Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 130 days

Welcome to another Blog which returns to Queen Victoria and the recent TOGs voyage, in the final post from what was clearly a very successful Mediterranean Voyage. More of that in a moment, but firstly thanks again for all the comments, it’s always great to hear from you, especially at the moment with the excitement building towards Queen Elizabeth, with more news coming soon.

I am settling back on board Queen Victoria as she heads north to the Baltic, visiting ports such as Copenhagen, Tallin and St. Petersburg where we will be docking at the brand new terminal. I’ll post a Blog on our visit. Meanwhile Queen Mary 2 is heading across to New York and as I mentioned in Tuesday’s Blog we’ll both be in Southampton on 14 June for one of those fantastic moments when our home port is able to welcome both Queens on the same day.

Before we get to the final post from the TOGs voyage here’s this week in Cunard’s history from 4 to 10 June.

June 4 2008

Queen Victoria makes her maiden call at Helsinki.

June 5 1965

QE2’s keel is laid at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (John Brown), Clydebank. She is assigned job number 736 and is constructed on the same slip way as Queen Mary 30 years before.

June 6 1973

QE2 makes her maiden call at Messina, Italy.

June 7 1906

Lusitania is launched at 12.30pm and is named by Mary Burns, Lady Inverclyde who was the wife of Cunard’s late Chairman.

June 7 1998

Cunard announces ‘Project Queen Mary’ – a proposal to build the biggest ocean liner ever built.

June 9 2005

John Cleese joins Queen Mary 2 for a Transatlantic Crossing

After the success of the Weekend Wogan show and the live auction, Sir Terry Wogan and the TOGs continued to raise funds as well as creating more fun memories… Mr and Mrs Packham were the very first winners of the live auction. This piston ring donated by the Chief Engineer, raised £650! From left to right on the front row are Alan Dedicoat, Mr Packham, Janet and Mrs Packham and on the back row, Charles Nove, holding the piston ring, and John Marsh

Talking of Janet and John Marsh, they signed books on the Monday morning and told me later, that to their surprise, they got more than four people in the queue! The team held a ‘silent auction’ in the Grand Lobby with items such as an amazing collage of the three Queens that the kids on board had made for Children in Need and beautiful paperweights made by the Engineers on board from the piston ring. Alan Dedicoat donated his time to have afternoon tea with three people…. he couldn’t believe it when it exceeded £200!

In another fundraising idea to raise even more cash, Jean Savage decided to get her locks chopped off in front of everyone! Here she is with Simon Mathose, one of our Hair Stylists from the Cunard Royal Spa, and her new look.

Before

 

After

I’ve been told by the ship’s company that the atmosphere on board was fantastic; buzzing with energy, laughter and friendship, and as Queen Victoria approached Southampton and the end of the incredible voyage, everyone was exchanging email addresses, telephone numbers along with promises to keep in touch and come back again. For Sir Terry and his TOGs the only way to say good bye and thank everyone, was with a drink, so all the TOGs were invited to join Sir Terry and his intrepid team for a Farewell Cocktail Party in the Queens Room.

As you can see it was a star studded event, including from left to right are John Marsh, Amanda Reid, Alan Dedicoat, Janet Marsh and Charles Nove.

Then with the help of Pudsey at his side, Sir Terry then made a short speech thanking everyone who had made this incredible voyage possible.

Everyone was delighted when it was announced that the voyage had raised an amazing £83,000 which would help children in the UK.

I was there to meet Queen Victoria when she returned to Southampton and Sir Terry was kind enough to invite me to his suite to have a chat about the voyage and our cameras were there to capture the moment. I’m delighted to post this Video Blog featuring that interview and some other footage from the voyage including clips from the live Weekend Wogan show in the Royal Court Theatre.

Thank you to Sir Terry, and of course congratulations again to him, his team and the TOGs as well as the Queen Victoria Officers and Crew for this fantastic achievement, and for making it another truly memorable voyage. I’ll be back next week with some great stories from Queen Mary 2. Cheers for now Alastair.

Countdown to Queen Elizabeth – 421 days

Firstly thanks so much for all the feedback – so many comments from the last few Blogs; it’s been amazing to get such a great response. This looks like being the busiest month for the Blog yet, so thank you for reading and all your input, but special thanks to all those behind the scenes for all their support as well as the Guest Bloggers. We will certainly try and post more video and of course cover as many of the special events as we can. Don’t forget if there are any announcements from Cunard – I’ll make sure you hear about it on this Blog.

Before we get to this post’s video, I would like to answer a question from Dawn Audoire-Jones. The first Captain of Queen Mary was Commodore Sir Edgar Britten and Commodore Irving was the other Captain in 1936. We are not aware of a Captain Audoire but now I have mentioned it here perhaps someone will! Thanks to Michael Gallagher for his help with that.

Meanwhile back to my visit to Italy for Queen Elizabeth’s keel laying ceremony, here is the promised video blog (in fact my first), which includes an interview with Cunard’s President and Managing Director, Carol Marlow.

