This evening on "Discovery Channel" was a 2 part documentary: "Building the Queen Mary 2". I had not noticed it was on but luckily while watching a program on their home and leisure channel they announced it. And so watched and recorded it.
Fascinating. It was very much focused - as the title suggested - on the process from conception through the building and into the sea trials. There was amazing photography.
I found some comments from USA based people on the boards that had seen what I think is the same documentary. The strongest was from HOST DOUG a Cruisecritic host:
"I watched this program earlier today on tape and I have to say it was not bad. Actually by mass media standards it was astoundingly good, but it was not perfect either.
There were a few rather large errors:
1. She does not weigh 150,000 tons. (The common misconception that gross tonnage = weight is a big pet peeve of mine.) I nearly wanted to put my fist through the TV set on hearing that one at the beginning of the program!
2. She is not the first passenger ship with more than two bow thrusters. They should have asked Stephen Payne, he's designed plenty of others...
3. She is not the first "green ship" with a zero-discharge policy. As far as I know all the major cruise lines' ships have had such a policy for some time now.
4. She is not the largest ship in the world. That honor goes to the supertanker JAHRE VIKING at 260,851 GT compared to QM2's 148,528. She is "only" the largest passenger ship.
5. (This was pointed out to my by someone else so I can't take credit for noticing it) - She is not the most powerful passenger ship in the world. That honor still goes to SS UNITED STATES.
There were a few other minor errors but for the most part I was almost convinced that the person writing actually new something about ships.Still, it was generally a very good program, and if you are interested in ships and haven't watched it, I'd certainly make a point of doing so.It does not, however, compare favorably with a (much longer) film that Royal Caribbean had comissioned for VOYAGER OF THE SEAS, which was far more detailed and did not contain any blatant errors that I can recall.
This is a shame; as a liner nut as I am frankly much more interested in QM2!
Doug NewmanCruise Critic Message Boards Host"
The picture above of the QM2 was taken by me in New York at the end of September. It was also the 1st time I had seen the QM2 live!
