The Queen Mary 2 is the most expensive passenger ship ever built

The height of a 23-storey building, this monster vessel is 345m long and, at around 150,000 tons, is more than twice the size of her stablemate, the Queen Elizabeth 2.

She will carry 2,620 passengers served by 1,253 crew and her whistle will be audible for 10 miles.

She will have a top speed of approximately 30 knots (34.5mph), with 157,000 horsepower behind her.

The QM2 is due to embark on her 14-day maiden voyage to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from her home port of Southampton on Monday, January 12.

She is set to be named by the Queen four days earlier.

Cruises on the liner will include the Caribbean and Bahamas, North America, Europe, and the Mediterranean.

A transatlantic passage will start at around �999 and rise to �26,000 for the best suite. Penthouses will feature butler and concierge services.

Entertainments

QM2 passengers will have the use of a library, a theatre, pools, a disco, a casino and a planetarium, and 21 lifts will ferry them between her 17 decks.

Catering facilities, covering an area of 4,070 sq m, will include eight galleys, 14 buffet outlets, 43 walk-in pantries and 14 bars.

The 1,310 cabins will include duplexes with gyms and penthouses with butlers.

The ship will have 2,500km of electric cable, 3,000 telephones, 25,000sq m of carpet and 4,339 steps.

The QM2 will undertake more Transatlantic crossings than her elderly running mate, the QE2.

These may combine a six-day Atlantic crossing with a land option in either the US or Europe, and itineraries might mix Europe and North American stops.

No round-the world trips have as yet been scheduled.

In August 2004, the liner will become a floating hotel for the Olympic Games in Athens.

Construction problems

Construction of the QM2 in France has not been without problems.

Some 300 Indian workers went on strike for 20 days last March to demand more money and better living conditions.

Then 92 Romanian workers putting together the air conditioning went on strike in August, claiming they had not been paid for two months.

In November, 15 people were killed when a gangway collapsed during a visit to the ship by families of workers at the Saint-Nazaire shipyard.

Too big for Britain

QM2 could never "realistically" have been built in Britain.

The 1,132ft-long vessel was built at Alstom Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in St Nazaire, western France, for the Carnival Corp's Cunard Line.

There are only four other shipyards with facilities for constructing a vessel that size, which stretches the length of four football fields, according to BBC South's transport correspondent Paul Clifton.

Two of them are in Italy, one in Finland and another in Germany.

Clifton, who has followed closely the development of the ship, said: "At one stage, there was some suggestion the Queen Mary 2 could have been built at Belfast-based shipyard Harland and Wolff.

"But the shipyard did not possess the range of outfitting skills required to build a modern cruise ship."

QM2 is scheduled to arrive in Southampton on Boxing Day, and is expected to generate up to �40m in trade for the city, Paul Clifton added.

Cunard's Caronia was the last passenger liner built in Britain in 1972.

It was built on the River Tyne by Swan Hunter at the company's Wallsend yard at a cost of $40m.