As you read this I will actually be in Southampton attending a management training course with some of my colleagues from the ships and shore side offices so I’ll let you know a bit about that in my next post.

In fact talking of Southampton, for those who weren’t aware, 20 July is a date to mark in the diary as it is one of those rare days where both our current Queens, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, will be in port at the same time, so I’m sure there’ll be some great photo opportunities.

That’s it for the moment but I’ll be back as usual on Thursday with another “A Day in the Life” article, this time  featuring Queen Victoria’s latest star of the month.

I have some more great Blogs coming up including interviews and a guest Blog from 3^rd Officer, Ned Tutton who will be talking about life as a Cunard Deck Cadet.

Cheers Alastair.

Even after four and a half years and over 20 crossings, I still feel enormously proud when I step on board Queen Mary 2. But today was special. Today was the start of the final tandem crossing of Queen Mary 2 and QE2 and the final eastbound Transatlantic Crossing for the Grand Dame before she heads further east to the start of her new life in Dubai.

Arriving in Brooklyn, the excitement in the terminal is tangible and feels like a slight vibration, a pre-celebratory energy. Security and check in staff are excited for us and memories of Queen Mary 2 Maiden Voyage return. I feel as I do every time I step on to the ship. I feel as though I am the start of a great adventure, and I have the whole glorious time stretching out in front of me… I feel as though I have the best job in the world.

My role on board for this voyage is to host a lady from a world renowned publisher who is teaming up with Cunard to present a series of high profile speakers on board with an exciting twist. At this stage I can’t say too much more but our new partnership is due to launch next April. Having boarded the ship, my first stop is to meet with the Entertainment Director, David Pepper, discuss the timetable of the talks and entertainment on board and to run through the highs and lows of recent weeks. There’s a lot to discuss with the recent Ian Fleming Centenary Voyage. Queen Mary 2 transported the Ian Fleming Bond Exhibition on the first leg of its world tour from Southampton to New York for the inaugural exhibition at Bonhams.

Soon, David and I are joined by Robert Hardman, series writer of the BBC Documentary “The Monarchy At Work”, six one hour episodes which form a series to be screened on PBS. The American version has an additional episode with more unseen footage of the British Royal Family – so we are proudly presenting a ‘World Premier’ on board. This voyage also sees the return of one of our most successful Cunard Insights speakers Barry Brown Documentary Maker of the ‘Hollywood Greats’ and two new speakers include Dr. David Whitehouse from the Royal Astronomical Society and Dr. Eric Dolin a marine expert talking about the history of whaling – which took grip of the islands not far from New York over 250 years ago.

The ship holds a magic. This magic works a spell with time. This magic is intertwined with a new vocabulary which everyone adopts on board.   The days of the week are replaced and we no longer refer to Monday, Tuesday or the weekend. We talk about the first, second and third sea days and these time units are punctuated by ‘formal night’, a Ball in the Queens Room, Captains Cocktails and Martinis in the Commodore Club. Soon this becomes the norm and I’m shocked once again to notice how quickly I adapt to the luxury and attention on board. Gaining a dignified balance between professional politeness and embarrassed gratefulness towards my on board colleagues who serve me the bars and restaurants is not always easy. I’m always proud to be associated with them in front of guests and people I bring aboard the ship.

Sailaway starts at around 5.30pm and I join my companion from the publishers up at the Terrace Bar on Deck 8 aft. The weather is warm, on the better side of humid, but the soft breeze reminds me we are no longer in summer.  We set sail along the Hudson, passing alongside the Statue of Liberty and wait for QE2 to join us. Musicians from the Queens Room are playing on deck with a set list from the trad jazz era. It feels suitably traditional and as the World’s Press and NYPD helicopters swoop above and the water hydrant ships spray coloured water we spot our sister ship in the distance. Queen Mary 2 blows her horn -  a maritime metaphorical hat tipping towards the wisdom of an older relation? Whatever it is, there is a definite element of respect in this gesture as fellow guests on board wave their flags and cheer QE2.

She moves majestically towards us and Queen Mary 2 turns slightly to the side leaving enough room for her to catch us up and sail beside us, eventually taking the lead guiding us towards the Verrazano Bridge. Guests on board both ships whoop and cheer, flags are waving and cameras are flashing. It’s a very proud moment in Cunard’s history. As she sails by the port side of Queen Mary 2, we make our way inside and up to Deck 9 forward to the Commodore Club, from here we can watch QE2 sail in front of us as she guides us slowly towards the bridge. The light is fading quickly now and it’s not long before darkness provides the backdrop for the glistening ships. Both ships are moving very slowly and everyone is savouring the final moments of the Tandem Hudson Goodbye. As we close the distance with the Verrazano, we gain in speed and with optical reassurance the QE2 seems to slip easily under the Bridge, whilst Queen Mary 2 follows protectively behind.

The video below shows spectacular footage of our two Queens departing New York together for the last time.