QUEEN ELIZABETH 2
April 14–20, 1999 | Voyage 1160 – Southampton to New York
This collection preserves original paperwork and memorabilia from our honeymoon crossing aboard Queen Elizabeth 2 (Cunard), sailing from Southampton to New York on April 14–20, 1999. Voyage 1160 celebrated QE2’s 30th anniversary in service and formed the final transatlantic leg of her 1999 World Cruise.
This collection preserves original paperwork, correspondence and travel memorabilia from our April 14–20, 1999 transatlantic crossing aboard Queen Elizabeth 2. We traveled from Southampton to New York aboard QE2 for our honeymoon, staying in cabin 4142 during a particularly significant voyage in the liner’s career.
Cunard designated the sailing Voyage 1160. It celebrated QE2’s 30th anniversary in service and completed the final leg of her 1999 World Cruise. The documents we brought home provide a different record of the crossing than photographs alone. They preserve some of the practical details, printed materials and small keepsakes that accompanied an Atlantic crossing aboard one of the world’s most famous ocean liners at the end of the twentieth century.
The Collection
Original Voyage Material:
The collection includes original paperwork and memorabilia retained from our April 1999 crossing.
Some pieces were practical documents intended to be used during the voyage, while others were designed as souvenirs.
Together, they provide a passenger-level record of Voyage 1160 that complements the photographs from the crossing.
The material has remained connected with our honeymoon voyage rather than being assembled later from unrelated QE2 memorabilia.
Postcards:
Original QE2 postcards are among the surviving pieces from the voyage.
We mailed postcards back to ourselves during the crossing, turning ordinary onboard souvenirs into personally dated records of the journey.
Because they were actually used during the voyage, the postcards have a direct connection with our experience aboard QE2.
They also preserve a form of travel correspondence that was still a familiar part of an ocean voyage in 1999.
New York Landing Information:
Passenger landing information was distributed in preparation for QE2’s arrival in New York.
The paperwork explained practical arrangements passengers needed to know before leaving the ship.
Material such as this was intended for immediate use rather than long-term preservation.
Surviving examples now provide a record of how Cunard organized the final stages of a transatlantic crossing.
World Cruise Material:
The collection includes Cunard envelopes and printed material carrying World Cruise identification.
Voyage 1160 formed the concluding transatlantic portion of QE2’s 1999 World Cruise.
Passengers joining in Southampton shared the ship with passengers completing a much longer journey.
These pieces connect our six-night crossing with the larger World Cruise that was coming to an end in New York.
Baggage Material:
Baggage tags and related pieces were part of the practical process of traveling aboard QE2.
These items helped identify and route luggage between the passenger cabin, ship and terminal.
Although created for a temporary purpose, surviving baggage material preserves details of how passenger travel was organized.
Pieces like these are especially useful when documenting the everyday experience of ocean travel rather than only the ship itself.
Voyage 1160 – April 14–20, 1999
Southampton to New York:
We boarded Queen Elizabeth 2 in Southampton on April 14, 1999.
The voyage crossed the North Atlantic westbound to New York.
We stayed in cabin 4142.
QE2 arrived in New York on April 20, completing the six-night crossing.
The voyage was our honeymoon and remains one of the most personally significant journeys represented on Ocean Liner Photography.
QE2’s 30th Anniversary:
Queen Elizabeth 2 entered Cunard service in 1969.
Our 1999 crossing took place as the liner marked 30 years in service.
Voyage 1160 commemorated that anniversary, adding another layer of significance to the journey.
The surviving paperwork provides a contemporary record from this particular point in QE2’s long career.
The Final Leg of the 1999 World Cruise:
Voyage 1160 also completed QE2’s 1999 World Cruise.
Passengers boarding at Southampton were joining the ship for the final Atlantic crossing to New York.
Other passengers aboard had traveled much farther as part of the complete World Cruise.
