QE2 = Hotel

[Dagwood]

From the London Telegraph:

The world's most famous cruise liner, the QE2, is to be sold to the Dubai World Company for $100 million (£50 million).

The 70,000-tonne vessel, launched by the Queen in 1967, will be turned into a floating hotel and berthed off the Palm Jumeirah development in the Gulf state.

 

[HadleyH]

Yep, the ocean Queen abdicates.
Too bad. [huh]

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

They ought to have a "Queen's Port" where every Queen ship would be docked around each other. Are they building a Queen Mary 3?

 

[Tomasso]

Are they building a Queen Mary 3?

The QM2 has yet to celebrated her fourth birthday. :eusa_doh:

 

[Alan Eardley]

Ships that pass..

Nothing makes you feel old like great ships being taken out of commission...

I sometimes charm and delight my lady wife by pointing out to friends and visitors that five years before she was born the only regular transAtlantic passenger air service was by airship. She likes that...

On childhood holidays I remember watching the Queen Mary steaming down Southampton Water on her way to New York with the crowds waving , I recall clearly the Queen Elizabeth lying on her side in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong and now this...

On second thoughts, the first two were ocean liners in the classic mould and their passing from service marked the end of a way of life that I admire. The QE2 is a fine ship but whatever her intended purpose, she is a cruise liner. I admire that way of life less, so I feel less bad about her passing. And there is QM2...

Alan

 

[Dagwood]

An editorial in today's Telegraph has a passage which I think many of us can relate to:

"When QE2 was built in the 1960s, a cruise holiday was something only the rich and retired could afford. Men and women were expected to dress for dinner every night and few expected anything quite so decadent as cabins with balconies.

"Not any more. Cruising is no longer about black tie dinners – even on formal nights passengers invariably turn out in casual gear – or big bank balances, thanks to all the budget lines that have sprung up....

"And just look at what is on board today’s ships. Royal Caribbean International is an extreme example with its rock-climbing walls, ice-skating rinks and surf parks, but modern vessels have cabins with balconies for all, not just those who can afford a penthouse, as is the case on QE2. They have three, four, even five swimming pools, kids’ clubs and teen areas....

"Unfortunately, though, age does matter. Not only does it cost a lot of money to keep QE2 going – refits and refurbishments over the past 40 years have cost more than 10 times what it cost to build the ship in 1967 – but Cunard has to look to the future, to a time when fewer passengers are happy to trade their expectations for a slice of history."

 

[Alan Eardley]

How things change...

I have a friend who joined the UK Civil Service straight from University in the early 70s and was posted to the administration in Hong Kong. His contract (like the thousands of other ex-patriate civil servants and government employees) was until the hand-back to China in 1997. It stipulated that when people had to return to the UK after hand-back they had to travel by ocean liner - in 1972 when his contract was drawn up it was much cheaper than air travel.

However, by 1997 not only was air travel the cheaper option HK-UK, but there weren't any scheduled ocean liners in service! So the UK government had to charter a luxury cruise liner to bring its people home! A three week free cruise...

Alan