As the water taxi drew nearer to the shipyard just outside Venice, that feeling of excitement I felt last time I visited Her Royal Highness returned and the hairs on my arms stood to attention like the guards outside Buckingham Palace.
What is it about this ship?
We were met by our guides, the director of the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, Mr. Capobianco, and Carnival Corporation’s vice president of shipbuilding, the larger-than-life Giovanni Esposito.
It had been two months since I last visited the Queen Victoria and I wondered how far things had progressed. We walked up the gangway and even though the ship is still being completed and the crew is not yet on board, that special feeling that only a liner like this can provide returned to me. As we began our tour, one thing became evident straight away and that was how proud these young men and women from Fincantieri were in being part of building this regal liner.