The World Cruise material preserved in this collection reflects that overlap between our individual crossing and QE2’s larger global itinerary.
Traveling Aboard QE2 in 1999
A Paper-Based Passenger Experience:
In 1999, many of the details passengers now receive digitally were still communicated through printed material.
Arrival instructions, baggage information, notices and other practical details were distributed on paper.
Passengers encountered Cunard branding not only in brochures and souvenirs but throughout the everyday paperwork associated with the voyage.
Keeping these pieces preserves aspects of the passenger experience that can be difficult to reconstruct from photographs of the ship alone.
Before Smartphones and Digital Travel Documents:
Mobile boarding passes and cruise-line apps were not part of the passenger experience.
Printed information played a much larger role in communicating schedules, procedures and travel arrangements.
Paperwork accumulated naturally during a voyage and was often discarded once it was no longer needed.
The survival of these pieces more than twenty-five years later gives them historical value that was not necessarily apparent when they were created.
Personal Connections
Our Honeymoon Crossing:
The April 1999 voyage was our honeymoon.
Traveling aboard QE2 made the crossing significant to us well beyond its place in the ship’s history.
The paperwork was saved because it belonged to that journey rather than because we were intentionally creating an archive at the time.
As the years have passed, the material has become an increasingly meaningful record of both our personal history and QE2’s career.
Postcards Sent Home:
Mailing postcards to ourselves created an especially personal part of the collection.
The cards physically traveled as correspondence rather than remaining unused souvenirs.
Their connection with a specific date and voyage gives them context that similar unused postcards would not have.
They now serve as small time capsules from the crossing.
Arriving in New York
The End of the Crossing:
QE2 arrived in New York on April 20, 1999, completing Voyage 1160.
The New York landing paperwork records some of the practical details associated with the end of the journey.
After nearly a week aboard the ship, passengers needed information concerning arrival procedures, baggage and leaving QE2.
Documents created for that purpose were rarely intended to become permanent historical records.
Preserving them helps reconstruct the final hours of the crossing from a passenger’s perspective.
Completing the World Cruise:
The New York arrival also brought QE2’s 1999 World Cruise to its conclusion.
For passengers who had traveled on the longer World Cruise, New York represented the end of a journey very different from our Southampton departure six nights earlier.
For us, it marked the conclusion of our honeymoon crossing.
The surviving documents therefore record the same arrival from several overlapping perspectives: a transatlantic crossing, an anniversary voyage, a honeymoon and the end of a World Cruise.
Preserving Ocean Liner Ephemera
More Than Photographs:
Photographs document QE2’s appearance, spaces and arrival in port, but paperwork records another part of the experience.
Landing instructions show how passengers prepared to leave the ship.
Baggage material reflects the logistics of moving passengers and their belongings.
World Cruise envelopes preserve the visual identity of a particular period in Cunard history.
Postcards connect the ship with personal communication sent during the journey.
Everyday Objects Become Historical Records:
Most passenger paperwork was never intended to survive for decades.
Its temporary nature is part of what makes surviving examples valuable.
Small details in printed material can reveal how Cunard presented the ship, organized a voyage and communicated with passengers.
When preserved together with known dates and voyage information, ordinary objects become documentary evidence of a specific journey.
Part of the Ocean Liner Photography Archive:
This collection complements the separate photographic record of our 1999 transatlantic crossing aboard QE2.
The photographs preserve the visual experience of the voyage, while these documents preserve some of its practical and personal details.
Keeping the material together maintains its connection with Voyage 1160 rather than separating the individual pieces from their original context.
More than twenty-five years after the crossing, the collection remains a tangible connection to our honeymoon, QE2’s 30th anniversary and the conclusion of her 1999 World Cruise.
OLP Social: Original postcards, landing instructions and baggage material preserve the passenger experience of our honeymoon voyage, documenting QE2’s 30th anniversary crossing and the conclusion of her 1999 World Cruise.
