Hail to the Queens!!!!

innerSpaceman · 02-24-2006, 10:08 AM

Yes, it floats in water, but is tightly surrounded by land. There's got to be an analogy in that to someone we know, but I can't think of who.

I didn't see the QM2, but I did see the venerable QM just the other day, while out Whale Whanking (that's a whale-watching swanking) and was able to compare her to a nearby modern cruise ship, the Carnivale's Somethingorother. These modern ships are, well, ugly. They look like office buildings plopped onto a ship base. Just plain-wrap, generic buildings - sort of like how the Disneyland Hotel now looks without any Disneyland Hotel signs.

The Queen Mary, though ... well that's a ship. It looks like a ship, it feels like a ship, it screams nautical royalty. It's for awesome.

I've had so much fun aboard the Queen Mary. I once attended a wedding there, performed by the ship's "captain." After dining and dancing, a bunch of us snuck "backstage," so to speak ... past the old first class indoor swimming pool to the ladders and tiny passageways leading down to the bowels of the ship. Down, down, down we went, crawling through small passageways in our tuxedos and gowns, and walking narrow catwalks above cavernous empty spaces at the bottom of the hull. It was like living the Poseidon Adventure.

We spent New Years Eve there once or twice, parties in each of a dozen ballrooms. One of those years was the year "Titanic" came out, and dozens of guests spontaneously played that theme with us as we tried to escape through locked steerage section gates to save ourselves from drowning, or stoicly bid farewell to our wives and children as they boarded the lifeboats. Heheh. (Then it was off below decks again in tuxes and gowns, because New Years Eve is also the perfect night to play Poseidon Adventure aboard the Queen Mary - which actually "played" the Poseidon in the camp classic film.)

As I recently relayed in the Titanic Exhibit thread ... as learned from a Queen Mary officer: The Titanic Historical Society often has its annual banquet aboard the Queen Mary. One year, a water main broke, and the ballroom hosting all the Titanic geeks filled with three feet of water!

Ah, I've spent Halloweens aboard the Queen Mary, watched summer fireworks aboard the Queen Mary, and generally just hung out aboard the Queen Mary. It's like a time machine to a grand age of travel. And none of the newfangled office-building ships - not even the Queen Mary Two - can hold a candle to that grand dame in Long Beach Harbor, the true royal lady of the seas.

02-24-2006, 10:08 AM	#10
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	Yes, it floats in water, but is tightly surrounded by land. There's got to be an analogy in that to someone we know, but I can't think of who. I didn't see the QM2, but I did see the venerable QM just the other day, while out Whale Whanking (that's a whale-watching swanking) and was able to compare her to a nearby modern cruise ship, the Carnivale's Somethingorother. These modern ships are, well, ugly. They look like office buildings plopped onto a ship base. Just plain-wrap, generic buildings - sort of like how the Disneyland Hotel now looks without any Disneyland Hotel signs. The Queen Mary, though ... well that's a ship. It looks like a ship, it feels like a ship, it screams nautical royalty. It's for awesome. I've had so much fun aboard the Queen Mary. I once attended a wedding there, performed by the ship's "captain." After dining and dancing, a bunch of us snuck "backstage," so to speak ... past the old first class indoor swimming pool to the ladders and tiny passageways leading down to the bowels of the ship. Down, down, down we went, crawling through small passageways in our tuxedos and gowns, and walking narrow catwalks above cavernous empty spaces at the bottom of the hull. It was like living the Poseidon Adventure. We spent New Years Eve there once or twice, parties in each of a dozen ballrooms. One of those years was the year "Titanic" came out, and dozens of guests spontaneously played that theme with us as we tried to escape through locked steerage section gates to save ourselves from drowning, or stoicly bid farewell to our wives and children as they boarded the lifeboats. Heheh. (Then it was off below decks again in tuxes and gowns, because New Years Eve is also the perfect night to play Poseidon Adventure aboard the Queen Mary - which actually "played" the Poseidon in the camp classic film.) As I recently relayed in the Titanic Exhibit thread ... as learned from a Queen Mary officer: The Titanic Historical Society often has its annual banquet aboard the Queen Mary. One year, a water main broke, and the ballroom hosting all the Titanic geeks filled with three feet of water! Ah, I've spent Halloweens aboard the Queen Mary, watched summer fireworks aboard the Queen Mary, and generally just hung out aboard the Queen Mary. It's like a time machine to a grand age of travel. And none of the newfangled office-building ships - not even the Queen Mary Two - can hold a candle to that grand dame in Long Beach Harbor, the true royal lady of the seas.
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