COSCO Shipyard Group, a subsidiary of China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), is set to transform the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) liner into a five-star floating hotel.
According to QE2 Holdings, which owns the ship, the transformation will be done at Cosco Shipyard’s yard in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, China.
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The vessel is currently docked at Dubai and will be moved to China for the refurbishment programme, which is scheduled to be completed in 2015.
QE2 Holdings CEO and president and Oceanic Group managing director Daniel Chui said the QE2 offers more than 500,000ft² of usable space, in a structure roughly equivalent to any five-star hotel.
As part of the transformation programme, the vessel’s 990 staterooms will be converted into 400 luxury suites, ranging from 60m²-150m² in size.
The plan also includes refurbishment of the ballroom.
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By GlobalDataIn addition to guest suites and the ballroom, the hotel will house seven restaurants, ten lounges, a cinema, a museum with QE2 memorabilia and a shopping mall.
QE2 Holdings said it had invited seven international interior design houses to put forward plans for the conversion.
The selected designer will work with COSCO on refurbishment designs for the vessel.
QE2 Holdings chairman Khamis Buamim said that the company is pleased to be working closely with Cosco Shipyard for the technical repair and refurbishment process, which will be carried out with ‘the utmost respect for the QE2’s heritage and splendour’.
COSCO Shipyard vice president Yan Chengxiang said the Zhoushan shipyard is one of Cosco’s largest and newest, and ‘certainly has the capacity to host a cruise ship of the QE2’s stature’.
Image: QE2 vessel at Port Rashid. Credit: QE2 Hotel.
