If i remember rightly these were added in the 1999 Bremerhaven refit, when all 3 Cunard large ships were refitted concurrently. Well almost QE2 & RVS arrived together, RVS was finished and was leaving as Vistafjord arrived to be transformed into Caronia. I think QE2 was in for - possibly - over a month, whereas the others were only 2 or 3 weeks.
The story that all 3 Cunard ships were in Bremerhaven at the same time is true, but only just! In practice, Seabourn Sun (RVS) was leaving on the evening tide on the day that Vistafjord (Caronia) arrived, so all 3 Cunard ships were in Bremehaven at the same time, but only for a short period of something like 10/12 hours.
When Caronia's dry docking was finished she left QE2 behind in Bremerhaven and headed off to Liverpool for her naming ceremony. This was to be performed by Rt Hon John Prescott MP (Minister for something or other) who was a former Cunard Steward.
It was during the renaming ceremony that he made two 'wonderful' mistakes!
Firstly he referred to Mr Larry Pimentel, the CEO of Cunard at the time, as Mr Larry PIMPERNEL, this raised many sniggers and much amusement among the crew. Secondly, he referred to the new colour of the hull as 'Confederate Grey' instead of it's correct name 'Federal Grey'!
But overall a very interesting day and one to remember for all the right reasons.
After embarkation of our 'special' passengers followed by dinner and fireworks at around 2100, we left on the tide and began a swift, if somewhat sightly bouncy passage back to S'ton and our first cruise as 'CARONIA' .
