Queen Mary 2 - QM2
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There is a stunning array of recreation, with unique venues such as Illuminations, a planetarium that serves as a lecture hall and cinema. Queens Room houses an elegant ballroom. Fourteen bars include Golden Lion Pub and G32, a disco. Decks 12 and 13 offer sporty fun: a putting green, shuffleboard, deck games, a giant chess board, two golf simulators, basketball and table tennis. Enjoy a performance at Royal Court Theatre or gaming in the Empire Casino. Throughout the cruise, Cunard Connexions offers enriching and educational workshops and seminars.
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SOURCE: Wikipedia
RMS Queen Mary 2 is a transatlantic ocean liner. She was the first major ocean liner built since Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1969, the vessel she succeeded as flagship of the Cunard Line. The ship was named the Queen Mary 2 by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 after the firstRMS Queen Mary, completed in 1936. The Queen Mary was in turn named after Mary of Teck, consort of King George V. With the retirement of Queen Elizabeth 2 from active duty in 2008, the Queen Mary 2 is currently the only transatlantic ocean liner in service running between Southampton and New York, although the ship is often used for cruising, including an annual world cruise.[8]
At the time of her construction in 2003 by Chantiers de l'Atlantique, the Queen Mary 2 was the longest, widest, and tallest passenger ship ever built, and with her gross tonnage of 148,528 also the largest. She no longer holds this distinction after the construction ofRoyal Caribbean International's 154,407 GT Freedom of the Seas in April 2006. Although later cruise ships are larger, the Queen Mary 2remains the largest ocean liner (as opposed to cruise ship) ever built.
The Queen Mary 2 was intended primarily to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and was therefore designed differently from many other passenger ships. The ship's final cost was approximately $300,000 US per berth, nearly double that of many contemporary cruise ships. This was due to the size of the ship and her unique design, which reduced the economies of scale achieved with other ship classes. Costs were also increased by the high quality of materials and the fact that, having been designed as an ocean liner, she required 40% more steel than a standard cruise ship.[9] Queen Mary 2 has a maximum speed of just over 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) and a cruising speed of 26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph), much faster than contemporary cruise ships, such as Oasis of the Seas, which has a top speed of 22.6 knots (41.9 km/h; 26.0 mph). Instead of thediesel-electric configuration found on many ships, Queen Mary 2uses a CODLAG configuration (combined diesel-electric and gas) in order to achieve her top speed. This uses additional gas turbines to augment the power given by the diesel generators on board, and allow the ship to reach a higher speed.
Queen Mary 2's facilities include fifteen restaurants and bars, five swimming pools, a casino, a ballroom, a theatre, and the firstplanetarium at sea. There are also kennels on board, as well as a nursery. Queen Mary 2 is one of the few ships afloat today to have remnants of a class system on board, most prominently seen in her dining options.
As of 1 December 2011, the Queen Mary 2 and the other ships in the Cunard fleet were registered to Hamilton, Bermuda, in order to host on-board weddings thus ending 127 years of Cunard British registry.[10]
Exterior
Queen Mary 2's principal naval architect was Carnival's in-house designer, Stephen Payne.[20] Payne intended many aspects of the ship's design to resemble notable aspects of former ocean liners, such as Queen Elizabeth 2 and the ship's predecessor Queen Mary. These features include the three thick black lines that wrap around either edge of the ship's bridge screen, and at the stern end of the superstructure, which are to recall the appearance of the crossovers of the forward decks on the first Queen Mary.[21]
Queen Mary 2 has 14,164-square-metre (3.500-acre) of exterior deck space, with wind screens to shield passengers as the ship travels at high speeds. Four of the ship's five swimming pools are outdoors (although one of these is only one inch deep for use by small children). One of the pools on Deck 12 is covered with a retractablemagrodome. The indoor pool is on Deck 7, in the Canyon Ranch Spa Club.[22]
In common with liners such as RMS Queen Mary, there is a continuous wrap aroundpromenade deck on Deck 7. The promenade passes behind the bridge screen and allows passengers to completely circumnavigate the deck while protected from the strong winds generated by the ship at speed. One circuit of the promenade is a distance of 620 m (2,030 ft). The flanking promenades are created by the need to step the superstructure in, to allow for space for lifeboats. By SOLAS standards the lifeboats should have been lower on the ship's hull (15 m (49 ft) above the waterline), but for the sake of Queen Mary 2's appearance as well as to avoid the danger of large North Atlantic waves damaging the boats in a storm, Payne convinced SOLAS officials to exempt the Queen Mary 2 from this requirement, and the boats are 25 m (82 ft) above the waterline.[23]
Payne's initial intent was to make the ship's stern profile with a spoon shape, similar to that on most previous ocean liners, but the mounting of the propeller pods required a flat transom. The compromise was a constanzi stern – a combination of the two. The final design was agreed upon, as a Constanzi stern provides the transom required for azimuthal pod propulsors, and provides better seaholding characteristics in a following swell than a standard transom stern.[24] In common with many modern ships, both passenger and cargo, Queen Mary 2 has a bulbous bow to reduce drag and thereby increase speed, range, and fuel efficiency.[25]
