Amongst all the excitement of looking forward to our new Queen joining the fleet in October, our two other Queens had a busy and exciting festive season, before preparing for their 2010 World Voyages. So in this Blog I’d like to take you back a few weeks as celebrating the festive season on a Cunard ship is always very special for guests and crew alike. While I was at home, I was very grateful to Queen Mary 2 for sending me a special Blog, capturing the festive atmosphere of the season.

Guest Blog, Freda Singleton – Queen Mary 2

20 December saw an interesting start to Queen Mary 2’s festive celebrations with Cunard’s flagship docking in New York shortly after 6.30am. Commodore Bernard Warner arrived shortly afterwards to take the helm and to his surprise, found the pride of Cunard’s fleet, the greatest ocean liner of our time, coated in white as her decks were covered in several inches of snow!  Had the newly installed snow-making machine gone into over-drive?!  No!  New York was fully into its Christmas cheer with a snow storm worthy of the North Pole! 

Some hours after the Commodore’s arrival, the snow was still piled up alongside the ship, so it was no surprise that our 2,400 guests were anxious to escape to the warmth of the Caribbean!  We were all very grateful to the Commodore as he headed south towards our first port of call, Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, to thaw out.  Meanwhile, the glamour and elegance of Cunard travel began on the first formal evening of the voyage with our fabulous, traditional, Black and White Ball. The Ball opened with the extra sparkle of the Royal Cunard Dancers in all their brilliant white finery, setting the scene for a glittering voyage.

It wasn’t long before we could all enjoy the sunshine of the Caribbean. The islands of Tortola and St Maarten are known for their beauty, friendliness and typical Caribbean hospitality, not to mention the odd rum punch or two which had everyone in the mood to party.  Christmas Eve saw a transformation from the wonderful rhythm of the steel drums to the gentle and festive sounds of Christmas carols as guest, officers and crew gathered in Queen Mary 2’s elegant Grand Lobby for the traditional start of the festivities.

Children and adults alike went to sleep that night anticipating the fun that was to follow on Christmas Day.  We were awoken of course, to the sound of sleigh bells…….coming down the chimney?  Well, the funnel is certainly big enough – and there indeed was Santa himself making his way through the ship from the Grand Lobby to the Queens Room!

Father Christmas was delighted to have caught up with Queen Mary 2 and to have been able to give so many presents to the fantastic young travellers on board. So much so, he even found time to reward the Commodore for being such a marvellous host, master of the ship, leader of such a tremendous team and fine example of White Star Service! Here he is being congratulated by Santa with Entertainment Director, Paul O’Loughlin.

Merriness continued throughout the day with sumptuous food and a specially written Christmas Show performed in the Royal Court Theatre that night and here’s a photo capturing Edwina Currie and her husband John Jones relating the story of ‘The Night Before Christmas’,

Of course the whole evening would not be complete without a spectacular Grand Lobby buffet prepared by our incredibly talented Chefs.

Enormous credit has to be given to the team who created this beautiful gingerbread display .

<<br>>

The special voyage gave our guests to enjoy visits to the stunning islands of Curacao, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, Dominica and St Kitts before the countdown to 2010. After a tremendous amount of preparation from the ships staff the countdown for the big night was soon underway in all parts of the ship.  From Campbell Simpson at the Piano in the Commodore Club, to our resident DJ Freddie in the G32 nightclub, through the Grand Lobby with our international band Vibz, the Chart Room with the Mark Hodgson Jazz Trio and not forgetting the Golden Lion pub with Gun of the Entertainment Staff where a rousing refrain of the British National Anthem and the ever emotional Pomp and Circumstance had seen in the British New Year at 8pm, and so on to the Queens Room and the elegance of the Queens Room Orchestra.  Here there was a very Scottish flavour to the Hogmanay styled celebration with many guests in kilts enjoying the traditional dances such as the Gay Gordons. Meanwhile the clock was ticking on the big screen behind the orchestra.

The ballroom was packed, the excitement was tangible as Evgeny Gnezdilov, tenor sax player from the Royal Court Theatre Orchestra, crouched down to ring 8 bells to mark the passing of 2009, under the watchful eye of vocalist Michel Chartier, poised to begin his rendition of Auld Lang Syne. This was swiftly followed by Alex Laxton, Queen Mary 2’s youngest crew member at just 19 years old, ringing in 2010.

And the beautiful gold and silver balloons fell, hooters squealed, streamers filled the air, everyone cheered, hugged and kissed.

As always Queen Mary 2 celebrated in style that night, with all her fabulous guests joining the ship’s company to mark the beginning of a new decade!

I’d like to thank the Queen Mary 2 for their help in this Blog and to Freda Singleton for sending it to me as it really shows yet again that Cunard certainly knows how to put on an unforgettable party.

