CUNARD'S NEWLY REFRESHED QUEEN ELIZABETH ARRIVES TO SEATTLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A SPECIAL SERIES OF VOYAGES TO ALASKA
Alaskan voyages mark the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's North American residency as she prepares for her highly anticipated maiden season of Caribbean voyages starting in October
A plaque-and-key ceremony celebrated the arrival in Seattle where the Cunard ship will homeport from June to September
Guests can book spectacular Alaskan voyages aboard Queen Elizabeth ranging from seven to 11 nights
SEATTLE, June 12, 2025 /CNW/ -- Today, the newly refreshed Queen Elizabeth has arrived to the Port of Seattle for the first time to begin a season of highly anticipated Alaskan voyages. Cunard's Queens have embodied the pinnacle of British luxury travel for 185 years, and now Queen Elizabeth will homeport in Seattle for the first time, bringing Cunard's renowned White Star Service to the region for two exclusive seasons of luxurious voyages of seven to 12 nights.
"Historic grandeur, refined elegance, bespoke experiences and unparalleled personal service are cornerstones of a Cunard voyage," explained Liz Fettes, Senior Vice President of Commercial for North America at Cunard. "Our view of luxury is rooted in a belief that experiences can be both elegant and relaxed, and our Alaska voyages aboard Queen Elizabeth personifies that spirit."
The Refreshed Experience Aboard Queen ElizabethDebuting from a stunning refresh, Queen Elizabeth now boasts revitalized signature spaces and an elevated Princess and Queens Grills experience, offering expansive suites, added amenities, butler service and access to private spaces and restaurants on board. In addition to new and upgraded interiors, Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux has designed an exquisite three-course Gala Evening menu exclusive to Grill Suite guests.
Inaugural Alaska guests will also be among the first to enjoy The Pavilion Wellness Café and the Harper's Bazaar® Wellness at Sea program onboard Queen Elizabeth, featuring three bespoke Journeys – packages that include a special curation of wellness treatments, nutritious smoothies, rejuvenating masterclasses and a selection of ELEMIS products.
Spectacular Alaskan VoyagesGuests can enjoy seven to 11-night Alaska voyages aboard Queen Elizabeth from June-September 2025, with rates starting from $1,109 per person for a balcony stateroom, based on double occupancy. Her meticulously crafted itineraries visit captivating ports including Ketchikan, Glacier Bay National Park, Skagway, Juneau, and Victoria, British Columbia. Guests will soak in the pristine beauty of Glacier Bay National Park and Hubbard Glacier. Scenic days viewing the Inside Passage, the longest sheltered inland waterway in the world.
Enriching Onboard ExperiencesOnboard, guests will enjoy even more enriching experiences specially tailored to Queen Elizabeth's Alaska season. First, Cunard continues its partnership with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS), offering an enriching speaker series with experts sharing insights into the region.
Guests will also be treated to a "Locals Onboard" speaker series, featuring 11 local Alaskan speakers, including a master Tlingit dance group, a Denali expeditionist and local historians, artists and photographers. Cunard will also honor the Pacific Northwest with wines from regional wineries served on board, including from Elsom Cellars, Charles Smith Wines, Double Canyon, Canoe Ridge Estate and Goose Ridge.
"The Port of Seattle is honored to welcome Cunard and the iconic Queen Elizabeth for their first homeported season in Seattle," said Port of Seattle Executive Director Steve Metruck. "This partnership marks a major milestone in our work to expand economic activity and to support local jobs through cruise, and we look forward to advancing together our shared vision for sustainability and responsible tourism."
Winter in the CaribbeanFollowing an Alaskan summer, Queen Elizabeth will continue her North American residency, repositioning to Miami this October, where she will homeport for a maiden season of Caribbean voyages. This season marks the first time Cunard will dedicate a ship to a full season in the Caribbean and coincides with a new slate of onboard entertainment offerings, welcoming Broadway and West End performers on every voyage, including Tony Award-winner Sutton Foster and an exclusive production of the Tony Award-winning show Come From Away.
