QE2 to carry on cruising !!!!

[cunardqueen]

According to the Southern Daily Echo newspaper today it features a report that our beloved QE2 is set to carry on for at least 10 years yet!!!

l cant alas put a link to the page but its there in print and from her home port and a quote from the respected Capt Bates!!!!

Great news all round folks !!!!!!

lets crack open the champagne and toast "THE QUEEN!!!!!!"

[cruiserking]

What wonderful news, here's the scoop::)

 

http://www.thisissouthampton.co.uk/hampshire/southampton/shipping/SOTON_SHIPPING_NEWS0.html

 

Cruiserking

[guernseyguy]

Wonderful news! I wonder if this means another delay for the Queen Vic? Perhaps the old girl will also make it back to Manhattan after this January - 10-12 years should give the NYPST time to get the West Side piers fixed.:)

 

Peter

[Transatlantic Tom]

Cunardqueen and Cruiserking:

 

Thank you so much for passing this information on to all of us. This is truly remarkable news.

 

There are a big group of CC members (including Guernseyguy) who are sailing in January aboard QE2 Southampton-NY. Quite honestly, I have been thinking/assuming that this might one of the last 2 or 3 transatlantic crossings she'd ever do....

 

But now !!

 

Tom:)

[cunardqueen]

With this news, is it safe to assume that many of us QE2 die hards might be tempted to try a crossing on QM2 or are we still going to stick to our beloved???? seems to be the case that everybody is being upgraded on QM2??

[QE2 fan]

If this is true, its the best news I've had in a long time!! Over the past few years, I've met people on board who tell me she only had 1, 2 or 3 years left. I'm so glad if they've been proved wrong. No other ship could ever compare.

[Cruising Ken]

Sorry to be the prophet of doom but I remember reading a similar article in the Dover express about how Hoverspeed had invested tens of thousands of pounds in spares to keep their Hovercraft running well into the 21st century. 18 months later, they had gone.:(

[Rotterdam]

"Sorry to be the prophet of doom but I remember reading a similar article in the Dover express about how Hoverspeed had invested tens of thousands of pounds in spares to keep their Hovercraft running well into the 21st century. 18 months later, they had gone."

 

Surely the QE2 is a smoother ride than the hovercraft...puke central.....

[guernseyguy]

18 months later, they had gone.:(

 

CruisingKen - wasn't that simply because they were losing money? If the QE2 starts doing that, then the same thing will happen to her too - and so it should!

 

Peter

[Coolgran]

:) Hope this is true!!!! We are big fans of QE2 having cruised on her several times. She truly is an addiction which we hope nobody will ever persuade us to give up:D

[transat_jon]

Same with Concorde, BA and AirFrance spent millions on getting these birds aloft after the Paris tragedy. Now they are in museums around the world, one not that far away from me now!

 

QE2 will be gone by 2010 I think. I do not see a way round it. She is fantastic but also old and needs a lot of work to meet the next tranche of SOLAS regulations. The Aliminium superstructure is starting to have problems with cracking and the mechanics are past their best. The end comes to all great ships eventualy, sadly.

[guernseyguy]

Same with Concorde, BA and AirFrance spent millions on getting these birds aloft after the Paris tragedy.

 

Word is, is that BA wanted to keep Concord in the air, but AF, never having made money wanted to close it down, so lent on Airbus, legacy owners of technical stuff, to present BA with bill for future maintenance that made any future operation unprofitable, and wouldn't hand on technical info to third party who would keep her in the air.....nice conspiracy theory, with French as devious sore losers, how true, possibly unknowable....however....same point remains, the day QE2 stops making money.....

 

Peter

[UK Geoff]

Word is, is that BA wanted to keep Concord in the air, but AF, never having made money wanted to close it down, so lent on Airbus, legacy owners of technical stuff, to present BA with bill for future maintenance that made any future operation unprofitable, and wouldn't hand on technical info to third party who would keep her in the air.....nice conspiracy theory, with French as devious sore losers, how true, possibly unknowable....however....same point remains, the day QE2 stops making money.....

 

Peter

 

BA were not interested in keeping her in the air. Virgin offered to buy the planes to keep it in the air, but they refused, becuase of the famous image. If they had wanted, Concorde would still have been flying now - with a different livery!

[Globaliser]

BA were not interested in keeping her in the air. Virgin offered to buy the planes to keep it in the air, but they refused, becuase of the famous image. If they had wanted, Concorde would still have been flying now - with a different livery!

This is completely untrue.

 

Virgin could never have afforded to take on Concorde, nor (probably) would they have been allowed to by the CAA. The whole thing was a typical Branson publicity stunt with no meat behind it - just like VS' well-hyped but financially disastrous flights to Sydney. VS would have had at least the same problems that BA had with the economics of the operation, and probably more because VS did not have any embedded Concorde experience.

 

Airlines can't just buy second-hand aircraft and fly them in the way that a taxi company can buy a fleet of second-hand cars and operate them - there is much more that goes on behind that.

 

AF's attack on the BA Concorde operation was well-timed, because for the first time in Concorde's recent operating history, BA could not have afforded to shoulder the whole of the Concorde maintenance programme itself. While Gallic pride meant that AF couldn't have let BA be the only operator of Concorde if BA could have done it on its own, AF could afford to pull out if they knew that it had the consequence that BA would have to pull out too. While I think it's true that AF did lean on Airbus, it wasn't just a French conspiracy - it was simply a tactic that worked on the basis of some very real financial numbers.

