Dubai: Romance blossomed on board the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) when Yukie Sasagawa, working as a translator, caught Michael Kasch's eye.
Kasch worked as a waiter on board and is now executive assistant manager at the Movenpick hotel in Dubai.
He personally served Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, Carly Simon and Warren Buffet at their tables, and was onboard at the same time as the late Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.
"The first time I met Yukie, she was on duty guiding people into the Grand Ballroom - as was I, in my uniform, and she was wearing a nice red dress. The QE2 was chartered by a Japanese company in 1989, which is when we met," Kasch told Gulf News.
"We carried on our romance for three months and then we disembarked in Hawaii and spent 10 days together. After that I went to Belgium and she went to Japan, so we had a long-distance romance running for a year by telephone ... Then I went to Japan and we got married," Kasch said.
The couple, who now live on the Palm Jumeirah, are planning to visit the QE2 when it arrives in Dubai tomorrow and are hoping to go onboard for one last time - revisiting the site where their love first bloomed.
