Port Phillip Bay yesterday, Anchorage Jackson today … the QE2 sails from Melbourne to accompany its sister address in Sydney Harbour.Photo: Paul Rovere
A boss aristocratic company sails into Sydney Harbour today, to be abutting afterwards by its little sister for a abrupt but admirable bifold feature, writes Steve Meacham.
When Maggy Oehlbeck took her boating aboard the Queen Mary 2 - again the world's better commuter address - she was afraid by what angry out to be the best accepted atom aboard.
Not one of the bristles pond pools or the 10 restaurants. Not the Authority Casino or the costly Aristocratic Court Theatre, aces of the West End. Not the comfortable Canyon Ranch SpaClub or artist shops affairs Hermes and Chopard. Not alike the world's alone amphibian planetarium or the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar.
Instead cartage fabricated a birr for the amid examination lounge abutting to the waterline. "I was afraid how abounding bodies would sit there for hours and hours," says Oehlbeck, one of Australia's best accomplished cruise journalists. "They gazed into this churning ocean, this consistently evolving aquarium. They aloof admired the absolute acquaintance of actuality at sea."
Oehlbeck was travelling on the archetypal avenue the "QM2" was absolutely advised for. Southampton to New York - the beyond bridge pioneered by 19th-century visionaries such as Samuel Cunard, who fabricated his affluence architecture a band of steamships that could backpack cartage and mail amid Britain and the Americas.
For abundant of the 20th century, bridge the Atlantic by affluence liner was the apotheosis of abundance and glamour, the bottle of cine stars, ability and the actively well-to-do. Again Concorde and the colossal jet took over - the canicule of the ocean liner seemed numbered.
Enter the billionaire Micky Arison, a academy drop-out who is now one of America's richest men - the acknowledged Mr Big of the growing apple cruise industry. Arison affiliated Carnival Corporation, which was founded by his father, Ted, in the 1970s. But he has apparent a ability for accretion his empire, burning up competitors such as P&O and Princess Cruises in the difficult years back September 11, 2001.
It was Arison's abstraction to body the QM2. Back Carnival bought Cunard from Norway's Kvaerner Group in 1998, Arison appear his ambition to agency the aboriginal beyond liner back its sister ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, was launched in 1967. Abounding questioned his argumentation - abnormally back it became bright aloof how big the new address would be. At 151,400 gross tonnes, it would calmly be the better commuter address anytime congenital (though that appellation was taken in May aftermost year by the 160,000-gross-tonne Freedom of the Seas, endemic by Arison's rival, Aristocratic Caribbean International).
Sure, the QE2 had a alcove market, spending allotment of anniversary year accustomed traditionalists beyond the Atlantic, but at 70,327 gross tonnes, it is abundant smaller. Could the QM2 absolutely abduction a new 21st-century admirers for a approach of biking best anticipation had abolished forever?
When asked why he was able to action $1 billion on his new flagship, Arison, the administrator and arch controlling of Carnival Corporation, put it succinctly: "Our ambition is to actualize a new aureate age of sea biking for those who absent the first."
Sydneysiders will get the adventitious to see Arison's avant-garde curiosity for the aboriginal time back it was launched by the Queen in January 2004, anon afterwards 15 bodies died back a arch burst during a appointment by the families of French architecture workers.
The QM2 is appointed to captain into Anchorage Jackson at aurora today - the center point in its countdown apple cruise. Too alpine - at 23 storeys - to fit beneath the Harbour Bridge and too continued to tie up at the Overseas Commuter Terminal at Circular Quay, it will anchorage at the argosy abject at Garden Island. In accomplishing so, it will become the better amphibian article of any affectionate to access the harbour, eclipsing the almanac currently captivated by the 118,000-gross-tonne aggregate carrier Iron Pacific.
The ship's accession will be one of the best momentous contest apparent on Sydney Harbour. Best harbour cruise argosy accept been appointed out for weeks, decidedly for the amazing black fireworks affectation back Cunard's newest superstar will be abutting briefly by its "little sister", the QE2 - their aboriginal affair back abrogation Fort Lauderdale calm on January 10 for their round-the-world voyages.
Sydney, the alone Australian anchorage on QM2's itinerary, will annual economically from the abnormal ancestors reunion. The business administrator of Carnival Australia, Mark Barnes, says the appointment of the two queens will accomplish about $4 actor for the NSW abridgement already anchorage fees, fuel, food and bank excursions are taken into account. Amid them, the two ships will accompany about 6800 cartage and aggregation to the burghal in a distinct day - the agnate of 20 abounding colossal jets.
The alliance will be brief. With a beginning captain - Bernard Warner is to abate the New Zealand-born Christopher Rynd, who is affiliated to an Australian, Julie - the liner that is still the longest cruise address in the world, if no best the heaviest, will set captain for Hong Kong about 11pm. Its abate sister will break two nights at the Overseas Commuter Terminal afore abandonment for Brisbane and resuming its own 25th ambit of the world.
For Linda Halliday, the accepted administrator of International Cruise Council Australasia, the accession of QM2 in Australia is "an iconic event" that has aloft the contour not aloof of the address itself but of the cruise industry generally. Her organisation represents 21 cruise curve that action adventures from affectionate river cruises forth the Nile or the Rhine to the all-inclusive supercruisers that affair about the Caribbean.
Despite bad account belief such as the afterlife of Dianne Brimble aboard P&O's Pacific Sky in 2002, added Australians are booking cruises than anytime before, and at a greater amount than the blow of the world.
In the four years to 2005, the cardinal of Australians booking cruise holidays rose by 60 per cent, decidedly college than the 45 per cent all-around increase. The bounded bazaar is account added than $270 actor a year. Why such growth? "An acquaintance of canoeing actuality amount for money," Halliday says, "plus the befalling to see lots of places from the one allowance afterwards accepting to backpack and unpack."
At the aforementioned time Australian ports - decidedly Sydney - accept become alike added accepted cruise destinations. Aftermost year, 28 cruise ships visited 20 Australian ports, compared with 23 ships and 15 ports in 2005. Halliday says that's abundantly because Americans and Canadians - abounding cruisers - still apperceive Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands as safe destinations.
Ever bigger ships, such as the QM2, accept played their part, too. With avant-garde engineering acceptance added decks and added passengers, the amount per berth in absolute agreement has tumbled. Where will it end? Already Aristocratic Caribbean International has appear its $1.68 billion "Project Genesis", a 220,000-gross-tonne leviathan able of accustomed 6400 passengers.
Although it has already absent its affirmation as the world's better cruise ship, QM2 will consistently be special, says Oehlbeck - a 18-carat liner, not a bald amphibian resort.
"She is a boss ship, as anybody will anon see," Oehlbeck says. "She carries with her all those layers of attitude and ancestry which appear with actuality a Cunard liner."
Although QM2 was congenital in France and is endemic by an American corporation, its traditions are as British as the autocrat afterwards whom it is named: afternoon teas in the better amphitheater afloat, disregarded by a apprehension of Queen Mary; bedfellow advisers from Oxford University; best kennels for comfortable pets; a chic arrangement at dinner, with alone the highest-paying cartage accustomed into the celebrated Queen's Grill and best cartage bistro at the three-tiered Britannia Restaurant.
And, naturally, a academic dress cipher that seems absolutely Edwardian.
