Queen Mary 2 Records 200th Transatlantic Crossing

Cunard Line’s flagship Queen Mary 2 is making her historic 200th Transatlantic Crossing, having sailed from New York on Saturday 6 July en route to her homeport of Southampton, England, arriving 13 July.

To mark the beginning of the historic voyage from New York, Queen Mary 2 performed a sail-by of the world’s most iconic statue atop Liberty Island. On board are keynote speakers presenting talks about the ship’s design, as well as special Big Band performances, and a celebratory Gala Dinner to be held on 11 July.

Queen Mary 2 is the largest, longest, widest and most expensive liner ever built. Today, she is the only ocean liner in service and is the fastest passenger ship in the world. Since entering service in 2004, she has cemented her place in maritime history as the most famous passenger ship afloat today.

In the course of Queen Mary 2’s 200 Transatlantic Crossings, Cunard Line estimates that a half-million passengers have consumed 8.4 million cups of tea; 980,000 scones; 481,000 bottles of champagne; 644,000 eggs; and 253,605 gallons of milk. In total, 22.4 million meals have been served over 600,000 nautical miles, excluding the ship’s annual World Cruise and sailings to the Canaries, Fjords, Iceland, the Low Countries, around Britain, up to Montreal and Québec in Canada, and among the Caribbean islands.

“As each year in service passes, Queen Mary 2 becomes even more special and we will continue to celebrate and cherish her milestones and history,” said Peter Shanks, president of Cunard Line. “Looking at Cunard’s earlier Queens, Queen Mary crossed the Atlantic 1,001 times, Queen Elizabeth crossed 896 times and QE2 crossed 812 times. Queen Mary 2 achieved the milestone 200th in this, her ninth season, and has many seasons and Crossings still ahead!”

Although not of British construction, the ship was designed by a team of British naval architects, led by Stephen Payne. To commemorate the 200th Crossing and as part of the line’s award-winning Cunard Insights on board enrichment programme, Stephen Payne OBE, who was largely responsible for the overall design of Queen Mary 2, is presenting a fascinating insight into the ship’s construction. He will also be guest of honour at the formal Gala evening dinner on 11 July.

At the time of her construction in 2003 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique ( a Saint-Nazaire, France based shipyard; which forms part of the STX France SA business unit, majority owned by STX Europe), Queen Mary 2 was the longest, widest, and tallest passenger ship ever built, and with her gross tonnage of 148,528 also the largest. She no longer holds this distinction after the construction of Royal Caribbean International’s 154,407 GT Freedom of the Seas in April 2006. Although later cruise ships are larger, Queen Mary 2 remains the largest ocean liner (as opposed to cruise ship) ever built.

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Press Release, July 9, 2013