T E N E R I F E ’ S O N LY Issue 675
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W E E K LY N E W S PA P E R
22 October 2010 - 28 October 2010
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By Royal Appointment! New luxury liner Queen Elizabeth sails into Santa Cruz on its maiden voyage
“Just so special” those were the words spoken by many of the British passengers who disembarked from the Queen Elizabeth last Tuesday. As dawn broke, the impressive cruise liner docked in the harbour of the capital - Santa Cruz. Cunard’s newest Queen has 16 floors and can carry over 3,000 passengers, this week it had 2,000 tourists and 1,007 crew. Tenerife was one of the ports on her maiden voyage, which began on October 12th, the day after the naming ceremony by Her Majesty the Queen. In Tenerife a welcoming ceremony took board on ship with dignitaries and press. Christopher Wells, Captain of the Queen Elizabeth, received President of the Port Authority, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza, and as is tradition, exchanged gifts. Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza thanked the Captain that they had chosen this port for the maiden voyage and joked that he had been asked to “do some time on the island, which has cost us dearly, but it was worth it”
Canarian Weekly asked Captain Wells, what had been the highlight of this journey so far, he replied, “without doubt it was a huge honour to be at the naming ceremony performed by the Queen, it was really special. The Queen just smiled as she toured the ship.” Captain Wells will be assigned to the Queen Elizabeth for 2-3 years. The Queen Elizabeth had already visited Vigo, Lisbon, Cadiz and Las Palmas and departed Tenerife at 6pm bound for La Palma and then Madeira. In the Spring of 2011 the Queen Elizabeth will be embarking on a world cruise. One of the first passengers to leave the liner on foot was Stephen Robinson, from Nottingham, who was traveling on his own. He told Canarian Weekly, “I am a regular cruise go-er, but this is a bit special, it is quite exciting.” He also mentioned the volume of memorabilia on board, including a silver model of the QE2 made by Aspreys, plus the bell from the QE2. Bus after bus took the tourists around the island, filled with Americans, Japanese, Germans, French plus many Brits. One couple from Scotland
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said that it was definitely not like a package holiday abroad and that the service was outstanding. Judith and Bill Appleton, from Preston, had been on 5 cruises in 5 years. They said that the ship was the same layout as the Queen Victoria and they thought it was out of this world. They were looking forward to Madeira. A cruise on the 170-year-old Cunard shipping line is all about tradition so, for its newest ship, the company has gone for a retro flashback. It pays homage to the art deco style of the original 1938 Queen Elizabeth, enhanced by memorabilia from that ship. Also included is a lot of the elegance that made the subsequent 1969 Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2), which was retired two years ago, the most famous ocean liner in the world.
So, there is a lot for aficionados to embrace, although this huge passenger ship will not be known as the QE3. The 16-story, 964ft luxury liner, built in Italy, is the second-biggest ship ever commissioned by Cunard, behind the Queen Mary II. The 90,900 tonner cost over £400,000 million to construct and can accommodate 2,092 passengers and nearly 1,000 crew. Tickets, which cost up to £26,200, were all snapped up in just under 30 minutes! It was launched by The Queen on 11th October at Southampton, during a regal affair in front of an audience of more than 1,500 VIPs, celebrities and dignitaries. They included veteran TV traveller Alan Whicker and the flamboyant, 83-year-old Dj Sir Jimmy Savile, dressed in his customary shell suit and pink glasses, sporting a giant, trademark cigar and displaying his knighthood insignia. Thousands more spectators turned out to watch Her Majesty name the new vessel in a lavish ceremony, during which she christened it by
smashing a bottle of Rothschild white wine across the bow. “I name this ship Queen Elizabeth,” said Her Majesty, who toured the interior before the big moment. “May God bless her and all who sail in her.” And she created a slice of history for herself by being the only person there who could claim to have attended all three Queen Elizabeth ship namings. She watched her mother launch the original Queen Elizabeth in 1932, and then launched the QE2 herself in 1967. The first Queen Elizabeth had its maiden voyage interrupted by the outbreak of World War II and was commissioned, after a quick conversion, to move troops around the world. She was released from duty in March 1946, after transporting more than 811,000 troops and sailing over half-amillion miles. After an extensive refit, she finally began a 20-year career of transatlantic crossings. Following her final trip in 1968, she was sold on twice, the second time to a group of
businessmen, who planned to convert her to a floating university. But during the refit in Hong Kong, a fierce fire broke out, destroying the proud old ship, and consigning it to history. As for the QE2, that grand old liner hasn’t fared much better, although it is still in one piece, in Dubai. It was sold to a company there which proposed converting it into a floating hotel. But the global recession extended its arm even to the once mega-wealthy Middle East country, and it now sits there forlornly in Port Rashid, awaiting its fate. The Queen Mary 2, when built in 2003, was the largest passenger ship ever devised, until exceeded in tonnage by two larger Royal Caribbean ships. Yet it remains the biggest ship the company has built, and follows a long line of famous Cunard liners, stretching back to the company’s inception as the first operator of a timetabled transatlantic service 167 years ago. The new Queen Elizabeth joins the Queen Mary 2 (QM 2) and the Queen Victoria in bringing the Cunard’s oceanliner fleet up to three again.