The Greatest Ship on Earth: The Queen Mary II

Pretty cool. Thanks, Walter.

Opulence is not yet dead. I can still dream and when my ship comes in....

our neighbours (don is a canadian, freda, his wife, worked in the woolmills in england and came to canada in the 50's to work in the local mill in town - now closed down) just came back from a new york - southampton crossing. they just loved it, and they certainly are not pretentious people. fares on the QM 2 are comparable to fares on other cruise-ships. we were just offered a reasonably priced pre-christmas cruise(new york-caribean); but we already had booked a pre-christmas hawaii cruise. pre-christmas cruise can usually be purchased for a much lower price than at any other times; also "bargains" can usually be found in re-positioning cruises. hbg ... we even got a postcard from aboard the QM 2 (for my collection).hbg

Biggest PASSENGER ship Walter. Not biggest ship.

Jahre Viking / Seawise Giant is MUCH bigger.

hamburger--

I fancy that $23,000 state room--not for cruising, for dreaming about.

There was a PBS program on the building of the Queen Mary, and the testing of the ship before its inaugural cruise with "real" passengers. Unfortunately, when they had visitation day for the families and friends who built the ship, the gangplank fell and killed over 30 people.

16 people c.i.

Adrian, Your number was closer. Taken from an article; "But the industry's happy mantra that "there's a cruise for everyone!" has been dampened by a series of public relations nightmares. Fifteen people died when the gangplank to the Queen Mary 2 collapsed in France as workers and their families boarded for a pre-launch tour."

Correct, I should have noticed that :

Jahre Viking (ex-Happy Giant, ex-Seawise Giant):
built in Japan in 1979, her cargo capacity was increased when an extra section was added to her enormous hull in 1980. Over 400-metres long, and measuring 260,851 gross register tons, she has a cargo capacity (deadweight tonnage) of 564,763 tons



(behind: the "Saudi Glory", 276.000 DWT )

noddy : we never book one of the expensive cabins. as a rule we try to book an inside cabin on the lower panorame deck; expect for sleeping, we hardly spend any time in the cabin and on the lower promenade deck, we are no more than 5o feet away from the outside deck. mrs. h also likes the idea that lower promenade deck is where the lifeboats will be lowered to, in case ... ! you can book a two week cruise on the QM 2 for less than $2,000 - of course, i would not turn down an upgrade to the owner's suite ! hbg

THE GREATEST SHIP
here is an example of a $2,000 cruise from new york to fort lauderdale via the caribbean >>>A $2,000 QUEEN MARY 2 FARE .hbg

the "jahre viking" surely must qualify for the title of SUPER RUST-BUCKET. i don't think i would want to be in bad weather with that ship ! ... die see geht hoch, der wind wird staerker, es k.... der ober-feuerwerker ! walter ; you may have to provide the translation. hbg

GREATEST SHIP
speaking of large ships ... i recently watched a documentary on the largest ferry in the world, the irish ferry ULYSSES . it is quite a huge ship, and has been built to operate even in the stormiest weather in the irish channel. the documentary showed a crossing with winds of beaufort 9 to 10 and the ship was sailing as if in calm waters; the docking in a very tight space was a little difficult and the assistance of a tugboat was required. unloading and loading the ferry has to be completed in 90 (!) minutes. as soon as trucks from one deck had been unloaded , the loading was underway - quite an operation. >>>IRISH FERRY ULYSSES

Adrian,

You are a feekin' boon to this site. Been meaning to say that for some time.

Thanks alot Craven.

I'll have to get around to subscribing one of these days.