaiter Sylwester Potrac offers a rose to Mrs Margo Irving from Dumbartonshire in Scotland, who is with her husband Ian.

As always it was a very special day and made that much more special by being celebrated on a Cunard Queen.  Well that’s it for the moment, but I’ll be back next week with more news from Queen Elizabeth’s Maiden World Voyage as she reaches New Zealand, as well as other news from around the Cunard Fleet.

The big news of course will be on Tuesday 22 February, as Queen Elizabeth meets up with Cunard’s Flagship, Queen Mary 2 at 5.30am (local time), off Sydney Harbour. Queen Mary 2 will then lead her sister in to the spectacular harbour before both ships enjoy their two day visit. This is definitely well worth watching on our Bridge Cams that morning and of course we’ll bring you some pictures and Vlogs from the event later that week. Cheers for now, Alastair

As we celebrated Valentine ’s Day on board our ships, Queen Elizabeth headed to her first New Zealand port; Bay of Islands. Meanwhile Queen Victoria is enjoying a mini voyage out of Los Angeles and Queen Mary 2 is heading towards Fremantle on the west coast of Australia. On Queen Elizabeth we have now crossed the International Dateline so went to bed on 10 February and woke up on the morning of the 12^th, missing the 11^th altogether. It’s a strange concept and interesting for those guests and crew who celebrate their birthdays on that missed day, but we had a special gathering for them so they were able to enjoy what will probably be one of their most memorable birthdays; for not actually happening!

We did a Blog a couple of years ago on board Queen Victoria which tells you a little more about crossing the International Date Line, and you can read about it by clicking here

Queen Elizabeth’s most recent port was a new one for Cunard as she visited Port Denarau in Fiji. It’s a beautiful and exclusive island resort near the town of Nandi which is about forty minutes drive from Lautoka where Queen Victoria visited last year.

Our guests had a lovely day there where the locals greeting visitors so warmly with big smiles and their word for hello ‘Bula’. It’s a wonderful place; I mean where else in the world would you find thatched busses!

We receive many comments and questions on the Blog and it’s always great to hear from you wherever in the world you are. Cunard has always been proud of its international connections and our ships will sometimes have up to 30 different nationalities travelling on board. This Blog also has readers all over the world and I was recently delighted to receive a message from 13 year old Jesper Rönnebrand from Sweden. In his message he told me that he is very interested in naval architecture and cruise ships. He added that Cunard is his favourite cruise line so decided to draw a liner for us at Cunard. He is also a keen follower of this Blog, so I thought I would share this picture with you, after all We Are Cunard  encompasses our Officers, Crew, Shore Side Team and of course our valued guests as well as enthusiasts around the globe.

Thank you again Jesper, I’m sure our readers are as impressed as I was when I saw your drawing. Congratulations and we wish you every success in the future.

Regular readers will be familiar with the White Star Programme we have on board our ships. This programme involves a lot of training not only for new crew but also ongoing training to keep our teams fully focussed to providing the very best service to our guests as you can see in this Blog posted last July.

Over the last year Cunard has introduced a new programme called elev8 which has given our Senior Officers further training to enhance their leadership and management skills. This has been hugely successful and I can certainly say the training has been a great benefit for me. This programme has recently been rolled out to the other members of the onboard management team, and I asked Emma De-Wilde, Queen Elizabeth’s White Star Trainer and one of the participants of the first course on Queen Elizabeth, to tell me about it.

Guest Blog

Emma De-Wilde

White Star Trainer

Queen Elizabeth

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Since joining Queen Elizabeth in November 2010, I had heard a lot about the elev8 leadership course and the feeling of “being elevated”, and was curious to find out the meaning behind the phrase. I have always enjoyed taking part in training sessions and attending courses which help my personal learning and development, so when my name appeared on the list for the first five day session, I felt excited and intrigued.  I was eager to learn a new topic which may help me in my chosen career path, and also to have the opportunity to interact with other senior members of crew on board.

On the first day, the team of 12 were split into four small groups and introduced to the course content for the day.  It was all quite formal to begin with but once the introductions were over, the real fun and learning began. 

The course comprised of six sessions over five days covering leadership for real, the language of the leader, engaging others, the leader as a coach, life leadership and goal setting/leadership in action.  Each session introduced the group to a new concept of leadership through theory based learning and fun interactive activities, enabling the teams to bond, work together and understand each concept in a new light. 

