Cunard's flagship liner, the Queen Mary 2, looms over Liverpool's skyline as she continues on her last-minute luxury voyage celebrating the coronation of King Charles III.
The 79,000-tonne ocean liner slipped into the city's cruise terminal last night, ablaze with yellow light, as crowds gathered on both sides of the river to watch the spectacle. On board, guests enjoyed all the staples of a typical Cunard Line cruise ahead of the grand celebration planned for Saturday, May 6.
Cunard acting senior vice president Angus Struthers said: "We wanted to provide an opportunity for our guests to enjoy an unforgettable, very special and unique celebration of the Coronation. What better way to mark this momentous occasion than being on board our majestic flagship Queen.”
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At the time of her construction, the Queen Mary 2 was the longest and largest cruise liner in the world, transporting 2,691 guests and 1,173 crew members across the vast Atlantic Ocean, and from New York to the Caribbean in the winter months.
Her maiden voyage took place in January 2004. During the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, she was used as a "floating hotel" for Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, US President George W. Bush, and the United States Olympic men's basketball team.
She has embarked on two world cruises in her lifetime, in 2007 and 2012, and was part-way through a third in 2020 when Covid-19 hit and the journey had to be abandoned.
She was last in Liverpool in 2019, when she temporarily moored on her way New York via Reykjavik and Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 2015, 800,000 people flocked to the docks see her and her sister ships Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth during Cunard's 175th anniversary Three Queens celebrations.
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