Also thank you again for logging on and for all your questions and comments. I’ll be back on Thursday with a Video Blog featuring some interior shots of Queen Elizabeth as well as an interview with Cunard’s President and Managing Director, Peter Shanks. Cheers for now, Alastair

This will be quite a quick blog this week amongst all the seasonal celebrations, which I hope you are enjoying wherever you are during this festive time of year.

I could be accused, quite justifiably, of using the word historic rather a lot. Today, Cunard has one of the youngest fleets in the industry, with Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria and soon to come the new Queen Elizabeth, but we are still very proud of our history and the traditions that our modern liners inherit today. I say this because this particular week is one of some major cornerstones, as we look at Cunard’s history for the week 26^th December to the 1^st of January:

December 26 2003

Queen Mary 2 arrives in Southampton for the first time

December 27 1930

John Brown Yard Manager, Donald Skifflington, ceremoniously hammered home the first rivet on the new Queen Mary

December 28 1989

QE2 makes her maiden Call at the port of Yokohama for Tokyo, Japan

December 30 1964

The contract to build QE2 was signed. The deal between Cunard and John Brown Shipyard was to build a ship known at that time as Q4

January 1 1934

Cunard merges with rival White Star.

The merger on the first of January 1934, with our then rival White Star, was carefully negotiated following a repayable loan from the British government of £4.5million to help build Queen Mary. It also included a promise of a further £5million loan, to help build her sister, Queen Elizabeth. In addition to the Cunard ships, it also meant that three White Star ships would join the new enlarged fleet with the Olympic as the first to transfer. The second was The Majestic II, which had quite a history, as it was originally the Hamburg Amerika Lines Bismarck, launched in 1914 and was given to White Star as compensation for the loss of the Britannic in 1916. The Georgic was the third of the three ships inherited by Cunard and although the ships are long gone the name of White Star has continued to this day with Cunard’s famed “White Star Service”.

2003 saw Queen Mary 2 arrive in Southampton, and none of us will ever forget the images of her coming to her home port for the first time. She is a truly incredible ship and there is something magical about her that captivates crowds wherever she goes. I will always remember the first time I saw the masses of people lining the Elbe as she came in to Hamburg, and they still do five years later. Apart from being maintained to an exceptional high standard she has changed very little in her relatively short life, a testament to the work of her designers. Having said that many of you have been asking about the recent refit in Germany and although most of the work was behind the scenes there were some upgrades with the furnishings including the Chart Room which I have a couple of pictures of.

I’d also like to thank Freda Singleton for sending in a couple of festive photos from Queen Mary 2’s celebrations. Firstly not wishing to be out done by the Christmas display I shared with you on last week’s blog from Queen Victoria, here is a picture of their Ginger Bread House created by their talented team of chefs.

And here’s a picture of some of the Entertainment Team on board for the festive voyage with hopefully a few familiar faces. You may be wondering why there are so many pale pink and pale blue polo shirts, well they are the expanded Youth team looking after the increased numbers of youngsters on for the voyage.

Queen Victoria has completed her first year in service and it’s wonderful to see how popular she is already. It has been particularly enjoyable to meet quite a few guests on board, who have already sailed on her over three times – it would be interesting to learn who has completed the most voyages on her so far! Now we are all very pleased to welcome many of our fellow crew members from QE2 including of course Captain McNaught. I know the current voyage is welcoming many guests from QE2 for the first time and I look forward to meeting many more on the World Cruise.

Speaking of QE2, of course we were all sad to see her leave the fleet, but it was great to witness the incredible celebration of her career, as literally thousands of people paid tribute to her as she visited regular ports of call for the last time. The comments from Carmel’s poem, I think, says it all and shows the sheer affection for the ship and those who served on her. Although she is now preparing for the next stage of her life in Dubai, I will do my best to keep you fully informed of her transformation and I have a feeling that guests on future World Cruises will be making pilgrimages when they visit for many years to come.

As we look forward to 2009 all eyes will be focusing towards Italy and the construction of the next Cunard Queen; Queen Elizabeth. I expect some news fairly soon and will be getting regular reports from Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard on her progress with lots of photos – so watch this space!

In the meantime after 18 weeks of blogging, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all so much for logging on and being involved in the “We Are Cunard” blog. I’d also like to thank Shelley who does so much work with the blog, as well as those who have helped me with interviews and guidance. I look forward to hearing from you even more in 2009, and of course your ideas and questions are always welcome. I enjoy reading them and I know they often discuss subjects other bloggers are interested in as well.

I’ll be back next week as usual to celebrate the New Year with a special interview with a member of the ships company that guests always ask about. I’ll be interviewing Queen Victoria’s Principal Medical Officer, Peter Hawthorne which promises to be quite enlightening.

Meanwhile I’ll be re-joining Queen Victoria on 12^th January so if you are on the world cruise and read this blog – please do come and introduce yourself – I may even buy you a drink!

Firstly, I would like to wish you all very best wishes for the Season. Whether you are celebrating Christmas, Hanukah or other festivities, I hope it’s a happy time for everyone. Before we get in to how the ships enjoy this special time of year, here is this week in Cunard’s history for the 19th to the 25^th December.

