Britain's Queen Elizabeth officially named the $800 million Cunard cruise ship the Queen Mary 2 today, saying "I name this ship Queen Mary 2. May God bless her and all who sail in her..."

The Queen Mary 2 (the QM2) replaces the Queen Elizabeth 2 (the QE2) for Atlantic crossings (Queen Elizabeth named the QE2 in 1967)... The Queen Mary 2 is 1138 feet (342 meters) long and 241 feet (72 meters) high - as tall as a 23-story building! Its 1,310 cabins, including four royal suites and six penthouses, can accommodate 2,620 passengers... The standard cabins are 194 square feet (58 square meters) and 955 of the cabins have balconies - fares begin at 2,449 pounds ($4,408) per person for 14 nights and rise to 26,839 pounds (U$48,310) (but the most expensive ones come with private butlers!)... Entertainment includes a theatre, a cinema that converts to a planetarium, a casino, five pools, an art gallery, 15 restaurants and bars, and even an education programme devised by Oxford University!

Some interesting facts:

• She is as long as 41 double decker buses
• Her whistle - taken from the first Queen Mary - will be audible for 10 miles
• There's almost one crew member (1253 total) for every two passengers
• A single joystick on the bridge manoeuvres her sideways
• Her plant power room could light the whole of Southampton
• In her 40-year lifetime (at 30 voyages a year) she will travel the equivalent of 12 times to the moon and back
• Her speed, 30 knots, is 2 knots slower than the QE2
• The Canyon Ranch spa is the biggest ever on a cruise ship

The 14-day - fully booked - maiden voyage from Southampton (the departure point for the Mayflower and the Titanic) to Fort Lauderdale is scheduled to begin Monday... Get more details at the Cunard web site...