Author Topic: QE2 Carrying Cars  (Read 43640 times)

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Offline jdl

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Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #15 on: Oct 14, 2009, 10:11 PM »
...ok so I'm not 100% certain on how unique it is but it is certainly not something you'll find on any the pretenders to her throne


jdl
« Last Edit: Jun 23, 2012, 05:17 PM by Lynda »

Online Chris Thompson

Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #16 on: Oct 19, 2009, 04:00 AM »
Whilst working on the QE2 on of our more colorful passengers was Madame Castlemain, she would travel from th US to Europe every spring to spend summer in France and back home to Texas in the fall. To get from Southampton to Paris she would bring along her Cadillac. I once had the pleasure of driving her from Southampton to Portsmouth as she did not like to drive on British roads...the left side thing! I remember hers and several other vehicles being transported during the late eighties, my cabin was close enough to the lifts to know when things were moving. he lifts were also used to move cargo including a load of slot machines destined for another Cunard ship. Also the elevator shafts were also used as a garbage dump....the aromas could get quite bad especially in hot weather!!!!!!!
cheers
Casinochris

Offline Twynkle

Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #17 on: Oct 29, 2009, 08:57 AM »
Does anyone know whether QE2 carried vehicles other than cars?

I wonder, for example - what did she carry during the Falklands campaign?

cos918

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Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #18 on: Jan 17, 2010, 07:01 PM »
when did QE2 stop carrying car.
When she was first built did she have  garages one aft one mid ships.

John

Online Michael Gallagher

Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #19 on: Jan 18, 2010, 09:24 AM »
The car service was phased out in the early 2000s mainly because of new American restrictions etc. There used to be holds for cars forward and aft (she could carry 80+ when she entered service) but the car carrying capacity was reduced significantly over the years when extra equipment (such as waste disposal which did not exist or was not required in the 1960s) had to be built in to the ship.

Offline Louis De Sousa

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Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #20 on: Jan 18, 2010, 10:48 AM »

The Technical Stores Stockroom and the introduction of grinding and storage facilities for gabage took over some of the place too.

Louis

cos918

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Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #21 on: Jan 18, 2010, 01:16 PM »
ok another question.
QE2 was given 5star hotel status by the AA as she for filled all the criteria ie she her car parking space. Sine the garage was removed from service in early 2000 she lost her car parking space so did she lose her 5 star status from the AA

John

Online Peter Mugridge

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Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #22 on: Jan 18, 2010, 01:18 PM »
No; she was still rated at 5 stars when we were on board in September 2002.

I think the AA would exclude the car parking bit from the equation when dealing with a ship.
"It is a capital mistake to allow any mechanical object to realise that you are in a hurry!"

Offline jdl

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Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #23 on: Jan 18, 2010, 01:24 PM »
Michael,

Cheers for the reply, do you have any idea what the take up on the garage service was like during the period it was in operation?

thanks as ever!

John

Offline jdl

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Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #24 on: Jan 18, 2010, 01:32 PM »
No; she was still rated at 5 stars when we were on board in September 2002.

I think the AA would exclude the car parking bit from the equation when dealing with a ship.

I agree, I can't see them including it as a major contributary factor to the star rating on the basis that most other cruise ships wouldn't have these facilities so wouldn't be able to achieve 5 stars either. 

From memory even to the end of her days the 'grill class' consistently achieved 5 stars but the caronia and Mauretania slipped to lower ratings as a result of food changes and accomodation types an layout.

Jdl

Offline cunardqueen

Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #25 on: Jan 18, 2010, 04:11 PM »
Quote
I agree, I can't see them including it as a major contributary factor to the star rating on the basis that most other cruise ships wouldn't have these facilities so wouldn't be able to achieve 5 stars either. 

From memory even to the end of her days the 'grill class' consistently achieved 5 stars but the caronia and Mauretania slipped to lower ratings as a result of food changes and accomodation types an layout.

Jdl

If its any interest a 3 star rating for a land hotel requires a bigger jump to go to a 4 star, than from a 4 star to a 5 star.
To go to 5 star status such things as 24 hr  hot food room service, size of reception area and how many bilingual staff are all must have requirements.
 Gleneagles Hotel was at one stage the only 5star AA hotel l believe in scotland. And if my last visit is anthing to go by it wasnt 5 star service. I had to pour my own tea pot during afternoon tea with the sandwiches going hard round the edges, such a thing l never experienced on QE2, and l have had more than my fair share of aternoon teas on her, maybe l missed a few days in my travels but thats about all.

For what its worth, l have always found Mauretania to be an excellent restaurent, and have never had cause to complain there about anything. The wine waiters did always seem a bit busy mindyou...then again a smile and a please always did work wonders.
From the moment you first glimpsed the Queen,
 you just knew you were in for a very special time ahead.!

Online Michael Gallagher

Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #26 on: Jan 18, 2010, 04:46 PM »
The AA rating lasted for one year - the year it was awarded. She was never reinspected so it wasn't renewed. Carrying cars made QE2 the biggest car ferry in the world.

JDL: in the last few years the number of cars carried was low. In 2001 she carried a brand new Maybech (value £250,000) in a class case on her aft decks and it was helicoptered off the ship when she arrived in New Year. It was a publicity stunt for Maybech.

Offline Isabelle Prondzynski

Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #27 on: Jan 18, 2010, 05:34 PM »
In 2001 she carried a brand new Maybach (value £250,000) in a class case on her aft decks and it was helicoptered off the ship when she arrived in New Year. It was a publicity stunt for Maybach.

Read more about it here :

https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php/topic,608.msg7016.html#msg7016

and enjoy the video (it's one to treasure!).
« Last Edit: Aug 09, 2011, 05:52 PM by Isabelle Prondzynski »

Online Peter Mugridge

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Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #28 on: Jan 18, 2010, 05:43 PM »
 ;D#23, Michael - do Cunard keep a huge archive of all their PR letters in and out?

If so, ask Eric to dig up the one from me in around 1982 / 1983; I wrote in around then with the suggestion that it would attract a lot of publicity if Cunard advertised her as the biggest car ferry in the World! ;D
"It is a capital mistake to allow any mechanical object to realise that you are in a hurry!"

Offline Twynkle

Re: QE2 Carrying Cars
« Reply #29 on: Jan 18, 2010, 06:05 PM »
Hello!
Hmm...did the cars have their own Steward?!
Bet those in the Grills got a good valetting!

More seriously, was QE2's garage part of a deck officer's responsibility? There could have been a significant fire risk...
Maybe this was shared with the engineers' department?
Does anyone know whether an empty fuel tank on embarkation was mandatory?
Maybe the fare for a car was almost as much as for a fare-paying passenger!

(Just think...on a World Cruise, there'd be room for extra storage for winter or summer wardrobe...
and was it permissible to take you car out for the occasional spin -  aka shore excursion?
Someone will probably post that cars were only permitted on transatlantic voyages. If so - what a shame!)