News and events Queen Anne

Captain's Log - March 2023

As the countdown to one of the most eagerly anticipated ships of the century edges closer, we'll be giving sneak peeks of Queen Anne’s progress, from the person who knows her best.

4 min 07 Mar 2023

Join Captain Inger, our first female captain, as she prepares to take the helm of our 249th ship next May. In this new Captain’s Log series, she’ll shine a light on building milestones, signature installations and everything in between!

You can expect regular Queen Anne moments and updates from Fincantieri over the next year, and in this kick-off edition Captain Inger reveals how the project has entered a very important phase...

Captain Inger Klein Thorhauge

Cunard Captain

"The sprawling yard at Marghera is a place already steeped in Cunard history. It was here that my former command, Queen Victoria, was built and delivered to Cunard in 2007. Fincantieri also built my last ship Queen Elizabeth (at the Monfalcone shipyard).

From a technical point of view, these sisters in the fleet are very similar. Each has evolved from the same 'Vista' class of design pioneered by Fincantieri and our own shipbuilding team of experts. I remember vividly my first voyages on both ships. I was impressed by both the quality of their build as well as their seaworthiness and the very sophisticated kit at my disposal on the bridge."

"Queen Anne is a 'Pinnacle' class ship with a different hull design to her sisters, although again one from the Fincantieri drawing boards (or computer screens!), with a huge input from the new-build team at our parent company Carnival Corporation & plc.

Modern shipbuilding is an immensely complex process requiring extraordinary expertise in both planning and production. A giant jigsaw doesn’t come close! Each time I visit a shipyard and see a new vessel being built, I am amazed by the display of skill and technical prowess in so many essential disciplines."

"The Queen Anne project has now entered a very important and dramatic phase. Her hull is complete, and all the major plant and machinery is in place, deep inside the cavernous steel compartments assigned to house all the things required to operate a 113,000-tonne ship, designed to take guests on the voyages of their dreams.

The team are in the process of installing her upper decks and fitting out the bridge – seeing my new office for the first time will be another memorable milestone to share with you."

"I’ve spent a good deal of time poring over deck plans and looking at computer-generated visualisations of the public rooms on board my new ship. She already looks magnificent, as you can see in the video on this page.

Walking into the Bright Lights Society show bar, and is already a great experience. These are bare steel, covered in scaffolding and with a maze of cabling above my hard hat and below my safety boots, but, already, I can imagine how they will look during the coming months as our renowned designers bring their striking and beautiful concepts to life on board Queen Anne."