December 21 1918

The Carmania becomes one of the first ships to be released by the government after World War 1 and make her first peace time sailing

December 21 1971

QE2 makes her maiden Call Port Everglades, USA

December 22 2003

Queen Mary 2 is handed over to Cunard in a ceremony at the Chantiers De L’Atlantique ship yard in St. Nazaire, France

December 23 1923

Ascania II is launched at the Armstrong Whitworth yard in Newcastle

December 23 1968

QE2 completes her sea trials in the Irish sea following preliminary trials which started a month earlier

Despite much of the world taking a lot of time off at this time of year, it’s always a busy time for those of us at sea, although personally, I will be at home this year, the first for many years so I must admit I’m very much looking forward to it. Of course this time last year we were busy with Queen Victoria on her second voyage on a “Seasonal Getaway” to the Canaries. This year both Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2 will be celebrating in the Caribbean. Here’s a great picture of Queen Mary 2 in Bonaire where she’ll be on Christmas Eve.

Planning for this time of year begins with creating an itinerary for the special voyages which will usually mean that the ships are at sea on Christmas Day, to make the most of the festivities. Storing of course continues as always, but with so many businesses closing during the period, our logistics team has to ensure that everything arrives at various destinations around the world in plenty of time. Specialist decorating companies are briefed to create a wonderful atmosphere in the public areas on board. Here’s a great picture of the Grand Lobby on Queen Mary 2 this year.

Once the voyage begins there’ll be a great atmosphere on board with festive music and of course the traditional religious services including a carol service and midnight masses conducted by clergy brought on for the voyage. Hanukah is often celebrated at the same time as Christmas, but the exact dates do vary from year to year. There’ll be a Rabbi on board to light a candle each day on the Menora which is normally by the Pursers desk.

Just before Christmas itself, the food and beverage department will create amazing displays around the ship to compliment the decorations, and I am always amazed by their talents. As you can imagine this takes a lot of time but it looks fantastic and it’s lovely to see the pride they have in their work. I have been sent the pictures from Queen Victoria this year and I’m sure you’ll agree they have done an incredible job.

One of the great traditions on board is the carol singing on Christmas Eve where guests are invited to join the ship’s officers, staff and crew for a good rousing festive sing along with specially prepared carol sheets. It’s always fun and great to see everyone together and fortunately we have the professional singers from our shows to help keep us in tune! Here’s a picture from last year’s singing in the Grand Lobby of Queen Victoria.

This time of year is very special for children and the youth teams on board are very busy looking after our younger guests with extra seasonal activities, the most eagerly awaited though of course is the visit to the ship by Santa Clause himself. He chooses various ways of visiting the ship although the traditional route of the funnel is a bit of a tight squeeze. He has often been spotted coming alongside the ship in a specially lowered lifeboat and there have been rumours of him being parachuted in but I think that’s someone’s imagination getting the better of them! You’ll have to watch the ships’ bridge cams to see how he arrives this year! However he gets there, he normally arrives around lunch time on Christmas day to deliver gifts to the children. On Queen Mary 2 this takes place in the Queen’s Room and on Queen Victoria in the Grand Lobby. While the children collect their presents and have their photo taken with Santa, officers and crew gather to sing more carols and Christmas songs making it a wonderful occasion. I’m sure this is helped by the seasonal eggnog and other refreshments!

Another important part of the day for our British guests is to watch the Queen’s annual Christmas Day speech to the Commonwealth. Once we have established the time difference (it’ll be late morning in the Caribbean), the speech is broadcast on the big screen in Illuminations on Queen Mary 2 and in the Queen’s Room on Queen Victoria.

This year Queen Victoria will be performing a special Christmas Show matinee featuring most of the ship’s Entertainment department and Amanda Reid, (Entertainment Director), has told me the team has been working hard on this special show and it promises to be a fantastic performance.  Queen Mary 2 will be having a festive matinee concert which also sounds like a relaxing way to spend Christmas afternoon.

The evening is very special with our guests enjoying a traditional Christmas dinner in the various restaurants around the ship. Yes we do keep the British traditional Christmas crackers and I’m afraid the jokes are not much better than the one’s you’ll be reading around your tables at home but I don’t think it would be Christmas if they were any good! Meanwhile the crew are also being looked after with special meals as well in their mess rooms. The Personnel and Training Managers will also have worked on events and activities for the crew, so that despite being away from their families, which is never easy at this time of year, they do get to enjoy some seasonal cheer.

Well that’s it from me for this year and apart from wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2009 I would like to thank you for reading this blog these last weeks. It’s been great to receive your comments and I look forward to keeping you updated with everything that happens in the Cunard World in the new year. In addition to everything that’s happening on Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria (both beginning their second World Cruises in January), there’ll be lots of exciting news about the new Queen Elizabeth as she prepares to enter service in just 21 months time.