Cruise-ship devotees may want to mark their calendars for Jan. 13, 2011, and make plans to be in New York Harbor that day. That’s because three luxury ocean liners from Cunard Line — Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria — will make their second Royal Rendezvous, three years to the day after the first one.

Both the QM2 and the Queen Elizabeth will be in the early stages of world cruises, and the Queen Victoria will be preparing to transit the Panama Canal on the way to Los Angeles. While certainly a marketing milestone for Cunard, the three ships do stand out as the standard-bearers of the glory days of ocean cruising, and any time they are in the same port, let alone the gateway to the New World, it’s a special event, particularly for the guests on board. We believe it will be more than a little special.