Aussie couple will sail every Queen of the sea (including the retired ones)
The duo will sail an extraordinary six Cunard ships next year. Why the devotion? Butlers, dress-ups and maiden voyages are just the tip of the iceberg.
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What are your holiday plans for 2024? Whatever they are, it’s a fairly safe bet they’re not going to be too close to those of Mark Eden and Jay Cadiramen, who next year are set to pack six Cunard ships into their holiday time.
The Queen Anne will launch next June.
Setting off from their Melbourne home in December, the couple will join Queen Elizabeth for a 14-day Australia and New Zealand Christmas and New Year cruise. In June, they’ll fly to Los Angeles for a stay on the Cunard ship-turned-hotel, the original Queen Mary at Long Beach. From there, it’s an eight-day Transatlantic crossing on Queen Mary 2. Next up, to close out June, it’s the debut of Queen Anne with the seven-day maiden voyage to the Norwegian fjords. And to celebrate Cunard then having four ships in service, they’ll join a cruise aboard Queen Victoria, sailing on a seven-day Adriatic and Mediterranean itinerary with a stint in Rome to follow.
But wait: there’s more. From Rome, they’ll fly to Dubai, where they used to live, for a stay on the famous QE2, another Cunard ship repurposed as a hotel.
Melbourne cruise devotees Jay Cadiramen, (left) and Mark Eden.
There are several reasons for their extraordinary itinerary and dedication to Cunard but the primary driver is personal history. Eden’s father was chief engineer on Cunard’s Caronia, working as an engineer aboard Queen Mary and previously the Queen Elizabeth.
Having grown up surrounded by Cunard myth and memorabilia, eight years ago Eden, the general manager of an architectural firm and Cadiramen, a senior public servant, boarded one of the venerable British line’s ships for the first time. It was love.
Says Cadiramen: “Our first cruise was on Celebrity. We got the bug and moved to Cunard. Because of Mark’s connection it was an easy choice to make. And then once we did the one with Cunard, we’ve never gone with anyone else.”
Between that first Cunard cruise and these upcoming jaunts, the married couple has already clocked up several trips on the Queens, always booking a suite in the Grills class – either Queens Grill or Princess Grill. These luxurious, butler-tended accommodations afford sumptuous space, with Queens Grill Suites offering a separate living and bedroom. Guests also have access to an exclusive restaurant and lounge.
A render of Queen Anne’s Grand Lobby suggests a more contemporary design scheme.
Eden and Cadiramen are big spa fans onboard and enjoy the shows as well. While they tend to keep to themselves, they’ve made great friends on their cruises and relish the classic Cunard touches.
“We love dressing up for dinner and that sort of formality,” says Eden. “That’s one of the reasons we choose to go back but we’ve noticed they’re not enforcing the dress code, particularly on the Australian legs. We understand that but it’s still something we really enjoy about Cunard.”
Five years ago, they began talking about doing a Transatlantic Crossing with Cunard to mark a significant birthday for Eden in 2023.
Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth is expected to arrive in WA waters later this year.Credit: Christopher Ison
“I started looking into it and I realised we weren’t going to manage to do it this year,” says Eden. “And one thing led to another – this ridiculous scenario of ‘Oh, let’s add another trip. Let’s do another one. Let’s do the Queen Mary in Los Angeles beforehand. And maybe we can go around the world following the ships’. It just sort of grew from there and I kept saying to Jay, ‘I’ve got an idea; what about if we …’ And every time, he said, ‘Yeah, sounds great to me’.”
The rest, as they say, will be a history Eden’s seafaring dad would be very proud of indeed.
See cunard.com
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