Crossing the Atlantic by Sea on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth
It took six and a half days to cross the Atlantic Ocean by ship—a trip we could have completed in a little more than eight hours by air—but Scott had long wanted to do an ocean crossing, so we decided to take the long route over and the more efficient one back.
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| Queen Elizabeth in port at Ponta Delgada, Azores |
Barcelona.
As we sailed, we explored the history of this ship and cruise line and
found many fascinating details. Samuel
Cunard began providing transatlantic steamship service in 1840. His company was established primarily to
provide mail service between Canada and England. His first ship, the Britannia, had
space for 115 passengers, a milk cow, a flock of chickens to provide eggs, and
three cats to control vermin. Samuel’s
father had been born in the American colonies but was deported to Canada for
supporting the British during the Revolutionary War. The first Cunard ship sailed from Halifax,
but later ships sailed from either New York City or Boston.
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| Janet Gaynor on board a Cunard ship |
The Cunard Shipping Company had a number of “workhorse ships” which
carried mail and emigrants. Scott’s
mother’s grandparents, John Love and Jane Galloway, were among those, sailing
from Ireland to New York in the 1880s.
In doing research on his family, I discovered records of John Love’s
passage on the Cunard manifests.
For a number of years, one of Cunard’s ships, the Carpathia,
carried Hungarian emigrants to New York under contract with the Hungarian
government. In April, 1912, while on one
of these voyages, the Carpathia’s radio operator was the only one to hear
the distress call from the sinking Titanic. The ship’s captain guided the Carpathia
through ice floes in the dark of night and without the benefit of radar. They rescued about 700 Titanic survivors
from life boats, doubling the ship’s passenger load. All were delivered safely to New York City
where the ship and her captain were greeted with a hero’s welcome.
The first of the “Cunard Queens,” Mary, was launched in 1934 by
Queen Mary, wife of England’s King George V.
It was dubbed “the stateliest ship now in being.” The second queen, Elizabeth, was
launched a few years later in 1938 by Queen Elizabeth, wife of George VI and
mother of then-Princess Elizabeth. The new
ship was unable to sail commercially, however, until many years later, because
her christening occurred simultaneously with Hitler’s invasion of
Czechoslovakia and the beginning of World War II.
Cunard ships were requisitioned by the British Admiralty during
wartimes—including during both World Wars—ferrying troops to battle and the
injured and dead home. The Queen Mary
and Queen Elizabeth were especially important in ferrying American
troops heading to the battlefields of Europe.
These two ships were built to carry about three thousand passengers each
but regularly transported full divisions of up to 15,000—and once over 16,000—American
soldiers to Europe and thousands of wounded back. More than half of the soldiers participating
in D-Day arrived in Europe on one of these two ships. All told the two Queens carried more
than a million soldiers across the Atlantic.
In addition, three of the meetings between Winston Churchill and
Franklin Roosevelt took place on one of these ships. One estimate is that the efficiency of the Queens
for transport may have reduced the length of the war by as much as a year.
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| Grand stairway in QE lobby |
Competition exploded in the 1990s as other companies entered the
cruise business and marketed themselves as all-inclusive resorts and floating entertainment
palaces. In 1998, the financially-troubled
Cunard line was purchased by the Carnival Corporation, which, in addition to
its own name-brand ships, acquired or developed the Holland America, Windstar,
and Seabourn lines. The Cunard name was
maintained with the launch of three new ships:
Queen Mary 2 in 2004, Queen Victoria in 2007, and a
brand-new Queen Elizabeth in 2010—170 years after the first ship sailed
under the Cunard flag. A fourth queen—Anne—is
scheduled to join the fleet in 2023.
The Queen Elizabeth, on which we are currently sailing, was
designed to recall the first Elizabeth of the 1930s and is decorated in
a beautiful art deco motif. It is an
elegant ship that can carry just over two thousand passengers and a thousand
crew. So why sail to Europe when we
could fly so easily? In our case, the
journey is the vacation. For two weeks
we are relaxing in luxury in a smallish but comfortable stateroom with a
balcony and twice-daily maid-service.
The food is good, varied, beautifully presented, and abundant. And the cost is reasonable. I was talking with another passenger one day
who said that she and her husband were paying less for this cruise than they
would have had to pay for business-class airfare to Europe this summer.
