Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 259 days

As Queen Mary 2 continues her World Voyage with her maiden call to Muscat in Oman, Queen Victoria is coming to the end of her second leg of her World Voyage, arriving for the first time in San Francisco on Wednesday 27 January. If you want to watch her arrival on the bridge cam you can click on this link:

http://www.cunard.co.uk/bridgecam/qv_cam1.asp

We are not sure of the exact time that we will be passing under the Golden Gate Bridge but it will probably be between 6am and 7am local time (2pm to 3pm GMT).

A week earlier Queen Victoria was making her third transit of the Panama Canal. You can find out more about the Panama Canal and last year’s transit along with some great photos, facts and figures by clicking on this link:

http://wearecunard.com/2009/01/22/

Making the transit through one of the engineering marvels of the world is a real highlight of this voyage, and our guests were up very early to catch our approach to the first and probably most impressive of the three sets of locks. As I mentioned in the Blog last year; a good quiz question is “In which direction does the Panama Canal flow?” This map will give you the answer and also shows the location of the different locks.

We entered the Gatun Locks at about 8.30am on a beautiful day which although hot, was just right. As I went out on deck it was very busy with guests taking lots of photographs, and this year, as we progressed from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific, there were ships passing us in the locks going in the opposite direction, which is possible as the locks work independently of one another.

Meanwhile our on board photographers had been granted permission to go ashore and took some fantastic pictures of Queen Victoria in the locks, it’s great to have the professionals aboard to get shots like this which shows what a tight squeeze it is.

As many of you will know Queen Victoria is a Panamax ship, which means she is the maximum size of ship that can pass through the canal locks, which also means that the chamber walls are literally inches away from the ship’s hull. As I passed Café Carinthia, which is located on deck 2, the ship was just entering one of the locks and I managed to get this intriguing picture through the window. You can see the lock wall with a marker that indicates how far in to the chamber the ship was at the time.

Just over an hour and a quarter later and with the help of three lock chambers, Queen Victoria had been lifted 85 feet, and was now sailing through the beautiful Gatun Lake which is a protected area, so everyone was able to enjoy some stunning scenery.

During our transit of the lake, Ed Paulk, who had been giving us an excellent commentary from the bridge, gave guests a fascinating lecture in the Royal Court Theatre. He told us about the day’s transit as well as some details about the history of the Canal.

He also told us about the current construction works that were taking place along the Canal. In 2007 work began on widening the canal and installing new locks that would be able to accommodate much larger ships. The $5.5billion US dollar project will be completed by 2014, marking the Canal’s 100 year anniversary. The new chambers will be 1,600 feet long, 60 feet deep and 180 feet wide which means ships like Queen Mary 2 will be able to go through the canal from 2014. In fact the largest cargo ship that will be able to go through could carry a staggering 13,000 containers. The authorities are using the latest in technology in this massive project, which will see 60% of the water in the new locks being recycled in to holding basins. Although we could see the widening works from the ship, the new locks weren’t visible, but will eventually look like this:

After his lecture Ed then continued with his commentary from the Bridge, as we passed under the magnificent Century Road Bridge which was designed and built by a German team of architects and engineers about 5 years ago.

By 3.00pm we were approaching the second set of locks, Pedro Miguel, where the lowering process would begin. Here is another great shot from our on board photographers from the lock gate as Queen Victoria approached.

By about 5.30pm we had been through all the sets of locks and sailed under the Bridge of the Americas, which is seen by many as a formal welcome to the Pacific Ocean. As we turned north to Acapulco we reflected on what an amazing day it had been. No matter how many times you go through the Panama Canal, it never fails to impress.

Now we have something very different which I hope you enjoy. Our on board Videographer, Suzie Long, made this remarkable video taken from Queen Victoria’s bridge. The video is a clip from the Souvenir Voyage DVD, which is available for our guests at the end of each voyage, and shows us going through the locks – though somewhat speeded up!

I’d like to thank the on board photographers for all their help with these pictures and video and hope to bring you more in the future.

I’ll be back on Thursday with another regular post which will also celebrate Queen Mary 2’s latest star of the month. We’ll post some exclusive pictures of Queen Victoria’s maiden call to San Francisco as soon as we can, along with more news about Queen Elizabeth’s progress in Italy.  Cheers for now, Alastair

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 264 days

As I am writing this post, Queen Victoria has just made her third transit of the Panama Canal, and is now heading north to Acapulco. I’ll have a special Blog next week with some great pictures of this highlight of Queen Victoria’s World Voyage. Meanwhile Queen Mary 2 has just made her maiden call to Safaga in Egypt where her guests will have enjoyed tours to Luxor and the “Valley of The Kings”. 

