Countdown to Queen Elizabeth - 222 days

Thank you again for all your feedback, it’s always great to hear from you. I know from reading your comments you have been enjoying watching Queen Victoria going around the world, well I’m delighted to introduce a guest Blogger to share Queen Mary 2’s World Voyage with you; and what a great Blog it is, so over to Freda who takes up the story.

Guest Blog – Freda Singleton – Queen Mary 2 - Social Hostess

Queen Mary 2’s 2010 World Voyage is well under way with some fabulous new ports of call as well as some much loved familiar places, a whirl of parties, celebrations, themed balls, charity events, superb speakers and very variable weather!

Our first stop in beautiful Lisbon marked a very wet start.  Grey clouds and torrential rain deterred many from venturing ashore, so it was with some relief to move quite quickly from Civitavecchia (for Rome) through the Suez Canal and on to the desert lands. No pause by the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings would be complete without an Egyptian Ball. The Queens Room was inspirationally decorated to remind us of the magnificence and history of the land we had just visited and guests were delighted by the surprise appearance of Freddie Fahrouk, Achamanda and Hot Chick Soup performing the hilarious Sand Dance, much to the amazement of the guest who earlier in the evening had commented that no-one would remember that far back! And here they are supported by Antony and Cleopatra.

With a proudly Scottish Chief Engineer on board, celebrating Burns night in style was not negotiable!  Thanks to Ronnie Keir’s enthusiastic dissection of the haggis and Carol Summers’ (Royal Cunard Dance Captain) stunning sword dance, the famous Baird was toasted in style with a packed dance floor of energetic Gay Gordons, Dashing White Sergeants and an officers’ display of Strip the Willow! Here’s Carol dancing above the carefully crafted swords, the handiwork of Ronnie’s team of engineers, as he watches on.

As we moved on to India, the Queens Room hosted the Night of the Raj Ball, with guests displaying their newly honed skills of sari tying with their newly purchased jewel coloured saris. They then enjoyed watching the Royal Cunard Dancers perform their sensual, exotic interpretation of the dance of the Gods, depicting the God of destruction and the God of creation.

Bringing us to the end of the 3^rd leg of our World Voyage, all the sensations of the east were brought together at the Oriental Ball with the Sun and the Moon duet sung by our fabulous singers Kris Harding and Hannah Bloch and dramatically illustrated by the beautiful Vasilica Lungu as the love nymph in ‘The Sun and the Moon’.

Despite some very chilly weather as we approached Shanghai, the temperature rose in the Queens Room. Cupid paid us a timely visit as we celebrated Valentine’s Day with love, romance and some steamy passion with the jaw-dropping tango, seen here with Carol and Nazarly.

Amongst the fifteen or so maiden ports of call for Queen Mary 2 in this year’s World Voyage, one that will certainly stay in guests’ minds for a very long time is Nagasaki. As is customary, the ship exchanged plaques with the local officials, but this time the ceremony was extra special. The Mayor of Nagasaki came with his prefecture governors and made individual presentations to Captain Nick Bates, Staff Captain, Robert Camby, Chief Engineer, Ronnie Keir , Hotel Manager, David Stephenson and Entertainment Director, Paul O’Loughlin. The officers, dignitaries and audience were entirely humbled by the tear-jerking graciousness of the exquisite Japanese children who seared their place into everyone’s hearts. The 3 to 6 year olds of Oura Nursery School presented such enormous bouquets of flowers that they could hardly see or be seen; Captain Bates had to brush a tear from his eye. We heard later that they had rehearsed for over a month for their word perfect performance in English of ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’, followed by 2 traditional Japanese dances. No-one could think of more deserving recipients of our Cunard fluffy lions.

Of course, Cunard and Queen Mary 2 have excelled with an array of Insight speakers.  Amongst the celebrity speakers so far, we have been educated by John Humphries who hosted a special Queen Mary 2 version of ‘Masterbrain’, as well as a very thought provoking ‘Time for Questions’ with our panel of resident experts comprising Commodore Warner, Hotel Manager, David Stephenson and pianist, Campbell Simpson.  We were enlightened by Michael Nicholson and enthralled by Dr George McGavin.

Throughout all of the partying and celebrations the crew have been busy raising money for the four nominated World Voyage Charities: The Royal National Lifeboat Institute, The Haiti Emergency relief Fund, The Prostheses Foundation in Thailand and the Seaman’s Church Institute of New York.

