The Cunard Queen Elizabeth
Introduction, The Inaugurals and Picture Gallery
| Home | Pauline's Pages | Howto Articles | Uniquely NZ | Small Firms | Search |
|
The Cunard Queen Elizabeth |
Introduction, The Inaugurals and Picture Gallery |
Our first visit onto the new Queen Elizabeth was on 10 October 2010. We were fortunate and privileged to be invited to one of two open days, held on the weekend before the Queen came to name the ship. She then departed on her maiden cruise on Tuesday 12th October, a very appropriate day as it was also our wedding anniversary. The QE2 was launched on 20th September which is Paulines Birthday so we have links to both of the newer Cunard Elizabeth Queens.
Since it was a celebration weekend we decided to stay in Southampton for three days and we also booked a trip on the vintage Steam Paddlewheeler, the Waverley, which was going to be one of the flotilla of boats accompanying the Queen Elizabeth out of Southampton on her maiden cruise. The Waverley was built in 1947 and so is much older than the QE2, but unlike her she still operates a complete service of day trips around the British Isles. We expected to only spend a short time in the flotilla before the Queen Elizabeth gathered speed and disappeared into the sunset, but to our delight we found that the Waverley had a top speed of over 18 knots and could easily keep alongside for the first part of the journey. The only problem was that everyone onboard, and she was full to capacity, wanted to stand on the starboard side to take pictures. This meant that she tilted and as one of the two paddle wheels started to come out of the water, and we slowed down. There were many occasions when the captain asked those not taking pictures to move to the other side so that we could maintain our speed.
The Queen Elizabeth was going to the Canaries on her maiden voyage, and it had sold out very quickly and although our travel agent tried to make a booking they had failed. Many months later we booked the same journey on the Ocean Countess, formerly the Cunard Countess, and so we were due to depart from Plymouth on 19 October - there is more about this trip down memory lane at An Autumn Cruise on The Ocean Countess to the Canary Islands and Madeira. Our first trip on the Queen Elizabeth was in 2011 when we did first half of the Queen Elizabeth's Maiden World Cruise. This included the Queen Elizabeth's Maiden Atlantic Crossing, the meeting of the Three Queens in New York, the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, Mexico, Los Angeles and Pacific Islands as far as New Zealand. There is also a map of the 2011 World Cruise at the bottom of this page where you can click on any of the ports we visited.
We have already written at some length about the Queen Victoria and the two are very similar so we do not want to duplicate our already comprehensive Introduction to the Cunard Queen Victoria. This write-up will therefore concentrate more on the areas of difference.
Both the Queen Victoria and the Queen Elizabeth are based on the well proven Vista hull built by Fincantieri of Italy, their Ports of Registry are Southampton and their classification society is the Lloyd’s Register. Both are designed for worldwide cruising and are what is called Panamax size, ie they will fit through the existing Panama canal and both are a very close fit with overall length of 293.84 m (965 feet) and breadth 32.26 m (106 feet) but with a max draught of only 8 metres (26 feet). The Vista design has had been modified for the Queen Victoria (and Elizabeth) by extending the hull by 5 metres and adding an additional deck, as well as redesigning the layout of cabins and all public areas of the ship. Some further changes have been made for the Elizabeth - the main external difference is that the Elizabeth is slightly different in shape at the stern with the aft deck (level 9) being appreciably longer - the stern below is lmost vertical and the luxury cabins below now have less exposed balconies. This addition space contributeto her carrying slightly more passengers as well as having a much larger and more useful deck aft of the Lido Restaurant on deck 9 - the pools is virtually the same.
But are the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria Liners or Cruise ships? Firstly the hulls have been analysed to ensure the steel structure can meet the repeated demands of the Atlantic Ocean. Detailed calculations have been carried out to identify any critical areas and strengthening has been added to the steel decks and bulkheads to meet predicted stress levels. In particular the bow strength has been analysed with respect to the dynamic loading and pounding experienced by the fore end of the ship in extreme seas. The local ‘scantlings’ or thicknesses of the steel structure have been increased on the Queens to meet these requirements. Secondly the Queens are separated from current cruise ships by the style and quality of the interior, for example the theatres are amazing. You wouldn’t get a better theatre in London or on Broadway and whatever you can do on Broadway or in London you can do in there with extremely advanced technology for the stage, lighting and sound systems. The third factor is not strictly a technical one but with a ship’s company of circa 1,000 to look after circa 2,000 passengers the level of service is modelled on the best the classic ocean liners had to offer. They may not have competed across the Atlantic with the classic liners of the last century on tight schedules but on the longer liner runs to, for example, Capetown or the Antipodes I know which I would prefer and the increased manoevrability and shallower draft increases the number of ports available and where it is possible to dock.
