Queen Mary 2 Arrives in New York.
Yesterday morning the 21-story-high Queen Mary 2 completed its maiden voyage across the Atlantic and slipped through fog beneath the Verazzano Straits Bridge to enter New York Harbor. At 151,400 tons, the QM2 is twice the size of the original Queen Mary (retired in 1967 after a 30-year career and now a permanentaly docked hotel/tourist attraction in Pasedena). QM2 is three times the size of the legenday Titanic. Check out Cunard Line's sumptious web site about the Queen Mary 2. QM2 is the most expensive passenger ship every built and it is creating a worldwide stir (last night the Chinese-language television station in NYC was carrying shadowy images if QM2 entering New York).
Tomorrow night the QM2 is the site of a sold-out gala event supporting the Jay Monahan Cancer Center for Gastrointestinal Health at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Guests will arrive at 2:00 in the afternoon, explore the decks and then retire to their assigned staterooms to get rigged in black tie for dinner. After dinner and a star-studded enternainment presentation (“Hollywood Hits Broadway”) things devolve into the fanciest slumber party in town. On Sunday morning the overnight guests will be roused to make ready for QM2's return voyage to England. QM2 will rendezvouz in the Atlantic with its replacement, the Queen Elizabeth 2, and take over the Atlantic route. [cloudtravel]