Cape Town and the Western Cape economy benefited “enormously” when Cunard Line’s flagship, Queen Mary 2, made an unprecedented three-day stopover in the Mother City last week as part of its four-month-long 2012 world voyage.

“This was the longest stop in any of the ports during the world cruise and was done in response to Cunard passengers voting for Cape Town as the one place they wanted to see more of,” explained Carol McCarthy, MD of White Star Cruise & Travel, the local GSA for Cunard Line. “Just imagine what this means for the local economy in terms of new stock taken on board, shore excursions and money spent ashore by the passengers!” she said.

After having set sail from Southampton on January 10, the ship arrived in Cape Town on January 25 and, while in port, replenished its stocks ahead of the onward journey to Durban, Mauritius and Australia, which it will circumnavigate before sailing on to Papua New Guinea and Japan. This was its third consecutive visit to the city and the ship is due to return during its 2013 world cruise.

Deputy Captain, Dariusz Gozdzik, told a travel agent and media educational tour that the vessel recently underwent a multimillion-dollar “smaller” refurbishment, involving, amongst others, the replacement of enough carpets to cover 24 football fields, while a “major” make-over was due next year.  
At 345m long with capacity for 2 800 passengers and about 1 000 crew (60 are South African), the QM2 is a ship of superlatives.  Some 150 chefs prepare 1 100 meals at each sitting. Passengers consume 6 000 bottles of wine a week.  With 9 000 titles it has the largest library as well as the only planetarium at sea.