Today is a big day as Queen Victoria is our first Queen to return to her homeport of Southampton after spending the last few months in United States waters.  Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 met up in Civitavecchia, Italy, yesterday and will meet up again in Southampton next Tuesday. It will mark the completion of Queen Elizabeth’s Maiden World Voyage, and where some of our American guests will join Queen Mary 2 to cross the Atlantic to complete her fourth World Voyage.

I always enjoy writing blogs about Cunard’s latest Stars of the Month. This is where every month on each of our three Queens, one crew member per ship is awarded the title. Nominations for the Star on each ship, is a result of guest and crew feedback, and then consideration by our on board White Star Committees. I’ll be introducing you to our latest stars after this week in Cunard’s History for the for 14 to 20 April

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Now it’s a great pleasure to introduce Cunard’s three new Stars, and this month they come from the Technical and Housekeeping departments.

Queen Mary 2

Ronald Pascual, Crew Housekeeper

Ronald Pascual is from the Philippines and is one of the Crew Housekeepers on Queen Mary 2.  Ronald is part of the team that ensures the crew areas of Queen Mary 2 are kept immaculate at all times. There is a lot to do and this keeps the team very busy, but Ronald still finds time to help his colleagues in other departments.

He was nominated by Provision Master Ryan Wardhaugh, because Ronald always volunteers to drive the big fork-lifts to move provisions on the big storing days. He does so all day, sacrificing his valuable time off and he was recognised by the Provisions Team for doing such a superb job.

Part of the White Star Credo that all of us at Cunard learn in the White Star Academy, is that we should always support and assist our colleagues, and it’s great to see Ronald being recognised for this.

Here is Ronald accepting his award from Commodore Bernard Warner, with Executive Housekeeper Colin Watson and Provision Master Ryan Wardhaugh.

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Queen Victoria

Dennes Sy, Housekeeping Utility

Dennes comes from Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Philippines and is the second oldest in his family. Although he has only been with Cunard since last year this is already the second time he has been nominated for Star of the Month, when he was the 2^nd runner up last August.

Dennes works in the Housekeeping Department as a General Utility which means he is part of a big team keeping the guest areas spotlessly clean on Queen Victoria.

He told us that he really enjoys his work as well as meeting and greeting guests when he is cleaning around the ship. He added that for him We Are Cunard means serving guests with pride, and he says he is very proud to be part of the Cunard family.

As for the future, Dennes hopes that he will be able to become a bar waiter or a waiter in the Britannia Restaurant. In this photo he is receiving his well deserved award from Captain Christopher Rynd, with Andrea Kaiser, Executive Housekeeper and Jacqueline Hodgson, Hotel Manager.

After the ceremony he said that he wanted to say thank you to the people who had faith in him, his colleagues in the Housekeeping Team and the Pursers Team for nominating him.

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Queen Elizabeth

Fermin Dela Luna Jr, Plumber

Fermin Dela Luna JR was part of the opening team of Queen Elizabeth, working as a night Plumber.  Fermin is from Rosario Cavite, Philippines and is married to Imelda R. Ela Luna. They have one daughter Franchesca Ira Dela Luna

He began his career at sea as a wiper, motorman, plumber with Cunard’s sister brand P&O, before joining Cunard in September last year. Fermin has recently moved to the day shift, and he was nominated for Star of the Month because he consistently goes above and beyond what is expected of him in his duties.

Being a plumber is a very busy job and often means he is called out at a moment’s notice to fix something. His supervisor told us that if Fermin has finished work or is just about to finish, he will still go and fix something however big or small the task. This sometimes means he works beyond his time and he does it with a smile and guests and colleagues have said how friendly and helpful he is.

His department felt his amazingly positive White Star attitude should be rewarded and they were delighted when he became Queen Elizabeth’s Star of the Month.

Fermin told me he was very grateful to be part of the Cunard Family, saying proudly We are Cunard! Here he is receiving his award from Captain Chris Wells with Colin Black, Chief Engineer. Robert Howie, Hotel Manager and Michael Robertshaw, Ships Services Engineer.

Congratulations to all the winners for last month and we look forward to revealing this month’s winners in a few weeks time. I’ll be back soon with a special Blog with the latest news from all three Cunard Queens, as well as some great pictures of Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth in Civitavecchia yesterday. Cheers for now, Alastair

Today Queen Elizabeth is visiting the Jordanian Port of Aqaba where many of our guests will be going to enjoy the incredible lost city of Petra. You can read more about this amazing destination in a blog I posted two years ago, when Queen Victoria made her maiden call there:

Icons Of The Ancient And Modern World

Queen Mary 2 is very nearby in the Red Sea, calling at Safaga, Egypt tomorrow, and from there her guests will visit Luxor and the incredible Valley of the Kings. Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth will meet again in the Italian Port of Civitavecchia next Wednesday, so it will be a good day to look at the Bridge Cams. There’ll also be an interesting challenge as the crew football teams of both ships play against each other for the first time. We’ll certainly bring you some pictures from that reunion of the Queens and the meeting of the football teams later next week.

