The fashionable airliner, which has plowed the vast expanses of the oceans for forty long years, was bought for $ 100 million by Istithmar, owned by Dubai's sheikhs, specially for The Palm Jumeirah. According to a spokeswoman for Istithmar, Dubai will be the last destination port of QE2, which will be transformed into a "five-star" tourist attraction.
Queen Elizabeth 2 will land on the coast of Dubai in November 2008, where it will begin to transform from an ocean liner into a hotel with shopping and entertainment centers. In 2009, QE2 will forever stop at the specially designed breakwater for her in The Palm Jumeirah Bay.
"We are pleased that QE2 will not just retire, but will continue to live and work in a different guise," said Carol Marvel, president of Cunard, in an interview after signing the contract for the sale of the ship.
The Queen Elizabeth 2 liner, set off on its first voyage by the Queen of Great Britain back in 1969, is the longest-running liner in Cunard’s 168-year-old history that it owned until yesterday. For forty years of operation, QE2 made 25 circumnavigations, crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times and was a temporary home for 2.5 million passengers.
