page_title: Queen Elizabeth 2
section_title: 2011 return to Liverpool plan, Port Rashid and QE2 development plans
hierarchical_section_title: Queen Elizabeth 2 / Layup / 2011 return to Liverpool plan, Port Rashid and QE2 development plans
caption_attribution_description: QE2 and Royal Daffodil in front of the Liver Building. Taken with my old Olympus 3 Megapixel cam, which cost more than the current Nikon D40 (even allowing for some mighty haggling in a shop in Eastern Germany). I printed this pic and still take the view that the Ferry dwarfs the other boat and iconic buildings. I swell with pride in seeing 'Ferry 'Cross The Mersey' on jukeboxes in Germany, Italy and Poland.
context_page_description: RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, often referred to simply as QE2, is a retired British ocean liner converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line, QE2 was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. It was then laid up until converted and since 18 April 2018, she has been operating as a floating hotel in Dubai.
  QE2 was designed for the transatlantic service from her home port of Southampton, UK to New York, United States and was named after the earlier Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth. She served as the flagship of the line from 1969 until succeeded by the Queen Mary 2 in 2004. QE2 was designed in Cunard's offices in Liverpool and Southampton and built in Clydebank, Scotland. She was considered the last of the transatlantic ocean liners until Queen Mary 2 entered service.
  QE2 was also the last oil-fired passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic in scheduled liner service until she was refitted with a modern diesel powerplant in 1986–87. She undertook regular world cruises during almost 40 years of service, and later operated predominantly as a cruise ship, sailing out of Southampton, England.
context_section_description: On 28 September 2011 news broke that a plan was being formulated to return QE2 to the United Kingdom by berthing her in Liverpool. Liverpool has a historic connection with Cunard Line being the first British home for the line as well as housing the iconic Cunard Building.
  It was revealed that Liverpool Vision, the economic development company responsible for Liverpool's regeneration, has been involved in confidential discussions with Out of Time Concepts, a company headed by a former Chief Engineer on the ship, who recently advised its current owners on plans to turn it into a luxury hotel in Dubai.
  In a letter from Out of Time Concepts to Liverpool Vision, it is explained that "The free global media attention derived from bringing home Queen Elizabeth 2 will without question promote Liverpool's new waterfront developments, its amazing architecture, its maritime and world heritage sites, its museums, its culture and its history".
  On the same week that the Liverpool Vision plans were revealed, Nakheel stated that plans for QE2 to be berthed at The Palm had been dropped because they now planned to build 102 houses on the site which was once intended to be named the QE2 Precinct.
  Nakheel suggested that Queen Elizabeth 2, under the ownership of Istithmar, would remain at Port Rashid to become an integral part of the growing cruise terminal. "The QE2 would be placed in a much better location", Ali Rashid Lootah, the chairman of Nakheel, told Dubai's The National newspaper "The Government of Dubai is developing an up-to-date modern cruise terminal which will mean a better environment", confirming the ship would remain in Dubai for the foreseeable future.
caption: QE2 near the Cunard Building in Liverpool during her service with the cruise line
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