Valentine's Day 2012

Every time the Queen Mary 2 comes to Sydney, people flock to the harbour to get a glimpse of the mighty ship as she comes through the heads. And as dawn was breaking this morning, on Valentine’s Day, she was met and escorted up the harbour by a flotilla of water craft, as helicopters, amateur photographers and hundreds of people looked on. In a clever PR campaign involving a morning TV show, the Cunard line allowed the Queen to display a 4 metre wedding proposal banner which read "Marry Me Jess?” Jess and Stefan will be taken on board the Queen today for a romantic brunch.






The ship is on its third visit to Sydney and has 2482 passengers aboard, including 1169 Australians. As part of a 108 day world cruise, it is spending 28 days in Australian waters, travelling from Fremantle in Western Australia and then around the coast, stopping at ports including Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin before returning to Perth and on to Sydney, which it revisits on March 7.


Because of her size, the Queen Mary 2 is too wide and too long to dock at Circular Quay and must berth at Garden Island where she makes our Naval ships look very small.


When the Queen sails for Brisbane tonight, she will carry Matthew Flinder’s handwritten journal, logbook and an original copy of his map, published in 1814. The priceless documents are on loan from the State Library of NSW and senior curator and Flinders expert Paul Brunton is travelling with them and will give lectures to guests about the man who gave Australia its name.