Service History
On Monday 4 October, 2010 Queen Elizabeth was formally handed over to Cunard. She sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton on Tuesday 12 October, 2010, following a naming ceremony with the monarch on Monday 11 October 2010. Her maiden voyage included calls at the Spanish port of Vigo before heading for Lisbon, Cadiz, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma and Madeira.
The ship made several European cruises until she departed on her first world cruise, leaving Southampton on 5 January 2011 and calling at New York, Fort Lauderdale, Aruba and Limon before transiting the Panama Canal. She would then call at Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas and Los Angeles before crossing the Pacific Ocean to Lahaina, Honolulu, Apia, Pago Pago, Fiji, Bay of Islands, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, Fremantle, Kota Kinabalu, Hong Kong (thus sailing close to the location where her predecessor RMS Queen Elizabeth caught fire and capsized in 1972). Stops in south-west Asia would include Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh City, Ko Samui, Langkawi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. She would then cross the Indian Ocean westbound for Kochi, Mumbai and Muscat. This would be followed by a journey westbound again across the Arabian Sea before passing through the Strait of Hormuz to call at Dubai in the Persian Gulf, where she would be berthed close to her predecessor RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 for the first time. After calling at Salalah and Aqaba, the ship would transit the Suez Canal. Westbound Mediterranean calls would be at Athens and Rome, then passing through the Strait of Gibraltar to make a final call at Lisbon before returning to Southampton.
On the 29th June 2012, the ship made her one and only visit to Ny-Ålesund, in Svalbard. The previous scheduled visit in 2011 had to be aborted due to bad weather. She is not scheduled to visit Svalbard in her 2013 schedule. Newly introduced legislation relating to cruise ships visiting the archepelago (applicable from 2014) mean that Queen Elizabeth will never be able to visit again.
In summer 2014 she is likely to stay in the Mediterranean Sea to offer cruises from Barcelona and Venice.
Read more about this topic: MS Queen Elizabeth
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