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CRUISE PICTORIAL


QUEEN
ELIZABETH 2
FOURTH OF JULY
page 2

JULY 3, 1999

The Fourth of July 1999 found QE2 once again on a Bermuda cruise.   This time, there was no large scale maritime event to participate in and the voyage had a more informal feel than in 1992.   

The ship was again decorated in accord with the holiday (left).
​And the passengers partied in the Yacht Club (above) and the Queens Room (below) like it was 1999.

QE2 docked at Kings Wharf in the Royal Naval Dockyard.

JULY 1, 2000

To mark the new Millennium, New York hosted an international maritime event that included both tall ships and warships from various nations.  QE2 also participated. 

This was a shorter voyage than the 1992 and 1999 cruises.  There was no time to go to Bermuda, so QE2 simply went out to sea on  cruise to nowhere.

For the Fourth, QE2 anchored near the Verrazano Bridge.  This enabled her to provide a viewing platform for the parade of  ships and for the annual fireworks display in the evening. 

Above: U.S. Navy cruiser Hue City, CG 66, with President Bill Clinton aboard, passes QE2.
Right: Passengers watching the fireworks display from Sun Deck.

The next morning, QE2 proceeded to her usual berth at Pier 88 in New York's Passenger Ship Terminal.  However, when she arrived, she found that several of the visiting warships were already in the slip between Piers 88 and 90.  This was incredibly poor planning as the berths at the Passenger Ship Terminal are notoriously difficult to negotiate because of the current of the river and because QE2 was not very maneuverable.   It would have made much more sense for QE2 to have docked first and then the much smaller naval ships.  In any event, QE2 was able to dock but in the process, she scraped a Japanese warship leaving a mark along her side.  When QE2's staff captain went over to the Japanese ship to apologize, the Japanese admiral dismissed the incident saying "It is always an honor to be kissed by a queen." 

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