Magic Mary & The Return of CUNARD Cruising in Southampton Docks - 13/08/2021

Friday 13th - unlucky for some? Not for CUNARD as they finally returned to passenger service after shutting down at the start of the pandemic. The ship given the honour of restarting cruises' for CUNARD was "Queen Elizabeth" and made her first departure from Southampton on Friday 13th August 2021. Prior to her departure we see the departures of two other Cruise Ships. The first being Disney Cruise Lines' "Disney Magic" from the Horizon Cruise Terminal at around 18:20pm. She is then seen turning off Mayflower Park alongside the much larger second CUNARD ship - "Queen Mary 2" and the two ships saluted each other before "Disney Magic" is then seen sailing past Town Quay and off down Southampton Water to begin her weekend coastal voyage. "Queen Mary 2" was next to get underway around 7pm from the City Cruise Terminal where she's spent the majority of the past week and sailed past "Queen Elizabeth", sounding her horn in salute, but strangely there was no reply from her smaller and youngest sister. She is not due to start taking passengers again until later in the year so was sailing with her skeleton crew back to presumably her usual anchorage off Babbacombe. Finally, we see "Queen Elizabeth" reversing out from the Ocean Cruise Terminal assisted by two Tugs before turning and sailing off down Southampton Water with her first passengers since Spring 2020. Welcome back CUNARD and "Queen Elizabeth".