Product details
In May 1998, the directors of Carnival Cruises, the world's leading cruise line, asked ship architect Stephen Payne to consider the design of a massive transatlantic liner with entirely new facilities to replace the famous Queen Elizabeth 2 within the fleet of its subsidiary Cunard. Stephen Payne, who had a passion for the grand liners of the 1930s, quickly defined the overall design of this extraordinary ship, simply the largest liner in the world at 345 meters long, 41 meters wide, and 72 meters high (equivalent to 23 decks). The architect draws on the best aspects of the past and translates them into the present: the wave breaker on the foredeck is a legacy of the very elegant wave breaker of the Normandie. The facade is heavily inspired by the staircase of the original Queen Mary. However, the "steps" have been replaced by a gentle slope. The Queen Mary was equipped with open bridge wings: they are now being reintroduced, but enclosed, to better withstand the harsh weather of the North Atlantic. The QM2 has taken its bridge and the line of its funnel from the Queen Elizabeth 2. However, the new Cunarder is truly a ship of the 21st century, combining the advantages of a cruise ship with those of a liner.