Queen Elizabeth, a cruise ship named after the Queen of England The ship on board is the third generation Queen Elizabeth, taking the name from Queen Elizabeth II (QE2), which retired in 2008. As many of you know, her godmother was Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, who passed away in September 2021. Cunard Line, the ship operator, has three passenger ships in service on the world’s oceans: Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary 2, and Queen Victoria. In the spring of 2024, the new Queen Anne will make her debut. By the way, tickets for the Queen Anne’s maiden voyage were sold out on the same day that reservations began in May 2022. I had a special feeling from the preparation stage of my first cruise on the “most famous luxury liner in the world. The first thing I received was an e-mail from Cunard Line. I received one every week or so from about 50 days prior to embarkation, informing me of onboard entertainment, dining and bar options, spa reservations, etc. The second was for guests who had already booked their cruise. The second is “My Cunard,” a website exclusively for guests who have already booked a cruise. By logging in to My Cunard, you can make advance reservations at restaurants, check in online, get luggage tags, issue boarding passes, and more. All of these processes were like a countdown to the embarkation date, and I was getting excited, thinking, “We are finally getting closer! I was so excited.
To Sydney in December I took an evening flight from Haneda Airport and arrived in Sydney the morning before embarkation. Since it is in the southern hemisphere, December is supposed to be summer, but the weather was refreshing and completely different from the intense heat of the Japanese summer. It was chilly in the morning when it was raining lightly. The weather was about the same as in May in Japan. After arriving in Sydney, we had about 24 hours of free time before boarding the ship. I stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney. I was very excited when I entered the room and saw the view from the window. I could see the Sydney Harbor where the Queen Elizabeth was leaving from, and of course the Opera House and the luxury cruise ships at anchor! That’s the Queen Elizabeth we will board tomorrow! I was impressed by the size of the ship, but it turned out to be a completely different cruise ship. I was also surprised to hear that the Queen Elizabeth is one size larger! This time, we were required to take a self-diagnostic antigen test within 24 hours of boarding the ship or a PCR test within 48 hours. The antigen test was conducted in the evening in my room at the hotel, as I was required to present a photo of my passport showing the face page, date and time clock, etc. at one time, along with the test results. It was negative without incident, and all that remained was to wait for the next day’s boarding. The next morning, we were told that the Queen Elizabeth would be in port between 6 and 7 a.m., so we woke up early and stood by on the sofa by the window. Then, at around 5:50 a.m., I saw a divinely beautiful passenger ship entering the harbor with the morning sun on its port side. That’s the Queen Elizabeth! I was excited again. Later I checked the sailing schedule and found out that the Queen Elizabeth was carrying people who left Perth on December 2 and enjoyed an 11-night cruise from Adelaide to Melbourne to Burnie. Incidentally, the Queen Elizabeth is still cruising around Australia (until mid-March), and will call at Japan in April for the first time in four years, via Singapore and Taiwan. Four cruises to/from Yokohama are scheduled.
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