A thousand days in retirement, a thousand days in obscurity: an unwelcome milestone for the QE2. Previously on 27 November 2008, a day after her arrival in Dubai, ownership of the QE2 was transferred from the Cunard Line to Nakheel during a ceremony in Dubai. Her arrival in Dubai, marked by a dramatic fireworks display, promised a new future for the QE2 in the Emirates. A succession of announcements and rumours about the future plans for the ship soon surfaced.
However, following six years of rapid expansion the Dubai economy imploded during the second half of 2008 and plans for luxury hotels and real estate were mothballed as the world-wide recession struck. Amongst the aborted plans were those for conversion of the QE2. Since then there have been many false-starts: a drydocking, repainting, re-registering the vessel in Vanuatu, plans to move to Cape Town for the 2010 World Cup, and a potential return to Southampton have all come to nothing.
A skeleton crew keep the QE2 operational, cycling her engines to power the ship, maintaining lighting and air conditioning, cleaning and painting. Yet moored at Dubai at an inner-berth, away from visiting cruise ships, the QE2 stands like a ghost-ship, awaiting an uncertain future.
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