How did they build this behemoth to begin with? The ship is so immense and filled with apparently comfy passenger rooms, I cannot imagine how they could even dream of this. It is gigantic to the point of intimidation. How much engineering went into this ship? Or is the size merely a small detail of more money and not much more engineering difficulty? I can’t imagine shipyards this big.
Secondly, has anyone actually gone on the Southhampton/New York route on the Queen Mary 2? Is it pure luxury or not worth the trouble?
FWIW, Queen Mary (the one in Long Beach) is almost 140 feet longer than Titanic was. QM2 is about 40 feet longer than an aircraft carrier – but still 100 to 300 feet shorter than a supertanker.
If you are serious about the QM2, you can go to cruisecritics.com, pick the section for Cunard lines, and read what people are saying about the various ships - and ask them any questions you might have. You can also go to Cunard’s website and check out the vessels there as well.
As to if it is worth it, only you can say if you think $1500 per person for 7 days of luxury are worth it. [that is the basic cost for the cheapest stateroom one way between New York and Southampton. You would still have to pay the trip back…]
The only way to really compare ship sizes is to use displacements (the conventional means of measuring naval vessels). From this cite, the Titianic displaced approximately 52,000 tons, the Queen Mary 2 displaces approximately 76,000 tons, and the new Oasis of the Seas, the the first of the Oasis-class cruise ships, displaces about 100,000 tons.
The Oasis-class ships are comparable in displacement to a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.
So, the largest cruise ships are (in terms of actual weight) about as big as the largest aircraft carriers, but both are much smaller than the largest oil tankers–if Wikipedia is to be believed, the biggest tankers weigh in at about 5 times the weight of a big aircraft carrier, when they have a full cargo of crude oil aboard.
No, only if you are interested in mass. If you are interested in size then GRT is the correct measure, and the OP is clearly interested primarily in size.
I would say the important thing is to make sure you’re comparing apples to apples. “Gross register tonnage” does not seem to be a number generally used (or even easy to find) for something like an aircraft carrier, which leads people comparing the G.R.T. of an cruise ship to the displacement of an aircraft carrier, and concluding that the cruise ship is over twice as “big” as the carrier. That’s like trying to compare Adam and Bob by saying that Adam is 6’ 4’’ tall and Bob weighs 200 pounds–so who is bigger, Adam or Bob?
From wikipedia: The area, one of seven “neighborhoods” onboard the ship, also features the Rising Tide Bar, which will move up and down through 3 decks.
I want to drink in that bar!
“Sorry sir, there’s no bathrooms on this deck. You’ll have to wait until the next deck to relieve yourself!”
I shouldn’t have conflated “size” and “displacement.” Displacement is a measure of the mass/weight of water displaced by a floating ship and is equivalent to the mass/weight of the ship. The size of the ship is best measured by the length, beam, draft, and height above water. I think that the whole “gross registered tonnage” (an outmoded, archaic measure of the internal volume of a ship) and the newer, even more convoluted “gross tonnage” (a unitless index related to a ship’s overall internal volume), along with “net tonnage,” "net register tonnage, and just plain “tonnage,” are all overly confusing units of measure that vary markedly between types of ships (e.g. cruise ships, cargo ships, and naval vessels). For example, “non-productive” spaces may or may not be measured, what constitutes a “non-productive space,” and the way they are measured varies between the various types of ships. You also have to take into account what space is “fully enclosed by the moulded volume of the ship.”
I should have said that the only way to meaningfully compare sizes of ships is to use the actual physical measurements (length, beam, etc.), and the only way to meaningfully compare masses or weights of ships is to use displacement.
No, it doesn’t–not even close. Oasis of the Seas is not twice as massive as a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. They’re actually about the same displacement (approximately 100,000 tons).
I haven’t been on the Queen Mary 2, but I have done the Atlantic crossing on the QE2 (considerably more than $1500 though!) twice in different eras and strongly recommend it.
It was more luxurious the second time around, but also far more… American… I’m not sure how to say this politely, especially on a US centric board, but that isn’t a good thing. A bit crass. At the time the QE2 was the largest consumer of caviar in the world, for example. Had an onboard Harrods. The chocolate was hershey’s and the food was unlimited.
Rather like a ritz-carlton hotel the 2nd time around versus the savoy the first time around.
But still worth doing, certainly. I’m sure the QM2 will be similar.
That might make for a good IMHO thread: ‘How does American ideas of luxury compare to European ones?’
Personally I’d rather stay in a hostel than a luxury resort. I want a bed, a toilet, and a shower. If it’s a private toilet and shower, so much the better. I’d rather interact with people than to lie about being pampered. I’d be interested in reading about expectations and practices of ‘luxury’, should you decide to spin off a thread.
The Queen Mary 2 was built by the company Chantiers de l’Atlantique in France. That company has since become part of the STX Shipbuilding group, which also now owns the Aker Finnyards in Turku, Finland, where the Oasis of the Seas (and most of the newer Royal Caribbean ships) were built.
My understanding is that a large drydock is built/set up for each new ship, and the ship is built in place. Many of the parts of the ships - especially the rooms- are modular, and can be built elsewhere and then placed on the boat like a Lego block. Once the ship is mostly built, the dry dock is flooded and the ship gets to float and eventually go on testing/qualification trips.
There was a Discovery channell documentary about the building of the Freedom, I think, and also one about the upgrades made to one of their older ships - perhaps the Sovereign? They are quite interesting documentaries.
