January 2000: The legend continues into the 21st Century

January 15, 2000 - Before leaving on its annual Around the World Cruise out of New York on January 6, Cunard Line unveiled a newly refurbished Queen Elizabeth 2 to the world.

Completed in a record-breaking six-and-a-half-week period at the Lloyd Werft Shipyard in Germany in mid-December, the $18 million refurbishment of the Great lady represents a continuation of British presence at sea.

Cunard CEO and president Larry Pimentel said:

 "The refit is an endorsement of Carnival, the parent company of Cunard, to put Cunard back on the path to profitability. In the 18 months under the Carnival wing, we have accomplished much."

The QE2's $18 million refit and hotel refurbishment saw the removal of nearly 50 coats of paint from her hull and repainted in the icy wintry weather of Bremerhaven. Acres and acres of carpeting and miles of fabric went into the ship's interior refurbishment. What's more, the project was completed on time and under budget.

All the vessel's public areas have been redone in more modern tones and upholstery.

• The Queens Room is specially striking with its electric blue and gold motif carpeting and contemporary furnishings that open up the area to more light and space. Even the Grand Lounge, the Casino and the Golden Lion Pub got a dress over.
   
• The dining rooms were also spiffed up. Outstanding is the refurbished Caronia restaurant with its rich mahogany paneling, table lighting and crystal chandeliers that replicate the elegance of an English manor. (Expect to see more of that in the new ships ahead, predicts Pimentel).
  The Queens Grill also was redecorated with new furniture and carpeting and a new serving galley while the more intimate Princess and Britannia Grills have redesigned seating arrangements and new furnishings. In the cafeteria style Lido Pavilion, a new buffet facility was installed and the furniture was reupholstered.
   
• All passenger accommodations were enhanced. Two new grand suites were created in tan and gold color schemes with marble master and guest bathrooms and with a separate living-dining area apart from the bedroom in the Queens Grill category: the 575 square foot Caledonia Suite (No. 8200) on Boat Deck and the larger 777 square foot Aquitania Suite (No. 2149) located forward of the Midships Lobby on Two Deck.
  Also on Two Deck, the 770 square foot Carinthia Suite (No. 2151, formerly the Midships Suite) was enlarged while two additional Princess Grill category cabins ( Nos. 2153 and 2154) were also added. In addition, all suites and cabins have been refurbished and existing furnishings reupholstered.
   
• New directional signage was installed in the passageways and stairwells-a big help for passengers trying to find their way around the maze of corridors.
   
• The Business Center was upgraded with new computer email facilities for those just itching to send a cheery message home. And on the Royal Promenade, Harrods of London has joined the other elegant boutiques gracing the area.

But entertainment for its passengers is definitely on the mind of Cunard. In tandem with the ship's refurbishment, Cunard has introduced an innovative entertainment concept: its theater will be the venue for a Broadway-bound show.

Passengers will be able to see a work in progress, even attending dress rehearsals, workshops and be able to meet the cast and production personnel in group discussions.

Pimentel was quite enthusiastic about the QE2's refurbishment and highly respectful of the Cunard heritage that began in 1840.

 "Since the QE2 is our flagship vessel, she embodies the essence of British heritage and all that is Cunard. With more than 160 years of tradition, it is important that we retain that all but vanished experience that defines luxury ocean travel.
"We are preserving a piece of history that is the foundation for what has become the explosive growth of the cruise market."

More details of QE2's December 1999 $30m Refit

While every public room will have soft furnishings replaced and in some cases new furniture, lighting and door treatments, I'll stick to the more important stuff.

The most interesting will be the complete redecoration of the Caronia Restaurant into a English hotel style using a mahogany veener, chandeliers and table lamps, and possibly a grande descente, though this is not yet certain.

The Queens Room will get competely redecorated - new furniture and a royal blue carpet with a gold rose design - but keeping the fundamental architecture - the tapered white columns and lighted recessed paneled ceiling. The Queen's bust will be moved forward to a prominent position aft on the lower dance level.

The white arches along the indoor promenade will be paneled in a medium-tone wood.

All the other restaurants will be redecorated with new table layouts in the two small grills, etched glass doors for the Queen Grill and new forward doors for the Mauretania.

The One Deck bar, originally for the Princess Grill will be brought back as a true bar.

The Grand Lounge gets a new stage and some tiered seating on the upper level aft with possibly the shops disappearing (from view).

