Thread: QE2 Sold

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Dubai has agreed to buy the Queen Elizabeth 2 for $100 million and turn the famous cruise ship into a floating hotel off the Gulf emirates' man-made islands, state-owned private equity firm Istithmar said on Monday.
The QE2 is the longest-serving ship in the 168 year history of the Cunard line, which is owned by Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise operator, Istithmar said in a statement.
Istithmar is the investment arm of Dubai World, the government agency that owns real-estate developer Nakheel, which is building three palm-frond shaped islands off Dubai's coast.

Dubai tourism full steam ahead with QE2 buy
by Laith Abou-Ragheb 42 minutes ago


DUBAI (AFP) - The booming Gulf emirate of Dubai announced on Monday it had bought the Queen Elizabeth 2, one of the world's most majestic cruise liners, and planned to turn it into a luxury floating hotel.

Dubai said it has paid Cunard Line 100 million dollars for the liner, the latest move in its ambition to become a global tourism desert hotspot ranking alongside Las Vegas.
"Dubai is a maritime nation and we understand the rich heritage of QE2. She is coming to a home where she will be cherished," Dubai World chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said in a statement.
The QE2 has crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times in its 40-year lifetime and carried over 2.5 million passengers.
But it will sail no more once it is berthed at a huge multi-million dollar palm-shaped artificial island and turned into a luxury hotel from 2009, according to the plans unveiled by Istithmar, the investment arm of state-owned Dubai World development company.
The Palm Jumeirah, which is one and a half times the size of New York's Central Park and can be seen from space, will eventually include thousands of luxury apartments and villas as well a hotel part-owned by billionaire Donald Trump.
The 963 foot (293 metre) long ship weighs around 70,000 tonnes and has a combined guest and crew capacity of 2,794, Cunard said on its website.
Dubai's latest purchase is just another step in the city-state's sprint to become a major tourist and leisure destination to rank alongside Las Vegas and Orlando in the United States.
The ship, which was launched by Queen Elizabeth II herself in September 1967, is the longest-serving cruise liner in Cunard's 168-year history and was its longest-serving flagship.
Since it came into service in 1969, the ship has undertaken 25 world cruises, has crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times and has carried more than 2.5 million passengers.
Istithmar said its refurbishment programme would aim to recreate the ship's original interior and would also include a museum celebrating its rich history.
Dubai has undertaken several other mega-projects in order to more than double the number of its tourists to 15 million by 2015.
Work on Dubailand, a cluster of billion-dollar schemes billed as the "world's most ambitious tourism, leisure and entertainment project", is well under way.
Scheduled for completion around 2025, Dubailand is estimated to cost 235 billion dirhams (64 billion dollars) and will also house the world's largest transparent snow dome and a Universal Studio theme park.
Equally ambitious is Burj Dubai, or Dubai Tower, which is touted to become the world's tallest skyscraper.
Launched in early 2004, the construction of the one billion dollar tower by South Korea's Samsung should be completed at the end of 2008.

All I can say is... "Oh, my!"

Sounds real nice but 64 billion would feed a lot of poor kids!!

Don't think they are worried about THAT in Dubai.

Nope just more money!!

Sad....but better than the scrap heaps...I just got an e-mail this morning from Cunard, announcing the sale, and a few "end of the line" sailings...available for booking June 27th. A few crossings, a Med cruise, a five day quickie, and the last trip....may have to alter my 2008 plans....although I can't imagine taking the last cruise from Southhampton to Dubai....

I agree it is better than the scrapyard.

How can an inanimate object have a hold on our emotions?
Is a ship inanimate? I don't think so.
A ship has a soul. It breathes, it lives.

I am lucky enough to have had the priviledge of sailing on
Queen Elizabeth 2 many times. Several transatlantic crossings, and a few cruises.

QE2 represents many of the finest moments I have known.

I have been as happy as an individual can hope to be, while walking her decks, breathing in the fresh sea air.
Even more so, because I have been priviledged to do so in the company of some very fine people I met on board, some of the best people, who have become life-long close friends.
Without QE2, the bright lights that these friends are to me, would not have been.

QE2 will sail away, as we all have known to expect soon, but the great and beautiful memories, and the friendships I owe to her, will remain.

Thankfully my final stroll along her decks is yet to come.

