QM2 Interesting Facts

The Queen Mary 2 is five times longer than Cunard's first ship, Britannia (230 ft.)

The Queen Mary 2 is the longest passenger vessel ever built (1,132 ft)

The Queen Mary 2 is the tallest passenger vessel ever built, rising 237 ft from the base of her keel to the top of her funnel.

The Queen Mary 2 is the widest passenger vessel in the world.

The Queen Mary 2 is the largest passenger vessel in the world.

The Queen Mary 2 is 22 feet longer than the original Queen Mary (1,109 ft)

The Queen Mary 2 is four football fields in length

The Queen Mary 2 is more than twice as long as the Washington Monument is tall (550 ft.)

The Queen Mary 2 is 147 feet longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall (984 ft.)

The Queen Mary 2 is more than 3 ½ times as long as Westminster Tower (Big Ben) is high (310 ft.)

The Queen Mary 2 is only 117 feet shorter than the Empire State Building is tall (1248 ft.)

The Queen Mary 2 is half as long again as the Canary Wharf Tower is high (800 ft)

The Queen Mary 2 is more than three times as long as St. Paul's Cathedral is tall (366 ft.)

The Queen Mary 2 is as long as 41 double-decker London buses (31 ½ ft. each)

The Queen Mary 2 is half as high as the London Eye, the tallest observation wheel in the world.

The Queen Mary 2 is the length of three blocks on Broadway in New York.

The Queen Mary 2 is equal to the height of a 23 storey building (She has 17 decks that tower 200 ft above the waterline).

The Queen Mary 2's whistle is audible for 10 miles

The Queen Mary 2 is the first new transatlantic ocean liner to be built since the QE2 in 1969

Four Eurostar trains that speed through the Channel Tunnel would fit into the Queen Mary 2’s funnel, 44 ft by 22 ft at its widest point.

The Queen Mary 2 is one of the largest man made objects ever built that moves under its own power. Her engines produce the thrust to launch a Boeing 747 or to maintain three cruising at 530 miles per hour.

The Queen Mary 2 is the first vessel fitted with four Mermaid propulsion pods.

It would take five double decker Airbus A380 aeroplanes to transport the 2,620 passengers which the Queen Mary 2 is capable of carrying across the Atlantic.

On board the Queen Mary 2 there are 1,550 miles (2,500 km) of electric cable, 310 miles of (500 km) of ducts, mains and pipes, 2000 bathrooms, 80,000 lighting points, 280,000 square yards (250,000 square metres) of fitted carpets, 144,000 square yards (120,000 square metres) of insulating material, 3,800 square yards (3,200 square metres) of galleys, more than 2,500 windows and portholes, 3000 telephones, 8,800 loudspeakers, 5000 stairs, 5000 fire detectors, 1,100 fire doors, 8,350 automatic extinguishers, 16 polyethylene mooring ropes of 220 metres in length and two 200 metre steel towlines.

Painters have covered an area of 370,000 square yards (550,000 square metres) on board the Queen Mary 2 using 250 tons of paint.

The Queen Mary 2 measures 237 ft (72 metres) from keel to funnel top. With her stern against the Empire State Building, the Queen Mary 2 would reach along Fifth Avenue to beyond 38th Street (over four city blocks).

The Queen Mary 2 covers an area of 3.5 acres.

The total plant on board the Queen Mary 2 is capable of producing nearly 118 MW of electricity which is about twice the power of a 100,000 ton conventional cruise ship. This is equal to the power of 1,600 cars.

Once round the Queen Mary 2's 360 degree Promenade Deck is 2034 ft (620 metres) which is well over a third of a mile.

The Queen Mary 2 would not fit in the Millennium Dome in London. Her funnel would extend above the top and her length is 82 ft longer than its diameter. (The Dome is 1050 ft wide and 164 ft high).

Her power plant produces sufficient electricity to light a city the size of Southampton. Her engines produce 157,000 horsepower - the equivalent of 1,570 family cars (of 100 hp each).

With the original Queen Mary, the Queen Mary 2 would fill an area the size of Trafalgar Square.

The Queen Mary 2 can accommodate a fleet of 600 London buses within her 3.5 acre footprint.

The Queen Mary 2's speed of 29.5 knots is double the speed of a Caribbean cruise ship and nearly three times the speed of a blue whale.

The Queen Mary 2 could carry 130 Britannia's (Cunard's first ship) within her immense structure.

The illuminated "Queen Mary 2" sign positioned near her funnel is 22 metres long and 2.4 metres high and is the largest ship's name sign in maritime history.

The Queen Mary 2 has the first planetarium at sea and the ocean’s first al fresco cinema.

79% of cabins on board the Queen Mary 2 feature private balconies.

There is over £3.5 million worth of artwork on board the Queen Mary 2.

The Queen Mary 2 has the first lifelong learning centre and cultural academy at sea operated by the world famous Oxford University.

The Queen Mary 2 has the first suites with private lift access.

The Queen Mary 2 has the first Canyon Ranch SpaClub at sea and the first Veuve Cliquot Champagne Bar at sea.

The Queen Mary 2 has the largest Library at sea with 8000 hardbacks, 500 paperbacks, 200 audio books and 100 CD-Roms.

The Queen Mary 2 has the largest Ballroom with the largest dancefloor at sea (measuring 7.5 metres by 13 metres).

The Queen Mary 2 has the first workshops and master classes at sea performed by RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts).

The QM2 has the longest jogging track at sea.

The QM2 has the largest and most extensive wine cellar at sea and the wine lists consists of 343 different labels of wine. Annual wine sales are estimated at 230,000 bottles.

The annual sugar consumption of the Queen Mary 2 would make 8 million scones.

Enough toilet tissue is used on board the Queen Mary 2 to wrap the earth almost five times.

The Queen Mary 2 uses almost 7000 boxes of strawberries each year.

The annual tea consumption of the Queen Mary 2 would fill an Olympic sized swimming pool. The Queen Mary 2 serves 1.5 million drinks a year, not including wine sales.

In 2006 the Queen Mary 2, during her "South America Odyssey" cruise, became the largest passenger ship ever to circumnavigate South America and visit the US West Coast and Hawaii.

On the 25th April 2004 the RMS Queen Mary 2 made maritime history when she sailed from New York in tandem with the legendary QE2 bound for Southampton on the first ever tandem eastbound transatlantic crossing.

For the construction of the Queen Mary 2 some 300,000 pieces of steel were cut and welded into blocks in specialised workshops. The Queen Mary 2's hull is made up of 94 steel blocks (made from 580 panels), some of which weigh more than 600 tons, involving some 1,500 km of welding. Her hull weighs 50,000 tons (more than a school of 330 blue whales) - not to be confused with her gross tonnage which is 150,000 grt.