Head chef Nicholas Oldroyd from Yorkshire has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, but there is a gleam in his eye as he stirs stock in a 20-gallon cauldron. He surveys his shiny domain, a split-level kitchen with internal escalators where he will soon yell orders at 141 chefs and feed more than 3,000 people a day. Oldroyd is enjoying that moment in the life of a 90,000-tonne cruise liner before a single passenger has climbed aboard and the staff have a brand-new ship all to themselves. It's a fleeting moment, and in the case of the £365m Queen Elizabeth it will be over when the Queen herself launches the Cunard cruise ship tomorrow.
Days before it sails into Southampton for its launch, electricians, decorators and painters are rushing to finish the ship at the yard where it was built in Monfalcone, Italy, even as hundreds of Cunard crew swarm on board to settle into their new home. The chambermaids, chefs and band members shout down corridors, pose for pictures and tune up clarinets amid last-minute wiring and welding carried out by the foreign legions employed at the yard near Trieste: Romanians for the welding, Sicilian specialists to install the stainless-steel galleys, Portuguese to take care of the marble and Bangladeshis, who have built up such a good reputation as painters they now number more than 1,000 in the local community. The yard, run by Italian state firm Fincantieri, can turn out a ship like the Queen Elizabeth, with 2,500 passengers and 1,000 crew, from a blueprint into a 965ft-long reality in two years.
Below decks Filipinos shout to each other as a shuddering machine resembling a combine harvester chews up wrinkled cotton and spits out pressed and folded tablecloths and bed sheets. Up on the sports deck, technicians are still scratching their heads over how to fix croquet hoops into the Astroturf. "Real grass doesn't take well because you sail through different climates," says Ed Moffat, the assistant entertainments director. "We are also putting in bowls. We will need to see how it works in high seas."
As overseer of the dance classes, the fencing, two orchestras, as well as the dancers and the five actors who will perform Twelfth Night in the 800-seat theatre, Moffat knows about putting on a show in a storm. "The Mediterranean between Barcelona and Monte Carlo can blow up," he says. "That is when we tell the dancers to tone down the high kicking." Cunard has also bolted in six baby grand pianos, and staff are eagerly awaiting the piano tuner, whose arrival is traditionally considered on cruise ships as a sign that work is finished.
The other final touch is the installation of a new portrait of the Queen in the Art Deco-inspired entrance lobby. Her Majesty has a good record for launching Cunard liners bearing her name: at 12 she accompanied her mother to the send-off of the first Queen Elizabeth in 1938 before launching the Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1967, which retired to Dubai in 2007. The latest Queen Elizabeth is the company's third new ship in six years and is a response to a moderate boom in cruise holidays: with 1.5 million Britons booking last year, a rise of 6% year on year, the debut cruise on the new Queen Elizabeth to the Canary Islands sold out in 29 minutes.
Despite being American-owned since 1998, Cunard offers its fans a slice of British heritage. Founded in 1839, the firm stayed afloat by switching from ocean liners to cruising, with a pause during the war when its ships were used as troop carriers. Today it trades on its luxurious, balconied cabins, culminating in the six marble-clad suites on the Queen Elizabeth which resemble decent-sized apartments. They sold for up to £13,800 per person for the two-week maiden voyage: the best ocean view is from the Jacuzzi.
Right now the furniture is still covered in plastic and men in overalls are hanging paintings, tapping their feet to the sound of the band warming up in the concert hall. The band looks shipshape and clean living. "The hard-drinking culture of cruise ship musicians doesn't exist any more," says band member Tim Faulkner. "You'd be off the ship immediately." To fill their spare time, the musicians are even trained as emergency guides, so passengers looking for a lifeboat may be shown the way by a reassuringly sober saxophonist.
The ship's captain, Christopher Wells, sweeps past with a US Customs inspector who is checking to see the ship meets safety standards for US ports. Together they descend to Deck A, where the real business of the vessel takes place, down a bustling corridor linking the engine control room – which powers everything from the ship's two propellers to the galley blenders – to the hospital and the freezer room, where Filipinos in fur-collared jackets are unloading frozen pork fillets, part of the 20-tonne supply of meat needed for a two-week cruise.
Further down below decks, beyond crew cabins, the sweet-smelling bakery, a caviar store and a cold room for conjuring up ice sculptures, lies the thudding engine room where six 30-tonne diesel generators, each the size of a small apartment building, are warming up to supply 60 megawatts of power, enough to light a town of 15,000 inhabitants. Massive pistons lie alongside, ready to push out the 18ft stabiliser fins which settle the ship in heavy weather, while technicians make a last check on a huge machine that blows air bubbles across the underside of the ship to send it sliding more smoothly through the waves.
About the only modestly sized object on board is the ship's wheel, far above on the bridge, which is slightly smaller than the steering wheel of a Mini. "It is only used in port," explains Emanuele Truant, Fincantieri's planning and production control manager. "At sea the ship is effectively steered by a computer mouse."
Another, more basic navigational aid helps the captain steer through tight spots like the Panama Canal, where a nasty scrape against the sides is only 90ft away. At the point where the bridge extends a few yards over each side of the ship, windows set in the floor allow officers to peer down and raise the alarm if dry land gets too close.
That challenge awaits the Queen Elizabeth on its first round-the-world cruise in January. Right now Captain Wells returns to the bridge satisfied the handover between the shipyard and Cunard is moving smoothly.
"With two sets of people in the same space there is a kind of controlled chaos, but I saw the piano tuner today, and that," he says, "is a good sign."
Essentials
The Queen Elizabeth offers a variety of voyages to and from Southampton in 2011, sailing to the Mediterranean, northern Europe, the Baltic and the Caribbean. For details, 0845 071 0300, cunard.co.uk