I had a childhood infatuation with ships.
As a child, my doodling (I hope that doesn't mean something far different in the UK) in school was often of ocean liners, always with two or more stacks.
Photos of the France, the United States, the Queens, always set my heart racing.
But the QE2 was still on the transatlantic run! From time to time, she would pop up in the news, even in California.
I would say to my mother "We'll have to go on her one day" and like mothers do, she answered with a dismissive "Yes, maybe one day". Like a child, I wanted to believe that she meant it.
QE2 seemed to be an unattainable fantasy, a playground only for the rich and famous .
In 1982, when news broke that QE2 was to go to war, I was very worried for her. Oh no, not the QE2! I was glued to the news, following the Falklands War closely.
In 1992, when things were slow for me professionally, I took a temporary job driving a limousine. One day I was told to drive to San Pedro, I had been hired by a French billionaire on the world cruise to drop him off at a business meeting, then return to QE2 to pick up two of the chefs and take them grocery shopping in Chinatown.
There we were, finally, QE2 and I, together for the first time. Yet I couldn't board, I could only stand on the quayside and gaze in wonder. Queen Elizabeth 2. In my mind still, a playground for the rich and famous.
As I had been hired by a passenger to chauffeur in a stretch limousine two of the ship's chefs on a grocery buying excursion, that only confirmed my ideas of the ship.
I, of course, harrassed to death the two of them with questions. On and on... But they were happy to play along, and gave me their own gossip on the quirky passengers. Upon returning the chefs to QE2 with the ingredients for the Frenchman's custom ordered Chinese dinner for that evening, I was then told by the wealthy man's wife that they were treating some of the ship's staff to a day at Disneyland. So off to Disneyland we went. I remember that a couple of them were masseurs.
At the end of the day, as Disneyland was closing, I stood near the exit with a sign that said "QE2" so that they could easily spot me. Many of the people leaving Disneyland asked me what a QE2 is. I answered "A ship" adding, in my mind, "you moron".
When we arrived back at the ship, the wealthy man's wife tipped me $500, and I thought that this would be as close as I ever got to the Ship of Millionaires.

A decade later, I spotted an ad in the newspaper with what appeared to be a fare to cross on QE2 that I could actually afford. Thinking "What's the catch" I called Cunard on the phone, and was convinced that there was no catch, I could afford the QE2!!
I couldn't believe it! I booked. And everyday for the five months to sailing day, I was obsessed. Deck plans over and over and over. Every photo and brochure I could get my hands on. I couldn't stop.

When I boarded her for the first time, my first emotion was "I'm home". And I was. Of course by then I knew every nook and cranny, and knew my way around the ship like I was an old hand on her.
There was one place I had to see right away. The famous Queens Room. I went to it as soon as I could, and was glad to see that yes, it was as beautiful in person as in the photos.
I kept saying to myself "I'm on QE2. I'm on QE2" to convince myself that it was real.
When I disembarked in New York, I knew I would be back. And I was, six months later.

I have not been on her since, when I have not seen familiar faces among the passengers. What a great feeling, to always know that I have friends aboard who are happy to see me, to be welcomed back by staff, crew and officers alike, and to know that I will again.

The sudden news of her retirement was like a punch in the chest. My email and my phone were busy with messages from my QE2 friends. We knew the day was coming, but not so suddenly!
Like one of my friends said..."Gobsmacked!"

A dream came true for me. Everytime I board her, the dream comes true again.

I have three more voyages booked on her. I am lucky to be a part of her anniversary cruise around Britain this September, where Her Majesty the Queen is expected to attend a special ceremony, I will be on her final winter transatlantic crossing to New York in January, and I will be on her final and 806th transatlantic crossing, her Farewell to America, in October 2008

How can a ship have such a hold on our emotions? I don't know. I just know that it does.

Sorry for sounding so emotional!
Although I mostly lurk now, I've been coming here to CLF for a long time, and I felt like I could 'let loose' here...

Kyle, let loose anytime....

I, too, used to "doodle" ocean liners with multiple funnels (for some reason, three stackers seemed elegant, four stackers 'de trop') when I was young. Never lost the passion for liners. Actually at work, and one of the photos on my wall in my office is of the France sailing into NYC or the first time. It gets in your blood. I'm happy (in a weird way) to say that I'll be sailing with you on the last crossing....very bittersweet...but I survived doing that on the Michaelangelo, and the memories of leaving New York for the last time on her are still strong, even though I was only 11.

Cheers, and I'm sure I'll run into you here or on CC.

Andrew