Back in November 2008, Blue Horizons magazine shared a heartwarming love story that began aboard Cunard's iconic QE2. Barbara Cullen recounted how her time on the legendary ship led to a beautiful romance - one that blossomed into 33 years of marriage, three children, and a lifetime of cherished memories. But Barbara’s connection ROL Cruise runs even deeper as she is the mother of Poppy, our very own Head of Marketing. As we celebrate 30 years of ROL Cruise, we’re delighted to take a nostalgic journey back to this special story, a testament to the magic of travel and the unforgettable moments it creates.
"My first trip to sea was on a ship called the Franconia, which sailed to Canada up the St Lawrence River to Quebec and Montreal, I was 24 years old. I then sailed on Carintha to New York and then the Queen Mary on her last voyage to Long Beach, California before she was turned into a hotel and museum. I was lucky enough to visit her this year, it brought back a lot of memories. Then, finally the maiden voyage of the QE2 to New York.
I was invited to go down to Southampton to the open day of the QE2 before her maiden voyage, it was a lovely new modern ship in those days, and I was extremely excited. I met up with all the shop girls from previous voyages of the Queen Mary, with whom I had worked with. I asked them previously if there were any vacancies onboard this new ship, and if any came up, could they please let me know. Lo and behold, later that evening, I received a phone call and was told that one of the girls was leaving to get married - so I applied to the company, was accepted and asked to report to sail on QE2’s maiden voyage working in the gift shop on the main shopping deck. Straight away, I gave my notice in as a secretary in London, promising my boss an open day viewing when the ship came back to Southampton. I kept my promise and he brought his daughter down to see the ship.
Sailing day arrived on 2nd May 1969, the maiden voyage of the QE2 - there were plenty of people to see the ship sail from Southampton waving flags and cheering as we left the pier, it was a very auspicious occasion. After two hours, the shops were opened. I was in the Gift Shop, which sold nearly everything with the QE2 brand, from sailor dolls to ashtrays. The ship was sailing to New York, which took five days, and we were very busy in the shop, the Americans love the shops and our English accents. I asked them to get in a queue and they said what’s that? I said a line, they called me Barbara and every morning when I opened the shop, they all said ‘Hi Barbara, how are you today?’ I had several friends for the voyage.
The company I worked for would not allow the shop girls leave back to England - so most of our trips were without a break, all other crew seemed to have leave to go back to England. The Shop Steward who arranged all these trips home was a gentleman named John Cullen. I approached him and asked him about leave, and my response back was that it wasn’t his business, as we worked for another company. When I heard this statement, I was really cross and asked him why he couldn’t help us shop girls, he took pity on us and said he would try.
Anyway, I digress, to continue the story - shared a cabin with another shop girl and we were invited to quite a few parties. The next evening was a St. Patrick’s Night party held in the crew mess and John was there. As we got chatting and he told me that he had walked past my shop several times, I hadn’t seen him, we enjoyed the party, and he asked me out in New York to the cinema and a nice restaurant. He spoke up for the shop girls, my persistence worked as he managed to get us flights home so we could have a break like the rest of the crew.
John worked as a first class waiter in one of the top restaurants onboard, the menus were really superb, he wore a red jacket, white shirt, black bow tie and black trousers and served some famous people, Morecombe and Wise, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Gracie Fields, Peter Sellars, and many more. When he finished in the restaurant, he brought the menu down to me and I could choose whatever I liked, he brought it down on a tray all laid up with a white cloth and silver cutlery and we had our meal together and that was the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Arriving in New York was a pretty spectacular sight for the first time - going past the Statue of Liberty every little ship that floated, and fire boats with huge sprays, plus several helicopters, sirens going off from all the ships giving the QE2 the biggest welcome in the world to the 92nd pier in New York on her maiden voyage.
I was on the QE2 for nearly two years and was in charge of another shop that sold cashmere sweaters, I sold one to Vincent Price, who was very famous for playing vampires in horror films. Then, I took over the China and Glass shop and had to keep an eye on the weather because if it was rough seas, we had to lay all glass and china down in mohair stoles and it was all stuck on the glass shelves with blue tack, we did have a few storms on the North Sea.
After two years, I left the sea and married John Cullen in 1973 - we had three children, Sean, Stephen, and Poppy. We moved to Spain in 2004, John died in July 2006 after 33 years of marriage, but I have the most amazing, lovely, happy memories."