Brian Lynch our Personnel and Training Manager and Rishi Chadha, White Star Academy Trainer had planned and organised several team activities to highlight the main points of each topic which made the course extremely fun, interesting and lively; here they are in action.

I went with a very open mind and gained a lot from each session, including the importance of positive thinking, the traits of a good leader, my personal goals and priorities in life and what is important to me. Here I am with Assistant Maitre D’Hotel Oliver de Guzman and Head Waiter, Sylwester Potrac in one of our group tasks.

I found the whole experience rewarding and now I can confidently say, “I have been elevated” and intend to use what I have learnt to achieve my future dreams. I am also looking forward to the challenge of soon presenting elev8 myself!!

Thank you Emma for that great insight to the programme; it’s great to hear how good it was. I was recently invited to the graduation ceremony where all 52 participants of the first programme received their certificates.

Many of you will know our Chief Photographer Petar Petanac from all the photos he has shared with us on this Blog. He was one of the first graduates and here he is receiving his certificate from Captain Julian Burgess and Hotel Manager Robert Howie.

I asked him what he felt about the new elev8 programme:

I had a great five days during the elev8 course. It was really good fun as I was in a fabulous group. I must say the most important thing about the course was that it was very motivating, with a lot of great examples and tools of how to get ourselves “top of the mountain”, whatever that mountain is. I found myself again believing that I can achieve my goals and dreams and I hope this positive energy will be spread to my team as well. I have already had questions from them asking when the next elev8 course is as they would like to attend next time. I always say “It’s more important to have a dream, than to have the way to achieve it. If the power of our passion is strong enough we will figure out to make our dreams reality!”

Thanks for the great feedback and wise words Petar, it’s great you got so much out of it; congratulations.

That’s it for today’s Blog but I’ll be back on Thursday with pictures and news from around the Cunard Fleet, and how they celebrated Valentine’s Day. Cheers for now, Alastair

It’s been another busy week on board our ships, and another busy one for the Blog. Thank you as always for all your comments and questions, as well as your messages for guests currently on board our Queens. Between myself on Queen Elizabeth, Ray Rouse on Queen Mary 2 and Amanda Reid on Queen Victoria, we are passing them all on for you on our Morning TV shows, so please feel free to keep them coming.

Going back for a moment to my last Blog, thank you to John Lang for pointing out that there is in fact another Royal Mail Ship called, RMS Segwun and she has been operating since the 1920’s.

After leaving Hawaii Queen Elizabeth headed south west across the Pacific, and at 11.45am on Monday 7 February, she went from Winter to Summer in a second, by crossing the equator in to the southern hemisphere. More of that story after this week in Cunard’s history, for the week of 10 to 16 February.

One of the really great things about being on a new ship is being involved in activities and events that the ship will do for the first time. The Crossing the Line Ceremony is always a fun day as the ship seeks permission from King Neptune to proceed across the equator. In a centuries old tradition the King arrives with his court and Pollywogs (people who haven’t crossed the equator before) are brought before the King to answer any allegations of heinous crimes they may have committed. After a swift punishment for all concerned the ship is then granted safe passage. Here is the court in session for the first time on Queen Elizabeth;

Over 200 guests signed up the previous day to be involved and the first part of the ceremony is when all the Pollywogs are brought out to kiss a fish although some were keener than others!

After their crimes are read out the King orders a suitable punishment, which in days gone by would involve all sorts of extremely unsavoury objects and substances, but these days we are a bit kinder and apply whatever the chef manages to find in the galley. Mind you it’s still fairly messy as Allan Hutchinson discovered;

Once the Pollywogs have been thoroughly covered, they then cleanse themselves in the pool to make them fully fledged Shellbacks, as Cheryl Champion from Queensland, Australia is about to do in this photo.

After five guests received the full punishment, we found some crew who were also crossing the equator for the first time and we saved some extra unpleasant items for them as Greg Ashton, a member of the Production Staff from Leeds, found out:

Despite the huge demand we were not able to give every guest the full treatment, but those who had asked to get messy certainly had their wish and having got completely covered, they decided to take an impromptu dip in the pool:

Our thanks as always with these events go to firstly all those who were great sports to get involved and also to our Food and Beverage team for all the wonderful items they provided, but most of all to the deck and accommodation department who had the huge task of cleaning up after us!

