Queen Mary, meet Queen Victoria!

Wow! Tonight has been really incredible! It was amazing! It was a spectacle of Cunard's greatness! It was so great, I nearly had a heart attack (not to mention the weird sounds and faces I made, as I “geeked out”).

For those of you who don’t know, the Queen Victoria, which has been based here in Los Angeles for the last few weeks, sailed over to Long Beach to – as Cunard puts it, "rendezvous with her older fleet mate and first Cunard Queen, the Queen Mary." It was beautiful! (*tear).

Now, in the over 40 years that the Queen Mary has been in Long Beach, this is only the second time that one of Cunard’s ships has visited her there. The first time was in 2006, when the great and beautiful Queen Mary 2 came to meet to her namesake and predecessor. That was really, really incredible, and I really wish Cunard would do that again! (even though I don’t think I was far enough along in my shipgeek-ness at the time, to really completely appreciate that moment…nowadays I would be head over heels in love).

It makes me really happy to see Cunard acknowledging the Queen Mary. Often, companies tend to forget about their history and move on. When Cunard does things like this though, it draws attention to their history and the Queen Mary, and in my opinion it shows that they care. I LOVE YOU CUNARD!!!!!!!!! AHHHH!!!!

Anyways, back to tonight (even though, by the time this is posted it will be last night), or rather today (cause it all really started before night time). In the early afternoon, I left my hometown of Pasadena (about 20 some odd miles north of the Queen Mary) for the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro. I was going there to see the Queen Victoria one last time before she left LA.

Upon arrival there, I saw her, the Queen Victoria, looking beautiful while docked at Berth 93 at the World Cruise Center. After fainting a couple of times (from the sheer awesomeness), I took many pictures from many different angles. Then, after being there for an hour, I left and headed on over to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Luckily for me, the Queen Mary was free today, in honor of the event, so I just walked on.

After squeezing on to an elevator with 50 gazillion other people, I was on. Oh how I love to be on the Queen Mary…there really is nothing else quite like her, and even though I go there often, I never get tired of it. I walked around a little bit -noticing the crowd gathering already- and then bought myself pizza and a cookie (a tradition of mine). After I had finished eating, I went over to the aft boat deck, where many other shipgeeks were already gathering. There we waited for the next hour or so, waiting for the Queen Victoria to show herself. It sounds funny to say (or write) this, but, you really could feel the anticipation in the group. Everyone seemed excited, waving little British flags that had been handed out, and talking about our favorite thing…ships!

I had considered going back to San Pedro, to watch the ship depart from there and then race back to the Queen Mary for the rendezvous, but after figuring that there would be no time to do this, I walked forward to the Queen Mary’s bridge, from where, I could see the Queen Victoria moving in the distance. I took a few pictures, and then went back to the aft decks.

As Queen Victoria made her way on over, more and more people showed up. This actually took me be surprise. I expected a fair amount of people, but to be honest, I didn’t expect as many as we got. Queen Victoria doesn’t have the same “star power” that the QM2 has so I didn’t think she would draw that huge of a crowd. I am very happy to say that I was wrong…there were a ton of people!

(above image - "Queens Victoria & Mary" by flickr member Don & Stella )

Finally, Queen Victoria started to approach us. It was a beautiful sight in the light of the fading sky. The ship was all lit up for the occasion, and I swear there are not many sights more beautiful than a ship, lit up at night, or twilight. She got closer and closer (much closer than the Queen Mary 2 was able to get in 2006) and everyone was scrambling around trying to get the best picture they could. After about 10 or 15 minutes, a fireworks show started up, with fireworks shooting from the Queen Mary herself, her breakwater and a barge floating in the harbor. It was short, but quite beautiful! And very exciting!

After that, Queen Victoria turned around and very slowly sailed away as the crowds dispersed. I was one of the few that stayed and watched her till she was completely gone.

(above photo -"Long Beach, Ca." by flickr member RickWarrenPhotos )

It was a great and fun time. It was also great to be around that many other shipgeeks…we really are a special breed if you ask me. :D

I ended my Cunard night by walking around the Queen Mary which was nice…even though, I kid you not; at one point someone seriously thought that I was a ghost (interesting). And while I have been pretty much to every public space on the ship (not every one though), I did find a few new places (even though I wasn’t really supposed to go into these new places, strictly speaking ;) ).

I am home now, very happy after a great day. There were a couple of bummers though, firstly that I did not talk to anyone there! It’s kind of funny, but believe it or not, I am pretty shy. I wanted to talk to other people, especially some Cunard employees who were there, but when the time came to do it, I had a hard time getting myself to do so. The other bummer is how fast it all went. I have been so excited waiting for this day, and now its over. On top of that, Queen Victoria and Cunard, won’t be back on this side of the continent till December!

Oh well, that aside, I still had a great day!

For more photo's of the event you can check out our Picasa Album https://picasaweb.google.com/104983304629890664189/QueenVictoriaQueenMaryTheMeetingOfTheTwoQueens3311#