Without a doubt, there have been few ships that have garnered such a devoted following as Queen Elizabeth 2 has. Indeed, with 39 years of service, sailing over 5.5 million miles and carrying over 2.5 million passengers, sailing to nearly every region of thew world, few ships have had the same sort of opportunity to win the hearts of the public. An icon even to those who have never stepped aboard, QE2 was nevertheless most beloved of us who have had the opportunity to get to know this great lady on a more personal level.

I first became aware of QE2 as a child in the early 1990s, having become captivated by passenger ships, and above all by the great ocean liners of the past. QE2, it was then said, would be the last ocean liner ever to sail. When she was retired, the era of the ocean liner would have come to an end. Cunard was in bad financial shape, its aging fleet falling behind those of its competitors, and the future of the Atlantic ferry was in question. Today we are fortunate enough to have a revitalized Cunard with a bright future, and a grand new ship, Queen Mary 2, to carry on the grand tradition of liner service across the North Atlantic. But the end of QE2 is the end of a great chapter of maritime history, of a ship that beat all the odds — succeeding where every one of her contemporaries failed — and went on to sail farther and carry more passengers than any other.

Throughout my childhood, as I sailed on numerous other ships, an Atlantic crossing aboard QE2 was a cherished dream. When, in April 2004, I saw her accompany the new QM2 on her maiden call to New York, I feared the opportunity to do so may have passed me by. Happily, while QM2 became Cunard’s primary North Atlantic liner, QE2 kept crossing the Atlantic several times a year right to the very end, and so in January 2006 I stepped aboard for the first time in Southampton to fulfill this lifelong dream.

If one builds rapt anticipation for something for nearly a decade and a half, it is bound to be either an enormous delight or an enormous disappointment. Fortunately, my first QE2 experience was the former. Long before the voyage had ended, I had fallen in love with this great ship as I have no other before or since, and resolved to return to her as many times as I could before the end I knew could not be so far off. As it happened I would only have the chance make one more voyage, another wonderful westbound winter crossing in January 2008, accompanied the whole way by the new Queen Victoria and joining QM2 for a historic rendezvous of three Queens in New York. By then everyone knew she had less than a year left, and every passenger and crew member on board was determined to make the very most of what time we had with her. I have never sailed in a “happier” ship.

Altogether I spent just under two weeks aboard (plus a couple of visits to “check up” on her on her periodic calls in New York), a modest sum indeed, but as much as I wish I could have known her longer, I feel tremendously honored and privileged to have had the opportunity to spend that time on board, to savor a truly singular experience and take part in the illustrious history of a grand ship the likes of which we will, perhaps, never see again. When I watched her sail from New York for the last time together with QM2 on an atmospheric, overcast October evening, thronged with sightseeing vessels full of well-wishers, fireboats saluting with their majestic spray, I knew that before my eyes was a great piece of history of which I shall forever be proud to have been a part.

I have made my peace with the future of QE2, but for me she died when the Red Ensign and the Cunard house flag were lowered for the last time in that emotional ceremony in Dubai. When she emerges from her conversion she will be something new — perhaps great, perhaps awful, likely somewhere in between — but the one thing she can never be again is the QE2 so many of us have grown to love. Perhaps someday I shall visit her in her new home, but I have the feeling that it would be like visiting a ghost. I know there are thousands of people around the world who feel exactly the same way.

As sad as we may be, we must remember it could very easily have been far worse. In 1969, when QE2 entered service, you could sail from Europe to the United States on any number of ocean liners — American, British, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian or Swedish. By 1975, they were all gone, off to the breakers or sent on full-time cruising duties, and QE2 was alone, remaining so until QM2 took over in 2004. QE2, born as a symbol of Space Age modernity with the unforgettable slogan, “Ships have been boring long enough,” would soon find herself playing an unexpected role: that of the last living link to a bygone era. She survived Arab terrorists, Argentine submarines, bad management, economic recessions, fuel crises, labor problems, jumbo jets, supersonic transports, the onslaught of a vast flotilla of glitzy new cruise ships, and even a brand-new ocean liner, Queen Mary 2 (after whose introduction some thought she would immediately be retired). And yet, she would sail off against all odds into the record books and into our hearts, perhaps the greatest ship of them all and certainly the greatest of her time.

