• Books by Janet Go

    • Archive for November, 2008

    Fate of the QE2

    Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

    The Queen Elizabeth 2 has arrived at her new home port of Dubai to spend the rest of her life in retirement as an entertainment center. She has sailed 5.5 nautical miles, more than any other ship ever. She’s carried almost 2.1 million guests, and completed 24 World Cruises. She is the fastest merchant ship in operation–can go faster than other cruise ships and outrun pirateers!

    I hear rumors about the QE2’s future. She was sold for $100 million to Dubai to become a permanently moored hotel, museum,and entertainment center. She will undergo extensive rebuilding before opening on newly created Palm Island. Locals in Dubai predict that the 70,000-ton super liner will be kept “cooled” by being encased in a giant glass bubble! More rumors sat the 963-foot-long ship will be taken to Singapore for rebguilding and refit that includes cutting the ship in half and lengthening her by 275 feet. Lifeboats will be removed and sides of the ship will be rebuilt. The Boat Deck promenade may become luxury quarters. Engine rooms may be gutted and rebuilt as showrooms, meeting halls, and shops as well as a museum.  Only time will tell whether these rumors will come true, but as a veteran of many cruises on the QE2, I hope she will keep her life-long dignity. I welcome comments from other QE2 fans.

    Meanwhile, the ship’s social host, Thomas Quinones, leaves the QE2 after 15 years’ service. (See p. 385 in my book,  “Don’t Miss the Boat,” for more information about Thomas.) He says this is “the passing of an era, a very great era.”

    And 89-year-old Bea Muller, who has been a permanent resident of the QE2 for the past 9 years is heartsick that she must leave her home. (See p. 63 of “Don’t Miss the Boat” for her story.) She will try to live on the Queen Victoria for a while, then take a world cruise on the Queen Mary.

    The president of Cunard, Carol Marlow, says the QE2 “is a wonderful ship….and will remain essentially a Cunarder in her new career in Dubai. She is, after all, an icon, a maritime icon.”