MS Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth in Tallinn, 10 June 2011
Career
Name:	Queen Elizabeth
Owner:	Carnival Corporation & plc
Operator:	Cunard Line
Port of registry:	2011–present: Hamilton,  Bermuda 2010–2011: Southampton,  United Kingdom
Ordered:	October, 2007
Builder:	Fincantieri Monfalcone Shipyard, Italy[1]
Cost:	UK£350 million (approx.)[2](US$560 million)[1]
Yard number:	6187
Laid down:	2 July 2009
Launched:	5 January 2010
Christened:	11 October 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II
Completed:	October 2010
Maiden voyage:	12 October 2010
In service:	October 2010
Identification:	Callsign ZCEF2 IMO number: 9477438 MMSI number: 310625000
Status:	In service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Vista Class cruise ship
Tonnage:	90,901 GT[1]
Length:	294 m (965 ft)[1]
Beam:	32.3 m (106 ft)[1]
Draught:	8 m (26 ft)[1]
Decks:	16 total 12 accessible to passengers[1]
Installed power:	4 × MaK 12VM43C 2 × MaK 8M43C 64,000 kW (combined)[1]
Propulsion:	Diesel-electric Two ABB Azipods (2 × 17.6 MW) Three ABB bow thrusters (3 × 2,200 kW)[1]
Speed:	23.7 knots (43.9 km/h; 27.3 mph)
Capacity:	2,092 passengers lower beds, 2,547 maximum passengers[1]

MS Queen Elizabeth is a vista-class cruise ship ^[3]operated by the Cunard Line. She is the second largest ship to be constructed for Cunard, exceeded only by Queen Mary 2, and is capable of carrying up to 2,092 passengers.^[2] The ship is running mate to Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2.

Queen Elizabeth is a modified design and she is slightly larger than Queen Victoria, at 92,000 GT, largely due to a more vertical stern.^[2]

The ship's name was announced by Cunard on 10 October 2007. The company now operates three vessels once more (since the retirement of Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2008).^[4] The naming of the ship as Queen Elizabeth brings about a situation similar to that between 1940 and 1948, when Cunard's original Queen Elizabeth was in service at the same time as the Royal Navy battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth. The Royal Navy plans to introduce the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth into service in 2016, six years after this ship joined the fleet.^[5][6]

The first master of Queen Elizabeth was Captain Chris Wells.^[7]

Design

Exterior

Queen Elizabeth is almost identical in design to her sister ship Queen Victoria, although because of the steeper stern, her passenger capacity is slightly higher (2,058 to Queen Victoria's 2,014).^[8] Also because of this difference, the largest suites at the stern of Queen Elizabeth have smaller balconies.^[9][10] At the forward end of deck 11, there is a roof covering the games deck, unlike the sports deck on Queen Victoria though it provided limited weather protection as the canvas covering is not continuous.^[11] The whistle of Queen Elizabeth is a copy of the one fitted to the original Queen Elizabeth.

Also unlike many previous Cunard Queens, Queen Elizabeth is not a true ocean liner as she does not have the heavy plating throughout the hull nor the propulsion system of a dedicated transatlantic liner. However the bow was constructed with heavier plating to cope with the Transatlantic run, and the ship has a high freeboard. During construction Queen Mary 2 had cost approximately $300,000 US per berth, nearly double that of many contemporary cruise ships, so Cunard made the economical decision to base Queen Elizabeth on an enhanced Vista-class cruise ship.

Interior

Although having an almost identical interior arrangement to Queen Victoria, the decor is very different. The ship is a tribute to the two previous Queen Elizabeths: the original Queen Elizabeth and the QE2. She also evokes the era of the 1930s, in which Cunard's first Queen Elizabeth was launched, with many art deco interior touches.^[12] The ship also features a Britannia Club section of the main restaurant, which is a feature popular on Queen Mary 2, but not available on Queen Victoria. This service allows passengers in the Britannia staterooms to have single seating dining arrangements, without having to upgrade to the more expensive Grills classes.^[13] The sliding roof over the Winter Garden featured on Queen Victoria is replaced with a simple glass roof (the space being renamed The Garden Lounge).

Launch

Following the ship's construction in Italy from 2007 to 2010, Cunard Line officially confirmed that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II would name Cunard's new ship.^[14] The ceremony was held in Southampton on Monday 11 October 2010 before the ship set sail on her maiden voyage to the Canary Islands the following day.^[15] The Queen was also the sponsor of the now-retired Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1967 and Cunard's current flagship, Queen Mary 2, in 2004.^[16]

Service history

On Monday 4 October 2010 Queen Elizabeth was formally handed over to Cunard. She sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton on Tuesday 12 October 2010, following a naming ceremony with the monarch on Monday 11 October 2010. Her maiden voyage included calls at the Spanish port of Vigo before heading for Lisbon, Cadiz, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma and Madeira.

The ship made several European cruises until she departed on her first world cruise, leaving Southampton on 5 January 2011 and calling at New York, Fort Lauderdale, Aruba and Limon before transiting the Panama Canal. She would then call at Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas and Los Angeles before crossing the Pacific Ocean to Lahaina, Honolulu, Apia, Pago Pago, Fiji, Bay of Islands, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, Fremantle, Kota Kinabalu, Hong Kong (thus sailing close to the location where her predecessor RMS Queen Elizabeth caught fire and capsized in 1972). Stops in south-east Asia would include Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh City, Ko Samui, Langkawi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. She would then cross the Indian Ocean westbound for Kochi, Mumbai and Muscat. This would be followed by a journey westbound again across the Arabian Sea before passing through the Strait of Hormuz to call at Dubai in the Persian Gulf, where she would be berthed close to her predecessor RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 for the first time. After calling at Salalah and Aqaba, the ship would transit the Suez Canal. Westbound Mediterranean calls would be at Athens and Rome, then passing through the Strait of Gibraltar to make a final call at Lisbon before returning to Southampton.

