As the sun rose, the storm clouds were already brewing...
...Here we have Ventura starting her "swing" in the Upper Swinging ground...

As Ventura "swung", QV was passing Dock head, and QM2 just passing Netley in the background...

The last chink of sun shone on Ventura's bow as clouds covered QV...

Hope the sun will shine on the departure this evening!
Brgds,
Andrew

[ 08-01-2008: Message edited by: OceanVoyager ]

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Originally posted by miamicruiser:
I agree with you about the satallite domes. I remember when QE2 first had hers installed on top of the penthouses about 30 years ago. I thought it was a water-tower of some sort (ok, I was very young and had nevr seen one before) and I think she might have been the first cruise liner to have one. I think in some of the Cunard brochures at the time they airbrushed it out of the pictures of QE2 because it was so darn ugly. Now these domes seem to be all over the place on all the ships and the domes are getting bigger too! They look terrible, especially when they are not centered (see the above pic of Oceanic) and out of scale with the rest of the superstructure, masts and funnels. In my eyes they are destroying the looks of the ships. Like a big boil on the forehead of a beautiful woman....it's hard to overlook it. It just looks bad. But I guess satallite navigation systems, TV and Internet are all necessary now so they are not going to go away anytime soon. It would be nice however if someone could come up with a way of hiding them somehow into the design of the ship. I guess the Disney ships have come the closest to making them less obvious.

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quote:

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Originally posted by miamicruiser:
[...]If there was book or a program about the history of beautiful ships I think that the final act, or the last chapter would take place in the last months of 2008, in a far away place called Dubai. As the curtain closes, or the last page is turned, the last beautiful ship we see is the Queen Elizabeth 2, and I guess that would be a fitting way to come to an end.

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Yes, 2008 is a sad year for ship enthusiasts. The scrapping of Norway finally began, QE2 will be retired, Delta Queen very likely has her last season, Finnjet and Mermoz are scrapped.

But let's be a bit more optimistic since there ARE still some other beautiful (old) ships around.

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Originally posted by viking109:
Given that QV is generally considered a little ugly and out of sync with Cunards own liner philosophy, how will the similar Elizabeth fit in.[...]

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Whereas I also would prefer QM2 for various reasons the 'only' principal difference between QV and QM2 is that QM2 is faster and larger - and not every Cunard ship was and has to be 'fast and large'. Both, QM2 and QV are modern cruise ships decorated following the 'liner theme'. I am not a fan of the style of QV either but she is at least fulfilling the cliche of a 'liner' many people expect which can not be said of the Cunard fleet of the past decades - and actually, tackiness is or was in a way typical for the decor of some liners. In this respect QV is actually an improvement making the fleet of Cunard far more consistent than it was during the past decades - Royal Viking Sun, Crown Jewel, the Sea Goddess ships, Cunard Princess and Cunard Countess, Cunard Ambassador, Cunard Adventurer were certainly less 'in sync with the liner philosophy' than QV.

[ 08-03-2008: Message edited by: Ernst ]

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Yes, 2008 is a sad year for ship enthusiasts. The scrapping of Norway finally began, QE2 will be retired, Delta Queen very likely has her last season, Finnjet and Mermoz are scrapped.

But let's be a bit more optimistic since there ARE still some other beautiful (old) ships around.

You mentioned Oceanic - Regal Empress, Mona Lisa, Saga Rose, Royal Star (what is happening to her?) would also come to my mind, Ausonia is still in service (though not nearly as beautiful as she was) and of course many of the ships built in the 1970ies you mentioned are still in service. (at least for me QE2 is closer to the 1970ies cruise ships than to the older ships mentioned above)

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Don't forget two of my favorites .... SAGA ROSE and SAGA RUBY. Such a shame I can't sail on either.

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Originally posted by eroller:

Don't forget two of my favorites .... SAGA ROSE and SAGA RUBY. Such a shame I can't sail on either.

Ernie

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Hope we may all get to see some more of your photos, if they are all this good, I'd better hang up my boots right now!!!!

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Originally posted by viking109:

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For a split second I thought this was a pic of the lido decks on QE2 before the later rebuilds.

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Originally posted by mike sa:
Not all newbies are fugly, ok I know she is now 10 years old but the current Europa is I think very stylish externally, slightly top heavy over the bridge but a looker none the less. Then there is ..................ok that might be it actually but we do have at least 1 that is attractive. IMHO.

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