Published on : Wednesday, April 18, 2018
The QE2 will finally open as a floating hotel with bargain rates over the next few months and according to the PCFC Hotels many of the boat’s original features have been preserved. Her maiden transatlantic voyage started on 2 May 1969 and she was the last great ocean liner to be built in Scotland.
Almost after half a century, the vessel that became Queen Elizabeth 2 was being made at the John Brown Shipyard in Clydebank. Within a span of 39 years for Cunard she had more than 1,400 voyages which included 25 circumnavigations. She had also hosted 2.5 million passengers and sailed six million nautical miles.
Further the government requisitioned the QE2 as a troop carrier in May 1982 and transported 3,000 members of the 5th Infantry Bridge to South Georgia. In 1992 she ran aground off the coast of Massachusetts and was in the headlines for the wrong reasons. A refurbishment programme in Hamburg was botched and Project Lifestyle was launched after two years.
The QE2 set sail from the Southampton for New York with workmen on boat. Until 2008 she remained the flagship of the British merchant navy and made a final voyage to Dubai. It was intended to gradually convert her into a floating hotel but she has to spend most of the last decade at Port Rashid after several false starts.
A refit began last year and the official opening is expected to happen in October and the soft opning will happen in several stages. The chief executive of PCFC Hotels, Hamza Mustafa mentioned that to finally open the QE2 was a dream come true being one of Dubai’s most highly anticipated projects.
A lot of people are going to be very excited to see her for the first time, or to step back on board the vessel that created so many wonderful memories during her 40 years at sea. More than 2.7 million man-hours had been dedicated to transform the legendary ocean liner into the multi-faceted tourist destination.
Tags: John Brown Shipyard, PCFC Hotels, Port Rashid, QE2