Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth has welcomed a special guest on its voyage south to Australia this month, with Santa Claus preparing to help fellow passengers celebrate the luxury ship’s first Christmas Down Under.
Leaving the cold of the Northern Hemisphere behind, Queen Elizabeth departed Southampton on November 3 and will arrive in Australia in early December for the start of her record 101-day deployment in local waters.
Her season will mark the first time one of Cunard’s current fleet of three Queens has spent Christmas sailing Australasian waters.
To make sure Santa feels at home, Cunard has transformed the 90,900-tonne Queen Elizabeth into a Christmas wonderland. The ship’s three-story Grand Lobby is now home to a magical oversized Christmas tree glistening with decorations, while elaborate gingerbread villages crafted by Cunard’s award-winning chefs are on display around the ship.
On Christmas Day, as Queen Elizabeth sails from Burnie in Northern Tasmania to Fiordland National Park in New Zealand, Santa will be celebrating a very Cunard Christmas with guests, who will enjoy a spectacular British festive feast with all the trimmings, alongside exciting Australian dishes and a traditional Aussie BBQ with lamingtons and pavlova for dessert.
Queen Elizabeth’s 49-night voyage from Southampton to Australia will see Santa make calls in Lisbon, Tenerife, Walvis Bay in Namibia, the South African ports of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, Saint-Denis, Reunion Island and Port Louis, Mauritius.
Santa will arrive in Australia on December 6, when Queen Elizabeth calls at Fremantle, Western Australia before visiting Albany on December 8, and making the cruise line’s first ever call to Esperance on December 9. Santa will also visit Adelaide on December 12 before Queen Elizabeth arrives in Melbourne on December 14.
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