If you want to read more about the Crossing the Line Ceremony; we did a post on Queen Victoria’s second World Voyage in 2009 and you can read all about it here

And of course we’ll be doing it all again in a month’s time when Queen Elizabeth heads back to the northern hemisphere on 5 March!

The first port of call in the southern hemisphere was Apia, which is the capital of the Independent State of Samoa. The city is located on the northern coast of Upolu, Samoa’s second-largest island.

Writer Robert Louis Stevenson spent the last four years of his life here, and is buried on Mt. Vaea, overlooking both the city and the home he built, Vailima, which is now a museum in his honour, and also gives its name to the local beer.

As this was our first call to the island there was the traditional Plaque Exchange Ceremony, where Captain Burgess met the Prime Minister, the Honourable Tuilaepa Malielegaoi Sailele, and other dignitaries in traditional dress, including Miss Samoa.

Among the gifts the Captain received were a Too Too which is a staff used in Samoan culture and is held by the speaker at a public meeting. He was also given a Fue which the speaker waves across his shoulders to give him more confidence.

Going in to the town of Apia itself, one of the landmarks is the Aggie Grey’s Hotel, which was founded in 1933.

It became a renowned club in the South Pacific for American servicemen stationed in Samoa during the Second World War. Its grounds are beautiful with gardens, restaurants, bars and bungalows.

We were then treated to a fabulous send off from a team of local singers and dancers, who wanted to make sure that Queen Elizabeth’s first visit to their island would end on a very memorable note.

Overnight we sailed the eighty five miles and one time zone to the nearby Island of American Samoa and the port of Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango).  I’ll be back with more pictures from Queen Elizabeth’s Maiden World Voyage next week as well as other news from around the Cunard Fleet. Cheers for now, Alastair

As we begin another week’s blogging, Queen Victoria will be enjoying the islands of Hawaii, while on their World Voyages Queen Elizabeth is crossing the Equator today on her way to Samoa, and Queen Mary 2 is in Durban South Africa.

The World Voyages on Cunard ships are always very special, not only because we see our World Voyage friends again, but also all the special events, activities and surprises that take place.

For example it was a case of ‘little meets large’ last week off Tristan da Cunha, as the only two ships in the world with Royal Mail status (RMS) met, when RMS Queen Mary 2 sailed past the island and met with RMS St. Helena.

The latter ship was making her final call at the island and has an uncertain future, but both ships exchanged salutes before Queen Mary 2 continued on her way to Cape Town.

And a few days later Cunard’s flagship arrived in the amazing city for a two day visit. Yesterday I was delighted to receive this incredible picture of her leaving this stunning port after her stay.

Meanwhile as Queen Elizabeth headed towards Los Angeles it was time to celebrate again and three of our Australian Crewmembers, Programme Coordinator Lisa Fanning, Captain’s Secretary Nicole Bruce and Assistant Food and Beverage Manager David Lea, were determined that Australia Day was going to be a big party. Here are Lisa and Nicole standing proudly in front of their flag:

And it certainly was quite an event with over 185 Australian guests on board, who gave the rest of us a warm welcome in the Garden Lounge, as we joined in the fun. Captain Julian Burgess also came along as we were all given song sheets to sing along to the great Aussie songs.

And no Australian party would be complete without some good “Tucker” in the form of Vegemite sandwiches, much to the delight of all concerned as we can see from the smile on Will Lee’s face, who is from Thirroul, New South Wales.

And with a bit of sustenance, it was time to dance and needless to say the party went on for much longer than expected, but of course everyone had a fantastic time.

On a World Voyage there are always lots of new and extra features in the Entertainment Programme, and it was great to see another Cunard first, when we tried something completely different. We took guests back to the 1950’s and the era of the great radio adventures with a trip down memory lane and Dick Barton – Special Agent.

A packed Royal Court Theatre came to see if intrepid sleuth Dick Barton could rid the world of evil in the name of decency and patriotism. Dick faced arch enemy Baron Scarheart in an action packed adventure which featured the Actors from The Queen Elizabeth Theatre Company who were joined by four guests in this première performance. Here are the entire cast with Director Richard Emerson, after the performance.

