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Cruise News for the Corporate Travel Professional

January 2011 Edition

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The Three Cunard Queens meet in New York

The Cunard Queens are special ships and when the three remaining
Queens came together in New York on 13 January, it was a special event. "It is not only special because this is the first time we have had these three ships together, it is special because it will never happen again. QE2 is leaving the fleet to go on to pastures new in November of this year and they are not programmed to meet in any other port between now and then.

This event was not a spur of the moment thing. ship itineraries some are put together some 18 months to two years in advance so this has been planned for a very long time. Cunard put together the schedules and passengers noticed that all of the Queens would be in New York at the same time and as you can imagine, the sale of these voyages were very strong.

Cunard was delighted to have them all in New York because New York is actually the port that Cunard has been coming to continuously for the longest period of time. Cunard has been coming continuously to New York more and for a longer period than they have for Southampton in England, which is their homeport, but also Liverpool, which was the home of Cunard in the 1800s.

The three ships arrived from different directions. QUEEN MARY 2 has
adopted New York as her homeport for the winter, doing a series of New York to the Caribbean cruises. Consequently, she approached New York from the south.

QUEEN VICTORIA and QE2 had just begun world cruises, the first for the former and the last for the latter. They came across the Atlantic together weathering the rough seas arriving ahead of schedule to rendezvous with QM2 at Ambrose.

The three ships entered the harbor in the pre-dawn hours. QM2 diverted from the others and proceeded along Buttermilk Channel to her usual berth in Brooklyn.

QUEEN VICTORIA and QE2 went up the North River to the Passenger Ship Terminal on the West Side of Manhattan. The new ship berthed at the recently renovated Pier 88 while QE2 continued to Pier 92.

The logistics of all the passengers disembarking and going off to enjoy themselves in New York went extremely smoothly and Cunard were helped greatly by all of the authorities here in New York, by the Coast Guard and by the Customs gentlemen and it all went incredibly well including assembling passengers for the next voyage.

QM2 was the first to sail and took up a position just off of the Statue of Liberty. She was followed by QUEEN VICTORIA, which sailed down the river from Pier 88 with lights ablaze and took up a station to starboard off of QM2's stern. Last to leave was QE2, which moved past the midtown skyline on the route that she has traveled so often and halted astern of QUEEN VICTORIA off of lower Manhattan.

When the ships were assembled, a fireworks display by the famous Grucci family began. By this time, a cold heavy rain had begun. When it was over, the three ships moved out under the Veranzano Narrows Bridge, discharged their pilots at Ambrose and dispersed into the darkness on their own itineraries never all to come together again.

Worldwide Travel & Cruise Assoc., Inc.

150 S. University Dr. Ste E, Plantation, FL 33324 - USA

Tel: +1 954 452 8800 Fax: +1 954 252 3945

EMail: sales@cruiseco.com

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