Queen Mary 2 goes to France

On March 9, Carnival signed a letter of intent with French yard Chantiers de l?Atlantique for the $700 million contract to build Cunard?s giant cruise ship, now named Queen Mary 2 (See Cruise).

The 345m long, 150,000g vessel will carry around 2,800 passengers, a small complement for a ship of that size. With a crew complement of 1,300, the guest-to- crew ratio will enable a high standard of service, says Carnival. The vessel will be equipped with four propulsion pods, two fixed centrally and two azimuthing pods, one each side, all four totalling 80MW, to give it a service speed of nearly 30 knots. Electrical power will be supplied by a combination of two gas turbines, and four diesel engines, providing a total output of 130MW.

The design of Queen Mary 2 will be similar to that of QE2, in that it will have a white superstructure stepped back from a raked bow, a traditional open foredeck, black hull and a single funnel painted in red with black bands.