Cruise line Cunard’s newest vessel – Queen Anne – will return to the Mersey for the first time since her 2024 naming ceremony to join Liverpool FC’s Premier League title celebrations. Tony McDonough reports

Cunard’s Queen Anne will arrive in the Mersey on Bank Holiday Monday (May 26) to join in the celebrations for Liverpool FC’s 20th league title.

An open-top bus will carry the Premier League champions on a tour around the city and when they arrive on the waterfront they will be met by the specular site of Cunard’s newest cruise ship.

With a capacity for 3,000 passengers, Queen Anne set sail on her maiden voyage in May 2024 before returning to her home port of Southampton. The vessel then embarked on a celebratory round-Britain voyage, including a spectacular naming ceremony in Liverpool.

Culture Liverpool estimates that more than 50,000 people attended Queen Anne’s naming ceremony close to Liverpool Cruise Terminal last June, with thousands more lining the banks of the River Mersey to witness her arrival in the city.

According to Cunard, the visit generated more than 21m impressions across social media channels on the day of the event and led to a surge in cruise bookings.

This latest visit also marks the start of global celebrations across the Cunard fleet to celebrate this year’s 185th Anniversary of the line’s first transatlantic crossing leaving Liverpool in 1840.

Her arrival is expected to attract huge crowds to vantage points on both sides of the river as Liverpool prepares to host the LFC Premier League Champions Parade later that day.

Queen Anne is due alongside at Cruise Port Liverpool by noon where she will form a magnificent backdrop to the parade celebrations when the Reds’ motorcade reaches the waterfront.

She will remain at the cruise terminal overnight and on Tuesday, May 27, Cunard will be honoured when HRH The Princess Royal makes a special visit to the ship marking the official start of the 185 celebrations.

Later that day a special Sea of Glamour photographic exhibition curated by renowned photographer and filmmaker Mary McCartney will open at the Royal Liver Building.

This exhibition features 185 images charting the Cunard timeline and some of the many milestones in its unique maritime history and bond with the city of Liverpool. The 185th image will be of the five Liverpool Icons chosen to represent the city at the Queen Anne naming.

They were former Spice Girl and author Melanie C, broadcaster and community leader Ngunan Adamu, local restaurant entrepreneur Natalie Haywood, Liverpool music and cultural legend Jayne Casey, and British Olympic heptathlete  Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

Queen Anne, the latest of Cunard’s four Queens in service, visits Liverpool as part of a Round Britain voyage. She will arrive in Liverpool from Glasgow and leave on the evening of May 287 bound for Dublin then Cobh, Ireland before returning to Southampton.

Mary McCartney said: “Curating Sea of Glamour for Cunard has been such a brilliant project for me as a photographer.

“To delve into 185 years of photographic history, I had the privilege of exploring not only Cunard’s iconic legacy but also the real, heartfelt moments shared by its guests on board.”

Queen Anne is expected at the following points and times as she makes her way to her berth on Monday 26 May:

• Mersey Bar 9.15am
• Formby 9.45am
• Crosby 10.15am
• New Brighton 10.45am
• Seacombe 11am
• The ship is scheduled to depart Liverpool at 11.45pm on Tuesday, May 27.