The radio buzzer wakes me at 5.30am. Sounds brutal, but I have the most exciting new job in the world, so it's not hard to start the day. I like to walk a couple of miles, breakfast on yogurt and cereal, and be in the office by 7am.
Right now I'm a nomad but based at Cunard headquarters in Florida. Next month I'll be in Southampton. At this stage there are endless project group meetings, and I spend long hours poring over deck plans, diagrams, photographs and computer graphics. I need to get to know the new ship - which public rooms are on which decks, where the stores are, how the restaurants are laid out. This is so I don't go on board as a total stranger.
After Southampton, I rejoin the QE2 from Hong Kong to Singapore. I'll be interviewing some of the 200-plus crew members who have applied for jobs on the new ship. Later in the year I will spend some time on one of the Carnival cruise ships to see how they deal with feeding 3,000 passengers.
The recruitment drive will begin towards the end of May. We'll look for people from all over the world as well as using our specialist recruitment agency in Manila.
Manila happens to be my part of the world, too. I'm German but my wife is from the Philippines and our home is in Manila. We met when we both worked on board the Song of Flower. The master of the vessel married us in his quarters on New Year's Eve off the coast of Indonesia. Afterwards, I went back to work as relief executive chef to prepare New Year's Eve dinner for the passengers.
Being appointed hotel manager of QM2 is like a dream come true. The ship will carry 2,600 passengers and a crew of over 1,200. It's like having two separate hotels to manage.
There will be more than 1,000 hotel staff - not just in accommodation and food and beverage, but the purser's office, administration, personnel and finance, tour and travel offices, gym and spa, and concessionaires to run the shops. And I'll be responsible for the Cunard College at Sea, with 30 students at a time training on board for six weeks.
The whole team will be together for the first sailing to Southampton in December before our maiden voyage in January 2004.
It's frustrating to have to wait this long when you're raring to go. On the positive side, it's wonderful to be involved at this early stage. Nothing is written in stone. It's a unique opportunity to have serious input into a mammoth new project.
My biggest challenge will be to create a team. We're all in it together to do the best job we can for our passengers and for each other. Get that good team working to a common goal and the rest falls into place.
Interview by Eve Jones
Factfile
Cunard Line
Mountbatten House, Grosvenor Square, Southampton SO15 2BF
www.cunard.co.uk
Founded: 1840
Flagship: QE2
Vice-president hotel operations (Florida): Larry Rapp
QM2 hotel manager designate: Thomas Rennesland
* QM2 will be the tallest, longest, widest cruise passenger ship ever built.
* Longer than three football fields, it will generate enough electricity to light a city the size of Southampton.
* The engines will produce the equivalent horsepower of 1,570 family cars.
* Public areas include a nightclub, show lounge, casino, 800-seat cinema, a selection of bars, sports areas and an educational centre for Cunard's College at Sea programme.
* Passenger capacity: 2,640.
* Crew: 1,234 (deck and hotel).
* Passenger cabins: 1,310, 77% with balconies.
* Five duplex apartments have private gym and butler service.
* Estimated cost to build: £538m.
Just a minute...
How do you unwind after a long day?
I catch up with the day's news on TV and look at the trade magazines. Two or three times a week I work out at the gym. And phone my family in Manila.
Who would be your ideal dinner guests?
I spend so much time away from home, my dream guests are my wife and son, my parents and parents-in-law.