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Crossing in style: the Queen Mary 2

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BY JANET K. KEELER

St. Petersburg Times

Playwright John Guare settles in on the stage of Illuminations, Deck 3, forward, preparing to deliver a lecture titled ``How to Read a Play.'' He wears a bow tie and small round glasses. A simple podium separates him from a rapt audience; a glass of water jiggles on a bar stool. He has a pile of notes and a voice that belongs on Broadway, even though he makes his living writing dialogue for others.

He steadies himself a few times as the stage slightly tips side to side, a reminder that we are at sea. We haven't seen land in a day and won't for another five as the Queen Mary 2 sails toward Southampton, England. Guare, author of Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves, talks and answers questions for about an hour. As his talk concludes, Guare, perhaps unknowingly, becomes part of the literary tradition on the majestic ocean liners that have sailed under the Cunard name.

Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Henry James and Nathaniel Hawthorne before him made the trans-Atlantic crossing from New York to England, or vice versa, to lecture, sign books and relax. In subsequent days, I see Guare around the ship walking arm in arm with his wife, fixing a cup of tea in the King's Court buffet. He passes on the sea of desserts; I do not.

Elegance is relative from decade to decade, but this queen would blow away the great writers of the past with its luxurious trappings, not the least of which is the curved, elegant staircase in the grand lobby. Queen Mary 2 continues the legacy of its predecessors, the Queen Elizabeth 2 (now slated to become a floating hotel in Dubai), and the Britannia and the Mauretania.

From bow to stern, the massive Queen Mary 2, for a time the largest passenger ship afloat, is more like a five-star resort than a party boat at sea. Sure, you cradle a citrus bellini as a Caribbean band curiously bangs the steel drums at the New York sail away, even though a gin and tonic and Frank Sinatra would be so much more appropriate.

Or perhaps a spot of tea and a string quartet. The Queen Mary 2 is nothing if not very British, even though it is American owned and French built.

This ship follows a different course

There are two things you need to get straight about sailing from New York to England on the Queen Mary 2, and if you don't know them before you embark, someone is likely to point them out on board. The voyage is not a cruise; it's a crossing. Queen Mary 2 is not a cruise ship; it's an ocean liner. The difference is more than semantics and maritime technicalities, though difficult to classify. Six days at sea, with no ports of call or shore excursions to break up the journey, leave plenty of time to explore the ship, think about those who have crossed before and contemplate your place in the universe.

You can do this from a wooden steamer lounge deckside or on your ninth lap around the walking track (three laps equal a mile). I prefer the balcony of my stateroom or the hydra pool in the spa. Did I mention the fluffy robe? The art deco decor does much to emphasize Cunard's storied past, with history lessons in the form of newspaper clippings, old photos and text made into wall panels in many passages.

The ship itself, launched in 2004 and carrying a maximum 2,620 passengers, is black and white with the trademark red funnel. Unlike many passenger ships these days, Queen Mary 2 still looks like a ship with a deep bow that helps stabilize it in rough seas. Many of the new behemoths look like top-heavy boxes.

The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald

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