The QE II – A Grand Old Lady

This week's travel post is a bit of a blast from the past.  Some years ago I did a trans-Atlantic crossing on the QEII – a wonderful liner with oodles of heritage.  Sadly it is went out of service in 2008 and it is not clear what is going to happen to it. It was bought by a Dubai firm and there was early talk of it becoming a floating hotel.  But there are rumours that this won't be happening.  I do hope it doesn't go to scrap.

It was a Cunard Line ship and as you can guess was named after the current Queen Elizabeth.

The QEII had quite a turn of speed – it could rocket along (in ship terms) at over 28 knots.

Some things about the ship would not work well today.  There were scheduled dining times and allocated tables.  As I was on my own I was assigned to the Chief Engineer's table which was actually great fun.

You dressed up for dinner too.  None of today's cruise casual.  And no I'm not in this picture – I borrowed it from a Cunard site.  But this is how I remember it.

And reminiscent a little bit of the Titanic, there were different classes of dining room.  For those with expensive suites there were exclusive dining rooms – which I never got to see.  I did have a little porthole though – no big verandah for me.

How about this for an onboard theatre!

It was a great experience – even the fact that the sidewalks in New York swayed for a couple of days after I disembarked was fun!