Qm2 - Maiden Transatlantic Crossing

[Shipping Out]

It has been a year and a day since we - my mother, my son and myself - sailed into history on the Maiden Transatlantic Crossing of the QM2 - yet I can remember and savor those six days as though it were just yesterday.

 

We boarded the QM2 on a hazy day, with a stiff breeze blowing on the 13th deck. Luckily, we took pictures that day of ourselves with her name stretched in front of the funnel - it would be four days before we would dare to venture topside again!

 

We raided the piggy banks, held barn sales, even took my son out out of school for a week to be a part of this historic moment - but in the end, mother nature threw us a curve ball that we would never EVER forget.

 

The QM2 is a rare, and almost extinct breed - an ocean liner built to take on the worst that the North Atlantic can throw at her. On the third day out, the seas rose to new heights, with heaving waves running 20 to 30 feet high. Winds drove torrential rains across the wide picture windows in the Commodore Club. "I wish" said Captain Warwick at the Captains Gala Reception, "that I could tell you that we have seen the worst of this storm, but...".

 

That night everything in our cabin that wasn't tied down began rolling down. We pitched and we rolled so badly that I feared that my son, who was sleeping in the top bunk, would fall out of bed.

 

In the morning, half the passengers did not make an appearance,

and we had the ship to ourselves. My mother, in her '80s, settled herself down on the seventh deck, but my son and I navigated the heaving ship, reeling like a bunch of drunkards. I spent hours in the observation lounge just behind the bridge watching the ominous red, orange and yellow storm on the radar tracking system. The most popular entertainment venue was the picture windows on the second deck - right outside the planetarium - where passengers and crew gathered to watch the big waves. Every now and then, one would wash completely over the window - like watching the door of a washing machine.

 

Late in the afternoon on the fifth day out, we encountered a rogue wave that measured in at 70 feet. My son and I wre in the Logo gift shop at the time. The ship shuddered and everything that wasn't battened down fell off the shelves. The bridge called down to the crew to ask if the shop was okay and confirmed that we had just taken on a 70 foot wave that had come over the bow.

 

The storm continued into the evening, where diners at the second seating were subjected to pitching and rolling that felt like being in an elevator. At one point, my mother was tumbled from her chair - but not hurt. Somehow, our waiters managed to deliver our entrees without a mishap - How they did so I will never know. Dancing in the G 32 nightclub was a real experience - occasionally the dance floor would tilt to a crazy angle and all the dancers would slide from one end of the dance floor to the other - and it wasn't my whisky sours that were to blame!

 

On the morning of the 6th day, we crept through a pea soup fog - our fog horn bellowing. The universal subject of debate was whether we were going to make landfall the next day on schedule. The Today show was scheduled to broadcast live from the Commodore Club, the Mayor and the CEO of Carnival Lines would be waiting at the dock, passengers had connecting flights to catch. Would the QM2 make up the time she had lost and arrive on schedule.

 

At dawn on the 7th day, we slowed off the Ambrose Lightship to take on our pilot, a contingent of security agents, and an escort of coast guard cutters. It was a hazy morning, and from the shore, the QM2 emerged like a ghost. On deck 13, we watched and cheered as the QM2 cleared the Verazzano Bridge by a mere 25 feet - What a sight! Then we waited with bated breath to catch our first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty - as though we were emigrants arriving to these shores on the old Mauretania. Helicopters hovered overhead, fireboats saluted us with streams of red, white and blue water, and every ship in the harbor blew their horn. We swung wide to edge nose first into Pier 90 - and we kept nosing in and in until we over hung the West Side Highway. There were two bands playing, every New York dignitary

who could cadge a seat, and local TV, Radio and Newspaper press yelling questions from the dock as we docked.

 

We had sailed into history, my Mother, my Son and I, just as we had dreamed of. And the QM2 sailed into history on that crossing - proving that she was a real ocean liner, worthy of being the flagship of Cunard and taking on the mantle from the other greats that are now history - the Mauretania, the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mary, and the QE2.

 

God Willing, your cruise on this mighty ship will not be quite so eventful. But in the event that you encounter a blow on the North Atlantic you may rest assured that she has passed her trial by fire, and that you are safe in her capable hands! We would certainly sail on her again in a New York Minute!

[deb7073]

Thanks so much for writing your experience. It was excellent.

And certainly made ME feel better.

I look forward to sailing the transatlantic on the QM2!

And you're right. I also hope my cruise isn't quite so eventful.

[bonni99]

Oh my- how i hope that we have smooth sailing for our crossing!! Sounds like an eventful maiden crossing indeed- thanks for the fab review!

[guernseyguy]

Shipping out - thank you for posting a marvellously evocative post on your crossing - I sail in 10 days....and while I like the 'lumpy' weather it knocks my partner out flat.....The best thing would be about 1 hour of furious storm (so not long enough to start getting seasick) then flat calm & sunny skies.....unfortunately it doesn't work like that!

 

Peter

[Rob.London]

I was on that crossing too and your words so well written and true. It was an amazing crossing thank you refreshing my memory and how did the waiters manage to serve on time on that night we had a window table and it was like loking in a washing machine the whole meal!

 

I also remember one afternoon passangers trying to get out onto the promande deck, their were seven of them trying to force the door open , but they couldnt shift it . It wasnt locked just the force of the wind !!! , ah ship board memories.

 

Rob

[Calliope]

Thanks for all of the Maiden Westbound Crossing memories. I'm enjoying each and every one. I was on the return Tandem Crossing and we didn't come anywhere close to such "fun"!

