Monday January 12, 2004 will be an historic day for the world of cruise liners as the Queen Mary 2 sets off on her maiden voyage from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale. At a cost of over £560-million, the new flagship of the Cunard Line is billed as the largest, longest, tallest, widest and most expensive passenger ship ever built.

The Queen Mary 2 (QM2) will be filling the shoes of her older sister ship, the world famous Queen Elizabeth 2, on the traditional transatlantic route between Southampton and New York. The two ships will celebrate this by sailing together on the QM2’s maiden return journey from New York.

The QM2 will also be sailing on various Caribbean cruises, a voyage to Rio, three European cruises and a trip taking in Canada and the East Coast of America. She will also act as a floating hotel in Athens as the flagship of the 2004 Olympic Games.

For getting a bit of culture while at sea, the the 2600 passengers will be able to enjoy over 5000 works of art, with a toal value of over £3.5-million. In all, 128 artists from 16 different countries will be responsible for 565 original commissioned works, 190 works of graphic art and 3500 limited edition prints for the cabins.
The ship will also feature Illuminations – the first and only Planetarium at sea.

Fun Facts
The Queen Mary 2 under construction

  • At 343m, the ship measures over four football fields in length This is longer than 36 London buses, or three-and-half times as long as the tower of Big Ben is high (93m)
  • She is equal to the height of a 23-storey building (QM2 will have 17 decks that tower 200 feet above the waterline)
  • Her whistle will be audible for 10 miles

    On board there will be…

  • 2500 kilometres of electric cable
  • 2000 bathrooms
  • 250km² of fitted carpets.
  • 3000 telephones
  • 5000 fire detectors
  • 8350 automatic extinguishers
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