The Queen Mary 2, the flagship of the British merchant fleet will mark her fifth anniversary with a voyage around the British Isles in October 2009. Departing from Southampton on 15th October she will call at ports with historic Cunard connections such as South Queensferry (Edinburgh), Greenock, Liverpool, Cobh and Cherbourg. Thousands are expected to turn out to greet her as she makes her maiden calls at Greenock, Liverpool and Cobh on Wednesday 21st.
Commodore Bernard Warner, the Master of the Queen Mary 2 will guide the huge luxury liner towards Cork Harbour in the late morning and the Queen Mary 2 will berth at the Cobh Cruise Liner Terminal at lunchtime. It will sail again at 6 pm that evening. Cunard Line President, Peter Shanks who will be traveling on the voyage and an official from the Port of Cork, will lay a wreath at the Lusitania Peace Memorial in Cobh Town Centre at 2.15 pm in memory of those who died when the Cunard liner was torpedoed off the Old Head of Kinsale in 1915.
The Queen Mary was the largest Cruise Liner in the world when launched on 12 January 2004 and at 345m is 6 metres longer than the Independence of the Seas. Since her launch the Queen Mary 2 has sailed almost 750,000 nautical miles, completed over 120 Atlantic crossings (the route for which she was specifically built) and made calls to 115 ports in 45 countries.
Weighing 151,400 tonnes, it has 1253 crew and maximum guest occupancy of 3056. The ship travels at 28.5 knots which allows it to cross the Atlantic from Southampton to New York in six days.
Queen Mary 2’s kennel programme is available on all crossings between New York and Southampton in either direction, and is overseen by a full-time Kennel Master who takes care of responsibilities such as feeding, walking and cleaning the ship’s 12 spacious kennels. With a generous baggage allowance, sailing across the Atlantic is the ideal way to travel for anyone relocating or who has a penchant for shopping in New York!