In today’s blog we are going to all three Queens to get some of their news and that’s after this week in Cunard’s History from 7 to 13 April

There’s been a lot of fun happening on the Cunard Queens and while Queen Elizabeth was in Dubai, guests were interested to read in last Friday’s Daily Programme about some new environmental initiatives that Cunard was introducing:

I interviewed our Environmental officer Mike Lee that morning on the TV show who explained how it was all going to work. Guests were fascinated by the initiatives, although that evening when I was introducing the shows in the Royal Court Theatre I had to remind the guests what the date was.

Yes it was 1 April and it was another Cunard April Fool’s day joke. Did we get anyone I hear you say? Oh yes, we certainly did, according to the Bar Staff working at the Lido bar that day, they had numerous guests (and some crew), asking about the project.

I have to say a big thank you to Melanie Jones for her great artwork on the Daily Programme and Mike Lee for making it sound so plausible. I loved the bit when he explained how the turbines would fold down over the deck if we had to have a helicopter come to the ship. He even managed to keep a straight face when he explained about the exercise bicycles being linked to generators!

Even today (nearly a week later), I heard that a gentleman wants to see Colin Black, our Chief Engineer, to find out more about the initiatives!

Meanwhile on Queen Mary 2 a subtle advert was delicately placed in Queen Mary 2’s Daily programme on that same day;

The question everyone was waiting to know was how many guests would take the bait?  According to Queen Mary 2’s Entertainment Director, Paul O’Loughlin, over 80 guests were waiting to meet the prize Jersey cows and all the rest of the animals on Deck minus four.  Paul then made an announcement over the Public Address System wishing everyone a Happy April Fool’s Day, especially those guests who were in the Golden Lion Pub on the Farm Tour.  Paul tells me that laughter rang out throughout the ship and as always our guests took the joke wonderfully!  He added that he’s working on next year’s already so watch out!

On Queen Victoria, Entertainment Director Keith Maynard, interviewed Chris Thomas, the Youth Director on the morning TV show as the ‘Onboard Gardener’ called Colin.

Colin talked about the latest and little known addition to Queen Victoria, the wonderful and vibrant garden on deck 12 forward which drew inspiration from the hanging gardens of Babylon! Keith told me that there were a lot of guests who went up looking throughout the day and even a week later Keith had to let one lady know that it was actually an April fool.

There’s also some exciting news from Queen Victoria that’s not an April Fool’s Day joke!

Each year Cunard enters the Bacardi Cruise Competition and this year out of literally hundreds of entries Michal Miller, a Bartender on Queen Victoria, was successful in winning a semi-finalist position.

Michal’s creation won the Bombay Sapphire category with his ‘English Breakfast Spiced Tea’ cocktail and this has now been added to the Commodore Club bar menu underneath the ‘Cunard Award Winners’ section.

In congratulating Michal I asked him about his award winning cocktail. He told me: -

“It was wonderful news to be announced as a semi-finalist for the Bacardi Competition. I’m very excited that my cocktail – ‘English Breakfast Spiced Tea’ will now feature on all of our Cunard cocktail lists! The cocktail itself is a very British feeling cocktail that really showcases the great British traditions of Cunard!”

Here Michal shows off his winning Cocktail with Jason Pascall, the Public Rooms Manager on Queen Victoria

Congratulations again Michal, I look forward to trying one! Meanwhile I’ll be back on Monday with a special interview with Entertainment Director Amanda Reid and I have to say it really is a great read (excuse the pun!) Cheers for now, Alastair

After all the excitement of the Australian and New Zealand ports Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth are now heading north and will be crossing in to the Northern Hemisphere over the next few days. Meanwhile today, Queen Victoria is making her final call of the year to Los Angeles, but has her special Rendezvous with Queen Mary in Long beach this evening, and we’ll bring you pictures of that special meeting next week.

Thank you again for all the comments about the Royal Rendezvous in Sydney; it really was an amazing two days and in this Blog we are going back to that first full day with both Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 in this magical harbour. That’s after this week in Cunard’s history from 3 to 9 March.

