Queen Mary 2 Ocean Liner Secrets: The Engineering Genius You Missed

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

What’s your favourite thing about QM2? Join this channel to get access to perks: kzbin.info/door/gk7SzYDkiXWWBfMqXYH0cAjoin including custom emojis!

[@Gregm-l9r]

I think the Planetarium Chris .

[@scottread]

I'd say the Commodore Club. It's such a great space to relax in at all times of the day.

[@Gregm-l9r]

I do think that the QM2 is arguably the greatest ocean liner ever built. This magnificent ocean liner is so stable crossing the Atlantic even in force 10 conditions . Very little vibration from the engines because they are pods . Stephen should be very proud that he has designed a masterpiece. Very well done 👏

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Thanks for the comment - I agree that it’s a very special ship!

[@Titanictower-i5f]

I wish she had a sister ship!

[@barneybodger3418]

Great video Chris Mr Payne is a brilliant man and we love QM2 she was our first cruise and has spoilt us for anything else. She is the most beautiful ship ever thank you.

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Couldn't agree more!

[@jamesstaples1765]

Very good video. My wife and I have had four Trans Atlantic crossings and cruises on QM2. It is certainly our favourite ship. Very beautiful and stable sailing. favourite Ship

[@timmillea]

Very interesting video, thank you! I sailed on the QE2 a few years before she retired and then the QM2, both on the classic Southampton-New York route. In the case of the QE2, it was the start of her World cruise that year and it was truly special departing from Southampton in January in thick fog with the Salvation Army band serenading us off from the quayside. The late, great John Maxtone-Graham was the guest lecturer aboard and it was the very last time a Cunard vessel docked in Manhattan. We were all out on deck to see the Statue of Liberty in the unEarthly hours of the morning as Maxtone Graham commentated us in to the Cunard Pier over the tannoy. It was odd to think that our table-mates were stopping on the ship for almost another 3 months! The QM2 was bigger, more modern and more luxurious but the service standards had declined considerably from our QE2 experience. And she is not as fast as the QE2!

[@toddgilmore8412]

Excellent Information

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Thank you so much!

[@yonbear1]

We love the QM2 ... have done a trans-Atlantic and Sydney - Perth (Australia) aboard her. Great design - Great ship!

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

She’s a beauty!

[@Johnplod]

Thanks for the video - so interesting

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Thanks John!

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Thanks John for your ongoing support!

[@nian60]

I learnt new things that I didn't know. Thanks. 🙂

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

I'm so glad!

[@BoatMan-y6o]

Amazing video

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Glad you think so!

[@NeilVanceNeilVance]

I was lucky to experience QM2 in her first year, 2004. It's hard to believe she is now halfway through her service life.

[@Edgetravelguy]

Fascinating

[@user-liner-mate]

thanks for sharing this amazing chat

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Thanks for coming

[@mkoury83]

I have a question I have been curious about for quite a while for Dr.. Payne: Why are the Queen Elizabeth suite and Queen Mary Suite, cabins 10.003 & 10.004 respectively categorized under Queens Grille Q2 "Duplex" suite? To me, a duplex by default is a two level accomodation, yet those two suites are both situated entirely on deck 10. Why is this? Also, with regards to those suites: Was their position under the bridge wing always intended to be space for guest accomodation? I'm particularly curious about where the idea for the window angled down toward the water, and where the idea for such a unique design element came from? I think those two are arguably the best accomodation on board QM2, and in my opinion outshine even the Grand Duplex Q1 suites. They are such a unique and special suite but there is very, very little information on them anywhere on the internet. I'd love to get the full story of how those two suites came to be. Thanks for the great content!

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

I *think* the Duplex wording is because 10.004 and 10.002 as well as 10.001 and 10.003 can be linked meaning it can be a two apartment room if booked with the interconnecting doors. I think I agree with you that if I had the good fortune to sail in Q1 I’d probably choose to do Q2 on QM2 and try out 10.003 or 10.004. They look superb!!

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

PS: I’ve sent the rest of your question to Stephen as now I’m very curious too!!

[@mkoury83]

@@ChrisFrameOfficial that’s awesome! Thank you for moving my humble inquiry up the chain of command! Very excited to be able ask a question to Dr. Payne directly; he is a rockstar as far as I’m concerned, and I a proud groupie. That is an interesting hypothesis regarding the vernacular and possible correlation to adjoining cabins. On the official deck plan, the two suites are denoted with a special symbol on the key, marking them as single level duplexes. I would think given the shortage of available information online and the seemingly easy error in assuming “duplex suite” translates to a single suite situated across two decks. Especially in light of the 3 aft Q2 Duplexes and 2 aft Q1 Grand Duolexes are used in nearly all marketing/media materials of these cabins and their spectacular appointments - most notable of which is the opulent sweeping staircase. I would submit Cinard would benefit from delineating these two single level “duplexes” a sub category under the header Q2, for example marking these two suites as Q2-1 & Q2-2 for the 3 duplexes aft across deck(s) 9&10 - the Buckingham, Holyrood and Windsor Regardless, I doubt anyone has ever demanded a refund when they show up to one of these cabins and find it’s on one level… as I mentioned before I think that it is the most spectacular of available accommodation on board and definitely my top pick. Thank you again for facilitating this conduit of information - can’t wait to hear what he has to say! Maybe Cunard will see this and be so inspired that I will get a upgraded on my next voyage from what I can safely predict will be somewhere in the neighborhood of a Britannia single or Britannia inside cabin to the outer stratosphere of luxury accommodation at sea in either the Q.E. or Q.M. Suite! …fingers crossed but breath not held haha

[@mkoury83]