At the end of October 2011 Queen Elizabeth and her fleet mates changed their registries to Hamilton, Bermuda, in order to host weddings aboard.^[17]

On 29 June 2012, the ship made her one and only visit to Ny-Ålesund, in Svalbard. The previous scheduled visit in 2011 had to be aborted due to bad weather. She is not scheduled to visit Svalbard in her 2013 schedule. Newly introduced legislation relating to cruise ships visiting the archipelago (applicable from 2014) mean that Queen Elizabeth will never be able to visit again.

On 31 August 2013, British journalist and broadcaster Sir David Frost had been invited to give a speech by Cunard whilst travelling on the ship but died of a heart attack.^[18]

In summer 2014 the ship is likely to stay in the Mediterranean Sea to offer cruises from Barcelona and Venice.^[19]

Cunard Royal Rendezvous

13 January 2011:
Two years after the first Cunard Royal Rendezvous, RMS Queen Mary 2 met up with Queen Victoria and the then brand new Queen Elizabeth for another Royal Rendezvous in New York City. Both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth made an Atlantic crossing in tandem for the event. All three Cunarders met in front of the Statue of Liberty at 6:45 pm for a Grucci fireworks display. The Empire State Building was lit up in red to mark the event.^[20]

5 June 2012:
All three 'Queens' met once more, but this time in Southampton in order to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.^[21]

15 July 2012:
Both Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 visited Hamburg the first time together.^[22]

12 March 2013: Passed the former Cunard ship Queen Mary, currently a hotel in Long Beach, California, for the first time along with fireworks display.

6 May 2014: All three Queens met up for the first time in Lisbon, Portugal in preparation for Queen Mary 2s 10th birthday. All three on departure sailed in a one-line formation to Southampton.

9 May 2014: Both Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria led in single file, Queen Mary 2 up the Southampton channel, with both sisters docking in a bow to bow formation performing a birthday salute to Queen Mary 2.

Later on, all three sisters gather for a fireworks display in which Queen Mary 2 led both sisters back down the channel.

Queen Elizabeth first birthday

On 12 October 2011 Queen Elizabeth celebrated her first birthday in Valletta, Malta. In her first year, Queen Elizabeth visited 108 different destinations and travelled 123,351 nautical miles. As part of her insights programme she has had 78 speakers onboard; some of these celebrities and speakers were Lord Jeffery Archer, Ruth Scott, Brian Hoey, and Robert Kershaw.

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to MS Queen Elizabeth.

• Video of the press launch (17 March 2009)
• MS Queen Elizabeth on Cunard.co.uk
• "Queen Elizabeth". Chris' Cunard Page. Retrieved 16 February 2010. 
• "Queen Elizabeth" – review by Douglas Ward in The Daily Telegraph, London.

Ships of the Cunard Line fleet Current fleet 2004  RMS Queen Mary 2 2007  MS Queen Victoria 2010  MS Queen Elizabeth   Former ships 1840–1994       1840  RMS Britannia 1856  RMS Persia 1865  SS Java 1862  RMS Scotia 1870  SS Abyssinia 1870  SS Parthia 1878  SS Aleppo 1881  SS Servia 1881  SS Catalonia 1884  RMS Etruria 1884  RMS Umbria 1892  RMS Campania 1893  RMS Lucania 1898  SS Ultonia 1899  SS Ivernia 1899  RMS Saxonia 1903  RMS Carpathia 1905  RMS Carmania 1905  RMS Caronia 1907  RMS Lusitania 1907  RMS Mauretania 1908  SS Lapland 1910  RMS Franconia 1911  RMS Albania 1912  RMS Laconia 1913  RMS Alaunia 1913  RMS Aquitania 1914  SS Orduna 1918  SS Empire Barracuda 1920  RMS Lancastria 1920  RMS Samaria 1921  RMS Antonia 1921  RMS Ausonia 1921  RMS Andania 1921  RMS Scythia 1922  RMS Andania 1922  RMS Berengaria 1922  RMS Franconia 1922  RMS Laconia 1922  RMS Majestic 1923  RMS Ascania 1924  RMS Aurania 1924  SS Letitia 1925  RMS Carinthia 1927  SS Laurentic 1929  MV Britannic 1934  MV Georgic 1934  RMS Olympic 1936  RMS Queen Mary 1939  RMS Mauretania 1939  SS Pasteur 1939  MV Empire Audacity 1940  RMS Queen Elizabeth 1943  SS Empire Battleaxe 1943  SS Empire Broadsword 1943  SS Valacia 1945  MV Empire Ettrick 1947  RMS Media 1947  RMS Parthia 1949  RMS Caronia 1954  RMS Saxonia 1955  RMS Ivernia 1956  RMS Carinthia 1957  RMS Sylvania 1969  MS Queen Elizabeth 2 1971  MS Cunard Adventurer 1972  MS Cunard Ambassador 1975  MS Cunard Countess 1976  MS Cunard Princess 1980  SS Atlantic Conveyor 1983  MS Sagafjord 1983  MS Caronia 1994  MS Royal Viking Sun   Years indicate year of entry into Cunard service.

Vista class cruise ships and derived designs Original Vista class Zuiderdam Oosterdam Westerdam Arcadia Noordam Enlarged Vista class Queen Victoria Queen Elizabeth Signature class Eurodam Nieuw Amsterdam Hybrid Vista/Spirit class Costa Luminosa Costa Deliziosa Holland America Line P&O Cruises Cunard Line Costa Cruises