Queen Elizabeth 2 Sails To A New Home

Ruthie Ackerman, 06.19.07, 3:15 PM ET

From Forbes.com - http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/18/queen-elizabeth-ship-markets-face-cx_ra_0618autofacescan02.html

When Her Majesty The Queen launched the ship carrying her name in 1967, she probably never imagined 40 years later the Queen Elizabeth 2 would become a tourist destination in Dubai. But that’s exactly what’s about to happen.

Istithmar, the investment arm of Dubai World, which is owned by the government of Dubai, announced Monday it would buy Cunard Line’s longest-serving flagship and turn it into a hotel, retail, and entertainment destination, essentially saving the floating dinosaur from the ship graveyard.

Cunard is a division of the Carnival fleet of ships. Istithmar said the aim is to recreate QE2’s original interior décor and fittings and include a museum celebrating the ship’s history.

But Bruce Vancil, regional vice president of the West Coast Steamship Historical Society of America, said the sale of the QE2 came as quite a shock. “We were kind of hoping she could find more nostalgic waters to call home,” Vancil said.

The QE2 follows in the wake of the Queen Mary, which set sail from Southampton, England in 1940 and opened as a tourist destination in Long Beach, Calif. in 1971. This year is the 40^th anniversary of the Queen Mary’s last transatlantic voyage. The first Queen Elizabeth burnt and sank in a Hong Kong harbor in January 1972. The Queen Mary 2 took its maiden voyage in January 2004 and is still sailing. Transatlantic crossings cost up to $1,500.

Both the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary were put out of business by safe, reliable, transatlantic air travel. The Love Boat television show helped to revive the dying cruise industry in the 1980s and Carnival rebranded cruises as fun ships. Vancil says that while making the Queen Mary a tourist destination might dilute some of its historical significance, he is happy to see that people get a chance to connect with the ship. “The more people that get to know her the better,” Vancil said. “The Queen Mary is the Queen Mary and nothing can take that away.”

Lovetta Kramer, vice president of marketing and communications for the RMS Foundation, a not-for-profit that manages the Queen Mary, said the ship is a $35 million operation with multiple entertainment possibilities including: a hotel, restaurants, motor racing and even tattooing. “The reason the Queen Mary has survived all these years is because she continued to change and adapt,” said Kramer. “There’s so much competition in the marketplace for recreational activities, certainly here in southern California. We are looking for some of that niche market.”

Vancil remains hopeful that the history of the QE2 will be respected by its new owners, just as the Queen Mary’s is. The QE2 will be delivered to Dubai World in November 2008 and is scheduled to open at the world’s largest man-made island, The Palm Jumeirah, in 2009.