One of the cruise industry’s most luxurious ships docked in Huatulco on January 25, 2011. The Queen Victoria is the newest member of well respected Cunard line’s Southampton based ships. The 1,968-passenger vessel features a covered wraparound promenade deck, a large Lido pool with a retractable magrodome, and grand staircases and chandeliers.
Huatulco is the first Mexican stop on its Panama Canal Discovery Cruise which originated in Fort Lauderdale. This 15 day cruise includes stops in Aruba, Panama Canal, Puntarenas, Puerto Quetzal, Huatulco, Acapulco, Manzanillo, and finally disembarking in Los Angeles.
Friends and families of the passengers watched the ocean liner’s arrival in Huatulco via the Queen Victoria’s bridge webcam on Cunard’s website.
I watched the Queen arrive from my balcony above the cruise ship dock in Santa Cruz, Huatulco, Mexico. Gleaming in the early morning sunlight, she glided to the dock under clear blue skies, ambient temperature of about 25°C.
The Queen Victoria is one of the three Grand Dames of Cunard’s luxury ocean liner class, which includes the iconic Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth 2. These three fine ladies met for the first time ever on January 13, 2011 and paraded under the Statue of Liberty. Fireworks filled the skies above New York City’s harbour as a salute to Cunard’s three Queens and the Empire State Building was floodlit by Cunard’s traditional red livery.
Here in Huatulco, the Queen Victoria was greeted by the buoyant tunes of a dockside marimba band and the squawks of a flock of parrots as they rose from their tree perches and dotted the tropical sky. At 9 o’clock in the morning, the passengers di a catamaran tour of Huatulco’s nine spectacular bays, or a visit to a mountain coffee finca. Or, as I viewed from my balcony, they claimed their lounge chairs on the beach, the great ocean liner docked in the bay in front of them, and they sipped their first icy cerveza of the day.
This certainly isn’t New York. This is Huatulco.
No comments:
Post a Comment