 

These numbers came from a combination of the post-September 2001 downturn in the industry, the fact that BA lost a sizeable number of regular Concorde pax (pax who did 2 or 3 Concorde flights per week, every week) on 11.09.01, and a series of major engineering improvements that were about to become necessary to Concorde over the next few years. These were the factors that turned a thriving 2-flights per day flying programme into a struggling once-a-day. While BA was prepared to run Concorde at a loss of a moderate size (tens of millions a year) because of the halo effect for the rest of the business, BA could not justifiably incur a several hundred million pounds pa loss on the aircraft, and so she had to be grounded.

 

VS and Branson couldn't afford to throw several hundred million a year at the aircraft, either. But considering the number of people who still believe Branson's spin, VS clearly did a much better PR job over the whole thing.

[transat_jon]

Virgin's offer to buy the Concordes was definitely a publicity stunt, he was not offering any real money for them. Branson gets to cause bother for his main transatlantic competitor and gets to look like a hero into the bargan, win win. The world is getting used to his stunts of course, but he got his 15 minutes on this one.

 

This is very much the same as NCL buying SS-United States, she is still sitting in Philadelphia and NCL got some concessions on operating out of US ports, if I remeber correctly. It would be great to see this ship sail again, she may be a cold war left over, but she is amongst the top ten ships ever built in my eyes, not too far behind Mauretania and Queen Mary.

[mufi]

BA were not interested in keeping her in the air. Virgin offered to buy the planes to keep it in the air, but they refused, becuase of the famous image. If they had wanted, Concorde would still have been flying now - with a different livery!

 

Just back from QE2 and some very interesting talks be Ian Smith senior training officer for BA. He told us that the idea of Virgin taking over the Concordes was just a publicity stunt - it was never on the cards. Branson never misses a trick.

 

David.

[idtdavid]

Have they fixed the air conditioning on board? Last year on the Christmas cruise we were sweating into our caviar!

[eroller]

Have they fixed the air conditioning on board? Last year on the Christmas cruise we were sweating into our caviar!

 

 

Sorry to hear this. I was never so hot on a ship as QE2 a few years ago on the North Atlantic in December! Who would have thought I would be sweating on the North Atlantic in Winter??? I could only imagine what the ship is like in a warm climate.

 

We could not get our cabin temperature below 75 degrees, and many times after my brother and I both had our showers it would reach 80 degrees. Then we had to put on our tuxes. Yuck. One night in the Mauritania Dining Room it got so hot we all had to take our jackets off. It was truly uncomfortable.

 

I'm sailing again on QE2 in January. Again on the North Atlantic and I'm hoping the temperature situation is resolved. I don't expect or want it to be freezing onboard, but I would rather it not be an oven either ... especially when formal wear is required each evening.

 

Ernie

[mufi]

Have they fixed the air conditioning on board? Last year on the Christmas cruise we were sweating into our caviar!

 

No, red hot in corridors and other public areas, icy in the shops area. Our cabin was comfortable at all times. If you want perfect a.c. this is not the ship to choose, but for British tastes (we don't really do a.c.) this was never a problem.

 

David.

[idtdavid]

As a veteran of at least 10 voyages on the QE2 I understand and accept many of the quirks. It just gets harder and harder for me to justify spending a whole lot of money on what is billed as a luxury cruise, when certain basic comforts aren't available. I still dream of doing the full world cruise on the QE2, but to be honest, I think I'd rather do it on Crystal or wait to see what the Victoria has to offer. The QM2's world cruise itinerary is rather disappointing. Too many days at sea and too little time in port.

[Navaleye]

Am on QE2 right now in Le Harvre and I can assure you that the aircon is working just fine. The cabin aircon and that in the computer room are working as advertised. QE2 is looking good. A major re-carpeting excercise has done wonders and the ship looks very good on the inside as well as out. Food and service are excellent and the old girl is a joy to sail on. Long may it continue.

[dougnewmanatsea]

The cabin aircon and that in the computer room are working as advertised.

Do I take this to mean that that in the rest of the ship isn't ;) ?

 

Seriously, I'm glad to hear that all is well aboard the QUEEN. Looking forward to sailing in her in just over two weeks...

[mufi]

Am on QE2 right now in Le Harvre and I can assure you that the aircon is working just fine. The cabin aircon and that in the computer room are working as advertised. QE2 is looking good. A major re-carpeting excercise has done wonders and the ship looks very good on the inside as well as out. Food and service are excellent and the old girl is a joy to sail on. Long may it continue.

 

Le Harvre is not exactly tropical in December. In equatorial regions it was definitly "iffy" earlier this month.

 

David.

[Vic The Parrot]

..... according to a friend who was on board QE recently, that the ship will be sold in 2007 to some Far East interests.

 

Other details entail of QV taking over the Trans-At route, whilst QM will do the world voyages, and other 'happy horsesh*t'

 

Even tho I love him like a brother, I think it's all BS.

Why would Cunard give a public report on QE that mentions her new lease on life, while some crew spread bilge of her leaving the fleet?

 

Guess we have to wait to see what happens in 2007......

 

:rolleyes:

[transat_jon]

Hi Vic

 

I think that if Cunard were sure QE2 was leaving next year, they would be telling us. I am sure that "Farewell" cruises will be fairly well booked.

 

I still do not expect her to be sailing much after 2008 though.