Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth II night round Britain cruise

On 2nd August, Cunard’s beautiful cruise ship, Queen Elizabeth sailed into the Clyde and berthed at the Ocean Terminal in Greenock. Just making a short visit, the 90,900 tonnes ship left around 3.30pm on its way to Liverpool.

Queen Elizabeth is on an 11 night round Britain cruise out of Southampton. The liner had already visited Edinburgh, the Orkneys, Invergordon, and Greenock. After Liverpool, she will be sailing over to Dublin and then Cork and Guernsey.  Around half of the passengers are British, and the others from Canada, US and Europe.

The Queen Elizabeth is Cunard’s newest addition to the fleet and carries up to 2,100 passengers along with 1,000 crew. She calls back to the glamorous 1930’s and 1940’s with ornate rooms, and rich decoration to reflect the era. Hundreds of people lined the Mersey riverbanks to see the liner sail into Liverpool as part of its tour around the British Isles.

Running alongside Queen Elizabeth’s visit was the first waterside arts and crafts fair to be held in Liverpool. The event, organised by Liverpool City Council was far more popular than expected and for the first time the baggage handling facility at the new Terminal at Princess Parade was opened for public use.

“Even brief visits are good for the local economy” said Councillor Wendy Simon from Liverpool City Council “The event today far exceeded expectations and the final visitor numbers could be even higher”.

The event had arts and crafts stalls, a food court, creative areas to have a go at crafts, and a childrens fairground. The Liverpoool Ukelele Orchestra played on the dockside and the Shanty Kings folk singers entertained with seafaring music. Local theatre group, Shiverpool, entertained visitors with a free performance retelling stories of the original seven streets in Liverpool.

Youngsters were given lessons in voice projection by Liverpool’s Town Crier, Terry Stubbings.

Angie Redhead, Liverpool Cruise Terminal manager, said: “The visitor total could be 15,000 or even 20,000. It’s all about giving people more of a reason to spend time at the waterfront. Although they’ve come to see the Queen Elizabeth, this all adds to the great atmosphere. We then this was the first Cunard liner visit in the school holidays and thought we could do much more with this space. I’m sure we’ll do it again for another important ship.”

Image Courtesy of Liverpool Echo.