Queen Mary 2 Maiden Voyage - 13 & 14 January 2004

Early insomnia ...

The King's Court restaurant area -- the use of the word "Court" may be ill-advised, evoking at least for USAmericans the moiling mess of shopping mall and tourist trap.

This is no "food court," but a pefectly respectable spot for buffet breakfast and lunch service, converting in the evening to reservation-only dining in Lotus (pan-Asian fusion), the Carvery (meats and chops in traditional style), La Piazza (Italian), and the Chef's Galley ($30 extra tariff demonstration cuisine). One section of King's Court was open 24 hours with hamburgers, hot dogs, and other heat lamp specials. Early this first full day morning I would find myself snacking there, only the grill cook to keep me company.

A Wedgewood panel in King's Court.

Bar and lounge set aside as pre- post-prandial locale for the ship's most expensive accomodations.

A certain austere elegance distinguishes the room.

The Winter Garden was a pleasant spot for tea, and possibly the ship's least successful room for decor. I didn't care for the trompe l'oeuil greenhouse effect on the ceiling, and the parrot mural in day-glo color was did not appeal. Some passengers thought the round gazebo-like ceiling recesses actually cast a purplish glow that was unflattering to skin tones.

Behind glass of a banquette end table: plastic butterflies on plastic grass.

All those stairs. Each of the five stairtowers is decorated in a different color scheme: A is green, B red, C grey, and D yellow.

Stairway A detail, where 1930s retro stylings meet 21st century safety requirements: the deco-nouveau glass panels actually are a nice fulfillment of SOLAS standards for railings enclosed against the spread of fire, and here the ubiquitous emergency lighting strips are in harmony.

What room is this? At 3AM I found the Deck 9 private area for premium-suite passengers. The more utilitarian label at bottom has the designation in Braille as well.

Exclusivity, with all the warm of an airport hotel. Clearly the services of a private concierge are the attraction, not the decor.

Here is the entrance to the Commodore Club. Another deviation from the straight and flat on QM2, like the Deck 3 incline between Royal Court and Illuminations. Here there is a downward incline to accomodate slightly raised platforms on the wings of the Club. (thanks, Alan!)

Handsome marking of the entrance to a spectacular room.

Behind the Commodore Club bar, a stunning model of the ship.

Someone should write a book compiling all the art works on QM2 -- I'll do the job for mere expenses. Here is a fine Gordon Bauwens rendering of the ship's namesake.

Here a canvas-transferred cropped enlargement of an original by Stephen Card, showing Mauretania on a landing in stairtower C.

A closer view.

Not all the art was to my liking: this stairtower B piece was a bit more Disney-does-Peter-Max than I cared for, but I heard others say they liked it.

And while I'm at it ... these oil paint versions of frames from classic movies didn't really do it for me, though even a lesser rendering of Audrey Hepburn is divine.

Lest I be thought to cavil: it was about 3:30AM, when I found myself thinking that this hot tap with inverted Cunard logo, and the profusion of times on outdoor clocks, were the only deviation from perfection for QM2 herself, that I felt it finally was time to go to bed.

some sleep happened ...

Our first sea day was cold, wet, the ship pitching in long langorous motion, prow rising then falling to a loud hiss of displaced water from under that massive hull. We were doing a good 24 knots.

Juan and I took a long lazy walk.

After Juan went to take a nap, I kept exploring the ship; it was past lunch, and QM2 was moving as much as she would the entire trip. While the weather was officially only Force 8, people were doing that drunk-like stagger of the passengers on a rolling deck, and sickness bags appeared by all the elevators.

It was shortly after taking this shot of the Princess Grill that I heard from the nearby galley a loud crash of what sounded like hundreds of plates and glasses.

The next day we force the tropics: Juan found the Pavilion Pool & Bar, a pleasant space to sip a Margarita.

On a pretty rainy day -- but the weather is breaking in our favor.

The Pavilion was a nice place, and on this first day we were some of the only people there. The nautical design elements produce a strong flavor of blue water liner.

Later this space would be crammed with somnolent elderly, basking.

Blue skies and calmer waters ahead.

More blue water feel: this section of Deck 7 outside the Queen's Grill is Stephen Payne's distinct evocation of a Pacific liner's covered promenade deck.

While the Duplex suites are grand, the 3-deck staircase is even more a design tour de force.

Deck 8's Pool & Terrace, quadruple-screw wake behind us ...

Not yet installed, the bar for the area later designated for Queen's Grill passengers only. This space was one more place where I was struck by how much of Queen Mary 2's design encourages photography with so many stunning vantage points to view vessel and water.

A formal night beckons, and I wonder if the shower is available ...

Deck quoits, satellite antenna, and the funnel: from here it doesn't look too short. On the starboard side of the funnel is the original whistle from the Queen Mary; the other, to the right here, was made from the older whistle's design. Each produces a sound distinctly different from the other: Queen Mary's is slightly lower in pitch, with a softer attack, but fuller somehow at the same time. The newer whistle does not disappoint, still making passengers jump, and the older one is sounded only once daily, at the noon test of all four whistles/horns on board.

Dramatic markings on the Sun Deck (13) at the top of the ship, for emergency landings by helicopter. Waiting in the wings against the distant windscreen are stacks of resin recliners, anticipating sunbathers in the next few days. The glass box in front of the observation platform is a skylight for the B stairtower.

The head of stairtower A. While no one particular staircase no Queen Mary 2 dominates as "the grand staircase," A tower does take the prize for running to the greatest number of decks: all 13.

Carpet expanse on a C stair landing: what better choice an for abstract pattern on a ship that so freely incorporates updated design elements of older ships, than a lot of quotation marks?

The head of stairtower D, jarring tones of yellow that do not appear to have come from nature, except perhaps (on the floor), the skins of a few thousand leopards.

Sunlight fades on our second sea day, and ship's lights come on.