All good things, though, must come to an end, and so too it is with QE2. Today we sit at the end of an era. The future for Cunard could scarcely be brighter, with a magnificent new ocean liner, Queen Mary 2, about to celebrate her fifth anniversary carrying on the great North Atlantic liner tradition and finally step into the limelight as her more famous predecessor fades away, and a fine cruise ship, Queen Victoria, having been sailing the world for a year now, with a sister, a new Queen Elizabeth, soon to sail over the horizon as well. I have already had the pleasure of sailing in QM2, and in the next year and half plan on doing so two more times, and in due course I hope to sail in the rest of the fleet as well. So today I say wholeheartedly, “The Queen is dead, long live the (new) Queens.” But I shall never forget the many happy memories I have of the incomparable ship that captured my heart and mind like no other, the wonderful QE2.

Goodbye, old girl. I’ll miss you. We all will.

For those of you who haven’t yet, you can see my photos of QE2’s last departure from New York here. You can see a round-up of the BBC’s farewell coverage here.

2008/06/02: Queen’s goodbye to QE2 liner: The Queen has boarded the QE2 cruise ship for the third, and final time, since she named it in 1967. The historic liner will be converted into a luxury hotel in Dubai in November. Ben Geoghegan reports.

2008/10/03: QE2’s last visit to Liverpool: The QE2 – designed in Liverpool – has sailed into the port for the last time before she sails for Dubai where she will become a floating hotel. 

2008/10/08: The final goodbye for QE2: The world-famous passenger liner, the QE2, has sailed into Tyneside for the last time, before she retires to Dubai.

2008/10/10: QE2 makes its final trip: The QE2 passenger liner is due to leave on its final transatlantic-round trip to New York before being transformed into a hotel in Dubai.

2008/10/22: On board the QE2 cruise liner Take a tour around the world-famous QE2 before it heads for retirement as a floating hotel in Dubai in November 2008. BBC South’s Transport Correspondent Paul Clifton has been on board.

2008/11/11: The 41-year reign of the QE2 A look at the QE2’s 41 year reign as the pride of the British Merchant fleet.
2008/11/11: The QE2 sails to war During the Falklands conflict, the QE2 was converted from a luxury liner into a troop ship. Paul Clifton reports.
2008/11/11: QE2’s permanent passenger: An American woman who is the only person who lives on the QE2 has been speaking about what she will do once the ship has gone into retirement.
2008/11/11: The QE2’s hotel manager: The hotel manager from the QE2 remembers his time on board.
2008/11/11: ‘We had Salvador Dali onboard’: A member of the casino staff on the QE2 remembers her time on board.
2008/11/11: Memories of a night steward: A night steward on the QE2 remembers his time on board.
2008/11/11: Fireworks farewell to the QE2: The QE2 has departed on her final voyage. This montage shows highlights of the ship’s 41-year reign.
2008/11/11: QE2 captain’s message: Watch the captain’s message and the firework display that has taken place as the QE2 liner left her home port of Southampton for the final time.

2008/11/12: Enthusiasts watch QE2 journey: As the QE2 liner headed towards a new life as a floating hotel in Dubai, enthusiasts were on board SS Shieldhall for a close-up view.

2008/11/26: QE2 arrives at her Dubai home: The world-famous QE2 has arrived in its new home of Dubai where the ship will be turned into a floating hotel.

2008/11/27: QE2 ready for conversion: BBC South Today has been following the final hours of the QE2 liner before it is converted into a luxury hotel in Dubai.

(Note: I have excluded some clips that largely duplicate these in content.)

Saga has purchased the 18,591 GT, 500-berth Astoria from Club Cruise, as previously rumored. The ship, on charter to Transocean Tours until April 2009, will be renamed Quest for Adventure and become the second ship in Saga’s Spirit of Adventure brand. She’ll join the 9,570 GT, 352-berth Spirit of Adventure in offering an enrichment-focused product aimed at passengers 21 and over, unlike the company’s Saga Rose and Saga Ruby, which offer a more traditional cruise product for passengers 50 and up. Before entering service for Saga in July 2008, Quest for Adventure will undergo a major refit, which among other upgrades will reduce her capacity to 450 passengers.

