Queen Elizabeth 2
Queen Elizabeth 2 as a floating hotel in Dubai on 5 March 2020
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Queen Elizabeth 2 |
| Namesake | Most likely RMS Queen Elizabeth Possibly Queen Elizabeth II |
| Owner |
|
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry |
|
| Route | North Atlantic and cruising during Cunard service |
| Ordered | 1964 |
| Builder | John Brown and Company (Upper Clyde Shipbuilders), Clydebank, Scotland |
| Cost | £29,091,000 |
| Yard number | 736 |
| Laid down | 5 July 1965 |
| Launched | 20 September 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II |
| Completed | 26 November 1968 (Sea trials commenced) |
| Maiden voyage | 2 May 1969 |
| In service | 1969–2008 |
| Out of service | 27 November 2008 |
| Identification | |
| Status | Floating hotel & museum at Mina Rashid, Dubai |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage |
|
| Displacement | 49,708 long tons (50,506 metric tons)[3] |
| 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 |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed |
|
| Capacity |
|
| Crew | 1,040 |
Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) is a retired British ocean liner. Built by John Brown & Company on the River Clyde in Scotland for the Cunard Line, the ship was operated as a transatlantic liner and cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. She was laid up until converted into a floating hotel in Dubai.[5]
Queen Elizabeth 2 plied the route from her home port of Southampton, United Kingdom, to New York, United States.[6] She served as the flagship of the line from 1969 until she was succeeded by the Queen Mary 2 in 2004. Queen Elizabeth 2 was designed in Cunard's offices in Liverpool and Southampton and built in Clydebank, Scotland. She was refitted with a modern diesel powerplant in 1986–87.
Queen Elizabeth 2 retired from active Cunard service on 27 November 2008, and was 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.[7][8] Due to the 2008 financial crisis, the ship was laid up at Dubai Drydocks and later Mina Rashid.[9] Subsequent conversion plans were announced in 2012[10] and then again by the Oceanic Group in 2013,[11] but both plans stalled.
The restored QE2 opened to visitors on 18 April 2018[12] and today operates as a floating hotel in Dubai, managed since 2024 by French hotel chain Accor.[13]
- ^ Rouquayrol, Gautier (9 May 2022). "Accor adds legendary Queen Elizabeth 2 to its portfolio in Dubai" (Press release). Paris: Accor – Newsroom.
- ^ Frame, Chris (2024), QE2 Facts
- ^ Maritime Information Exchange, search for Queen Elizabeth 2
- ^ Frame, Chris (2025). "The Unstoppable Power of a Floating City Reborn".
- ^ Frame, Chris (10 April 2018). "QE2 reopens as a Hotel in Dubai on 18 April after 9 ½ years of retirement". Tumblr. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
- ^ Frame, Chris (2 May 2019). "QE2 50th Anniversary". Tumblr. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
- ^ Fitch, Asa (19 January 2013). "QE II Ocean Liner Heads to Asia to Become Floating Hotel". Zawya.
- ^ "QE2 To Leave Cunard Fleet And Be Sold To Dubai World To Begin A New Life at the Palm". Cunard.com. 2007. Archived from the original on 6 July 2007. Retrieved 20 June 2007.
- ^ Morris, Hugh (13 January 2016). "'Forlorn' QE2 is not coming home from Dubai, campaigners concede". Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
- ^ "Cruise liner Queen Elizabeth 2 to be converted into hotel". HT Media Limited. 3 July 2012. Archived from the original on 4 September 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ "New home for Queen Elizabeth 2". CNN International. 18 January 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
- ^ "Queen Mary 2 Guests to be First to Board the QE2 Hotel in Dubai".
- ^ "Accor adds QE2 to its portfolio in Dubai". www.seatrade-cruise.com. Retrieved 11 June 2025.