During visits to Long Beach, California, I became acquainted with the original Queen Mary (I), which at one time was the epitome of ocean liners sailing the North Atlantic. At its mooring at Long Beach, the ship is now operated as a hotel, and even tourists who are not staying at the ship's hotel, can tour much of the vessel.
When I learned that a Queen Mary 2 would be built, I made a promise to myself that one day I would sail the Atlantic on that newer queen of the seas. Launched in January 2004, I have finally gotten around to fulfilling that promise to myself, actually with multiple objectivs in mind.
The Elderhostel program I registered with conducted lectures about the London theatre while sailing from New York to Southampton, England, and then the group traveled into London to attend several plays which illustrated the material presented during the shipboard lectures.
At the time of its launch, the Queen Mary 2 was the largest cruise ship afloat, but in the very competitive cruise industry, it has now been outdone with the introduction of a new ship from the Royal Caribbean fleet. In any case, my cruise aboard the QM2 was most luxurious and comfortable. More about his later.
The Queen Mary 2 was built by Cunard and sails under British registry. The ship is 1132 feet long, 131 feet wide and can cruise at a speed of 28.5 knots. The ship can carry 3000 passengers, who have access by elevators to restaurants, bars, library, lounge, spa club, gym, sun decks, pool and other public areas. A fine ship indeed.
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