Queen Elizabeth Naming Ceremony
Monday October 11th 2010 - Southampton
Adele and I arrived in plenty of time at Southampton train station at 1.20pm both extremely excited to get to the naming ceremony of Cunard's latest ship; Queen Elizabeth. Not only were we desperate to have a nose around this hotly anticipated arrival but we had been told that HRH Queen Elizabeth herself would be in attendance to officially name the ship... after herself.
What we weren't expecting was the attendance of so many celebs at the ceremony, starting with Judith Chalmers (former 'Wish You Were Here?' presenter and UK Cruise Convention 2010 moderator) who we bumped into at the train station! We took the shuttle service to the shiny new Ocean Terminal, handed over our luggage and were directed by friendly marshalls to the check-in desks. Check-in took about 1 minute each and before we knew it we had a glass of champagne and were busily celeb spotting with our agent friends at the reception! We spotted Jimmy Saville, Esther Ranson, Robert Powell, Jenny Bond, Ben Kingsley, Alan Titchmarsh, Vera Duckworth actress from Corrie, Alan Wicker, Terry Waite and I'm sure there were more!!
We were called in groups to go through security to a marquee set-up for the ceremony alongside the ship. Luckily the sun was shining as everybody filed in and were handed their programmes by cute uniformed page boys and girls.
The ceremony kicked off with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, followed by the Band and Pipers of the Coldstream Guards, then bagpipers before we were all told to turn our phones off and be upstanding for The Queen! She kept us waiting as she visited the ship, but we got to see her on the big screen, pressing the horn button, viewing her portrait and being clapped by all the ships crew as she came down the stairs looking beautiful in blue, before getting into her Rolls Royce and gracing us with her presence. Lesley Garrett came on stage (looking gorgeous) and we all joined in for 'God Save The Queen'.
Peter Shanks, MD of Cunard, made a lovely speech about the traditional nature of the Cunard brand, its links with Royalty and its wonderful new addition and how delighted he was that HRH had attended in person. Then we had a rousing rendition of Amazing Grace from Lesley Garrett and the prayers of blessing by the Lord Bishop of Winchester before finally HRH got to the stage and said the words we had all been waiting for: 'I name this ship Queen Elizabeth. May God bless her and all who sail in her'. The bottle was smashed at the side of the ship, loads of streamers were unleashed and everybody clapped!
We were then allowed to board the ship, Adele and I rushed immediately to our cabin to discover we had an outside balcony which was a lovely surprise! We then ran around taking photos before heading back, getting changed and rushing off to the champagne reception in the Queens Room where we quickly got separated as we chatted to the wonderful industry colleagues all sipping champers and claiming it was the best naming ceremony they had ever been to!
Then it was off to dinner in the Britannia restaurant where we had a delightful 5-course menu including the best soup I've ever eaten (artichoke and truffle mushrooms) before heading off to the bar for more chatting and drinking. We also took in the theatre production 'a slice of saturday night' then headed to our extremely comfortable beds.
Morning brekkie was delicious and not a little surreal as I was waiting at the buffet alongside Jimmy Saville and Jenny Bond!
All in all, a once-in-a-lifetime event which was clearly painstakingly organised with military precision, a beautifully elegant, comfortable and grand cruise ship some fantastic food, lovely company and a great night had by all!
Well done to Cunard and all their colleagues who helped pull this together and thank you for the invite!
Flo Powell, Director, ACE
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