The arrival of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 in to Sydney Harbour last week was just the beginning of two days of celebrations. There is also a video you can watch of the Queens arrival and here’s the link:

It was great to see that even though our Queens were in different parts of the harbour you could still see Queen Mary 2 from the decks of her younger sister:

It was a busy day for everyone with many functions taking place as well as media tours, and amongst that, there were guests disembarking and embarking. Our President and Managing Director, Peter Shanks had a very interesting day and I’ll let him take up the story in a special Presidents Blog:

President’s Blog

Peter Shanks

President and Managing Director

Cunard Line

Teamwork …..I have written before about the special people we have at Cunard. Last year I developed a special bond with many of Queen Elizabeth’s ship’s company. Throughout the ship’s build and launch there were many people who worked their socks off. We all deserve a couple of hours off from time to time, so during the afternoon after the arrival of our Queens, we did something special. Queen Elizabeth’s Hotel Manager, Robert Howie, Chief Engineer, Colin Black and Cunard’s Product Director, Tracy Jessop joined me on the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. As time was short, we did the Fast Climb, and if you haven’t done it, then please promise me that next time you are in Sydney, you will if you are able to; it’s a fantastic experience. Believe it or not, it was the first time that our Hotel Manager and Chief had gone ashore since leaving Southampton. We had so much fun and on getting to the top we were able to see both Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 below us in the harbour. It was quite a sight, but actually what was uppermost in my mind was how fortunate I am to work with such talented at motivated people across all levels on all of our ships.

Some helpful perspective……..That evening back on Queen Elizabeth we hosted a special event for Lifehouse Foundation. They are a wonderful organisation founded by Professor Chris O’Brien, who was a visionary cancer specialist who sadly died from cancer. We always like to support great causes and many people came to a special cocktail reception in the Garden Lounge on Queen Elizabeth that evening.  My day so far had been pretty exciting, but as I listened to the speeches, it sensibly brought me back down to earth. It was a very moving evening raising $25,000, and if you would like to know more about Lifehouse Foundation, then please Google Lifehouse and see what you can do to help.

In the next Blog I’ll share what happened the following day on Queen Mary 2, but what I can tell you is that it was another remarkable occasion.

Thank you Peter for another great President’s Blog. It’s always great to be in port with our sister ships; especially overnight. This gives our ships company special time with their colleagues to catch up and share stories. It was certainly a busy night around the city for our crew including our photo teams who are always looking to capture the perfect picture.

Queen Elizabeth’s Chief Photographer, Petar Petanac is a familiar name for regular readers of this blog, as he has given me some amazing pictures to share. He told me that they were invited to take a photo from a unique vantage point; from one of the suites in one of Sydney’s prestigious hotels. Donald and Elizabeth Walker, John Leatherland and David and Linda Mitchell were kind enough to let one of our photographers, Sasa, get this superb photo of Queen Elizabeth at night from their balcony.

The following day marked a poignant occasion on Queen Mary 2 and I’ll be back tomorrow, with another President’s Blog from Peter Shanks, sharing the events of that day. Then on Monday I’ll have the last part of the Sydney Rendezvous Blogs with some stunning pictures as Queen Elizabeth sailed past Queen Mary 2 on her departure. 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 – 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

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 221 days

Crossing the equator again tomorrow, Queen Victoria is now heading north towards Malaysia, while her big sister is heading south to New Zealand, arriving in Auckland today. Meanwhile back in Monfalcone, Italy work is progressing well on our new sister, Queen Elizabeth and she has just been moved to another outfitting dock at the Fincantieri shipyard, and we have the latest pictures for you.

Before we get to those pictures it’s time for our regular feature of this week in Cunard’s history, for the week 5 to 11 March:

Newly appointed to Queen Elizabeth is Chief Engineer, Colin Black, and he is already in the shipyard overseeing the technical aspects of new build process, and he was kind enough to send me some new pictures. So here she is with just over seven months to go before she enters service.

You can just see above the Commodore Club, the beginnings of what will be the spectacular Games Deck with the framework already in place for its protective canvas canopy. Many of the balcony doors have already been installed and the large crane to the right of the photo is being used to bring in the remaining staterooms. Moving a little further aft, and now on deck 10, we get a superb view of the stunning vaulted roof of the Garden Lounge.

As readers of this blog will know, it will be a similar space to the Winter Garden on Queen Victoria but with a new dramatic roof. Just behind that is the Grills area, which has come on a lot since we were last there, and then the iconic Cunard red funnel behind that. In the foreground on the left hand side of the photo will be the Pavilion Pool and work is currently taking place on the pool itself under the temporary protective shelter. It was then time to move our new Queen to a new outfitting dock within the yard, and this is a great picture showing her profile.

Doesn’t she look great and when you see her like this, she doesn’t look that far from completion. She has her own distinctive lines but continuing with the traditional livery that distinguishes her as a Cunarder.

Meanwhile inside there is also a lot of work going on around the ship, but at this stage it is mainly welding and installing the thousands of miles of cabling and pipe work. This is a great view of the ship’s navigational bridge ready for the installation of the deck head panels you can see stacked on the right hand side of the photo.

