This afternoon, Queen Mary 2, the world’s last active ocean liner, departed from Southampton for its 450th seven-night crossing to New York. There will be events on board to celebrate, and Cunard has revealed details of a two-month refurbishment of the ship, to be carried out next spring.
An immersive theatrical programme called the 450 Club, themed around the history of Cunard’s transatlantic crossings, will entertain passengers this week. It will include a murder-mystery, a play about Sir Noël Coward, an RMS Queen Mary regular passenger, who often hung out in the crew quarters for sing-songs, and a retelling of an account by the captain of RMS Carpathia of rescuing 705 Titanic survivors.
Cunard has been crossing the Atlantic since 1840, when its steam-powered RMS Britannia became the first regularly scheduled fortnightly mail-carrying and passenger-carrying steamship to ply the route, at first heading to Boston via Halifax and Nova Scotia. Owner Samuel Cunard prided himself on providing a reliable, “purpose over pomp” ocean crossing. Charles Dickens, who sailed on it in 1842, compared his stateroom to a wooden coffin.
More glamorous was RMS Queen Mary (named after the wife of King George V), the maiden voyage of which was in 1936. It set a benchmark for Art Deco style and the golden era of ocean-liner travel. Melding British design and Hollywood glamour, it was regularly used by royalty, world leaders and acting starlets at a time when travelling across the Atlantic by ship was still the favoured option. It was also used by people moving to America to start a new life. The Queen Mary is now permanently docked in Long Beach, California, and operates as a floating hotel and museum, but its influence, not least on today’s Queen Mary 2, has been far-reaching.
“Our loyal guests are proud of the fact that she is the world’s only ocean liner and not a cruise ship,” Lee Powell, Cunard’s brand vice-president, tells me. “It feels like such an adventure because you’re travelling from one continent to another without stopping.”
Longer than the Eiffel Tower and vast inside, the Art Deco-inspired QM2, which Cunard launched in 2004 and which completes about 20 transatlantic crossings a year, is the largest ocean liner ever built, with room for 2,600 passengers. Like its predecessors, it has proved a hit with the great and the good, from John Cleese to Carrie Fisher. When Ed Sheeran crossed in 2016, he had a temporary recording studio built onboard and worked on what would become his third studio album, Divide. In 2017, it hosted the world premiere of The Greatest Showman, as well as its stars Hugh Jackman and Zendaya – the first Hollywood film premiere at sea. In 2019, Meryl Streep spent two weeks onboard, filming scenes from Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk.
Next year’s refurbishment will see the introduction of even more “Cunard Deco” features, captured in a series of illustrations by artist Tanu Vasu. For inspiration, design firm AD Associates went back to Cunard’s archives, housed in the library at Liverpool University. It found a scallop shell motif recurring on the original Queen Mary, a historic symbol of safe passage, which will be used throughout the exclusive Grill areas of the ship. Another takeaway has been Leslie MacDonald Gill’s decorative map of the North Atlantic, once a highlight of the first-class dining room. It has been re-interpreted for the Princess Grill Suite bathrooms, and includes a clock stopped at exactly 4:33pm, the time of the Queen Mary’s maiden departure from Southampton.
Other changes appear in the fabrics and soft furnishings, where you will spot a cityscape view of Manhattan embroidered on to a headboard, an abstract geometric pattern of the New York skyline in the carpets. Other legacy features such as wood panelling will be reintroduced. There are also plans to expand the wellness offering.
Notable existing details that remain include the ship’s starboard typhoon whistle, which came from the original RMS Queen Mary and was meticulously restored so that it could be heard up to 10 miles away, at the exact tone of its predecessor. Then there’s Commodore Club, the much-loved cocktail bar overlooking the bow, which is home to exceptional gin martinis.
Other onboard traditions will continue. Following the lead of RMS Queen Mary, on which Elizabeth Taylor frequently travelled with her dogs, QM2 will continue to possess dedicated kennels for up to 24 dogs and cats, with an outdoor exercise area that features a fire hydrant (for New York dogs) and a lamp post (for their London counterparts).
So what makes an ocean liner different from a cruise ship? Without getting technical, it is built for speed and stability in the rough Atlantic seas, with a hull designed to take crashing waves in its stride. Their grand public rooms, such as QM2’s Queen’s Room, the biggest ballroom at sea, lie deep within the hull to minimise the feeling of rolling and pitching during a storm. When the weather’s fine, the full-circle teak promenade deck (three times round is a mile) is a popular spot, and the perfect place to appreciate being in the middle of the ocean aboard something that feels like far more of an event than a regular cruise.
“Next year’s refit is less about harking back to days of old and more about continuing to uphold the standard of service and hospitality that are befitting of this kind of luxury experience at sea,” says Powell. “There are obviously quicker ways to get to New York today, but the journey is all part of the indulgence, which is why we’re expanding the wellness offering in this latest refurbishment, as slowing down and enjoying the ride has never been more popular.”
Gliding into New York on an ocean liner, past the Statue of Liberty and under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which QM2 only clears by 13ft at high tide, remains on many people’s travel bucket list. Cunard has already opened bookings for its 500th crossing, which won’t take place until 2029.
Seven-night transatlantic crossings cost from £739 per person in a Britannia Inside Stateroom, or from £14,000 per person in a Queens Grill Grand Duplex via Cunard