Before we show you pictures and video of Queen Elizabeth’s interior, here’s Cunard’s history, for the week 22 to 28 January:

Queen Elizabeth’s Float Out ceremony was an amazing occasion, as it gave us the opportunity to witness a milestone in her construction process as well as being able to have a sneak look inside our new Queen, to see how she was progressing. Although it will be less than ten months before her maiden voyage, the interior of the ship at this stage is literally just metal.

To date the main focus of attention has been on the superstructure of the ship, but now that she has moved in to her first outfitting dock the attention turns to the inside. I took quite a few photographs, but frankly it would be hard to work out which area is which, so I took some pictures on board Queen Victoria this week, to give you an idea of what these areas may look like in 37 weeks time, although of course the décor will be different.

Most of the ship still looks very much like a shell and as you’ll see in this first photo of the upper level of the Britannia Restaurant, the outfitting process makes a dramatic difference.

Click image to enlarge

 

 

One thing we noticed in many areas of the ship, such as the Grand Lobby, Royal Arcade, Queens Room and Royal Court Theatre was the huge amount of scaffolding, which would enable work to take place on the very high bulkheads. You’ll see what I mean in this next shot, which is a view looking aft from the B Staircase towards the Grand lobby.

Click image to enlarge

 

 

You can see the lift shafts to the left, and the red panels are the fire screen doors which will eventually be concealed. One subject that I talked about on an earlier Video Blog was the outfitting of the bars, and how the tiling in those areas had already been started, and you can see this on the left hand side of this view of the Golden Lion Pub.

Click image to enlarge

 

 

This was our first opportunity to look at the upper areas of the ship towards the aft, which had only recently been added. This is the view of the Lido Buffet area looking aft, and you can see that the windows still haven’t been installed yet.

Click image to enlarge

 

 

While we looked at Queen Elizabeth’s interiors, I was grateful to Peter Shanks, Cunard’s President and Managing Director, for taking the time to chat to me about the day and the progress of Cunard’s latest Queen. So here is the next in the series of Video Blogs from that special day:-

I’d like to thank everyone again for all their assistance on that cold day, which enabled me bring you these pictures and Video. Please keep your comments and questions coming in, and I look forward to posting another Blog at the beginning of next week with pictures of Queen Victoria’s transit of the Panama Canal. Cheers for now, Alastair

It’s been quite a week for the history books with the inauguration of the 44^th President of the United States, Barrack Obama. The historic nature of the day was not lost on guests aboard our ships as we broadcast the celebrations on the big screen. On Queen Victoria it was really great to see so many different nationalities watching the event together and the spontaneous applause at the moment of inauguration. Much as many our guests would have loved to have witnessed the event first hand, a few mentioned they were quite grateful to be able to go up on deck and sunbathe afterwards instead of the cold in Washington D.C.!

Thank you again for your posts and questions as I always enjoy hearing from readers. There was a question regarding Cunard and how we work with our parent company Carnival Corporation. As you know, Cunard has very proud traditions which are as evident on both Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria as they will be on the new Queen Elizabeth. Cunard will always retain its own unique personality which is distinct from anyone else, but one of the advantages of being part of the larger Carnival family is that we can team up with our sister companies for some of the behind the scenes aspects of our business and this often means we can deliver even better service to our guests. Cunard has offices in several locations around the world but is now mostly based in Southampton.

Meanwhile it has been quite a week for us on Queen Victoria, as we transitted the Panama Canal for the second time on the second leg of our World Cruise. But before I tell you about that amazing day, here’s “This week in Cunard’s History” for the week of the 16^th to the 29^th January.

January 16 2002

The first steel is cut to mark the start of construction of Queen Mary 2.

January 16 2008

Queen Victoria’s maiden call at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

In answer to the title question of this blog relating to the direction the Panama Canal flows, the answer is neither! By the way this is always a great trivia question at a pub quiz, and the reason the answer is neither, is because of the S-shape of the Isthmus of Panama. So in fact the canal runs from south-east at the Pacific end to north-west at the Atlantic, meaning the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal is actually further west than the one on the Pacific side. To avoid confusion the canal authorities classify transits as northbound (Pacific to Atlantic) and southbound (Atlantic to Pacific).

For those of you unfamiliar with the Panama Canal, here’s the history bit! The construction of the canal was one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. It has had an enormous impact on shipping, as ships no longer have to travel the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America. As a result of ships being able to transit the Panama Canal the journey has been reduced by over 8,000 miles. Although the concept of a canal in Panama dates back to the early 16th century, the first attempt to construct a canal began in 1880 under French leadership. After this attempt collapsed, the work was finally completed by the United States, and the canal opened in 1914. Today the canal accommodates the passage of more than 14,000 ships a year, carrying more than 203 million tonnes of cargo.