After a great day in Los Angeles when we said farewell to some guests and welcomed others, we set sail across the Pacific to Hawaii. The first port of call was Lahaina on the island of Maui, and what a beautiful island it is as you can see from this photo taken from one of our ship’s tenders:

People always talk about Hawaii being a magical part of the world and seeing views like this you can understand why it’s such a popular destination.

On every turn there’s another great view and of course our new Queen looked majestic in the bay amongst the yachts and small craft.

The following day we visited one of the most famous holiday spots in the world; Honolulu, where guests enjoyed whale watching or a very moving visit to the museum at Pearl Harbour. Again Queen Elizabeth rose above the buildings around her with her iconic red funnel providing another stunning backdrop.

Well that’s it for the moment but I’ll be back later in the week with more pictures from Queen Elizabeth’s Maiden World Voyage as well as other news from around the Cunard Fleet. Thank you as always for your comments and for logging on. Cheers for now, Alastair

Thank you again for all your recent comments; January was certainly a busy month of Blogging with some historic moments for Cunard, starting with the magnificent Float at the 122^nd Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade, which earned Cunard the Queen’s Trophy. Then of course there was the unforgettable Royal Rendezvous in New York and the fabulous welcome and sailaway of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth in Fort Lauderdale. I know one or two of you were wondering when and where the next meeting of the three Queens would take place; well we’ll have to wait and see, but you can rest assured we’ll keep you updated on this Blog.

Thank you as well for the messages for guests who are travelling on board; we’ll certainly pass them on using the Morning TV show and  I know a few guests have already been pleasantly surprised by them so far, so feel free to keep them coming!

For this week’s Blog we are going back to another very special event in January; Queen Elizabeth’s Maiden transit of the Panama Canal, but that after this week in Cunard’s history for the week of 3 – 9 February:

In last week’s Panama Canal Blog, I posted some pictures from the ship’s perspective, so now it’s time for Queen Elizabeth to be the star with pictures of her throughout the transit. As the pilot came on board the ship to guide her through the transit, the pilot boat was then allowed to take a team of our photographers with it to photograph the ship from the shore side. My thanks yet again to Chief Photographer Petar Petanac and his team for these fantastic pictures, starting with Queen Elizabeth entering the first Gatun Lock.

And in answer to Judith Sayers question; the “little grey machines at the side of the canal” are in fact called Mules. You can see one in the left of this picture. While the ship moves herself ahead, the Mules help to keep her from touching the sides of the lock, which is a huge job in itself. Here are four more guiding the ship in to the locks, where you suddenly realize the incredible size of our Queen.

In the next picture Queen Elizabeth is being raised using the natural flow of water from one chamber to another, while our guests line the open decks watching this wonder of engineering.

Having passed though the Gatun Lake and the Gaillard Cut, this next picture shows Queen Elizabeth being guided by tugs in to the Pedro Miguel Locks, which begin the process of lowering her back to sea level.

In the background of this tremendous photo you can see the huge amount of construction that is taking place to build the new wider locks that will be ready in 2014. This will enable ships as big as Queen Mary 2 to transit the Canal, so that’ll be another great moment in history to look forward to when she makes her first transit.

Some locks have double gates, and the reason we learned for this is that they are a safety measure so that should a lock gate fail then the backup gate would prevent millions of gallons escaping out of the vast lake. Here you can see both sets in front of her can open now that the set behind Queen Elizabeth are firmly shut.

The final set of locks to bring her back to sea level are called the Miraflores Locks, and this is one of my favourite pictures which shows exactly what a tight squeeze it is for Queen Elizabeth to pass through.

Once we were through the last lock it was time for our photographers to rejoin Queen Elizabeth on the same boat that would take the pilot off. As they approached, the ship was just about to go under the magnificent Bridge of the Americas, so time for one final and stunning photo.

With that we had reached the Pacific Ocean and turned north towards our next port of call, Acapulco in Mexico. Last year we made a time lapse video of Queen Victoria’s transit from on board, so this year as promised we have made a new video which, this time, features Queen Elizabeth’s Maiden Transit from the shore side perspective:

I’m sure you’ll agree that was a fantastic video, and my thanks go to our on board Videographer, Drew Pyper from Goole in East Yorkshire who did a great job.

That’s it for this week but I’ll be back with more pictures from Queen Elizabeth’s Maiden World Voyage as well as other news from around the Cunard Fleet. Thank you again for logging on and all your great comments. Cheers for now, Alastair