On the deck itself you can see the beginnings of the false floor and you can see the cable trays that will carry the wiring for the navigational equipment. It’s amazing to think that in less than seven months time Captain Wells will be standing on this bridge, with his team, ready to leave the ship yard and head to Southampton.

I’ve been promised some more photos soon, so I’ll post them as they arrive. I’ll be back next week with more news from Queen Victoria’s 2010 World Voyage including pictures from the World Voyage dinner, held in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. Cheers Alastair

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 235 days

Following on from the appointment of Captain Christopher Wells as Master of the new Queen Elizabeth, I am pleased to let readers of this blog know, that this morning Cunard Line issued a press release which gave details of four Senior Officers, who have been appointed to join Queen Elizabeth when she enters service on 12 October this year, which is less than 34 weeks away.

These are the details of the newly appointed Officers, as given in yesterday’s press release:

Robert Howie, Hotel Manager

Fife-born Robert Howie brings almost 25 years of experience – on land and at sea – to his new post as Hotel Manager aboard Queen Elizabeth. He held the position of Food and Beverage Manager aboard Queen Mary 2 in the ocean liner’s inaugural year and was then promoted to the prestigious position of Hotel Manager on Cunard’s flagship in 2005. Robbie was also the first Hotel Manager on board Queen Victoria when she entered service in December 2007. As Hotel Manager, Robert is in charge of all on board operations including housekeeping, food and beverage, entertainment and human resources. Prior to joining Cunard, Howie had served in senior managerial food and beverage positions for Princess Cruises, both shoreside and on board, since 1990.

Hamish Sunter, Staff Captain

Despite his Scottish forename, Hamish Sunter is proud to be a Yorkshireman. Halifax-born Captain Sunter joined Cunard in 1990 as an officer on Cunard Princess where he remained for three years. He also obtained his Master’s Certificate at this time. In 1993 he was transferred to QE2 as Junior First Officer and left that ship as Chief Officer in 1998. After two years Hamish was keen to go back to sea, which he did in 2000 with P&O Cruises and sailed as First Officer on several of their ships. He returned to Cunard as Chief Officer on Queen Mary 2 in October 2005. He rejoined QE2 as Staff Captain in December 2006 and has also served in that capacity on board Queen Victoria.

Colin Black, Chief Engineer

Colin Black, from East Lothian, joined P&O/Princess Cruises in 1990 as a CPO Mechanic on board Royal Princess. He subsequently moved up the ranks to First Engineer prior to being given the responsibility for the new build of Princess Cruises’ Dawn Princess, followed by Ocean Princess. In 2001 he was seconded to the Southampton Office working within the new build department. In 2002 he moved across to P&O Cruises serving on board Oriana, Aurora and then the new Arcadia. Colin’s first appointment as Chief Engineer was on board Tahitian Princess in 2006 and her sister ship Pacific Princess. In 2007 he was assigned as Technical Fleet Services Project Manager for Queen Victoria thereafter taking over as Chief Engineer.

Alastair Greener, Entertainment Director

Alastair Greener from near Marlborough – about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK – has a love of both the sea and stage, characteristics that will serve him well as he prepares to join Queen Elizabeth as Entertainment Director. Alastair has also served as Cruise Director on both Queen Mary 2 and QE2 and was the first Entertainment Director on board Queen Victoria.

Currently he is the face of the ‘We Are Cunard’ Blog, which is the site to visit for all the latest news on this new Cunarder. He was also asked to represent CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) as a media tour spokesperson. Alastair is a member of the British Actors’ Union and has appeared in a wide range of film, theatre and television productions. Prior to Cunard, Greener had joined Princess Cruises in 1997 and served on eight ships within the fleet. 

On confirming the appointments, Peter Shanks, Cunard President and Managing Director, said:

 “Our guests will be delighted to find so many ‘old friends’ aboard Cunard’s newest ship. One of our distinguishing characteristics is the number and frequency of our repeat guests and they will truly appreciate ‘coming home’ to these familiar faces.”

For me, it’s a real honour to be selected to head up the Entertainment department on Queen Elizabeth, and I look forward to the challenges the position will bring as well as being part of Cunard history. It does mean I’ll be very busy with the job in hand as well as continuing to host this Blog but I’m very excited about this year and of course bringing you all the news as it happens.

I’m also looking forward to working with a great team and over the coming weeks, I’ll be interviewing my colleagues, Robert Howie, Hamish Sunter and Colin Black so you can get to know the senior officers who will be heading up Queen Elizabeth’s ship’s company. I’ll start next week with an exclusive interview with Captain Chris Wells who is travelling on Queen Victoria at the moment. I’ll be back on Thursday with an amazing but true story from Queen Mary 2. Cheers Alastair