DUBAI, APR 17,
Britain’s famed Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship will finally open as a floating luxury hotel moored off Dubai nearly a decade after her last ocean voyage.
A financial meltdown in Dubai followed by years of slow growth nearly sank the project, but authorities in the Gulf emirate, a former British protectorate, ultimately decided to restore the ship down to replicating her 1960s carpeting at a cost of over $100 million.
Three years ago, the Dubai government’s Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corp. took over the project. It marks the first foray into hotels for the corporation.
The ship has been hooked up to Dubai’s power grid, though she still floats in the waters of the Persian Gulf.