For more information about Cunard or to book a voyage, contact your Travel Advisor, call Cunard at 1-800-728-6273, or visit www.cunard.com.
About CunardCunard is a luxury British cruise line, renowned for creating unforgettable experiences around the world. Cunard has been a leading operator of passenger ships since 1840, and this year celebrates an incredible 185 years of operation. 2025 is a momentous year in Cunard's history, which will be marked with several iconic land-based events and special Event Voyages. The Cunard experience is built on fine dining, hand-selected entertainment, and outstanding White Star service. From a partnership with a two-Michelin starred chef, to inspiring guest speakers, to world class theatre productions, every detail has been meticulously crafted to make the experience unforgettable. A pioneer in transatlantic journeys and round world voyages, destinations sailed to also include Europe, the Caribbean, Alaska, the Far East and Australia.
There are currently four Cunard ships, Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria and new ship, Queen Anne, which entered service in May 2024. This investment is part of the company's ambitious plans for the future of Cunard globally, with the brand now boasting four ships in simultaneous service for the first time since 1999. Cunard is based at Carnival House in Southampton and has been owned since 1998 by Carnival Corporation & plc. www.cunard.com (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE:CUK).
Social MediaFacebook: www.facebook.com/cunardTwitter: www.twitter.com/cunardlineYouTube: www.youtube.com/wearecunardInstagram: www.instagram.com/cunardline
For additional information about Cunard, contact: Cunard: cunardpublicrelations@cunard.com
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cunards-newly-refreshed-queen-elizabeth-arrives-to-seattle-for-the-first-time-in-a-special-series-of-voyages-to-alaska-302480483.html
SOURCE Cunard
View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2025/12/c9619.html
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
U.K.'s Renold Agrees to $254 Million Private-Equity Takeover by MPE Bidco
MPE Bidco, a newly formed corporation backed by U.S. private-equity firm MPE, said each shareholder of the British company would receive 82 pence in cash for each ordinary share.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Inside Florian Wirtz's Liverpool transfer - contract length, record fee, player's preference
Liverpool will pay a guaranteed £100 million ($135 million) as well as a possible further £16 million ($22 million) in add-ons for Florian Wirtz. The deal makes him Liverpool's most expensive signing of all time ahead of Virgil van Dijk, and if the add-ons clauses are all met, he will potentially become a British record signing. He's expected to sign a five-year deal on Merseyside. Advertisement The British transfer record currently stands at £107 million ($145 million), which Chelsea paid for Enzo Fernandez in 2023. However, Chelsea's deal for Moises Caicedo, which was also agreed in 2023, could reach £115 million ($156 million) if all of the add-on clauses in that deal are met. READ MORE: Liverpool transfer news LIVE: Florian Wirtz deal agreed, Bradley Barcola stance, Milos Kerkez hint READ MORE: Xabi Alonso's Florian Wirtz comparison says everything about Liverpool's new star The Caicedo deal would be marginally surpassed by Liverpool's deal for Wirtz if the German ended up costing the full amount. In total, he could cost £116 million ($157 million) — a fee the Reds would be happy to pay, given that would mean he would have contributed to major on-field success. Advertisement Wirtz has emerged as one of the best young attacking players in the world in recent years, playing a key role in Leverkusen's remarkable 2023-24 campaign, when the club won the Bundesliga and DfB Pokal, and reached the Europa League final. At 22, he is already a regular for Germany, having made 31 appearances for his country. Liverpool staved off competition from the likes of Manchester City, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to land Wirtz, with the Reds believing that Wirtz's decision to move to Anfield demonstrates his belief in what Arne Slot is building on Merseyside. Wirtz could become a British-record signing -Credit:2025 James Gill - Danehouse Liverpool has gained plaudits for its shrewd signings in the transfer market over the last decade or so, and while there will be a tendency from some to think that signing a player for a possible $157 million represents a departure from a tried-and-tested strategy, that is not believed to be the case. Advertisement While the fee is eye-watering, Liverpool views Wirtz as a long-term investment in the same way that the club viewed Alisson and Virgil van Dijk when it spent huge sums on those two players in 2018. Alisson and Van Dijk have been crucial during a fruitful period for Liverpool, and the club is hopeful that Wirtz will have a similar impact to those two club legends. Liverpool's lack of activity during the 2024 summer and 2025 winter transfer windows gave the club the wiggle room to be able to spend big on Wirtz.