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| Calm seas in the middle of the ocean |
Fortunately, on our passage, the weather and the seas have been
perfect. We were a bit worried that the
Atlantic hurricane season might be troublesome, but we’ve had only a little
wind and one day of light rain. On
several days, the seas were so calm that the expanse before us looked like a
sheet of glass.
An unanticipated downside on this voyage has been a resurgence of covid infection numbers. We had to present proof of vaccination and a negative covid test result to board the ship, yet the infection is present. We don’t know how prevalent it is as no one will provide numbers, but a section of staterooms on each deck is locked off for those in quarantine. Strict safety protocols have been enacted requiring wearing of masks and maintaining social distance wherever possible. We are happy to comply and, so far, have remained healthy. One unexpected safety measure was the closing of the ship’s self-service laundry rooms. We had planned to be able to do laundry so have had to resort to washing out essentials in our bathroom sink. But this is a rather trivial inconvenience in the grand scheme of things.
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| Masked waiters serving afternoon tea |
We have loved being on a cruise line that has such a rich
history. In addition, here are some of
the other reasons that we have enjoyed this transatlantic crossing aboard the
Queen Elizabeth:
The elegant ship. As
noted before, the ship is beautiful, and sometimes I just sit and delight in
the small touches of swooping curtains, decorated columns, curved stairways,
and detailed light fixtures. Evenings
reinforce the ship’s elegance as passengers are expected to dress for dinner in
the main restaurant. There are
occasional formal evenings on which tuxedos and formal gowns appear. I enjoy this change of pace in my days, but
not everyone does. For those who choose
not to put on a dress or jacket, the Lido dinner buffet line remains open.
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| Three-story atrium with grand piano in the center |
The music. Throughout
the afternoons and evenings, there is live music somewhere on the ship. There are multiple venues and styles to
choose from—string quartet, classical piano, Irish folk fiddle, jazz, guitar,
folk singers, and easy-listening piano and song. Each evening there is a show in the three-tiered
Royal Theatre. The on-board professional
dance company and singers present different shows alternated with specialty
acts brought on board just for one or two nights.
The dancing. People who
dance say that they choose the Cunard Queens for the dance floors and
bands. We are miserable dancers but have
enjoyed watching those who are more accomplished and graceful as they glide
around the floor each evening. There are
ballroom dancing classes offered every day.
We took one but were impatient with our uncoordinated attempts at
learning to waltz and quit. We have
decided that on the next cruise we just have to go more consistently and try to
learn the rhumba, fox trop, cha-cha, and other such dance steps. We have done a bit better in the Zumba and
line dancing classes where we don’t care so much about getting it exactly right,
and we have gotten some good aerobic exercise as a result.
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| Ready to waltz on one of the gala evenings |
The international clientele.
While Americans are plentiful on board, there are many other nationalities
represented—Brits, Australians, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, and perhaps
others. We talked with a German man who
said there are 400 Germans on board. We
enjoy hearing other languages and having opportunities to learn something about
other cultures and traditions.
Of course, there are also some things about Cunard and the Queen
Elizabeth that we do not like. Here
are a few of our frustrations.
Fares are not all-inclusive which means that we have to pay extra for
things like soft drinks, alcohol, and internet access. We don’t typically drink soft drinks so that
hasn’t been a problem. Paying for
alcohol by the drink turns out to have a positive side as we are consuming much
less than we have on other ships.
We have paid for a few days of access, but the internet service is
intermittent at best which has caused great consternation. And international cell service plans do not
apply to cruise ships, so we have only been able to access our plan when we are
in port. But we’ve discovered that
taking an internet/cell-service break and being disconnected for a few days at
a time is not really a bad thing.
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| Evening walk around the deck at sunset |
All in all, we have enjoyed this particular cruise. We’ve had a few port calls and have
appreciated the opportunity to get off of the ship and explore new places, but
then we are happy to have another sea day.
As one of our dinner companions noted, “port days just disrupt my
routine.” And, over a number of sea
days, we have developed a routine that we quite enjoy. We may have to do this again.
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Note: The historic information about Cunard was
taken from a book by Eric Flounders and Michael Gallagher titled The Story
of Cunard’s 175 Years, published by Ferry Publications in 2011.