The transit day for Queen Victoria started at 7:30am with the boarding of various officials including the Canal Pilots, Linesmen and a Lecturer who gave a commentary throughout the transit. Meanwhile we had gained permission for our on board photographers to go ashore and take pictures of the transit, so I have to thank Stefan (Chief Photographer) and his team for the pictures I couldn’t take! We then proceeded to the first set of three chambers which comprise the Gatun Locks. Our guests had armed themselves with binoculars and cameras and along with many of the crew, made their way to the outer decks to capture the excitement of the day, as we inched in to the first chamber.

Yes that is a road you see in front of the gates and it’s one of the few points where cars can cross the canal. Almost at the last minute it swung back in to the side of the chamber as we approached. The Panama Canal can accommodate vessels from small private yachts up to fairly large commercial ships. It has also become one of the “must do’s” of travel, so many passenger ships now make the Panama Canal part of their itineraries. In fact the day we arrived we were joined by two sister ships from the Princess Cruises fleet, so it was perfect that the Queen had two Princesses as her escorts! This is Queen Victoria with the Tahitian Princess in the other Lock.

As you can see Queen Victoria is quite a bit larger and was indeed designed specifically to fit through the canal locks and ships of this size are known as a Panamax vessels. It’s a bit of a squeeze, as they just fit in the locks with literally inches to spare on each side of the ship, as you can see from these photos.

There are now an increasing number of modern ships which exceed the Panamax limit, and these are known as post-Panamax vessels. Queen Mary 2 is an example of this, which is why she has to take the longer route around Cape Horn. The authorities have embarked on a massive project to build new locks which will enable much larger ships, including Queen Mary 2, to transit the canal once the locks are completed in 2014.

Now for some more statistics. Each lock chamber holds about 8,800,000 cubic feet of water, or about 65,800,000 gallons. Every time a ship makes a complete transit, some 52 million gallons of fresh water are spilled into the sea. No pumps are used in filling the lock chambers. The principle involved is simply that of letting the water run downhill. The man made Gatun Lake is 85 feet above sea level, so the water flows from one level to another through 18 foot culverts located in the centre and the side walls of the locks. From these, the water flows through smaller culverts which open the floor of the lock chambers. The lock gates, at each end of the chambers steel structures, are believe it or not, the original gates. These gates, which are regularly serviced and checked, are 65 feet wide 7 feet thick and vary in height from 47 to 82 feet, and weigh from 390 to 730 tons; they are covered with a sheathing of steel plates riveted to girder framework in a way similar to that used in ship construction.

Special Canal Pilots are on the bridge throughout the transit and they communicate continuously with a control centre as well as the linesmen, the towing “mule” drivers and the lock engineers. They work very closely with the ship’s Master and Bridge team and I was able to get a picture of Captain Paul Wright and Staff Captain Andrew Hall with one of the pilots as we waited for one of the chambers to fill with water.

The lines at the bow and stern are handled by Panama Canal linesmen who have to attach lines to the ship and to the towing “mules” at the locks. Once on our way, the transit through the first set of locks took just over ninety minutes and it wasn’t long before we could enjoy the beauty of the Gatun Lake. Four hours later we approached the Pedro Miguel locks on our transit, and here you can see the width of the canal and the constant undertaking by the authorities, to dredge and widen the canal.

During a ship’s first passage through the Canal, an Admeasurer boards, and it is his job to measure the ship, define its Panama Canal tonnage, and from that calculate the toll for each transit. Fortunately payment is all arranged by our Head Office in advance, so we don’t have to worry about throwing money in to a toll booth basket! Just as well really, as Queen Victoria’s approximate toll fee for the transit of the Panama Canal was in excess of a few hundred thousand dollars! Mind you if that sounds a lot, the Suez Canal costs are double that and we’ll be going through there at the beginning of April!!!

Meanwhile, only the Miraflores set of locks remained between Queen Victoria and the Pacific Ocean, and we transitted them just a couple of hours after entering the Pedro Miguel locks. In the distance you could just make out Panama City as we passed under the magnificent Bridge of the Americas.

Well that was our special day and it’s about it from me for now, but we’ll have more next week from our World Cruise, and hopefully some pictures of Queen Mary 2 going around Cape Horn. Don’t forget that in the meantime you can keep an eye on both ships on their webcams by clicking on the links below.

Queen Mary 2 Bridge Cam

http://www.cunard.com/bridgecam/qm2_cam1.asp

Queen Victoria Bridge Cam

http://www.cunard.com/bridgecam/qv_cam1.asp

Cheers for now, Alastair