Royal Welcome For Queen Mary II
The Queen Mary 2, the world's largest and most expensive passenger ship, completed its maiden trans-Atlantic voyage Monday, arriving at this Florida port.
Led by a tugboat that shot red and blue water into the air, the Cunard Line Ltd.'s ship pulled into Port Everglades, next to Fort Lauderdale, shortly after 7 a.m., two weeks after it left the English port of Southampton. About 2,600 passengers paid anywhere from about $2,800 to $37,499 for the first trip.
A Navy destroyer and Coast Guard ships accompanied the liner into port, reports CBS News Correspondent Peter King — a royal escort. Hundreds of people lined the shores and nearby high-rises to get a look at the $800 million ocean liner, South Florida's top tourist attraction Monday. More than a dozen law enforcement and television helicopters hovered overhead and a small plane pulling a banner reading "Fort Lauderdale welcomes QM2" circled above.
"It is huge, and you just can't appreciate the size of this behemoth until you see it coming up on you," said King. "We saw it coming over the horizon, first as a dot, then slowly growing bigger and bigger, and then all of a sudden, it's there."
The ship sets a number of records for passenger vessels — largest, longest, tallest, widest and most expensive. It's 1,132 feet long — more than twice as long as the Washington Monument is tall — and 236 feet high, about the height of a 23-story building. It weighs about 151,400 long tons — the rough equivalent of 390 fully loaded 747 jets.
The ship has six restaurants, 14 bars and clubs, a library, theater, pools, a disco and casino. Elevators — 22 of them — ferry passengers from floor to floor. The 1,310 cabins include duplexes with private gymnasiums and penthouses with butler service. If the bright stars of the clear night ocean sky aren't enough, there's also a planetarium.
"Can't wait to take a trip on it," said David Barton, 68, an industrial real estate developer who watched the arrival. "It's so impressive."
He and his wife, Margaret, both natives of Britain, got married on the original Queen Mary 40 years ago. While most of the public was kept out of the port for security reasons, they were invited to watch by Cunard.
The ship project was announced in 1998 when Miami-based Carnival Corp. bought Cunard. It was built in the French port of St. Nazaire, where a gangway accident killed 15 people visiting the ship last year.
The ocean liner joins an illustrious list of massive passenger ships.
The Queen Elizabeth 2 — whose trans-Atlantic route will be taken over by the new ship in April — was built in 1967. The original Queen Mary was launched in 1934 and is now a tourist attraction and hotel in Long Beach, Calif.
Royal Caribbean, also based in Miami, recently ordered a new class of ship for delivery in 2006 that would end the Queen Mary 2's reign as the largest.