The Queen Mary 2 is the superlative passenger liner With 150000 GRT she is the largest longest (345 m) tallest (at 72 m she is taller than the Statue of Liberty) and most magnificent ship ever built for the Cunard Line 2620 passengers can be accommodated on 14 stylish and luxuriously equipped passenger decks plus a crew of 1253 With her long elegant hull and powerful engines (max 29 knots) she was specially designed for transatlantic crossings from Europe (Southampton England) to North America (New York) in 6 days The Queen Mary 2 concept was created in May 1998 After a further two years in development in November 2000 the order was placed with a French shipyard and she was handed over to the Cunard Line on 22 December 2003 After wintering in the Caribbean in April 2004 the ship entered regular transatlantic service The Queen Mary 2 continues the tradition of North Atlantic travel thus perpetuating an era of ocean travel that was already claimed to have ended