Cunard Signatures - The World Cruise

<> The World Cruise

The Cunard World Cruise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haJkb1aAj8E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJn8b11GDUY

Cunard Line has been undertaking World Cruises with its ships since 1922. In that year the Laconia departed on the first circumnavigation of the world by an ocean liner. Elegant manners, eloquent conversation, fancy dress balls and a joyful desire to discover came together perfectly to define a classic voyage. In port after port, her arrival was a cause for celebration. Today Cunard continues its World Cruise tradition. While the jet airliner can whisk you around the world at a moment's notice, Cunard's World Cruise guests bask in the immense pleasure of anticipation and the joy of simply getting there and discovering new shores.

Once circling the world seemed impossible, for centuries it remained the unfulfilled dream of visionaries and explorers. Today the World Cruise is the ultimate travel experience. Each day, new horizons materialise before you. Exotic locales – Australasia, The Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe - await your discovery. Diverse cultures ask to be encountered. The Cunard World Cruise truly is the voyage of a lifetime and is one of travel’s richest legacies.

The Cunard World Cruise has a long tradition dating back to the first World Cruise with Laconia in 1922/23. Cunard World Cruises have long provided inspiration for many of the 20th century's best known artists. During Franconia's 1935 World Cruise, Cole Porter composed "Begin the Beguine" in his suite onboard. Playwright Noel Coward was such a frequent guest that he came to personify Cunard and once sold songs expressly to fund a 1921 voyage aboard Aquitania. In the years after the Second World War the World Cruise tradition was continued by the RMS Caronia. The Caronia was built in 1949 and was Cunard's first purpose built cruise liner and her unique green livery led her to be nicknamed "The Green Goddess". She became renowned for her World Cruises. The Caronia made her first World Cruise in 1951, lasting nearly nine months and calling at over 30 ports.

In 1975 the QE2 made her first World Cruise and since then has kept the tradition alive for Cunard Line. The QE2 and her World Cruises since have become legendary. On her Maiden World Cruise in 1975 she set sail on a global odyssey that resulted in another significant moment. For the first time, she crossed from the Atlantic to Pacific waters on a transit of the Panama Canal. In December between Antigua and Boston, she reached an impressive milestone, clocking up 1 million miles at sea. In 1996 Cunard became the first cruise line to offer three simultaneous world cruises aboard the QE2, Royal Viking Sun and Sagafjord.

In 2007 Cunard Line marked the 85th Anniversary of its World Cruise tradition which was inaugurated by the Laconia in 1922/23. To celebrate this Cunard sent its new flagship Queen Mary 2 and the legendary QE2 on simultaneous world voyages, each with a different itinerary. Both ships will mark significant milestones as they circumnavigate the globe. The Queen Mary 2 was undertaking her Maiden World Cruise in 2007, while the QE2 was celebrating her 25th "Silver Jubilee" World Cruise. The big highlights of these two World Cruises was the ‘Meeting of Queens’ in both Fort Lauderdale on 10th January 2007 and in Sydney Harbour on 20th February 2007. It was be the first time two Cunard Queens have been in Sydney simultaneously since Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth regularly met there in 1941 and 1942 as part of their wartime trooping duties. Thus the legendary QE2 inducted the new Queen Mary 2 into the glorious World Cruise tradition.

With over 170 years of history, Cunard is the name synonymous with comfort, style, history and tradition in luxury travel. Today, guests can take their place in history and celebrate a golden heritage of culture, distinguished service and enriching experiences.

Both Queen Mary 2 and QE2 are true ocean liners - the only liners to be going around the world in 2007. The sea keeping capabilities of these two famous ships enable their circumnavigations to take place at high speeds, in great comfort and truly luxurious surroundings. This enables Cunard guests to visit a greater number of ports in a given time than any other passenger ships – ideal for a World Cruise.

Cunard Line, inventor of the World Cruise in 1922, once again celebrated its illustrious history in 2008 when its brand new 90,000-ton liner Queen Victoria departed on her 106-night ‘Maiden World Cruise’ simultaneously with the world’s most famous ocean liner, QE2, as she embarks on a 103-night ‘South America, Pacific and Orient Odyssey’. Both ships departed from their homeport of Southampton on Sunday 6th January 2008, amidst a great fanfare, and headed for New York on the first-ever tandem westbound Transatlantic crossing. QE2, making her 804th Atlantic crossing, will escort Queen Victoria, making her first. Both ships then arrived in New York a week later on 13th January 2008. They then continued together, reaching Fort Lauderdale two days later. From there the ships took different courses on their epic voyages before a further spectacular ‘Meeting of the Queens’ in Sydney on Sunday 24th February 2008. With the retirement of the QE2 in November 2008 this was to be her final World Cruise.

Cunard’s World Cruises are already considered the ‘gold standard’ in voyages around the world – after all it was a Cunarder – Laconia – which undertook the first one in 1922. QE2 has undertaken more long voyages then any other ship afloat and now the legendary QE2 inducted the new Queen Victoria into this fine tradition - offering a 21st century ocean liner experience as she made her own circumnavigation of the globe in renowned Cunard style for the first time.

Today in the 21st century, with the retirement of the legendary QE2 in November 2008, the Cunard World Cruise now continues with the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria. In 2009 both liners undertook their second World Cruise including a meeting in Fort Lauderdale for a Cunard Royal Rendezvous on 13th January 2009. In 2010 the new Queen Elizabeth joined the tradition. Cunard ships are legendary and when combined with a circumnavigation of the globe calling at some of the world’s most exotic and intriguing ports, the experience becomes an unparalleled adventure. So the historic legacy of Cunard World Cruise continues into the 21st century in renowned Cunard style with the Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. The legend lives on.