The Voyage of a Lifetime: Part One

As I mentioned in another Vervoid article from a couple of years ago, my one lifelong ambition since I was a kid has been to travel from Southampton to New York on the QE2 and fly back to the UK by Concorde. Unfortunately it’s not possible for me to do this now, no matter how ambitious I may decide to be (or rich I would have to become), because the Concorde fleet was retired in October 2003 and the QE2 no longer makes regular scheduled Transatlantic crossings. However, I could still achieve my ambition to a point, albeit slightly compromised, but I never thought it would actually happen – until now, that is.

The aforementioned previous article goes into some detail about Cunard’s then brand-new flagship Queen Mary 2 (a.k.a. QM2) so I won’t bore you again with it as I’m sure I did that admirably before, but it is a fact that this great ship still makes regular scheduled Transatlantic crossings between Southampton and New York during the summer months, and goes cruising in warmer climates during the winter. Cruising itself is very popular in the 21^st century, but in these days of relatively rapid long-haul flights you’d think that nobody would want to spend a week at sea on the isolated North Atlantic and pay handsomely for the privilege when they could make the journey in a matter of hours on an aeroplane and save themselves a packet (unless you happen to be flying First or Business Class, of course). But the fact is people do still want to make the journey by ship, and apart from a small minority of passengers who just don’t like flying but happen to be wealthy enough to use this alternative way of travelling to the USA, the very reason they do is the same reason that I want to – nostalgia. The whole ethos of Cunard is one of romance and rose-tinted nostalgia; where other cruise lines operate their ugly white-painted floating tower blocks with garish ritzy-glitzy shopping centre interiors, the Cunard fleet manages to combine the graceful lines and tasteful décor of the golden age of the Ocean Liner with the speed, facilities and technology required for the 21^st century. Only the QM2 makes regular transatlantic crossings from Southampton to New York (the QE2 now cruising full time having been retired from this route when the QM2 was launched and thus took over as Cunard’s flagship), but such is the success and profitability of the company that yet another new ship is being built for launch next year, albeit of the cruise-only variety. The point is that Cunard couldn’t possibly afford to add to their fleet unless the Transatlantic route was still a success (particularly as these new ships cost hundred’s of millions of pounds to build), so it proves that there is still a demand for a more civilised way of getting from A to B (or in this case, S to NY and vice-versa).

I’m all for the convenience and speed of international air travel, but if you wanted to go to New York and weren’t in a particular hurry, what would you rather do; spend 6 days relaxing at sea and then make your way effortlessly up the Hudson River on a ship whilst being able to take in every detail of the iconic views from an open deck, or spend 9 hours in a cramped aeroplane seat and ultimately crane your neck trying to get a brief glimpse of the city from a tiny window as you then pass it quickly by, and then have the chaos of the airport to look forward to? Having been interested in Ocean Liners since I was a kid, I’ve seen countless photographs of these great ships steaming down the Hudson past the Statue of Liberty with the Manhattan skyline as their backdrop, and it’s this image which captured my imagination and made me want to experience it for real. The location of the historic cruise ship terminal in New York is right in the heart of Manhattan, and as such the ships literally sit right next to the skyscrapers (in fact they point straight at them as the piers are at right angles to the waterfront rather than side-on), and it’s this iconic image which is the culmination and high-point of the whole experience for me (it would be like arriving in London on a ship which has travelled all the way up the river from the Thames Estuary and then docking right next to the Houses of Parliament!).

Unfortunately, the historic terminal at New York has recently closed its doors to the Cunard Line pending some major refurbishment (the colossal size of QM2 means that her stern sticks out into the Hudson 100 feet further than the end of the pier), and their berth is now in Brooklyn, much nearer the mouth of the Hudson River and thus farther away from Manhattan. It may sound rather irrational and childish of me, but this has actually upset me somewhat as it has ruined my ‘perfect’ arrival in New York, but I suppose I should just be grateful that I’m able to make the trip at all! In any case, the irony is that the destination itself has never been the primary appeal of my ambition; it’s the means of getting there and the thought of the arrival which have always excited me. Having said that, as the years have gone by I’ve become far more excited about the thought of staying in ‘the city that never sleeps’ for a few days. The whole buzz of the place seems so enticing, and as a lover of great food I can only wonder what eating out must be like (other than probably being fairly expensive, naturally) in this amazing city which is said to boast the largest and greatest collection of international restaurants on the planet. There are also the famous shops, the art galleries, the sky-scrapers, not to mention a stroll through Central Park in the leafy sunshine. It all sounds very corny and touristy of me, I know, but there must be some reason why New York is so popular!

It’s difficult to impart exactly what it is that makes this voyage so exciting for me. Aside from the arrival in New York which I’ve already described, it’s the fact that other than the port of disembarkation, the ship itself is the destination. In order to re-invigorate their Transatlantic business after the Second World War, Cunard adopted the slogan "Getting there is half the fun". The Transatlantic situation at the time was vastly different from how it is today, of course, as there wasn’t really any readily accessible way to travel between the UK and North America other than by ship, so Cunard’s slogan was more to tempt people away from rival shipping lines than from air travel. The first scheduled Transatlantic flights didn’t commence until 1945, and even then they were few and far between, made at least one stop to re-fuel and were also prohibitively expensive. It wasn’t until the mid-fifties that non-stop Transatlantic flights started to become more of an affordable way to cross the Atlantic and thus began to affect the number of passengers travelling by sea, and by the mid- 1960’s they had all but eclipsed the Ocean Liner. Of course today there is only one shipping line and indeed only one ship – the QM2 – which still operates regular scheduled crossings on the North Atlantic route. Ironically, Cunard’s post war slogan is even more relevant in today’s market, as the experience of a Transatlantic voyage by sea is all about enjoying the journey rather than being simply a means of getting from A to B; there’s no other reason you’d choose to travel on the QM2 as opposed to by aeroplane unless you hate flying. That just about sums up my reasons for wanting to make the voyage; as much as I’m looking forward to staying in New York for a few days, the reason I’m going is to travel on the ship which happens to go to New York rather than wanting to go to the city for a holiday and just choosing a different way to get there.