Queen Elizabeth II

Putting on the style

Bill Hagerty

THE most stylish gesture I ever saw was on board Queen Elizabeth II during a force-eight gale. We were dining luxuriously when a mighty wave gave the ship such a slap as she forged through the Bay of Biscay that she bobbed like a plastic duck in the bath.

Those who were standing tottered and tumbled; those seated found themselves removing prime rib of beef, blackened sea scallops and broiled rock lobster from their hair and shirt fronts.

At a table not far from me, an immaculately dinner-suited Californian reacted to the jolt by extending an arm displaying a gleaming white cuff and catching his loaded tumbler as it shot off the table. Not a drop was spilled. 'I have been on a lot of cruises,' he said, as the crashing and clattering around him subsided. And at times such as this the first thing I hold on to is my martini.'

You've either got or you haven't got style. observed Messrs Sinatra. Martin and Crosby in Robin and the Seven Hoods. And there's not a lot of style about now, especially when one is travelling. The term pigclass for economy air travel is apt: the conditions are swinish and the passengers are hardly top-drawer. Club and first-class are more comfortable, but you still have to endure the airports, so that the journey itself is nothing more than a moderately acceptable filling between two distinctly mouldy pieces of bread.

So where do you go for luxury? You can take the train. The Blue Train in South Africa and the Orient Express offer such luxury, charm and elegance that you can spread it like caviare. But ships are even better. Not any old ship, you understand; the giant, floating karaoke bars jamming the Mediterranean and the Caribbean are about as stylish as shellsuits. But the QE2 is in quite another class. She is about as big as the Isle of Wight, has been plying her trade for more than 30 years, and is still the undisputed champion of elegant travel.

Cunard has invested more than ten times the ship's original building cost to ensure that she remains the smartest thing afloat. She has recently been repainted and new carpets have been fitted. Some of the sumptuous suites have been upgraded to keep up with the tastes and whims of the sumptuously wealthy: sleek, retired oilmen, or rich, sweet-smelling widows with more money than scents in their Louis Vuitton suitcases.

The Carinthia suite, for example, on Two Deck, now has two marble baths, a separate dining area and giant picture windows from which to view the Atlantic. (Until fairly recently the journey from Southampton to New York took only five days. Then Cunard, calculating correctly that speed is not what attracts passengers to the QE2, decided to slow the old girl down and add an extra day to the crossing. This saved a considerable amount of money on fuel — and gave their passengers an additional day of luxury.) The full one-way transatlantic fare in the Carinthia is a little over £10,000 per person, although discounts of up to 30 per cent are often available. Those who prefer something more grand will not be disappointed: the duplex suites — Queen Victoria and Queen Anne — feature private deck-terraces, spacious sitting-rooms and a dining-room, plus the services of a butler or maid. Cost: £18,190 per person — and that includes everything except the bar bill. Should you consider such opulence a touch ostentatious, or, perhaps, an extravagance that will mean the family living in penury for the rest of the year, transatlantic fares start at £1,810 (or £1,267 if you get the maximum discount). And for £3,100, before any discount, you can get a better cabin and eat in the excellent Coronia restaurant. The food is as good as that in any West End restaurant. More importantly, the service is better than that in most five-star luxury hotels: more than 1.000 crew attend to the needs of a maximum of 1,777 passengers.

On my Atlantic crossing last summer, before his recent difficulties concerning some of the Princess's property, I met Paul Burrell, former butler to Diana, Princess of Wales. He was contributing to the ship's lecture programme with a talk entitled 'A Unique Guide to Entertaining: Etiquette and Modern Manners', He attracted a sizable crowd to the jolly grand Grand Lounge, where he explained how to extract a stray fishbone from the mouth. The trick is to work it to the front of your mouth and remove it with the prongs of a fork, never your fingers.

There was more where that came from. Mr Burrell told his listeners that the Queen never dines informally, even when alone. She dresses for dinner, and the best candelabra, china and glass gleam on the table as a three-course meal is served at 8.15 every evening. The respectful hush that greeted this precious information signified the approval of the majority: black tie or, at the very least, dark business suit for the men and the works for the ladies are required on four of the six nights on board. The Queen would most certainly approve.

'This is the epitome of elegant travel,' Mr Burrell told me later. 'Look, this is the QE2, the most famous brand-name in cruising. It has to have loads of style; after

all, it is the last transatlantic liner.' It is, too, with some 15 crossings a year, although Cunard is promising that the Queen Mary II, a new 2,800-passenger state-of-the-art liner, will join its regal older sister by the end of 2003.

• The passengers on the transatlantic run often match the ship's sophistication. The New York socialite I talked to at the captain's cocktail party put this down to the European influence on board. The twinklingeyed bachelor colonel from Bray in Berkshire, whom I met mingling with the officers at the Ward Room bash, thought the Americans gave the ambience an extra sheen.

The following morning I discovered a large family group from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sunning themselves by the outdoor pool on One Deck and asked them if they were impressed by the style and elegance. 'Oh, yes,' they chorused. This was their first time on a ship of any size, and the style and elegance were exactly as they had been on the ship that had inspired them to go to sea when they saw it at the movies.

'It is, it is,' they cried cheerfully. 'It's just like the Titanic.'

Bill Hagerty travelled on QE2 as a guest of Cunard.