Working his way up to first class

Passenger Paul Cunane from Wiltshire, England, relaxes in the spa pool on the Queen's Grille deck. Photo / Alex Robertson

Paul Cunane was 15 years old and it was 1963 when he made his mother - and himself - a promise. "One day I'm going to sit at the Captain's Table."

At the time his job as an apprentice on the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth meant the closest he got to that exalted table was waiting on it, so that promise might have seemed far off.

But earlier this year, as a passenger on the new Queen Mary 2, he finally fulfilled his dream and dined with the ship's captain, Commodore Bernard Warner. "It was everything I thought it would be."

Cunane actually started his sea life as a bell boy on the original Queen Mary.

"In those days you didn't have internet, fax, or satellite phones. So it was my job to deliver messages - telegrams and the like - to passengers from the Purser's office."

Originally from Liverpool, he followed up every local boy's dream to serve on the luxurious ships that passed through the port. He progressed well, moving up to commis waiter within a year, and he remembers mixing with Hollywood stars as they voyaged across the Atlantic.

"I met Bette Davis and Cary Grant and other great stars. But I was only 15 years old and didn't really understand how important it all was."

These days he owns a 10-room private hotel in the Wiltshire countryside, which only opens in summer, allowing him to spend winters cruising with Cunard.

So, how does the QM2 compare to the original Queen Mary?

"The QM2 is trying to recapture the past, the elegance, the romance. She's a liner, not a cruise ship," he says.

"She carries an understated elegance."

This time, Cunane is treating himself and is travelling Queen's Grille (that's first class for the uninitiated).

"It's not a class distinction, it's a brand. I'm buying into the brand of the luxuries that only Cunard can offer. I eat exclusively in the Queen's Grille and can't eat in the main Britannia Restaurant. I have a butler who brings me canapes and makes drinks from the complimentary bar every evening.

"I have what I call a junior suite. I have a balcony with a teak deck, not a metal deck. I have finer linen and towels and a bath."

For this voyage he joined the ship in Fort Lauderdale and disembarked in Sydney, travelling via the Caribbean, Grenada, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Cape Horn, through Chile's fjords to Valparaiso, Lima, Acapulco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Samoa and Auckland. He's seen tango in Argentina, Carnival in Brazil, Hawaiian dancing, Maori haka and was invited to a Governor's residence for afternoon tea somewhere in the Caribbean.

And what was the most memorable part of the trip?

"Well, we passed around Cape Horn. And you know how you hear those stories of how rough it is? This time it was calm and still and everyone came up on deck and the Captain brought the ship up to this great big rock in the middle of the Drake's Passage and announced that this was Cape Horn. Everyone was rugged-up and mugs of hot chocolate and soups were handed out.

"Then the Captain stopped the ship and turned the engines off. And we all looked at this great big rock in the middle of the ocean in total silence."