QUEEN MARY 2
Fact Sheet
Built at a cost of US$800 million, Cunard’s 151,400-tonne flagship Queen Mary 2 is almost
twice as large as the original Queen Mary and more than double the size of the legendary
Queen Elizabeth 2.
The largest ship ever to visit Australia, the 345-metre-long Queen Mary 2 seamlessly
combines a classic British heritage with Cunard’s hallmarks of nostalgia, opulence and style,
evident in sweeping staircases, a grand ballroom and a 360° promenade deck.
A space ratio of over 57 tonnes (gross registered tonnage divided by guest capacity) per
passenger makes Queen Mary 2 one of the most spacious ships at sea, with room for 14
decks of sports facilities, shops, lounges, bars, five pools, no fewer than 10 dining options
and the only planetarium afloat – Illuminations.
Almost 75 per cent of Queen Mary 2’s 1310 staterooms feature private balconies, while the
needs and whims of every two passengers are catered for by the attentive service of one staff
member.
Renowned artists were commissioned to produce more than 300 original works of art valued
at more than US$5 million for Queen Mary 2, which is also home to the Maritime Quest
exhibit tracing the history of Cunard and its Transatlantic heritage.
Launched in 2004, Queen Mary 2 is the world’s only liner offering regularly scheduled
transatlantic crossings between New York and Southampton, as well as sailings to the
Caribbean, Northern Europe, and Mediterranean and round world voyages. The liner was
refurbished in December 2011, with enhancements to all staterooms and suites as well as
many of its restaurants, lounges and bars.
Queen Mary 2’s 2012 Royal Circumnavigation of Australia is a first for Cunard and will
generate an economic windfall around the country as she visits eight Australian ports across
five states and the Northern Territory.
The history-making voyage will see Queen Mary 2 sail Australian waters for 28 days, the
longest she has been based in one country outside of her northern hemisphere home ports of
Southampton and New York.
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Queen Mary 2’s 2012 Royal Circumnavigation is part of her fifth world voyage. The liner’s
first visit to Australia came in 2007 when she made her maiden call to Sydney, enjoying a
spectacular rendezvous with her younger sister, QE2, which has since left the Cunard fleet.
Queen Mary 2 will return to Australia in March 2013 on her sixth world voyage which will
see the liner make history once again as she sets sail from Sydney to complete her first Royal
Circumnavigation of New Zealand.
VITAL STATISTICS
LENGTH
SIZE
HEIGHT
WIDTH
CAPACITY
DRAFT
MAXIMUM SPEED
345 metres
151,400 tonnes (GRT)
62 metres above the water
41 metres (45 metres including bridge wings)
2,620 guests plus 1253 crew
10 metres
30 knots or 55kmh
QUEEN MARY 2 FEATURES INCLUDE:

1310 staterooms including 955 with private balcony cabins

10 different stateroom types including 171 junior suites, suites and penthouses as well
as two Grand Duplex apartments, each measuring 209 sq m

a spectacular six-storey Grand Lobby

the largest library at sea, home to more than 8000 books

the largest ballroom at sea

a 20,000sq ft state-of-the-art spa spanning two decks and offering 24 treatment rooms

More than 10 restaurants and cafes including:
 the impressive 1347-seat three-storey Britannia Restaurant
 the 200-seat Queens Grill
 the 178-seat Princess Grill
 the fine-dining Todd English restaurant
 the Boardwalk Café
 the Golden Lion Club
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 the informal 478-seat King’s Court for breakfast and lunch buffet-style,
which transforms at night into four other dining options: La Piazza
(Italian), Lotus (Asian), The Carvery (British), and the Chef’s Galley
(Demonstration Kitchen)

The first planetarium at sea, Illuminations

14 bars and clubs

8 different shops including boutiques from Chanel, Hermes and Dunhill

4 outdoor swimming pools, including one with a retractable glass roof, and eight
whirlpool spas

sport facilities including two golf simulators, a half-size basketball court, putting
green, quoits, shuffleboard, deck games, a giant chess board and a paddle tennis
court.
DID YOU KNOW?

Queen Mary 2 features 17 decks and towers about 62 metres above the waterline,
equal to the height of a 23-storey building.

At 345m long, Queen Mary 2 is:
 two-thirds the length of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
 more than double the length of Perth’s WACA and just 55m short of the
length of the city’s Narrow Bridge (400m)
 twice the length of AAMI’s stadium in Adelaide or 20 Glenelg Historic
Trams placed end to end
 more than double the length of the 173-metre long Melbourne Cricket
Ground
 just over double the length of The Gabba in Brisbane and more than twothirds the length of Brisbane’s Story Bridge spanning from Kangaroo Point
to Fortitude Valley
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 more than half the length of Darwin’s famous Mindil Beach.

