A world-famous former Cunard Line flagship is ready to lower its gangplanks and welcome onboard its first guests almost a decade since it retired to Dubai to become a floating hotel.
Indications from the dockside in Port Rashid are that the 70,300-gt Queen Elizabeth 2 (built 1969) has been quietly refurbished over the past year or so and is now poised to take on the role that owner Dubai World had planned when it was bought for $100m in 2008.
Back then, the transatlantic liner and cruiseship was scheduled to undergo a transformation that would have stripped out the original interiors, added new decks, and seen its iconic funnel replaced by a replica glass structure housing luxurious penthouse suites. However, the global financial crisis scuppered this plan.
For years afterwards, the QE2 languished as various ideas came and went, including one to move it to Hong Kong. There were frequent rumours of it being sold for scrap, but eventually the ship was moored alongside an old cruise terminal in Port Rashid amid suggestions that it would become the centrepiece of a new marina and leisure district.
So far, there has been no official word from Dubai World about the ship’s new role. But, those in the know say that an extensive refit far more sympathetic to the ship’s original structure and design has been under way for some time and the work is almost complete.
TradeWinds understands that the Hotel QE2 will be open for business within the next few months, with a soft launch planned before its grand opening later this year.