 

Let's see who else was on the return trip: J.P.Evans, Crouton, and Nathan are all that I can think of right now.

[Ken_W]

One more here. So many memories....

 

Out on deck in Southampton, glass of champagne in hand, throwing a streamer, and hearing for the first time the sound of the ship's whistle, taken from the original Queen Mary in Long Beach. I started to cry, then laugh at myself for getting sentimental - which generally speaking I am not - then crying some more because sometimes I am.

 

At the end of the voyage, back out on deck, as QM2 passed under the Narrows Bridge for the first time.

 

In between, having the card room on Deck 11 all to myself early one morning and watching the ship's bow slice through the waves.

 

At dinner in the Princess Grill when a wave hit, and passengers and plates went flying. (Wicked of me, I know, but I was close enough to the crockery to grab a piece of a broken Wedgwood dinner plate. Do I qualify for the Silliest Souvenir Sweepstakes?)

 

Thanks so much for starting this thread, it's brought back so many good thoughts....

[wynkys]

Sorry to arrive at this thread so late, however, Shipping Out's evocative description of the crossing evoked my own memories.

My recollection is that the rogue wave hit the ship on the third afternoon out as I was lying on the bed in our cabin on Ten deck having been laid low by dodgy mussels from the first Gala Dinner in the Princess Grill when there was an almighty crash against the balcony doors and I jumped up to see a torrent of water draining from the balcony. It was amusing and also somewhat frightening that evening to watch people attempt to reach their seats at dinner with the ship moving so much and we witnessed a near disaster when a cheese trolley took off across the restaurant and luckily crashed into a vacant seat.

Other memories are of Commodore Warwick scattering the ashes of his parents into the sea near where the Titanic foundered and, of course, the arrival into New York with the sun breaking through the fog and illuminating the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline.

Disappointments included a very bland decor in the Princess Grill, having drinks in bars that with the exception of the Commodore Club, reminded one of the intimacy of airline terminals and the so-called Planetarium at Sea being no better than a Disneyesque mini-Imax experience.

The return trip on QE2 as part of the tandem crossing was memorable for the very cold but spectacular New York departure and us steaming past QM2 to take the lead out, the very amusing daily broadcasts from Captain McNaught and his constant references to the big car ferry accompanying us and the photo opportunity with the Boston Cup on our last night on board when the Cup had been removed from its case in preparation for transfer to QM2 the next day. Travelling on QE2 again reminded me that QM2 has a long way to go before it will attract the many repeat customers that QE2 has enjoyed for many years.

 

Wayne

[cusyl]

You guys are giving me goose bumps...how I envied your Maiden Voyage of the QM2...Not caring to fly, we opted for the Maiden Caribbean Voyage and have some wonderful memories of it and our fellow cruise critic members.

[Crouton]

Thank you for your stirring account of the Maiden Voyage, Shipping Out.

 

I was waiting in New York City for your arrival and to board QM2 for the return trip east as well. We too were wondering whether or not you would make up the lost time from the storm, and when you did it confirmed all of our hopes that Queen Mary 2 was indeed a true Ocean Liner capable of making up and maintaining her schedule in the face of obstacles.

 

The only disappointment was that many of us had planned to Welcome you to New York on tourists boats and follow QM2 up the Hudson. At the last moment :mad: , the Coast Guard announced that they would not allow ANY other vessels around QM2 for the arrival, depriving us of the opportunity to recreate the famously rowdy Maiden Voyage arrival of the original Queen Mary (and attendant wonderful aerial photos of her surrounded by all kinds of boats) back in the 1930's. (Hmmm...makes me wonder if anyone managed to be on both Maiden voyages?!)

 

On a purely selfish and paranoid note: I was extremely grateful for the "sacrifice" you made in testing out the ship's steel plating for us in a true north Atlantic storm. For a while, I couldn't get the twisted thought out of my mind that all it would take would be "one bad weld" to mess things up, um, royally.

 

One other dramatic moment about your trip that certainly caught my attention was the fire at sea which happened in the crew quarters (from someone's plugged in hair dryer getting tossed into a full sink of water (or the toilet?) )during the storm. As I recall, you were at one point minutes away from being mustered for the lifeboats -- without knowing it -- during very rough seas when the fire momentarily proved more difficult to extinguish than they had expected. :eek:

 

Oh, and thanks for not messing up that "new ship smell!". :)

[mtbny7]

I was on the "Final Eastbound" crosssing of QE 2 with you, wynkys. It was so cold that night in NY Harbor! I sat alone in the Queens Room near one of the windows for most of the sailway. I had friends on the Circle Line watching us sail away... they seemed so small way down there!

 

Cap't McN comments were indeed very fun!

 

I am jealous I missed the photo op of seeing the cup come out of the plexi-glass case! oh well...

 

Michael

[Crouton]

One more here. So many memories....

 

Out on deck in Southampton, glass of champagne in hand, throwing a streamer, and hearing for the first time the sound of the ship's whistle, taken from the original Queen Mary in Long Beach. I started to cry, then laugh at myself for getting sentimental - which generally speaking I am not - then crying some more because sometimes I am.

So well said and so very sweet , Ken C.

 

After reading it, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry either!

 

Tony

 

P.S. I brought streamers for the Maiden Eastbound too. :)

[Crouton]

Link to Maiden Voyage late arrival post from a year ago:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=17306