| IMO | 9477438 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 90,901 GT |
| Length | 294.0 m |
| Beam | 32.3 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 2081 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 2547 |
| Crew | 1005 |
| Service speed | 23.7 knots |
| Builder | Fincantieri |
| Yard | Monfalcone |
| Hull number | 6187 |
| Launched | 2010 |
| Maiden voyage | 2010-10-12 |
| Class | Vista (2002)-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Cunard Line |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Queen Elizabeth is Cunard's Vista-class cruise ship of 2010, the third ship to carry the name in Cunard service and the second to be named personally by Queen Elizabeth II. At 90,900 GT and 294 m she is a near-sister of Queen Victoria of 2007, built on the widely used Vista platform that Carnival Corporation ordered in many variants for several of its brands, but finished — inside and out — as a deliberate evocation of the first Queen Elizabeth of 1940 and of the Art Deco ocean liner era.
That dual identity is her significance. Structurally she is a modern diesel-electric Azipod cruise ship, not a true ocean liner: she lacks a liner's heavy hull plating throughout, though her bow was built stronger for the transatlantic run and she carries a liner's high freeboard. Culturally she is presented as a liner — ballroom, afternoon tea, a two-deck library, black hull and red funnel — on a cruise-ship platform, and her whole decorative programme is a tribute to her 1940 namesake.
She was named at Southampton on 11 October 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II herself and entered service the next day. She has sailed for Cunard alone, under one name, ever since.
Key specifications
Dataset and register figures agree closely: IMO 9477438, Fincantieri Monfalcone hull 6187, 294 m in length and 32.3 m in beam, with the article record giving 90,901 GT against the dataset's rounded 90,900 GT, draught about 8 m, and 16 decks in total with 12 passenger decks. Installed power is 64,000 kW from four MaK 12VM43C and two MaK 8M43C diesel engines, driving two ABB Azipods of 17.6 MW each with three bow thrusters — the standard Vista-class diesel-electric arrangement in its enlarged Cunard form.
Two dataset figures need context. Capacity is recorded as 2,092 maximum; her article record gives 2,092 as lower beds, with a true maximum of 2,547 — the dataset has labelled her double-occupancy figure as a maximum, logged in the batch notes. Speed is recorded as 22.0 knots; her article gives 23.7 knots maximum and Fincantieri's sheet a service speed of 21.7 knots — the same ship, described at service and maximum power. Crew, blank in the dataset, is about 1,000.
Her cost was reported at about £350 million (about US$560 million).
Design and construction
Queen Elizabeth was ordered in October 2007 and built by Fincantieri at Monfalcone, Italy, as hull 6187. She was laid down on 2 July 2009, launched (floated out) on 5 January 2010, completed in October 2010 and formally handed over on 4 October 2010, with Captain Christopher Wells as her first master.
The hull is the enlarged Vista design proven in Queen Victoria, altered in one visible way: a steeper, more upright stern, allowing slightly higher capacity than Victoria's. Inside, the arrangement follows Victoria closely, with one functional addition: a Britannia Club section within the main restaurant, a Queen Mary 2 feature Victoria lacked. Victoria's Winter Garden with its sliding roof became, in Elizabeth, the Garden Lounge under a fixed glass roof. She was floated out in January 2010 and fitted out alongside through that summer before delivery.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
Cunard announced the name on 10 October 2007, reviving Queen Elizabeth for the first time since the original liner's withdrawal in 1968 and the retirement of Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2008 left the name free. The floated-out ship was completed in October 2010.
The naming was the event. On 11 October 2010, at Southampton, Queen Elizabeth II named the ship in person — the monarch who had launched Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1967 and named Queen Mary 2 in 2004 now sponsoring the ship that bore her own name, before more than 1,500 invited guests. The ship carries a commissioned portrait of the Queen and an 18.5-foot marquetry panel depicting the original Queen Elizabeth, created by David Linley, the Queen's nephew.