Built at Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Hamburg in 1981 as Astor (not to be confused with Transocean Tours’ current, 1987-built Astor, a near-sister to the older ship) for Hamburg-based Hadag, she later briefly operated a liner service between Southampton and Cape Town for South Africa’s Safmarine in 1984 before joining then-East German Deutsche Seereederei as Arkona in 1985. Deutsche Seereederei’s cruise business, by then known as Arkona Touristik and also encompassing AIDA, was sold to P&O Princess Cruises in 1998, and she continued successfully operating for the German market until sold on in 2002 to Russia’s Sovcomflot (owners of one of Germany’s most popular cruise ships, Maxim Gorkiy, and also briefly the current Astor), who chartered her to Transocean Tours as Astoria. Sovcomflot sold her to Club Cruise in 2007, but she was put up for sale after Transocean decided not to renew its charter of the vessel in January 2008. She is the second ship recently sold by Club Cruise; the ferry Da Vinci, formerly Finnjet was sold for scrap last month and was recently beached at Alang.

Swan Hellenic has been forced to cancel its first cruise with its once and future ship, Minerva, due to unexpected generator difficulties. The eight-night Norwegian Fjords cruise was scheduled to depart from Dover on Friday 23 May, returning on Saturday, 31 May and was scheduled to call at Bergen, Flam, Ulvik, Stavanger and Kristiansand. The ship is scheduled to arrive in Hamburg tomorrow, 22 May, concluding her charter to Phoenix Reisen. According to a statement from Swan Hellenic, “[The problem] in no way affects the safety of the passengers on board and the ship will finish its current cruise on schedule this Thursday at Hamburg, where a thorough assessment can be undertaken. Once this is completed a further announcement will be made.”

The 12,331 GT, 350-berth Minerva was originally built in for Swan Hellenic in 1996 off the hull of an unfinished Russian research ship. The ship operated for Swan — then part of P&O, and later its cruise spin-off P&O Princess Cruises plc, which became Carnival plc in a merger with Carnival Corporation in 2003 — until replaced in 2003 by the larger, 30,277 GT, 710-berth Minerva II, built in 2001 as Renaissance Cruises’ R Eight. In 2006, Carnival took the decision to transfer Minerva II to Princess Cruises as Royal Princess in April 2007, and sell the now-dormant Swan Hellenic brand. While many Swan loyalists feared this unique cruise line would disappear, former P&O and P&O Princess chairman Lord Sterling came to the rescue in 2007. He quickly forged a partnership with All Leisure Group plc, parent of Voyages of Discovery, which had already arranged a charter of the former Minerva beginning in 2008. Thus the ship, which had bounced around between Saga Cruises as Saga Pearl, Abercrombie & Kent as Explorer II (with additional sub-charters to Regent Seven Seas Cruises) and Phoenix Reisen as Alexander von Humboldt, would come full circle and re-join the revived Swan Hellenic, rather than Voyages of Discovery as originally planned. Now it appears that her long-awaited re-entry into service will be slightly postponed, but that is unlikely to put much of a damper on the enthusiasm of Swan regulars, many of whom found Minerva II too large and anticipated returning to “their” ship once again.

Swan Hellenic was founded in 1954 when Swan’s Travel Bureau joined with the Hellenic Society of London to offer an educational cruise in Greece. It became the leader in what it called “Discovery Cruising”, a unique, heavily enrichment-focused brand of cruising famous for its distinguished lecturers and equally erudite passengers; a major British newspaper described one of Swan’s vessels as “the most scholarly ship in the world”. Swan chartered a succession of small, mostly elderly vessels, most notably Epirotiki Cruises’ Orpheus, before building the far more modern Minerva.

This schedule from the Hong Kong Ocean Terminal lists a ship named Spirit of Adventure II calling in Hong Kong from 19 to 20 January 2010; the ship’s length is listed as 164 meters, the same as Astoria. Copenhagen’s schedule also lists a ship named Spirit of Adventure II calling in Copenhagen on 4 July 2009.

