All ready for today’s Royal ceremony

Unseasonably warm and sunny, the weather is behaving itself for today’s naming ceremony of Cunard’s newest ship, Queen Elizabeth. In a few hours I will be joining the invited guests on the quayside at Southampton’s Ocean Terminal as The Queen breaks a bottle of Rothschild’s Graves to christen the vessel which carries her name, and then I will be going on board for the gala dinner tonight.
I will be back on dry land tomorrow morning, so that the £365 million ship can be prepared for the 2,092 passengers embarking on her maiden voyage to the Canaries, which sold out within half an hour as soon as it was announced some months ago.
Travel agents from around the UK have been getting a sneak preview of the ship all weekend, as have members of the cruise media from the United States. Their pictures and descriptions have been flooding the internet, but you will have to wait until tomorrow before I can bring you mine.
It’s been interesting to read what my friends Carolyn Spencer Brown, of Cruise Critic, and Fran Golden, of AOL Travel, have had to say about Queen Elizabeth.
According to Fran, the travel agents have made the ship’s Golden Lion pub their home from home, and she was clearly fascinated by Cunard president Peter Shanks’s description of the game of bowls, which will be played on artificial grass on the games deck.
I am looking forward to experiencing the newly-designed serving stations in the buffet restaurant, which Carolyn says will eliminate queuing for meals behind other passengers who either don’t know when to stop piling food on their plates, or can’t make up their minds what they want.
For now, it’s time to help Mrs Greybeard pack her ballgown, and point my chariot down the M3.
Back later with all the news and gossip fit to print.