The first event was the Tug of War, with competing teams from the Medical, Deck and Technical departments, the Spa, the Purser’s Office, the Engineers and Entertainment. The medical department under the appropriate title of ‘The Walking Dead’ won the best dressed team:

However, the Entertainment department wiped the floor with the remaining awards winning the ladies, the men and the mixed competitions. No wonder Paul O’Loughlin and Amanda Reid, (Entertainment Director and Assistant Entertainment Director), have such big smiles on their faces! 

By way of a complete contrast, the second charity event moved away from raw crew strength to musical expertise and seven superb examples of hidden talent put on two magnificent shows of ‘Stars in the Crew’ to allow fellow crew members and guests alike to judge their skills. The show featured:

·   Renier - Purser’s Staff as Gareth Gates with ‘Spirit in the Sky’

·   Marion Woolley - Zone Manager as Charlotte Church with ‘To dream a dream’

·   Jeffrey Canono -  Bedroom Steward  as Michael Ball from Miss Saigon with ‘Why God’

·   Alex Laxton - Stage Crew as Frank Sinatra with ‘Come fly with me’

·   Napoleon Mana - Laundry Man as Bill Medley with ‘Unchained Melody’

·   Big Dave Griffiss - Bar Steward as Paul McCartney with ‘I saw her standing there’ (eat your heart out Karl Lornie of the Beatles Celebration, who were also performing with us at that time and were, of course, completely brilliant!)

·   Cela Wasserman - Sound Engineer as Linda Perry with ‘What’s up?’

The voting was very close with outstanding performances from all seven stars and many congratulations due to final winner, Jeffery Canono who won himself dinner for 2 in Todd English.

And finally, we say a special thank you to the Masons on board who have done a wonderful job of raising money for our charities through cocktail events and raffles, with a magnificent total of $1745.57.

How do we top all that in the second half??

Thank you so much Freda for such a great Blog, it has given us a wonderful overview of your World Voyage so far. It was also really good to see and hear about our colleagues over on our big sister as well. We look forward to hearing about your next segment.

Meanwhile I’ll be back on Thursday with the regular weekly Blog and some new pictures of Queen Elizabeth under construction in Italy.

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 .

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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

 Countdown to Queen Elizabeth - 267 days

As Queen Mary 2 prepares to make her maiden southbound transit of the Suez Canal, Queen Victoria has also found the warmth of the Caribbean having made her maiden call to Grand Cayman yesterday. We anchored just off Georgetown, very close to a new pier:

We were lucky to be the only ship in, so we had the island to ourselves, where we could enjoy the delights of snorkeling, seven mile beach, Tortuga Rum Cake and an opportunity to go to Hell. No I am not being rude, there really is a place called Hell and it’s a group of short, black, limestone formations in the northwest of the island roughly the size of a football pitch. There are numerous explanations of how Hell received its name, but they are generally variations on what locals perceive Hell would look like. Whatever the origins of the name, many of our guests and crew go there, just so they have this claim to fame and post their cards from this spot with a special stamp.

Thank you again for all the comments about the previous Queen Elizabeth “Float Out Ceremony” Blogs. We will of course keep you updated with all the news as it happens. In this Blog and third video, we have a special interview with Queen Elizabeth’s Madrina, Dennie Farmer and also the ship yard director Paolo Capobianco.

Once the ceremony had been completed by the dry dock, which was now filling with water, we were treated to a wonderful reception and lunch in the Fincantieri offices at the Monfalcone ship yard. We were first given a very special souvenir programme of the day:

Inside the programme was a fitting tribute to our new Queen and Cunard’s proud and rich history, which included this great picture comparing Cunard’s latest liner with the very first ship, Britannia, which began Samuel Cunard’s company in 1840

There was some fantastic memorabilia around the room from the private collection of Maurizio Eliseo and Paolo Piccione, which celebrated many of the Cunard Liners of the past, including the previous ships bearing the name Elizabeth:

In this next Video Blog you’ll see that while we were at the reception I managed to have a chat with both Dennie Farmer and Paolo Capobianco, before heading back to Queen Elizabeth to have a look at the progress of the inside of the ship.

You’ll be able to see the next Video Blog in the series on Thursday, when I’ll be guiding you through the interior of Queen Elizabeth and there’ll also be an exclusive interview with Cunard’s President and Managing Director Peter Shanks. Thank you to both Dennie Farmer and Paolo Capobianco for their time and again to our cameraman Andrew, as well as everyone else at the Fincantieri ship yard for all their help on that day.

Meanwhile I’ll be back tomorrow with a special Blog from Queen Mary 2. Although the festive celebrations of Christmas and New Year may see a long time ago, we thought you’d still like to see how our flagship celebrated the season with a Guest Blog from Freda Singleton, Queen Mary 2’s Social Hostess.

