The Captain's Cabin (and invites to it)

[Rod]

His real cabin, as photographed above, was on the deck immediately under the Bridge.
Outside the cabin's door was a staircase which led to the Bridge.
When I first sailed on the ship the Bridge door (top of that staircase) was always unlocked, if I recall correctly.
Later by early 2000s it was locked and had a numeric pad to open it.  Security considerations had arrived.  Even the Radio room became off limits to passengers
Incidentally, the captain had another cabin (small bedroom) on the starboard side of the bridge,
Oh, and the Captain's steward was called the Tiger Steward.

Small correction Captains Tiger.
Cabin off the bridge was called the Captains sea cabin. Most of the time I was on there it was used as a storage room.
Don't forget that when I was on their until Dec 88, ALL Deck officers had to have their Masters liscense, so they were entitled to be Captains in their own right.

[Rod]

Regarding Wardroom coctail parties:
I was Wardroom President on 2 occasions.
At the start of the voyage the president would be given a pax list including VIP list. VIP list would include both long time pax, disgruntled pax and celebs.
It was up to the W/R Pres to pick from the lis....but also from invites from individual Officers. The celebs etc were invited to make up the numbers. When I was Pres. The magic number was 80. So if the Officers asked for invites for 40 guests 40 would come from the VIP list. I also used to pick a few names at random. Just to give the no names a little thankyou. I also used to listen to some cabin stewards...They might stop me and say...well this little old lady is just getting over the loss of her husband of 50 years...her kids sent her on a cruise with no friends etc etc...."Come on UP!"
When I greeted them at the W/R door and they said something like " I dont know why I was invited" I would say " Because the Officers wanted you here!"

[Twynkle]

QE2's 8 - 13 May 1994 Southampton to New York crossing was designated as her official Silver Anniversary Crossing to mark the 25th Anniversary of her first crossing to New York (2 - 7 May 1969).

The Central Office of Information sent a photographer (Alan Chandler) on that voyage and below are some portraits he captured - of Commodore Bil Warwick who was sailing with his son Ron. And of Commodore Burton-Hall who was in command that trip.

Hello Michael,

These are Fantastic photos -Thank you so much.

The Captain's Office is stunning - both in design, as well as furnishings.
Please - did it remain exactly how it is here until 2008?
Hoping so - very, very much.
This must have been one of the Best cabin/ rooms at sea - Ever!
The wood - is it genuine paneling varnished, or were the 'wall's given the same treatment as those for example in C stairway on QM2?
The lighting too - that is superb.
Plaques, pictures and The Bell, and the lovely chairs and table,  - are these all catalogued and safe?
It looks as if there may be a ceremonial sword above the bookshelf.

I wonder who designed it - and if it was always the same?
Keeping fingers tightly crossed that none of it has been destroyed.
(PS - No Desktop or anything remotely like it.
PPS - It would be intriguing to know if that was an antique tantalus - can you see it?!

Rosie.

[Michael Gallagher]

For Rosie:

QE2's overall design co-ordinator, Dennis Lennon, designed the Captains Cabin free of charge as a gift to Cunard. As you can see the cabin originally had a totally different layout with the bedroom off the Dayroom and the Chief Engineer alongside the Dayroom to give him a view out front! That was changed in 1966 to a more compact design and gave only the Captain a forward view.

Here are the respective layouts together with Dennis Lennon's concept and how the cabin looked in 2008.

[Olivia]

That’s a lovely red dress the captain has 

[Thomas Hypher]

From what I could deduce in Dubai, from what I've heard and also seen looking in to the corridor just behind the cabin from the bit beneath the bridge, the captain's cabin is being turned into at least two suites which I think will be somewhere around the penthouse but not grand suite level (top still) in the hotel system's room grade hierarchy. Workers were busy on the area the times I was up there but seemed to be nearing completion.

[Michael Gallagher]

Apologies - I thought I'd attached the original layout of the Captains Cabin to my post. I have below (top pic) and reattached the final layout of the room (bottom pic) for easy reference.