Crowds throng to see Queen Mary 2 set sail

The visit was capped by a fireworks display.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NEW YORK -- New York gave her newest queen a royal sendoff Sunday night, as the Queen Mary 2 set sail for England under a sky full of fireworks and a shoreline full of cheering admirers.
The world's biggest ocean liner ended her maiden visit to the Big Apple with a dashing display as she paused by the Statue of Liberty with her smaller older sister, the Queen Elizabeth 2.
Thousands lined the Hudson River shore from midtown to the Battery to bid the vessels bon voyage and Godspeed on their historic, first tandem crossing of the Atlantic.
"It's just majestic," gushed Dora Llerena, 45, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who came out on a gray, chilly evening with her husband to watch. "We came early just to see it for a few minutes, but then we decided to stay for departure, to say goodbye."
Fireworks spectacle
The 9 p.m. fireworks spectacle as the crafts passed Lady Liberty punctuated a fairy-tale visit to the city for the massive Queen Mary 2, which slipped into New York Harbor at dawn Thursday.
The big ship's arrival at Pier 92 revived glamorous scenes of a bygone era for a jaded city, as spectators snapped pictures and waved at disembarking passengers.
"The only difference between now and the old days is the security. It's a shame things have changed so much," said Ron Sarro, 49, an architect from Bay Shore, N.Y.
For Francois Louis, 74, a French-born resident of Quogue, N.Y., seeing the Queen Mary 2 brought back memories of his own transatlantic journey, when he first moved to America in the 1950s.
"The comfort, the romanticism of being at sea, the mists," Louis said. "I'm hoping that someday I'll cross over again. It's real exciting. It's a very elegant life."
Impressive size
The Queen Mary 2 is the rare lady made more impressive by her size: She is longer, taller, wider, heavier and more expensive than any passenger ship cruising the high seas. There's even a planetarium on board.
"It is awesome," said Dave Cohen, 31, of the upper West Side. "It is totally like a floating building."
Throngs flocked to the West Side all weekend to admire her curvaceous bulkhead, clogging the sidewalks near the cruise piers and slowing West Side Highway traffic to a crawl. Security concerns kept spectators far back from the gangplanks, and police boats plied the waters nearby.
"I've seen a couple of cruise ships, but this one is just ridiculous," said an awed Rob Gibson, 25, of the upper East Side, as the queen tooted her horn and hit the open seas.