Queen Mary 2 stretches almost four football fields in length and, if stood on her end,
would reach:
 about 40 metres higher than the tip of Sydney Tower
 about 47m higher than Central Park, Perth’s tallest building
 more than double the height of Adelaide’s tallest building, the 135m high
Westpac House
 about 48m higher than Melbourne’s Eureka Tower, which is ranked one of
the highest residential buildings in the world
 more than 100m higher than Brisbane’s tallest building, Soleil Tower
 only three metres below the height of one of Australia’s most famous
natural wonders, Uluru

Capable of carrying 2600 passengers and 1250 crew, Queen Mary 2 is a floating town
just smaller than the NSW south coast town of Merimbula (pop 4000), almost double
the size of WA’s Exmouth (pop 2000), larger than the SA town of Coober Pedy
(estimated pop 3500) and the Victorian town of Daylesford (pop 3460), more than
three times the size of Queensland’s Burrum Heads in Hervey Bay (pop 1224) and
more than a third of the population of the Northern Territory’s town of Katherine
(pop 10,000).

There are more than 50 nationalities amongst the 1200 crew.

The ship’s teak wrap-around Promenade Deck is almost 600m long.

The Queen Mary 2 signs near the funnel are the largest illuminated ship name signs in
maritime history stretching 22 metres long and 2.4 metres high.

Queen Mary 2 offers wi-fi and GSM connectivity in all staterooms and key public
areas so that passengers on Transatlantic and world voyages can stay in touch with
friends and loved ones throughout their travels.

Queen Mary 2’s library is the largest at sea with more than 8000 hardbacks, 500
paperbacks, 200 audio books and 100 CD ROMs.

The three-deck high main dining room spans the full width of the ship and has a
sweeping central staircase perfect for the ultimate grand entrance.
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
Since Cunard’s establishment in 1840 the company has launched more than 250 ships.

Over a 40-year lifetime, Queen Mary 2 will travel the equivalent of 12 times to the
moon and back.

Queen Mary 2 has two huge 2.1m-long whistles, or horns, attached to the funnel. The
starboard (right hand side) whistle is an original from the first Queen Mary. The two
whistles sound a deep bass ‘A’ note and can be heard 16km away.

The ship has three 23-tonne anchors.

The ship’s engines produce enough thrust to launch a jumbo jet. There are four diesel
engines and two gas turbines. Each diesel engine is 12.5m long and weighs 217
tonnes.

Queen Mary 2 has three thrusters which allow the ship to turn in her own length in
port without the use of tugs. These thrusters produce twice the power of a
conventional 100,000-tonne ship. A small single joystick on the Bridge manoeuvres
her sideways or at an angle.

Four locomotives, side by side, could fit into Queen Mary 2’s massive funnel, which is
13.4m by 6.7m at its widest point.

The ship has four stabilisers, each weighing 70 tonnes and extending 6.2m from the
hull, which together can reduce the ship’s roll by 90 per cent.
CONSTRUCTION OF QUEEN MARY 2

Around 300,000 pieces of steel were cut and welded into blocks in specialised
workshops.

Queen Mary 2’s hull is made up of 94 steel blocks (made from 580 panels), some of
which weigh more than 600 tonnes, involving some 1500 kilometres of welding.

Her hull weighs 50,000 tonne (not to be confused with her gross tonnage of 150,000
grt).

She took two years to construct (2002-2004).
FOOD & BEVERAGES

Almost 16,000 meals are consumed onboard each day.

700 English scones are served at High Tea each afternoon.
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
3.3kg of Russian caviar and 73kg of lobster are consumed each day.

Nearly a quarter of a million corks are popped on wine and champagne bottles
aboard the ship each year. If lined up, these would stretch to the top of Mt Everest.

344 bottles of champagne are consumed each day.

460 eggs and 1200 litres of milk are consumed each day.

Onboard baking requires nearly 8000 industrial size flour bags a year, which if
stacked, would make a pile almost five times higher than Sydney Tower.

The Queen Mary 2 uses almost 7000 boxes of strawberries each year.

Annual tea consumption onboard the Queen Mary 2 would fill an Olympic size
swimming pool - 6000 cups of tea are served daily.

More than 8000 linen napkins are used and laundered each day while 87,000 pieces of
china and glassware are used in the dining areas each day.
QUEEN MARY 2 HAS:

1072 deck chairs

234,000 square metres of carpet

2500 kilometres of electrical cable

3000 telephones

500 kilometres of ducts, mains and

5000 stairs
pipes

5000 fire detectors

2000 bathrooms
For more information visit www.cunardline.com.au or call 13 24 41 for reservations within
Australia.
Media information:
MG Media Communications
(+612) 9904 0011