Cunard's old-school travel continues tradition on Queen Elizabeth

I'm standing in front of the mirror in our stateroom, looking over my wife's shoulder and tying my black bow tie. It is our first sea day and the first of three formal nights on our leisurely eight-night early January crossing on Cunard Line's spanking-new Queen Elizabeth, on the way to New York from Southampton, England. The cummerbund is belted on, the studs are securely in place on shirtfront, but I've saved the neck knot for last, reminding myself of how my father first taught me how to do this on another transatlantic trip a half a century ago.

By Karl Zimmermann

January 24, 2011