The Holiday Inn chairs in the Golden Lion Pub will be chucked and more comfortable upholstered chairs installed. This is good news, especially with the Vistafjord's North Cape Bar being redone as a Golden Lion Pub.

All cabins get new carpets, bedspreads, and curtains, and 106 bathrooms will be renewed. The shabby Deck 4 and Deck Five corridors will get new wall coverings and carpets - ABOUT TIME. 14 more cabins go into inventory. Two new suites will be built, one replacing the radio room, and its functions will be transferred to a new communications center or messages will be directed to individual locations with terminals.

Teak wood steamer chairs will replace all existing deck chairs. Hallelujah.

Cunard Line QE2 Refit - Ted Scull

The Queen Elizabeth 2 celebrated thirty years of passenger service on 2nd May when she sailed for the first time from Southampton to New York arriving on 7th May 1969, and following the better part of three days in port, returned eastbound on 9th May. This reporter toured the new ship on this day and then proceeded to South Ferry to watch her sail through Upper New York Bay from the deck of the Staten Island Ferry John F. Kennedy. The next day, I made final payment for the 19th June eastbound crossing to Southampton.

In Southampton on 14th April this year and again on 20th April in New York, the details of the 19 million pound refit were revealed. This figure is some what higher than previously reported but it gives a clear signal that the Carnival Corporation, Cunard's new owners, are intending to make a major investment in the ship. During these first 30 years, the QE2 has sailed 4,648,050 nautical miles, more than the combined total distances travelled by both the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. The 14th April crossing was the QE2's 1,160 voyage, and she has carried more than two million passengers, the exact figure not revealed.

The refit will be carried out between 12th November and 11th December at a yard not yet specified. Besides the renewal of all the soft furnishings, upholstery, curtains, bedspreads, and carpets, virtually throughout the ship, and the re-panelling of the passenger corridors on Decks Four and Five, the major features involve several of the public spaces.

The Caronia Restaurants, originally the ship's first-class dining room, will finally get the full treatment planned several years ago. This fine space will be redesigned to look like an English-style hotel with mahogany (wood veneer) panelling, chandeliers and table lamps. The decision had not be made when I was aboard whether the double staircase would be redesigned as a grande descente.

The Queens Room, the original first-class ballroom, serves this function once again though in a classless role. The space will receive all new furniture, and a royal blue carpet with Tudor roses woven in gold. The walls and the white plastic arches that form semi-dividers along the indoor promenade will be covered in a medium tone wood veneer. However, the original white tapered columns and the recessed lighting in the ceiling, a distinctive 1960s modern design, will remain. The bust of HM The Queen will be moved from its niche to a more prominent position on the lower dance level.

A new 777 square-foot suite will be built on Two Deck to be named Aquitania Suite, and the present Midships Suite on Two Deck will be enlarged to 770 square feet and renamed Carinthia suite. The Radio Room will completely disappear and its functions transferred to a new communications centre and to individual department terminals including the navigation bridge. This space will become the 575 square foot Caledonia Suite.

The remaining 108 bathrooms, from a renewal project started in 1994, will be finished. And perhaps the most gratifying news of all, the ship will receive a completely new set of teak wood deck chairs.

Captain Roland Hasell will officially retire from the company in June, and he will return as 'guest captain' aboard the Caronia when she reappears from her refit in December. This 1973-built ship will be British registered and will have undergone a $5 million makeover to refit give her interiors a British look with some public room name changes. Captain Ronald W. Warwick, who has been the ship's relief master since July 1990, will become master. His father, Commodore E (Bil) Warwick was the QE2 first master until his retirement in 1972 and died earlier this year. Father and son overlapped in Cunard service for two years 1970-1972.

According to Captain Ronald Warwick, who spoke to our group in New York, he is optimistic about the company's future for the first time in about two decades. The Carnival Corporation is almost entirely in the shipping business and the degree of investment in the Cunard fleet is beginning to show.

When the new liner comes into service (to be ordered sometime this summer), she will be designed primarily for North Atlantic service, and although the exact specifications are not yet known, she will be too long and too wide to pass through the Panama Canal. Her length may be up to 1,150 feet, or 115 longer than the Norway, and her tonnage perhaps up to 110,000 gross with a draft of 35 feet. In the summer the QE2 would be her running mate on the North Atlantic, and in the off-season the QE2 will cruise worldwide. Happy news indeed.

Grateful thanks to Captain Ronald Warwick and to Michael Gallagher, Corporate Communications Executive, Cunard London for their help with this feature.