While of a similar design to that of Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2's funnel was designed with a slightly different shape. The difference was required because, due to the height of the vessel, a taller funnel would have made it impossible for the ship to pass under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City at high tide. The final design now permits a minimum of 13 feet (4.0 m) of clearance under the bridge at high tide.[26]
As Queen Mary 2 is too large to dock in many ports, passengers are ferried to and from the ship in tenders, which can be used as lifeboats in an emergency. While at sea, these are stored in davits alongside the lifeboats. To transport passengers to shore, the tenders pull up to one of four loading stations, each of which has a large hull door that hydraulically opens outwards to form a boarding platform, complete with railings and decking.[13]
Queen Mary 2 is a post-panamax ship. As a result, the Queen Mary 2 must circumnavigate South America in order to cross between the Atlantic and Pacific. The decision not to constrain her size in order to transit the Panama Canal was taken as the Queen Elizabeth 2 only transited once a year, during the world cruise. Cunard decided to pass up the convenience of the occasional passage in favour of a larger passenger capacity.[27]
[edit]Interior
As is the case with many modern passenger ships, many of the major public rooms on board Queen Mary 2 are on the lowest public decks of the ship, with the passenger cabins stacked above.[28] This is the opposite of the traditional practice on ocean liners, but the design allowed for larger rooms to be contained within the stronger hull, as well as for more passenger cabins to have private balconies higher up on the ship, where they are less affected by large waves. Payne attempted to create a central axis to the two main public room decks (similar in fashion to the Normandie), but a full vista is broken by various public rooms that span the full beam of the ship. The dining rooms were placed further aft, though not directly at the stern, where the fore and aft pitching of the ship is most noticeable, and where vibration from the propellers at full speed might cause discomfort to dining passengers.[29]
Deck 2, the lowest passenger deck, contains the Illuminations theatre, cinema and planetarium (the first at sea);[30] Royal Court Theatre; Grand Lobby; "Empire Casino"; "Golden Lion Pub"; and the lower level of the "Britannia Restaurant". Deck 3 holds the upper levels of "Illuminations", the "Royal Court theatre" and the "Britannia Restaurant", as well as a small shopping arcade, "Veuve Cliquot champagne bar", the "Chart Room", "Sir Samuel's" wine bar, the "Queen's Room", and the "G32" Nightclub. The other main public deck is Deck 7, on which are the "Canyon Ranch Spa", "Winter Garden", "King's Court", the "Queen's Grill Lounge", and the "Queen's Grill" and "Princess Grill" restaurants for higher-fare passengers. The public rooms on Deck 8 include the à la carte Todd English Restaurant,[30] an 8,000-volume library,[31] a book shop and the upper part of the Canyon Ranch Spa. Also on Deck 8 is a large outdoor pool and terrace at the stern.[28] The kennels, located aft on starboard side of Deck 12, are available only for transatlantic crossings. They can accommodate up to twelve dogs and cats in six small and six large cages.[32]
The King's Court area on the ship is open twenty four hours a day, serving as a buffet restaurant for breakfast and lunch. The overall space is divided into quarters, with each section decorated according to the theme of the four separate alternate dining venues that are "created" each evening through lighting, tableware, and menus: Lotus, which specialises in Asian cuisine; the Carvery, a British style grille; La Piazza, withItalian food; and the Chef's Galley, which offers an interactive experience to food preparation.[33][34]
The passengers' dining arrangements on board are dictated by which 'class' of accommodation they choose to travel in. Most passengers (around 85%) are inBritannia class (and therefore dine in the main restaurant). However, passengers can choose to upgrade to either a 'junior suite' (and dine in the "Princess Grill"'), or a suite (and dine in the "Queens' Grill").[35][36] Those in the two latter categories are grouped together by Cunard as "Grill Passengers", and they are permitted to use the "Queens' Grill Lounge" and a private outdoor area on deck 11 with its own whirlpool.[28][37] This feature is also present on both the Queen Victoria and the Queen Elizabeth. However, all other public areas can be used by all passengers.[38]
As the Britannia Restaurant takes up the full width of the ship on two decks, a 'tween deck, called Deck 3L, was devised to allow passengers to walk from the Grand Lobby to the Queen's Room without traversing the dining room mid meal. The deck consists of two corridors that run beneath the upper balcony of the restaurant on Deck 3, and above the main dining area on Deck 2. This is why the balcony of the Britannia has tiers that step up towards the hull. This arrangement is illustrated on the hull where there is a stack of three rows of windows in the area where the main restaurant sits, the two upper and lower most rows illuminate the dining room, while the centre row serves Deck 3L. There is a similar arrangement through the Royal Court Theatre. As well, the passages that run on either side of Illuminations on Deck 3 ramp upwards to compensate for the change in deck elevation between the entrance to Illuminations and an elevator bank forward of the room.[28]
More than 5000 commissioned works of art are visible in the Queen Mary 2's public rooms, corridors, staterooms and lobbies, having been created by 128 artists from sixteen different countries.[39] Two of the most notable pieces are Barbara Broekman's tapestry, an abstract depiction of an ocean liner, bridge, and New York skyline which spans the full height of the Britannia Restaurant, and the British sculptor John McKenna's sheet bronze relief mural in the Grand Lobby, a 7m square portrait of the ship fabricated in bronze inspired by the Art Deco mural in the main dining room of the original Queen Mary.[40]
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