On 17th January 2004, the Queen Mary 2 docked in Las Palmas to a tumultuous welcoming crowd. From early morning until she sailed in the evening, the crowds never dispersed. People were singing, cheering and waving all day long and we had never experienced anything like it.

As you can see, there was an area fenced off with barriers, to allow the QM2's passengers to disembark and re-embark the vessel. We had to show our boarding passes to the security guards to be allowed through the barrier. When we did so, we were treated like celebrities!

This photo shows a magnificent work of pavement art proclaiming 'Bienvenido' to QM2.

The people had been given the day off work, especially to be allowed to come to see her on her inaugural visit. At the end of the day, as she set sail, the most amazing firework display lit up the January night. It was certainly an unforgettable day.

On arrival in Bridgetown, Barbados on 22nd January 2004, the QM2 was greeted by the ubiquitous crowds. The Royal Barbados Police Band turned out in honour of this great ship, playing a selection of nautical and patriotic tunes.

Incidentally, we had seen and heard the R.B.P.B. on a visit to Barbados only five months before; we were flying home on the very last scheduled Concorde flight out of Bridgetown and the Police Band gave us a trumpeted guard of honour.

The interior of the QM2 is absolutely opulent, and transports you to a bygone era of luxury.  Here is the two-tier Britannia restaurant.  As there are so many passengers dinner is served over two sittings; one at 18:30 and one at 20:30 hours.

You're not limited to eating in the Britannia at a set time, however; there is a self-service buffet style restaurant and the famous Todd English restaurant, as well as several other eateries.  No-one need ever fear of starving on board an ocean liner!

This diagram shows the sheer size of the QM2 when compared with the Titanic (which was the largest ocean liner of her time), an Airbus 380, a bus, a car and a person.

Click on the picture to open an enlarged version in its own window.

Again, this photo, taken in Barbados, illustrates the size of the 'queen of the seas' compared with other cruise ships (except that the QM2 is not a cruise ship, she is an ocean liner - there is a difference!)
The vessel on the far left is a pretty big Carnival ship, probably around the 85,000 ton mark, but it is dwarfed by the 151,000 ton bulk of the biggest passenger liner ever built.