The Queen Elizabeth 2, often referred to simply as QE2, is a floating hotel and retired ocean liner built for the Cunard Line which was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. Since 18 April 2018 she has been operating as a floating hotel in Dubai.
QE2 was designed for the transatlantic service from her home port of Southampton, UK, to New York, and was named after the earlier Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth. She served as the flagship of the line from 1969 until succeeded by RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004. Designed in Cunard's then headquarters and regional offices in Liverpool and Southampton respectively, and built in Clydebank, Scotland, QE2 was considered the last of the great transatlantic ocean liners until Queen Mary 2 entered service.
The QE2 was also the last oil-fired passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic in scheduled liner service until she was refitted with a modern diesel powerplant in 1986/1987. During almost forty years of service, Queen Elizabeth 2 undertook regular world cruises and later operated predominantly as a cruise ship, sailing out of Southampton, England. QE2 had no running mate and never ran a year-round weekly transatlantic express service to New York. QE2 did, however, continue the Cunard tradition of regular scheduled transatlantic crossings every year of her service life. QE2 was never given a Royal Mail Ship designation, instead carrying the SS and later MV or MS prefixes in official documents.
QE2 was retired from active Cunard service on 27 November 2008. She had been acquired by the private equity arm of Dubai World, which planned to begin conversion of the vessel to a 500-room floating hotel moored at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai. The 2008 financial crisis, however, intervened and the ship was laid up at Dubai Drydocks and later Port Rashid. Subsequent conversion plans were announced by Istithmar in 2012 and by the Oceanic Group in 2013 but these both stalled. In November, 2015 Cruise Arabia & Africa quoted DP World chairman Ahmed Sultan Bin Sulayem as saying that QE2 would not be scrapped and in March, 2017, a Dubai-based construction company announced it had been contracted to refurbish the ship. The restored QE2 opened to visitors on 18 April 2018, with a soft opening, with discounted rates and only five of the planned 13 restaurants and bars completed. The grand opening is set for October 2018.
Name: Queen Elizabeth 2
Owner:
1969–1998: Cunard Steamship Company Ltd
1998–2008: Carnival Corporation & plc
2008–present: Istithmar, Dubai
Operator:
1969–2008: Cunard Line
2018-: PCFC Hotels
Port of registry:
1969–2008: United Kingdom Southampton, United Kingdom
2008–2018: Vanuatu Port Vila, Vanuatu
2018-: United Arab Emirates Dubai, UAE
Route: North Atlantic and Cruising during Cunard service
Ordered: 1964
Builder: John Brown and Company (Upper Clyde Shipbuilders), Clydebank, Scotland
Cost: £29,091,000 (£368Million at 2016 value).
Yard number: 736
Laid down: 5 July 1965
Launched: 20 September 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II
Christened: 1967 by Queen Elizabeth ll
Completed: 26 November 1968 (Sea trials commenced)
Maiden voyage: 2 May 1969
In service: 1969–2008
Out of service: 27 November 2008
Identification:
IMO number: 6725418
1968–2009: Callsign: GBTT, British ON 336703
2009–present: Callsign: YJVW6, MMSI number: 576059000
Status: Floating luxury hotel and museum at Mina Rashid, Dubai
Class and type: Ocean liner/Cruise ship
Tonnage: 70,327 GT
Displacement: 49,738[1]
Length: 963 ft (293.5 m)
Beam: 105 ft (32.0 m)
Height: 171 ft (52.1 m)
Draft: 32 ft (9.8 m)
Decks: 10
Installed power: 9 × MAN B&W 9L58/64 (9 × 10,625 kW)
Propulsion:
Diesel-electric
Two GEC propulsion motors (2 × 44 MW)
Two five-bladed variable-pitch propellers
Speed:
34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph) (max)
28.5 knots (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph) (service)
20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) (astern).
Capacity:
1,777 passengers
1,892 (all berths) passengers
Crew: 1,040