@@ChrisFrameOfficial Well since watching your video 48 hours ago, I have taken it upon myself to go down the QM2 rabbit hole of cabin categories and the rare instances of peculiarities there in. In this deep dive I have found all cabin categories to be simple to understand and passengers can be assured that what they book online and view in marketing materials/media is a fair and accurate representation of what they will receive upon embarkation. This is of course true for all but one cabin class of which all the rules go out the window and it is the wild wild west when it comes to the lottery that is a Q2 reservation where passengers of even above average knowledge of the ship are nearly sure to encounter one of the many riddles and house of mirrors Q2 cabins have. up her sleeve. So other than virtually no information or marketing/sales materials for the two forward Q2 non duplex "Duplex Apartments" on deck 10, there also is a slight of hand happening with the 3 aft Q2 true duplexes situated across deck(s) 9 & 10. I found a seemingly glaring and surprising oversight with regards to the cabin numbers and their corresponding suite/palace names on these 3 aft Duplex apartments. There is apotentially consequential discrepancy on Cunard’s cabin selection tool on their website that becomes available as one of the finals steps of creating an booking on Cunard.com after the voyage, cabin class and passenger information have all been captured. The long and short of it is this: . The ‘Buckingham Suite’ is cabin 9071, the ‘Holyrood Suite’ is cabin 9082 and the ‘Windsor Suite’ is 9080 However, on the cabin selection tool the ‘Holyrood Suite’ and ‘Windsor Suite’ have been interchanged and are therefore in the incorrect position on that cabin selection tool illustration of the deck 9 & 10 deck plan. A scenario that I would be surprised hadn’t come up in the past as an unfortunate byproduct of what appears to be nothing more to a clerical error and a, to be frank, unacceptable oversight would be a sharp eyed passenger with the aim to book the largest of the 3 aft Q2 duplexes, which after much digging, I found to be the Holyrood suite, cabin 9082. It is imperceptibly wider to a casual observer, however the entire cabin and balcony are slightly wider in the Holyrood suite, offering her occupants an additional 125 square feet of suite and in turn the best value per dollar spent proposition This same keen eyed passenger would then, by no fault of their own, proceed with booking cabin 9080 (The Windsor Suite) as that is the cabin the cabin selection tool has erroneously placed where cabin 9082 (Holyrood Suite) already exists. There are no palace name markers on this tool, just cabin numbers, so there is a major hole in the matrix and any reasonable passenger would deduce from this incorrect deck plan that cabin 9.080 is the Holyrood suite and cabin 9.082 is the Buckingham suite when the opposite is true. Well that took far more time and space to explain than I imagined so my apologies for the long winded observational analysis of utter minutia, but I am working with the goal that Cunard stumbles upon this for which I respectfully submit the above observations as an offering of good faith and complete brand loyalty, in the hope that for my next voyage my complimentary analysis will yield dividends haha. I thought I'd. take the time to make this hard to find error as clear as possible, so you can get it to the right person at Cunard and/or whomever may have the ability/interest to make the correction. Thanks again!

[@ddc163264]

QM2 is a great ship. Too expensive for me, but would've loved to be able to cruise on her just once. She's the best of what was learned from the past and the strongest ship there is sailing today. I hope that when she gets retired, that she's saved and not scrapped.

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

She really is a special ship!

[@oldcarnocar]

Can Qm2 still make 30 knots? what is her fastest crossing? thanks chris

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

She can. Cunard rarely run her at speed these days but she’s still technically capable of achieving that speed.

[@beatrice3506]

I love the look of the ship . But i wonder why the life boats stick out at the sides.

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

I think it’s to allow maximum space internally in the superstructure.

[@catrinlewis939]

​@@ChrisFrameOfficialI believe it also makes them faster to lower?

[@johannesbols57]

Chris, can we cut out the middle man and buy the book direct from you?

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Hey Johannes, sadly not we don’t have the infrastructure set up to sell and ship it direct. Plus you’ll get it at a better price via Amazon or Waterstones than we could offer it direct. Thanks for thinking of us though!

[@catrinlewis939]

Does any other ship have groupies for her architect?

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Haha well Joe Farcus is also well known. But Stephen is pretty special!

[@michaelwhalen2469]

I’ve now sailed on all four Cunard ships. The latest being the Transatlantic Maiden Voyage of Queen Anne from Southampton to New York. We hit every heavy seas in the middle of the voyage. Something that’s to be expected on the North Atlantic in Wintertime! I’ve been on QM2 in just as heavy seas. Obviously a cruise ship is not going to fair as well as a true ocean liner. The QM2 was smooth and quiet. The Queen Anne bucked and shuttered terribly. Most passengers couldn’t even get a full night’s sleep !! I had an inside cabin on Deck 10 at the very front of the ship. My cabin’s ceiling and closets creaked and moaned all night long !! The empty clothes hangers in the cabins on each side of mine swayed and banged against the walls all night and day. My cabin’s ceiling steward said he would take care of it, but it didn’t stop . I’ve been on QM2 on five different voyages ( one in Very Ruff Seas ) and never encountered this problem?!?! We even arrived a full day late in NYC because of the stormy weather conditions , causing all passengers having their NY shore excursions cancelled ! As to the Queen Anne herself ? Her exterior design and outside pool and bar areas are truly beautiful! The main Britannia dining room is simply gorgeous !!👍 The rest of the ship’s interiors are extremely disappointing ! The Queen’s Room is too small cramped and well , basically the ugliest room I’ve ever encountered on a ship !!! The Queen Anne just doesn’t have enough of a Cunard classic feel or vibe to her ! Once was enough for me! I’ll never sail on Queen Anne again !😮 The magnificent Queen Mary 2 is the only one for me in the future ! Especially on Transatlantic voyages !!

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

I totally understand - Nothing in service today beats QM2!