Thank you again for logging on and please keep those comments and questions coming in. Cheers for now, Alastair

Welcome to this week’s blog and thank you again for continuing to read and comment. I’ll do my best to answer all your questions and if I don’t know I’ll try and ask someone who may. One of the advantages of Cunard family is that there are so many on sea and land that have worked with the company for a considerable amount of time and seem to remember everything! So with that in mind thanks Chris for your question about the Staff Captain on the Cunard Princess – I am trying to find out for you and will let you know if I can! In the meantime here is this week in Cunard’s history for the 4th to the 11^th December.

December 4 1975

QE2 completes the first million miles of steaming.

December 10 1999

The Caronia is renamed at a ceremony in Liverpool.

December 10 2007

Her Royal Highness The Duchess Of Cornwall Names Queen Victoria as she enters service as Cunard’s 147th ship to sail under the Cunard Flag.

December 11 1931

Work was called off on the building of Hull number 534 due to the great depression. The partially built ship was left for 30 months before work resumed.

December 11 2007

Queen Victoria begins her Maiden 10 day voyage to the Germany and Norway Christmas Markets.

Quite a week in history and for all of us involved with Queen Victoria beginning her Cunard career, a very memorable week. Was it just a year ago that we came to Southampton for the first time? What an amazing year it’s been, as there are not many who at their first birthday, can say that in their short life they have already been around the world (literally) having visited 6 continents and over 40 countries and so the list goes on. She has travelled 111,828 miles, made 222 port of calls and looked after 54,827 guests. This year, like last year (though both Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2 are gearing up for the festive season) Queen Victoria is coming back to Southampton for the first time since July, and as soon as she docks a whole team of decorators will transform the ship for her 22 day Caribbean Celebration voyage. We’ll get you some pictures of the decorated ships in the next blog.

It’s certainly turning out to be a crisp and cold winter here in England so it’s nice to turn our thoughts to sunnier climbs. Queen Mary 2 has started her season in the Caribbean so it’s a pleasure to hear from Freda Singleton, who is the Social Hostess on board Queen Mary 2. Social Hostesses are one of the many traditional roles we maintain on Cunard ships and they do an amazing job. They have a high profile with our guests, from introducing the Captain at the cocktail parties to hosting singles events and lots more, including the traditional activities such as scarf tying and hosting culinary demonstrations, all of which remain as popular as ever So I’ll pass over to Freda and see you again next week….

FREDA SINGLETON, SOCIAL HOSTESS ON QUEEN MARY 2:

Queen Mary 2 is fresh out of her latest re-fit and looking magnificent!  Freshly painted with a super, new, go-faster finish, all in the interests of improving fuel economy, she is impressing guests and locals alike in the beautiful Caribbean islands.

Having repositioned from Hamburg and now operating out of Fort Lauderdale for December and early January, prior to the start of her second World Cruise in 2009, Queen Mary 2 is basking in her newly refurbished glory in the islands of Curacao, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts, Grenada, Bonaire, Cristobal, St Thomas, Tortola and Dominica.  You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from the hard working transatlantic crew as they slowly start to lose their un-sunned pallor and begin to find time for an hour or so of sun, sea and fun!

All aboard are sad to see Captain Chris Wells come to the end of his contract and to leave the ship for the time being, but are very much looking forward to welcoming Captain Nick Bates for his first time at the helm, until Commodore Bernard Warner returns from his break.  They are also delighted to have many old friends from the now splendidly retired QE2 come to join the happy family.  As always the crew have worked hard but know how to enjoy themselves and in addition to the many crew activities planned by our Personnel & Training Manager, there have also been several red-hot fun runs in Caribbean sunshine, promoted and energetically supported by the ever enthusiastic and fitness-mad Entertainment Director, David Pepper.  Dancing Dave (as some affectionately call him), now takes his hard earned break from the ship as Ray Rouse returns to head up the Entertainment team.

On the upper decks, love is truly in the air with a very romantic and public marriage proposal at the height of the Royal Ascot Ball in the elegant Queens Room.  To the delight of all the guests in the audience, his lovely intended managed a stunned acceptance before bursting into tears.  With several other proposals, engagements and wedding vow renewals, the ship is in danger of becoming the new ‘Love Boat’!

As the Christmas season fast approaches and the ship’s beauty is enhanced by elegant festive decorations, everyone is totally focused on the forthcoming celebrations whilst keeping a keen eye on planning for the next epic 85-day World Cruise, re-visiting some of the glorious ports from the ship’s maiden world cruise and making maiden stops at Yokohama, Japan; Laem Chabang, Thailand and Salalah, Oman. Exciting times on Queen Mary 2!