Queen Elizabeth 2, Retired ocean liner and floating hotel in Port Rashid, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The Queen Elizabeth 2 is a former passenger ship now serving as a floating hotel in Port Rashid, Dubai, with 447 rooms and suites spread across multiple decks. The vessel measures nearly 294 meters in length and 32 meters in width and includes restaurants, bars, shops, and a museum documenting its maritime past as an ocean liner.
The ship was built in 1967 as a liner for transatlantic crossings and carried passengers between Europe and America for over four decades. After its active service ended, it was brought to Dubai and moored there as a permanent floating hotel.
The "2" in the name separates the ship from the first RMS Queen Elizabeth, after which she was named; Cunard uses the Arabic numeral to avoid confusion with the monarch, who performed the naming. The ship's original art collection and much of her interior were to be kept in conversion plans. The funnel carries Cunard's orange and black colours with black "hands" bands, adopted in 1983 after the Falklands service.
The ship is moored at the outer pier of Port Rashid, in the Rashid harbour area of Dubai, not at the Palm Jumeirah where early plans placed it. Access is by road to the port; the vessel stays in port, so there is no sailing. Some decks are reached by steep staircases, and the ship's anchors and propellers were removed before opening.
The original cabins were converted into hotel rooms while preserving the portholes, through which guests now look out at the skyline of Dubai instead of the open ocean. On board, there is also a collection of historical objects recalling famous passengers and routes the ship once sailed.
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