My first time on QE2 was in September 1975, when I was a college student travelling to England for a junior year abroad. At the time, Cunard had a “youth fare” which was available to anyone from age 12 through 26. The fare for my voyage was $295, based on shared accommodation. The program not only made it easy for students to travel on QE2 but also meant there would be a number of other similar age passengers.
My cabin was 4256 and I had two roommates. One was beginning his first year of college and the other was a law student.
I liked everything about QE2. I bought on board a copy of John Maxtone-Graham’s “The North Atlantic Run” (published as The Only Way to Cross in the U.S.) It’s a great book in telling the story of the transatlantic liners and what life was like on board, and gave a good perspective for how QE2 was part of the larger story.
The QE2 crossing was the beginning of a great year’s travel experience for me. I spent a couple of weeks in London and a week in Cardiff prior to starting classes up at Lancaster, and did a trip to Greece and Italy for Christmas break and a trip to Austria, Germany and Paris for Spring break. I travelled home on QE2 to end the year.
I did a couple more QE2 crossings in the next several years, but then quite a few years went by before I got back on QE2. I picked up QE2 brochures each year but other things would seem to keep coming up. I did get on Canberra and the old Rotterdam during that time.
Anyway, I finally got back on QE2 in 2000. There were a lot changes, but I liked the ship as much as ever. I suspected her days might be numbered by this time, which gave an added incentive to travel on QE2 while I could. I did several more transatlantic crossings, and also got some special cruises in, the Trafalgar 200 voyage (which I combined with Mediterranean cruise) and the Farewell to the UK voyage.
While the cruises with special events were great, every time I was on QE2 was magical. It’s always been hard for me to explain why I like QE2 so much. The difficulty, I think comes from the fact that it’s the totality of the experience that I like—so many things about the ship itself, the interesting people, the dinners, afternoon tea, walking the decks, the many evening and late night activities—where does one begin?
I’ve read a number of good stories on this website already, and learned some interesting things, and have a lot more to read. So, thanks Rob for starting this.
--Ed
