:smack: Good to know! It always did seem odd to me. I was joking about Mary 2, though–it’s the same as QE2, of course–otherwise they’d be using the proper II instead of “2.”
How many “Staterooms” does the QE2 have? How many decks above the gunwales?
The modern cruise ship is a hi-rise hotel.
Compare pics of QE2 to QM2 to any of the Carnival Cruise ships.
But all that just goes to the size of the ship, not its function. The distinction between an ocean liner and a cruise ship has nothing to do with passenger capacity, the number of staterooms or the number of decks. A liner is built to make long ocean voyages while keeping to schedule; it tends to be designed for greater tolerance of heavy seas, have a stronger hull, and have larger capacities for consumables such as food and fuel than a cruise ship, which is expected to spend more time in coastal waters and to visit ports more frequently. Liners tend to be capable of greater speed.
(Temporarily removing the brown paper bag from his head)
Thanks. :o
(Putting the brown paper bag back on)
A high-rise hotel that makes regular trips between ports would be an ocean liner, no?
QM2 next to the Allure of the Seas. They actually look quite different.
OK, the Carnival Triumph looks more similar to the QM2, but there are notable differences, e.g. the height of the lowest open decks and the height of the lifeboats.
And the gunwales are flush with the cabin structure on the Triumph, whereas the QM2 has the more traditional recessed upper decks.
And the first Queen Elizabeth was named for the Queen Mother, not for the Virgin Queen.
Apparently, we have different definition of “oceanliner”.
In my mind, the term refers to the old Cunard vs White Star steamships. The long, low lines of the great ships.
When you start adding more and more decks, it looks like a cheap, gaudy “Everyone is First Class with* Us*!”.
The old steamships had a few, obscenely expensive “First Class”, a few “Second Class” and the money-making Steerage class.
The class distinction was quite real.
Kinda like a real castle vs a Disney Land “castle”. There is some vague similarity. The former is much more expensive and exclusive; the latter is cheap and is specifically designed to move the maximum possible number of people through it.
It may well be possible to differentiate between the “Castle” at one Disney park vs the “Castle” at another Disney park.
Just don’t mistake either for a real castle.
definition of cruiseship vs ocean liner has nothing to do with appearance. It has to do with hull design and max speed. Carnival ships could not do regular transatlantic crossings, they’re too slow and can’t handle the rough seas.
QM2 is the last ocean liner (until they build a new one), it looks like a cruise ship but underneath its a different beast.
And (at a guess) that would have been trans-atlantic. I haven’t seen the log-book for that voyage, but most of the Aus. migrant ships went (for whatever reason) England / USA /Panama / Aus, or, if the Panama canal was closed, England / USA / Cape Horn /.Aus
It’s perfectly possible to have a cheap, gaudy ocean liner. Why not?
FWIW, the passenger capacity of the Titanic was distributed 34$ first class, 25% second class and 41% third class.
The QM2 is much more democratic; 85% of the passengers travel “Britannia class”, and just 15% in the (superior) “grill class”. Plus, the distinctions between the two classes are comparatively few. The grill class passengers get more spacious accommodation, plus a couple of restaurants that only they can use. Otherwise all facilities are shared, which certainly wasn’t the case on ocean liners a hundred years ago.
But what this reflects is changes in the market. There was a heavy demand for basic accommodation on ocean liners in the past, because ocean liners were the cheapest (and, really, the only) way to engage in intercontinental travel. Not now, obviously. Nobody sails from Southampton to New York in order to make the journey cheaply; they do it to experience the voyage, or because they find flying distasteful or have a medical condition which prevents it. The Britannia class passengers on the QM2 have vastly better accommodation, facilities and conditions than third-class passengers on a liner a hundred years ago. But that’s just the ocean lines responding to the market. The business they are in - port-to-port carriage of passengers, keeping to a schedule - is the same as it always was. (At least, when they are sailing the North Atlantic route.) And the vessels are designed and built for that. Which is what makes the ocean liners, not cruise ships.
Yeah maybe but don’t take any bets. Clive Palmer, the “eccentric billionaire” behind the project is showing a lot of signs of being in severe financial difficulties. Grandiose plans that don’t materialise are one of his “eccentricities”.
Clive Palmer is a great guy, clean as a whistle.
When I was eight years old, in 1979, my family and I took the TSS Stefan Batory from Montreal to Amsterdam, where my father had found work.
We didn’t take that ship for novelty value, we took it based on costs, as we had our entire household bound up in trunk after trunk and we had no plans to return.
So, we know people were taking scheduled passenger service across the Atlantic with transport as the sole intent until at least 1979…
Wow, it looks like the Stefan Batory was sailing between Gdynia and Montreal (with stops) until late 1987 or early 1988.
Wow. yep you’re right.
Also, I know its not what OP was asking about, but Indonesia still has an extensive network of large passenger ships on regular scheduled routes, and some of their ships are big enough to be considered ocean liners.
http://maritimematters.com/2011/03/travels-on-pelni-pt-pelayaran-nasional-indonesia-by-jonathan-boonzaier/
I dislike flying intensely. What would a round trip ticket on the QM cost?
Since we’ve established that there is still passenger service from the US to Europe, what about other voyages? For example, can you take a passenger ship from the US to Australia? Australia to Chile? Brazil to South Africa? Mexico to China?
One advantage to using a ocean liner over an airplane is cargo. If you’re moving instead of visiting you can take far more with you.
My understanding is that the titanic 2 will be going between China and Dubai. Not sure if it’ll have other ports of call.