Saga already operates the 9,570 GT, 352-berth Spirit of Adventure as a separate product from its two larger cruise ships, Saga Rose and Saga Ruby. Unlike those ships, the minimum age to travel on Spirit of Adventure is 21 rather than 50. Both Spirit of Adventure and Astoria were built in 1981 at Howaltswerke Deutsche Werft in Germany, and despite the size difference, they share a similar design, making Astoria a good potential candidate for expansion of Saga’s destination-focused brand.

Louis Cruise Lines‘ parent, Louis plc, has announced that it has sold two of its oldest ships, the 10,487 GT, 628-berth Princesa Marissa and the 14,173 GT, 507-berth Serenade (pictured above), for a combined price of $8.4 million. Both ships are expected to go for scrap. The company also completed the purchase of the 37,773 GT, 1,450-berth Thomson Destiny and 33,930 GT, 1,254-berth Thomson Spirit, which it previously held under charter-purchase agreements from a Norwegian investment firm and Holland America Line respectively, for the combined sum of $123.5 million. Both ships are chartered to Thomson Cruises until 2011. All this is part of Louis’ aggressive fleet renewal program, which kicked into high gear last month with its acquisition of  the 50,764 GT, 1,742-berth Norwegian Dream and 40,876 GT, 1,462-berth Norwegian Majesty from Star Cruises.

The retirement of Princesa Marissa is an especially big step for Louis; she was its very first ship back in 1986, so her retirement truly marks the end of the beginning of the company’s history in the cruise industry. Built in 1966 as Finnlines‘ Baltic ferry Finnhansa, later Birka Line’s Prinsessan, this small, simple ship is a far cry from the modern tonnage increasingly making up the Louis fleet, but it was she, on short cruises from Louis’ base in Cyprus over two decades ago, that started it all.

The even older Serenade is another Louis veteran, bought back in 1999 when the Louis fleet still consisted mostly of former ferries and ocean liners from the 1950s and 1960s. She was built back in 1957 as Jean Mermoz for the private French shipping company Fabre Line for service from Marseille to West Africa. After a massive 1970 conversion to a cruise ship, she sailed as Mermoz for Croisières Paquet (from 1993 a subsidiary of Costa) until she was bought by Louis in 1999. You can read an excellent history of her here from my good friend Peter Knego of Maritime Matters, and you also won’t want to miss these wonderful videos of her in 2007, her last year of service, by Ernst Galuschek.

Club Cruise originally planned to convert Da Vinci, which it acquired in December 2007, to a cruise ship, but these plans were reportedly scrapped after the company found that the conversion would cost far more than expected. Instead, rumors circulated that she would be used as an accommodation ship. However, it now appears that the ship has been sold for demolition, though US Shipbrokers notes that the new owners are willing to resell.

Meanwhile, at least one well-known operator is known to be interested in buying Astoria. Rumors initially indicated that she might head to Phoenix Reisen in 2009 as a replacement for the retiring Maxim Gorkiy, but so far these have come to nothing. The ship was built in 1981 as Astor and later sailed as Arkona before joining the Transocean fleet as Astoria in 2002. She was acquired by Club Cruise from previous owner Sovcomflot in 2007.

Click here for photos from my friend Steve Read, who called her “BREATHTAKING!”

Instead, the 15,240 GT, 727-berth Van Gogh has been chartered to Russian tour operator Metropolis Tur for the summer.

Van Gogh Cruise Line was founded by Van Gogh’s owner, Club Cruise, in January 2008 following the bankruptcy of her former charterer, British tour operator Travelscope. According to the report, Van Gogh Cruise Line plans on releasing a winter 2008-2009 program as soon as it has completed the ABTA membership process.

Spurred by British friends who constantly tell me I’d love it, I’ve always wanted to try Fred. Olsen, but haven’t yet had the chance. But Carolyn Spencer Brown of Cruise Critic and Peter Knego of Maritime Matters were both on hand for Balmoral’s first US-based voyage, and both have returned with wonderful things to say about the ship and cruise. If Fred. Olsen goes over as well with other Americans as it has with these seasoned veterans of “international” cruising, it will do very well indeed.

So for an American perspective on Fred. Olsen, read Carolyn’s blog here and Peter’s here. Both of which make me want to go on a Fred. Olsen cruise very, very soon!