Cruise Lines

It was a case of one out, one in at Fincantieri's Monfalcone shipyard near Trieste this week. The "out" was P&O Cruises' Azura, which was floated out last Friday, freeing up the dry dock for the "in" - Cunard's new Queen Elizabeth.

Construction started at a keel-laying ceremony yesterday, when the first section of the ship's hull was laid in the dry dock.

The section is made up of six pre-manufactured blocks, weighs 364 tons and is fitted with 104 tons of pipes, cables, insulation and other equipment. Once another 52 have been put into place and they have done a bit of work on the inside, the ship will go from looking like this...

to this...

The shipyard has 15 months to get the vessel looking ship shape and ready to depart on its maiden cruise, which leaves Southampton on October 12 and sold out in a record-breaking 29 minutes, 14 seconds back in April - before work has even started on the vessel.

Now that's loyalty.