Both ships are driven by the same Azipods each of 17.6 MW but the engines are different - the Elizabeth has 6 Diesels (4 x MAK - 12M43CFCT and 2 X MAK - 8M43CFCT) driving dedicated generators providing a total of 64 MW which provides a large margin for economical operation, maintenance and for the large auxilary power demands of a luxury ship. There are three bow thrusters giving 8969 HP total. Combined with Azipods this gives superb manoevrability and tugs are rarely required although some busy ports require them to be on standby.
The differences in layout, decor and functionality between the Victoria and Elizabeth are small and in most cases the changes are for the better. They almost have exactly the same designs of stateroom, presumably using the same computer software for the layouts. However there appear to be slight differences in layout, with some inside staterooms being turned by 90 degrees, easy to do with software. The staterooms also have slightly improved storage over the original fit on the Victoria with additional under bed drawers and drawers in the bedside cabinets although there is a serious shortfall in our inside cabin (D6 -5036 ) is that there is only one chair (for the desk) and not even a stool for the second person. Our records of the Victoria show our cabin there had a easy chair and seat at the 'desk'. There are better flat screen televisions which also seem to have the capability to act as monitors although I have not been able to test this as we do not have the cables.
There is a new stateroom category of Club Balcony, which are more expensive than standard Balcony cabins; they are exactly the same size but give access to a single sitting dining room called the Britannia Club, as on the QM2. That dining area is where the Chart Room was on the Queen Victoria. We liked the Chart Room very much and it is a pity the area has been removed on the Queen Elizabeth, however the restaurant is very nice and offers open dining in an environment similar to the Princess Grill. We do not understand why that area was sacrificed rather than the photographers area as with modern technology and for environment reasons there seem absolutely no requirement to print and display thousands of largely unwanted pictures. The only other difference we have noticed is that the Cafe Carinthia and the Champagne Bar on the Queen Victoria have been merged into an enlarged Cafe Carinthia on the Queen Elizabeth. The remaining layout almost identical, and the names are the same, with the exception of Hemispheres on 10 Deck which is renamed the Yacht Club. The retracting roof has been removed on the Elizabeth and the new Garden Lounge is more practical with a single door onto the sheltered decks round the pool reducing draughts and improving seating - areas can also be more easily separated for functions and reserved ares - it is no longer used for art auctions.
The internal decor is different and mos people think the new colour schemes are more relaxing than on the Victoria and there is an obvious Art Deco theme to it all. The layout in the Britannia restaurant is slightly different with a very effective double staircase and the screen behind the Captain's table continues the theme. We get the impression thatcoa the layout of tables is slightly more open with more tables for two, another plus point. Although the overall number of passengers is higher the Britannia Club provides more than enough extra area. We have had galley tours on both the Queens and the layout is similar but the equipment is different.
At the other extreme the Gym is in the same place and size but the equipment is different and there are a number of new 'cardio' machines including extra cross trainers which Pete uses and a couple of machines he describes as duck waddlers which seem to be a cross between a stepper and a cross trainer with a sideways swing which brings a whole new set of muscles into use. There are also a couple of new Xtreme bike simulators which need a course to drive them. The new machines are all Italian and we were down to one cross trainer at one point on the transatlantic sector and it took to Curacoa before they were fixed - hopefully teething troubles.
Introduction to Queen Elizabeth, The Inaugurals and Picture Gallery|| Introduction to the Cruise and Embarkation at Southampton | New York and the Three Queens || Fort Lauderdale - USA | Willemstad - Curacoa | Limon - Costa Rica || Transit the Panama Canal | Acapulco - Mexico | Cabo San Lucas - Mexico || Los Angeles - USA | Activities during the Pacific Crossings | Lahaina - Hawaii | Honolulu - Hawaii || Apia - Western Samoa | Pago Pago - American Samoa | Port Denarau - Fiji | Bay of Islands - New Zealand | Auckland - New Zealand
| Copyright © Peter and Pauline Curtis Most recent revision: 14 th April 2011 |