After almost a decade, the Queen Elizabeth 2 has finally opened as a luxury hotel in Dubai. There was a “soft opening” in the middle of April and the hotel will have its formal opening around October of this year. So far seven of the ship’s 13 decks are open for business with 224 cabins available. When fully completed, the ship will have an estimated 600-800 rooms. It has been a long and difficult journey for the grand old ocean liner and cruise ship. 

The Queen Elizabeth 2, commonly known as the QE2, was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. In 2008, Cunard Lines sold the QE 2 to Dubai World for roughly $100 million. Unfortunately, the sale coincided with a world economic downtown, Dubai World faced a credit crunch and the plans to refurbish the ship as a luxury hotel were put on hold and repeatedly revised. The initial plans were dropped and a more modest hotel plan was announced. There were reports of the ship moving variously to Asia and to London. At one point, there were reports of the ship being sold for scrap, which were subsequently denied.  By around 2015, the consensus was that the QE2 was a dead ship, rotting away at the dock in Dubai. 

Then toward the end of last year, work was begun anew on the ship. She was drydocked last March. The current plan seems to be to maintain as much of the original design and character of the passenger liner as possible, updating but not significantly changing many of the grand public spaces, while redesigning the staterooms, which are expected to rent for between a $150 a night to $15,000 a night for the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary suites.

First look on-board the QE2 | Condé Nast Traveller’s World