20 years of the Queen Mary 2

A mass crowd in the port and on the banks of the Elbe – this is how the “Queen Mary 2” enchanted Hamburg on her first call on July 19, 2004. The arrival in the port was watched and celebrated by more than 400,000 spectators. The people of Hamburg greeted the guests of what was then the world’s largest passenger ship with a flurry of flashing lights, waving scarves and huge cheers.

What nobody could have foreseen – the enthusiasm for the “Queen Mary 2” helped to consolidate the topic of ocean travel in the north of Germany. Numerous ship christenings, new terminals, the annual Port Birthday and the introduction of the Hamburg Cruise Days also helped to strengthen Hamburg’s development as an international cruise destination in the years that followed.