She sailed on her maiden voyage the next day, 12 October 2010, from Southampton to the Canary Islands. The dataset's maiden-voyage entry of 2010-10 is that October sailing, correctly dated to the month.
Career by operator
Queen Elizabeth has had one name and one operator throughout her career.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2010–present | Queen Elizabeth | Cunard Line |
Her career is marked by Cunard's collective occasions. On 13 January 2011 she took part in a Royal Rendezvous in New York with Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria; the three met again at Southampton on 5 June 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee, and at Liverpool on 25 May 2015 for Cunard's 175th anniversary, performing the synchronised “river dance” on the Mersey. In October 2011 she was re-registered from Southampton to Hamilton, Bermuda, to permit weddings on board. From 2019 she began regular Alaska seasons from Vancouver and extended Australian seasons — a long-haul rotation interrupted in 2020–21 by the pandemic pause and a Manila Bay anchorage, returning to service on 13 August 2021 after a 17-month break.
Onboard character
Queen Elizabeth's public rooms are a studied 1930s revival. The Grand Lobby rises around a sweeping staircase with Art Deco bronze work and marquetry; the Queens Room is a full ballroom for dancing and for afternoon tea; the Royal Court Theatre is built as a West End theatre in miniature; and the two-deck library, the Commodore Club overlooking the bow, the Garden Lounge and the ship's displays of memorabilia from the first Queen Elizabeth complete a programme in which almost every principal room cites the liner era. Grills guests — Queen's Grill and Princess Grill — dine and lounge separately at the top of the ship, preserving Cunard's class-by-restaurant system in modern form.
The point of the design is occasion. Formal and gala evenings, ballroom dancing, lawn bowls, lectures and the ritual of tea are not theming laid over a cruise ship; in Cunard's operation they are the product, and the Art Deco interiors are their stage set. The 2025 refit lightened that set without altering the proposition: a ship that feels like a period liner in every room, while remaining a Vista-class cruise ship underneath.
Major refits and incidents
Two refits mark her material history in the sources used here. In January 2019 she underwent a two-week refit at Damen Shiprepair Brest that refurbished cabins, corridors, spa and retail areas and removed two cabins to make room for an exhaust-gas cleaning system (scrubber). The largest recent refit ran from 25 February to 13 March 2025 at Seatrium's Admiralty Yard, Singapore: the Commodore Club, Queens Room, Garden Lounge, Pavilion and Panorama Pool Club were revitalised, the Grills product was upgraded inside and out, staterooms received new entertainment systems, USB provision, balcony furniture and mattresses, and the Pavilion Wellness Café was introduced, ahead of her Alaska season from Seattle and her first Miami-based Caribbean season later in 2025.
No grounding, fire or collision is recorded for her. Her incidents are human and operational: in April 2015 a passenger died in an accident while boarding from a tender at Sihanoukville, Cambodia; in early 2023 biofouling findings by New Zealand authorities forced the cancellation of that season's New Zealand programme; and in October 2024 she responded to the mayday of HMNZS Manawanui, which sank off Samoa. None involved damage to Queen Elizabeth herself.
Sister ships and class
Queen Elizabeth is a member of Carnival Corporation's Vista class — the dataset's “Vista (2002)-class” — a platform first built for Holland America Line and adapted for several brands. Her closest sister is Queen Victoria (2007), from which she differs in her steeper stern, Britannia Club restaurant and décor; Queen Anne (2024) is a later, larger ship, not a Vista sister. Her distinction within the extensive Vista family is purely Cunard's: no other Vista hull carries the black hull, the ballroom programme or the royal naming history.
Fate and where she is now
Queen Elizabeth is in active service with Cunard, status active in the dataset. The scale of her 2025 Singapore refit is the practical evidence of her position: a core fleet ship receiving major investment in her fifteenth year, with no sale, charter or retirement announced in the sources used.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Queen_Elizabeth, Fincantieri Queen Elizabeth ship sheet (hull 6187), Cunard refit announcement December 2024 via CNW/Travelweek reports of the February–March 2025 Singapore refit