# Dubai Opens a Brand New Vintage Hotel Aboard the QE2 > The legendary ocean liner QE2 has become a luxury hotel-museum in the port of Dubai. Here is how it welcomes guests and why it is worth stepping aboard. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/v-dubae-otkrlsia-novi-starynni-otel-qe2/ - Language: en - Published: 2025-11-05 - Categories: Historic Sites, Museums, Hotels, UAE, Relaxation, Seas & Oceans --- Dubai has a habit of falling for the new, everything from skyscrapers to sports cars. So it might seem odd that its newest luxury hotel also happens to be its oldest. This April, the Queen Elizabeth II (QE2), the most famous ocean liner of the 1960s, once again lowered its gangways for guests. But its cruising days are over. This time the QE2 is staying put in its new home, the city port of Mina Rashid. The ship's age gives it an edge in Dubai's crowded hotel market, says Hamza Mustafa, CEO of PCFC Hotels, the state-owned company that runs the vessel. "This is a new offering, it is something with great historic value," he says. "Dubai is a new city, and this is one of the oldest things here." In fact, the ocean liner, launched by Queen Elizabeth II in 1967, is four years older than the UAE itself. ## Preserving the ship's history The ship's historic value is its biggest draw when you stay here. You will not find rooftop tennis courts, aquariums or ski slopes like the ones on offer elsewhere in the city. Instead, its main attractions are firmly rooted in the past: a museum charting the QE2's 39 years of service, the chance to walk the same decks as Nelson Mandela and David Bowie, and, for a few especially honoured "invitation only" guests, the chance to spend a night in the royal suites where Queen Elizabeth II and her mother once stayed. For now, 224 rooms are open for business, a number that will grow to at least 600 by the hotel's grand opening in October, with prices starting from 150 dollars a night. The rooms keep their dark wood panelling, just as they were in the sixties, and some still have their original portholes. The retro touches do not stop there. Across 13 restaurants and nightspots, the Chartroom bar still serves chicken liver mousse and Eton mess, the Golden Lion pub pours draught beer, and the casino is fitted with its original slot machines (though these are now purely for show). "The QE2 is a very famous lady to us, she is one of the most celebrated ocean liners that ever existed," says Mustafa. "We have celebrated her, we have given her back her glory, we have focused on the things that make her famous... So that she is a museum first and a hotel second." "When you step aboard, you feel as though you have entered a time capsule, and the time is 1969, her maiden voyage," he adds. "You feel the history, everything the ship once was." ![](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-164-1-2025.jpg) ## A journey through time The QE2 was born 5,000 miles from Dubai's docks, in the shipyards of Clydebank, Scotland. For more than 30 years it was the flagship of the Cunard Line, marking the end of the golden age of ocean liners and the beginning of the modern world of cruising. By the time it was sold to Dubai, the 963-foot (293.5 m) liner had carried 2.5 million passengers, completed 812 transatlantic crossings and 25 round-the-world cruises. It had sailed farther than any other ship, close to six million miles, according to Cunard Line. ![](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-164-2-2025.jpg) Crowds followed the QE2 wherever it went. More than a million people watched it enter Liverpool for the first time in 1990. It drew spectators in ports around the world, from Australia to Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Its fame soared after visits from pop icons such as Ringo Starr and George Harrison of the Beatles, and film stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and John Travolta. It even served a stint as a troop transport during the Falklands War in 1982, when its decks were turned into dormitories for 3,000 British soldiers. ![](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-164-3-2025.jpg) The QE2 became an ambassador for Britain, says Eric Flounders, a former press officer at Cunard. So it might seem strange that it ended up in the Persian Gulf. "The connections with Dubai are zero," says Flounders. But he adds that few other places would have been willing to invest so much in the ship. "There is the cost of buying the ship in the first place, and then there is the cost of turning it into a hotel that people actually want to stay in," he says. "I just do not think the money would ever have been available in the UK." ## A boost for tourism Dubai has already spent a fortune on the ship. It was originally bought for 100 million dollars, and PCFC's refurbishment cost even more, taking a total of 2.7 million man-hours. But the UAE as a whole is more than ready to invest in tourism. After all, according to government figures, the total contribution of the travel and tourism sector in the UAE came to 43.3 billion dollars in 2016, or 12.1% of GDP. It also accounted for 5.4% of the federation's total employment. Dubai is the main draw, with almost 16 million tourists visiting in 2017 according to Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. Mustafa believes the QE2 will strengthen that even further, especially since it will appeal to the British, Dubai's third-largest source of visitors. "Adding this attraction to Dubai creates one more reason to stay a day longer," he says, "and for a city that is so dynamic and so focused on tourism, it all comes down to attractions and the reasons you come here in the first place." ![](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-164-4-2025.jpg) For Rob Lightbody, a devoted QE2 fan and founder of a website for QE2 enthusiasts, the lack of a historic link between the ocean liner and its current home is no cause for concern. The QE2 still has its appeal, and he is eager to step aboard again. "I will go as soon as I can afford it," he says. For Lightbody, what matters most is that the ship still looks the way it did when he first came aboard in 1987, when he was just 14 years old. "It is still a ship we recognise," he says, noting with relief that earlier plans for a mirrored glass tube packed with penthouses never came to pass. "I think all the fans are simply delighted." Maritime historian Chris Frame, who has written extensively about the QE2, agrees. He calls it a "respectful refurbishment" that keeps the essence of the ship while modernising the cabins, adding the comforts expected today, such as flat-screen TVs, WiFi and coffee machines. "Seeing the QE2 come back to life after a decade of standing idle is wonderful," says Frame. "I hope the ship has a very successful career as a hotel. It is a global icon and deserves to be preserved for future generations."