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Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Cunard Queens Tenerife Visits 2007/8
The Victoria was one of the five ships of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition.Queen Victoria's First Visit
As we've already mentioned, Cunard's new cruise ship, the Queen Victoria, to be launched in December 2007, will spend her first festive season around the Canary Islands.
She will visit during the Maiden Canary Islands Festive Celebration voyage. The actual date she will be in Santa Cruz, in Tenerife (for any ship spotters on the island who wish to take this first opportunity to see and photograph her), will be Monday, December 31st, 2007, between 8:00 am and 11:00 pm.
After the cruise to the Canary Islands, the Queen Victoria will embark on her first world cruise, circumnavigating the globe in 107 days (the first ship to do so was also called Victoria; in 1153 days from 1519 to 1522).
On September 6, 1522, the Victoria returned to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, with Juan Sebastián Elcano and 17 survivors of Ferdinand Magellan's 265-man expedition, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.
Full circle: Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese maritime explorer who led the first successful attempt to circumnavigate the earth, is said to have visited Tenerife, arriving on September 26, 1519, near the start of that particular important three year voyage of discovery.
QE2 in Brisbane. Photo: GarryQueen Elizabeth 2 Final Calls
The Queen Elizabeth 2, last in the Canary Islands during her 108-Day Silver Jubilee World Cruise in January, is due to come to Tenerife a few more times before her retirement - to become a luxury floating hotel in Dubai - at the end of 2008.
The next time you'll be able to see the QE2 in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, will be on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 (All Saint's Day - a National Holiday - so those Santa Cruz shops will be shut again!), on the Canary Islands Splendour cruise. Following that, she'll be back a month later, on Saturday, December 1st, 2007, during the Atlantic Isles Idyll voyage.
In 2008, the Queen Elizabeth 2 again calls into Santa Cruz on the Atlantic Isles Idyll trip, on Friday, June 20th, 2008. It has also been reported widely that she will be back on the autumn Canary Islands Splendour cruise, however, it looks to me as if that plan has changed. Listed for that date now at Cunard's own site, is a Farewell to the British Isles Voyage, leaving Southampton on September 30th. For your final chance to see the Queen Elizabeth 2 in Tenerife, I would take the June 2008 date to be true.
