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3 Cunard Ships Meet in New York

A Royal Rendezvous

Posted January 17, 2011

It was an evening fit for a queen -- or three -- last night in New York as all three of the historic Cunard Line's current ocean liners met up for the first time.

In a much-hyped spectacle that included 20 minutes of fireworks over the harbor, the 171-year-old line's Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth sailed together past the tip of Manhattan and on to the Statue of Liberty in their first "Royal Rendezvous."

The event marked only the second time in Cunard history in which the entire Cunard fleet has come together in an American port. A similar Royal Rendezvous in New York in January 2008 saw the meeting of the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria with the famed Queen Elizabeth 2, which has since retired (replaced by the new, three-month-old Queen Elizabeth).

The 2,600-passenger Queen Mary 2 was setting off on a 103-day, New York-to-New York world voyage to South America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Asia before , the Middle East and Europe. The 2,068-passenger Queen Elizabeth is in the midst of a 103-day Southampton-to-Southampton world voyage that is taking it westward through the Panama Canal to the Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.