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Happy Birthday Queen Mary 2! Cunard’s Three Queens celebrate the flagship’s 10th anniversary in dramatic style, Southampton, ENGLAND. UK.

Cunard celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship, Queen Mary 2 with the arrival of the whole three ship fleet in Southampton this morning. This was a rare occasion to see all Three Queens together, and Southampton is the only place in the world to have hosted the Three Queens three times.

The ships arrived together at first light to begin a day of spectacular celebration with an early morning Birthday Salute – Happy Birthday in ships’ whistles (foghorns in common parlance) sounding out across Southampton Water. There follows a special reception and lunch on board for invited guests in the presence of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, who last visited the ship when accompanying Her Majesty the Queen to name Queen Mary 2 in 2004. A ten minute firework display from 10pm – one minute for each of the ship’s ten years will create a spectacular send-off before Queen Mary 2 leads the three ships in convoy down to the Solent. Queen Mary 2 will set off an a special anniversary transatlantic crossing to New York with QM2 designer Stephen Payne and the ship’s first master, Commodore Ron Warwick, among the speakers.

Queen Elizabeth will sail on a short break to Hamburg and Queen Victoria will head for the Baltic capitals.