Queen Mary 2 Captain Philpott’s Monthly Column

It’s World Voyage time of year!

2019-01-08

Hello again everyone. Early January is the time of year when many cruise ships and certainly all three of Cunard’s Liners are getting ready for a complete change to their usual schedules as they prepare to set off on their annual three month World Voyages. This is a time of great excitement, both for the […]

Ringing in the New Year Cunard style!

2019-01-02

Hello again and if you are anything like me, you are right now wondering just where the year 2018 has gone! Another year flies by and we are right on the brink of entering 2019 as I write this. Where will this new year take us, I wonder? Lots of new and exciting adventures and […]

Happy Holidays!!

2018-12-18

Hello Everyone. Well, the Festive Season is well and truly approaching as I write and this will be the last of my articles before Christmas Day, so why don’t I take this opportunity to describe what a truly magical time this is on board the Cunard ships and, I’m sure, on the other cruise lines’ […]

Manoeuvres in Port!

2018-12-12

Hello everyone and firstly let me say that one of the questions I am most often asked is “just how do you berth a huge ship like Queen Mary 2 alongside the pier so gently each time?!” Well for me, it has always been a source of immense satisfaction every time a berthing operation at […]

The Greatest Showman and the Greatest Ocean Liner!

2018-12-04

I’m sure that many of you will be familiar with the amazingly successful musical movie “The Greatest Showman” which has done so well over the past year and which starred Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Michelle Williams and Keala Settle amongst others. A follow-up music album has just recently been released to mark […]

Alaskan Adventures

2018-11-27

Hello again, and this week I’ll start by writing a little on Cunard’s youngest ship, Queen Elizabeth, which as I mentioned last week is currently having a refit in France with refurbishment of staterooms and suites as well as many of the public areas. This is fantastic news for any of you thinking about trying […]

Right to the Bitter End!

2018-11-20

Good Day to all readers, or as I used to say on board Cunard’s Queen Victoria or Queen Mary 2 at my daily Noon speech; “Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Captain Peter Philpott speaking from the Navigating Bridge and I do hope you all enjoying this wonderful day at sea! As is our […]

Special guests and entertainment aboard cruise ships

2018-11-13

Hello again! If you happen to be a regular reader of my column, you’ll have seen that I was for a long time with Princess Cruises – in fact I served in all Navigating Officer ranks up to the rank of Staff Captain. My favorite Princess ship was the original Pacific Princess (built in the […]

Early days

2018-11-06

Hello again and as you may have read, I just finished my career at sea on “big ships” as Captain of Queen Mary 2 in September 2018 and it really was an amazing way to complete a career. But we all start somewhere and I still vividly recall my early days as a young 16 […]

No route is ever the same

2018-10-23

You know, the average person might think that Queen Mary 2’s Transatlantic Crossings must take the same route every time. I mean, why not? It’s all Ocean out there and it would be very difficult to bump into say, Bermuda or some other such island on the way across! So why is then that I […]