FANS OF the QE2 luxury passenger liner will be glad to hear that they will still be able to visit after the ship retires from service next September.
The QE2, which has carried more than 2.5 million passengers since it was launched by the Queen on the Clyde River in 1967, has been sold to Dubai for 50 million pounds sterling.
It will be moored off the Middle East coast as a hotel, shops, and a museum of its own glamorous history. The new owners, Istithmar, the investment arm of Dubai World, owned by the government of Dubai, have promised to restore the original glamorous interiors and in 2009 the QE2 will become a floating hotel, retail and entertainment destination at the Palm Jumeirah, the enormous palm-shaped artificial island being developed as a complex of tourist hotels and apartments, also by Dubai World. Its chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, said: “She is coming to a home where she will be cherished”.
The 40th anniversary cruise in September, back to the Clyde where the ship was built, is already sold out, but tickets are still available for all its remaining voyages.
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