Cunard Cruises

There are few brand names that create such an image as Cunard Cruises; the image of pure unadulterated luxury. Cunard have played a big part in the world of cruising and since their inception in 1838 and were originally named the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.

Now owned and run by the Carnival Corporation, Cunard Cruises along with the Yachts of Seabourn, often wrongly called Seabourn Cruise Line are at the luxury end of the cruise conglomerate. Though their head office is in the USA, Cunard still have a major presence in the UK and are run along with P&O Cruises from Southampton.

Cunard Cruises has three ships, soon to be two when Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) is sold at the end of 2008 to a Dubai based holiday centre. Cunard have announced that they will be building a replacement for the QE2 aptly named Queen Elizabeth, she will join the fleet in 2010.

The newest ship in the Cunard Cruises fleet is the Queen Victoria (QV), at 90,000 tons she is larger than the QE2 but quite a lot smaller than Queen Mary 2. When launched, Queen Mary 2 was the largest cruise ship in the world until the birth of the Freedom class of cruise ship.

Throughout the Summer Cunard offer their cruises from out of Southampton in Hampshire before moving their ships for the British winter. Most years they offer a world cruise, in 2010 the Cunard Cruises world cruise will be on board Queen Mary 2.