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
Richard Branson: People have told me I'd fail on many occasions—how I know when to trust myself anyway
Richard Branson says the biggest reason he's a billionaire today is because he trusts his instincts — and he's not discouraged when people tell him a new venture is "crazy" or doomed to fail. Instead, Branson takes those doubts to heart: He listens to his advisors so as to consider every possible pitfall of a new venture. Once those issues are identified, Branson says he takes the necessary precautions to "protect the downside" before forging ahead. That mindset has helped the British founder push past the objections of naysayers, particularly when he strongly believes that one of his seemingly "crazy" ventures can bring something new to a market that's ripe for disruption, Branson, 74, wrote in a LinkedIn post on April 28. "Since we launched, there have been many occasions where people told me we'd fail. But we've stuck by our belief that if you can create something better than everybody else, then you at least have a chance of succeeding," Branson wrote. Branson's risky decision to launch Virgin Atlantic in 1984 is a prime example of the billionaire's philosophy, he wrote in the LinkedIn post. "People thought we were crazy to launch an airline," wrote Branson. "I went against everyone's advice. Friends, experts, the press, the pundits — and on paper, they were right." Branson "had no idea how the aviation world worked" at the time, having previously only worked in the music industry since founding Virgin Records more than a decade earlier, he wrote. But he was convinced that he could improve upon the flying experience offered by most traditional airlines, mostly because it was so "subpar," he noted. It was a huge challenge — one that Branson acknowledged "was very risky" due to the fact that he was taking on much larger, established rivals in a highly competitive industry, he told CNBC Make It in April 2024. Branson took those risks seriously. Rather than dismiss anyone who disagrees with him, Branson advocates for surrounding himself with intelligent people and then spending "as much time as possible listening" to alternative points of view, he wrote on LinkedIn in February 2015. Branson prioritized "protecting the downside" by starting out small and negotiating an escape hatch in case he was wrong. In the case of Virgin Atlantic, that meant starting the company by leasing just a single 747 aircraft from Boeing: "In case my instinct was wrong, I negotiated the right to hand [Virgin's first plane] back to Boeing at the end of the first year," Branson said. "The most the airline was actually going to cost — apart from my reputation, which is obviously very important — was roughly a year's profits at Virgin Records." Fortunately for Branson, his instincts ultimately paid off: Virgin Atlantic is still in business after more than four decades. It has overcome ups and downs, even emerging from bankruptcy proceedings in 2021. More recently, the business posted record annual revenue of nearly $4.5 billion in 2024 that returned the company to profitability, the company announced in March. "Virgin Atlantic is proof that you don't need to stay in your lane," Branson wrote. Without that mindset, Branson never would have launched Virgin Atlantic, much less continued branching out into new industries like telecommunications, hospitality, and even spaceflight. "There's many things that we've done that we wouldn't have done if we'd listened to accountants," Branson told CNBC Make It. Not every decision has been a success. He launched some short-lived brands, like Virgin Cola and Virgin Clothing, that never panned out. Even Branson's spaceflight play, Virgin Galactic, has suffered "significant losses since inception," including losing $346 million in 2024, the company said in its annual report in February. In the case of Virgin Galactic, Branson mitigated the risk to Virgin Group by selling the bulk of its stake in the public space tourism company to investors. Ultimately, though, Branson's overall track record speaks for itself. He boasts a net worth that Forbes currently estimates at $2.8 billion. At the same time, Branson still refuses to think of himself purely as a businessman. "[I'm] somebody that loves to create things that I can be proud of," he told CNBC Make It.
