Cruises.co.uk Reveal the Godmother for Queen Elizabeth

Southampton, United Kingdom, October 01, 2010 --(PR.com)-- After much speculation Cruises.co.uk are proud to reveal that Cunard Cruises have officially confirmed that their latest superliner Queen Elizabeth will be named by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

The ceremony is due to take place in Southampton on Oct, 11, where Her Majesty will be required to smash a bottle of champagne against the hull of her regal namesake. Queen Elizabeth will then embark on her maiden voyage to the Canary Islands on October, 12.

Peter Shanks, Cunard Cruise Lines President and Managing Director said that it was “a very special occasion and this will be an historic event in the true sense of the word... We are both honoured and proud that Her Majesty will name our new liner Queen Elizabeth.”

Members of the UK’s largest cruise forum site http://www.Cruises.co.uk echo these sentiments that a much loved British Royal will be naming Queen Elizabeth, including Dancing Queen, a regular forum member, who said, “I think it is wonderful news, there really was only "one person" to do the honours." Especially after the embarrassing launch of Queen Victoria by Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, which was marred by the fact that the Champagne bottle did not smash for the first time, which is considered to be bad luck.

Cunard Cruises share a long history of Royal Launches with Her Majesty Queen Mary (wife of King George V) being the first British Monarch to launch a merchant ship as she named Queen Mary in 1934.

The late Queen Mother launched Queen Elizabeth in 1938, where she was accompanied by Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. As Princess Elizabeth, the Queen also launched Caronia in 1947 and in 1955 Carinthia was launched by HRH the Princess Margaret.

The Queen also named the now retired Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1967 and Cunard’s flagship Queen Mary 2 in 2004. More recently in December 2007 Queen Victoria was named by HRH the Duchess of Cornwall.

However there was slight disappointment by some members of http://www.Cruises.co.uk at the use of a British Monarch being used when the ship itself is American owned and built in Italy. One person who agrees with this is Parsman who said, “An American-owned ship, built in Italy named after the Queen. What a sad reflection on post-industrial Britain. The first one was built on the Clyde, Cunard was mainly British and Queen's mother launched it.”

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