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Cruise News for the Corporate Travel Professional

July 2013 Edition

QE2: All-suite luxury hotel by 2014
Destination still kept as a closely guarded secret

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The last of the great luxury liners, the Queen Elizabeth 2, now moored in Dubai, will set sail again for her transformation into an all-suite luxury hotel.

Once done the luxury liner will be moored in the Far East – the destination still kept as a closely guarded secret.

Addressing a press conference, Khamis Juma Buamim, Chairman of Drydocks World and Maritime World today (Sunday, July 7), said QE2 will set sail from Dubai on October 18, reaching Singapore on November 1, where it will berth for three days before leaving for a Chinese shipyard for its complete transformation.

The transformed ship will be ready by 2014.

"Dubai owns the QE 2 and will never sell it," Buamim said. “The ship is ours.. we are not scrapping or destroying it… we are taking exceptional care of her and we will make it iconic.”

The floating luxury liner will be a 400 all suites hotel, with some larger suites intended for a longer stay on board.

“People can rent or even buy these suites. Prices haven’t been finalized but these will be really expensive.”

Buamim said nearly $90 million (Dh330 million) will be spent by QE2 Shipping, a consortium of private investors, for renovation of the ship. Seven out of nine engines have been overhauled, with the ship fully ready to start its new journey.

A number of yards (Rong Sheng, Cosco, China Merchant and China Shipping) were invited to Dubai for ship inspection and technical teams are now finalizing and preparing the work quotations based on their inspections and reviews of the ship.

The successful yard where the renovation and transformation of the vessel to a hotel/residence will take place will be announced by mid-August. The cost of maintenance will be nearly $2.5 million (Dh9.12 million) per year when fully operational with the consortium expected to break even in 10 years time.

The Oceanic Group, a group of experienced advisers to cruise operators and managers in Asia, are lead managing the project. It was announced in July 2012 that plans were to keep QE2 in Dubai as a hotel and part of a maritime centre.

The cruise terminal at Port Rashid was set to become the liner’s permanent home after it was to be converted into a 300-room luxury hotel, with the terminal developed to include a maritime museum. Istithmar World, a subsidiary of Dubai World, had purchased the 293-metre long vessel from Cunard for nearly $100 million in June 2007.

Asked if the floating hotel will be ever moored on Dubai shores, Buamim said: “Dubai is the home of QE2. You never know it may come back.”

Before her retirement to Dubai in November 2008, the QE2 took regular cruises around the world as well as operating a scheduled liner service across the Atlantic Ocean between Southampton in the UK and New York. She carried 2.5 million passengers, sailed nearly six million miles and completed 806 trans-Atlantic crossings during 39 years of service for Cunard.