Lavishly remastered Queen Mary 2 to dock in Cape Town

The Queen Mary 2 will sail into Table Bay and dock in Cape Town for two nights on 26 January 2017, the first stop on her world cruise after a £100-million remastering which involved QM2's renowned Queens and Princess Grill suites and restaurants being given extensive enhancement.

Last year, Queen Mary 2 spent 25 days in the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg where her keel rested a mere 850mm from the ground once the water had been drained. Thousands of people, working in shifts around the clock, ensured that work progressed rapidly for the lavish remastering.

All 172 Grills suites have received a comprehensive restyling and have been reconfigured to maximise space. The two Grill restaurants have been redesigned to offer more table size options and space. The King’s Court buffet has been redesigned to create a more open and central buffet area. The Carinthia Lounge – QM2’s Winter Garden – is now unrecognisable as it has been reconfigured into a refined, airy and versatile new venue.

The Verandah replaces the Todd English restaurant. Exactly 80 years after the first Cunard Verandah Grill went to sea on Queen Mary, the latest incarnation of The Verandah concept is now available on board Queen Mary 2 and offers contemporary premium French cuisine.

A ship of superlatives:

• She is four football fields in length – a total of 345 metres

• She is equal to the height of a 23-storey building with 17 decks that tower 200 feet above the waterline

• She covers an area of 3.5 acres

• Her whistle is audible for ten miles

• Her speed of 29.5 knots is double the speed of a Caribbean cruise ship and nearly three times the speed of a blue whale

• She’s constructed from some 300,000 pieces of steel; her hull is made up of 94 steel blocks and weighs 50,000 tons (more than a school of 330 blue whales). The QM2 gross weight is 151,400 tons.

• She carries 343 different wines on board (with annual wine sales estimated at around 230,000 bottles)

• In total over one year, passengers will consume 38,000 lbs of smoked salmon, 346,000 gallons of fruit juice, 249,000 lbs of potatoes and 420,000 packets of breakfast cereal. Excluding wine, the QM2 serves 1.5 million drinks per annum.

• There are 1,310 staterooms in total of which 955 (73%) cabins feature balconies.

• Maximum capacity is 3,090 passengers.